SawxFawx	Female 21 years old WINCHESTER, MA (online now)
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My Curt Schilling bobble-ankle figurine commemorating the 2004 World Championship season sits next to my computer when I type. Since the other ankle is no longer attached to the pitching mound that it once stood upon, I keep him in a pencil jar with one leg sandwiched amongst my rainbow of Sharpie markers. There’s blood on his right sock, a chip in his rally cap (I dropped him a couple of times), but in a full pitching stride, Curt’s red jersey number 3-8 shines brightly for all to see. The expression on his face shows determination and austerity.  In real life, the future Hall of Famer shares his number with Rico Petricelli, Yogi Berra, Carlos Zambrano, and surprisingly enough, John Leister, a 6-foot-2 right-hander from San Antonio, Texas who pitched with the Red Sox in 1987 and 1990. No one really knows what happened to Mr. Leister back in the those days, but after accumulating a 9.2 ERA in 30 innings during his 1987 campaign, I can see why this lemming was overlooked.

The modern-day Red Sox wouldn’t dare experiment with the man from the Alamo again, and they’ve already taken their chances with 22-year old Sox Super-human John Lester.

To be quite frank—

—the results have been gravy. The southpaw pitched a darling performance on balmy Anaheim Wednesday night, amidst the manicured sod and rocky mountain cliffs in center field. Oh wait, we’re in…umm…Los Angeles still, right? Regardless of the national park, state, city, or urban plantation that this game could have hypothetically been played in, what it really came down to was, inevitably, the mind game.

Lackey was unwound in the sixth,

Vladdy choked,

Lester triumphed. He stifled the Angels hitters and secured the crucial game 1 victory over a worthy West-Coast opponent.

But this guy didn’t do it all himself, he got by with a little help from his friends.

No, I’m not referring to John, Paul, Ringo, and George, I’m talking about Ellsbury, Pedroia, Ortiz, Lowrie, and the rest of the replacement idiots. After striking out in his first two at-bats, Jason Bay sauntered back to the Red Sox dugout. It was at that time when manager Terry Francona handed him a “Ticket to Ride,” and the rest was history. A two-run homer in the sixth was instrumental in the victory. But “Roll Over Beethoven,” it was Jacoby Ellsbury’s time to shine on the BASE [guitar]; he touched 1st a total of five times, and stole 2^nd twice. All the “Good Day Sunshine” started in the 9^th when Jed Lowrie slammed a single to left, but Lester was the rockstar of this show, and everyone knew it.

There he was, 22 years young, cancer survivor, pitching like a prince of the blood royal.

I guess I saw a little of Curt Schilling in Lester that night: Game 1 starter, ferociously ambitious, a Red Sox farmhand with relentless spirit.  Tonight’s match-up of Daisuke Matsuzaka and Ervin Santana should be very exciting to watch.  Dice-K is 9-0 on the road this season, and Santana is 1-2 with a 5.73 ERA against the Sox. The boys might "Shout" (still doing the Beatles references) when they catch a glimpse of his mid-90s electricity, and I’ve heard he also has a gnarly hard slider. I read a scouting report about him in the minor leagues, and it said that only three years ago, the Angels rationed him to 150 innings this year, and after that they were going to “shut him down for precautionary reasons” which I assume is because he just wasn't that good. A lot can change in three years, but if the organization was that worried about his arm, then maybe we should too. Albeit good or bad news, it's somewhat satisfying to know that our Game 2 starter does not carry a stigma like that from his past.

I think that after tonight’s game, each team will have a much better perspective of one another’s batting grooves. I'm SO excited, I just keep thinking:

Do you think we can do it?!

Do you think we can?

Can we?

Can we do it?!

The ADD impatience alarms me sometimes, but it’s OCTOBER, uchhhh, duh. Okay, so back to the real stuff.

According to various internet sources, if the Red Sox win tonight, they will have the longest active playoff win streak in MLB history—making the most of their captivating postseason legacy.

Another Game 2 notable? David Ortiz is 5 for 9 with two doubles and a home run off of Santana.

They’re one game closer to handing the Angels another early first-round exit. Carrying momentum back East would be a magnanimous feat for the team. To think it humanly possible that the team with the 3-figure win total could fall 0-2 in the blink of an eye is very comforting to a Red Sox fan. But don’t you worry; they’re still going to sleepwalk to Fenway in their police motorcade, and into the loving embrace of Josh Beckett who is certainly battle-tested and playoff-approved.

The most pressing issue with Beckett is, of course, the tenacity of his injury, and whether or not he will be able to efficiently locate the strike zone. He lead the American League in walks this season with 94. If that statistic is foreshadowing anything about his potential performance, I think that it would behoove us to strengthen our defensive position, and steal another one on the road tonight.

If were to ask the real Curt Schilling his opinion about the game tonight, I wonder what he’d say. I seldom talk to my little man in uniform, I just play ‘pick-up-stix’ around him whenever I need to grab a marker (haha, I don’t know why but that sounds dirty, please don’t get the wrong idea).

Since my bobble-ankle Curt Schilling figurine (BACSF for short) can’t necessarily throw in his two cents about the game, I guess I’ll just have to close out with a prediction:

I have complete faith and utter confidence that the Red Sox will “Come Together” tonight. They'll chase after every ball, and run hard through every base hit. Tonight will be our block party, but they'll save the 4-course banquet for Game 3.

BACSF agrees too, I’m speculating.

            Enjoy the game :)