I was at work until the bottom of the 7th, then listened to the game in the car. I didn’t think they’d win, but I knew Balfour had entered the game so I thought “ah, what the heck, he’s been crappy lately—they may score a run or two.”

I was not expecting the entire Rays bullpen (and half the infield) to implode.

the stupidity and embarrassment of such an unconscionable move will make me change my fan allegiance. I swear. I have seen enough to know when a little league caliber pitcher is on the mound, and any team that is so stupid as not to recognize that does not deserve to be champions of anything!

have to win 2, so who starts what game is irrelevant. Beckett must start at least one game so lets see how it goes and hope for the best.

My personal hopes is that the real Josh Beckett comes, we win 3-1. Then we have a fully rested Lester, a somewhat rested Dice-K and the bullpen.

Game 6 and 7 are different bc I am betting the Francona will use Dice-K in both to get an inning closer to Papelbon or use Dice-K to get the Sox out of an inning. He is “Magic.”

From Mr. Gammons:

On Thursday night, it was 7-0 in the seventh inning with Dustin Pedroia at bat against Grant Balfour, and minus the pink hats, the 30-something-thousand fans were still chanting the derisive “BAL-FOUR, BAL-FOUR …”

…

It wasn’t noise for the sake of noise, someone telling fans when to “scream” or how to rattle cowbells. It was the intensity passed down for generations at The Fens, the way it is at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium or at Notre Dame, the way it was at the Montreal Forum.

Yup.

I don’t know how many of you young’ns remember Boston Garden, but there was that had a similar thing going. All the banners and retired numbers, from Bill RObinson to Bobby Orr. That place had some serious ghosts.

There was one guy at every – literally, every – Bruins game who sat way way up in the corner, in a seat hanging directly over a giant beam. And everytime the B’s wuld need to rally, he’d lean over the guard rail and just start pounding the beam, and the entire stadium would start clapping with him, just building in intensity. He did it so often that the beam had a big black spot where he’d hit it.

Now, at the Fleet Center, they have “noise time,” where everybody is supposed to start screaming whenever the scoreboard operators says go. It pales in comparison to way it was. As do Mr. Monkey in Anaheim or Mr. Walken in Tampa or even Millar playing air guitar in his boxers.

The vibe Thursday night – even through my TV screen – was awesome. I love Fenway. This is my first season since the 80s where I haven’t been to a single game there. But if the get through Tampa I’ve got a good line on a WS ticket….