The Red Sox Return

Boston is going to the World Series. Again. Finally.

After Cleveland took a 3-1 lead in the best of seven American League Championship Series, the chances of Boston mounting a comeback seemed doubtful. The winning momentum belonged to Cleveland and if the two clubs had played three games in a row at the visiting team's ballpark, I'm certain Cleveland would be the city celebrating today. But thanks to the bizarre day off between Games 4 and 5, it's a city with plenty of time to watch Major League while wondering what went wrong instead.

The day off not only gave Cleveland's momentum a chance to cool off, but it gave my badly bruised optimism a chance to recuperate. By the time Josh Beckett threw his first pitch in Game 5, I knew he was going to keep the Red Sox alive another day (technically two, counting the travel day). Boston beat Cleveland 7-1 and brought the series back to Fenway.

On Saturday, with Curt "Student-of-the-Game" Schilling on the mound for the Red Sox, I had a relatively good feeling about things. It instantly became a very good feeling after J.D. Drew hit a first-inning grand slam. The silent bat in Boston's sixth spot had finally found its voice.

Fausto Carmona and two other Indian pitchers combined to give up six runs in the third inning and Boston won the game by a score of 12-2. I nearly had an anxiety attack when Terry Francona brought in Eric Gagne to pitch the ninth inning, but by some minor miracle, the former Dodger closer slammed the door on the Indians.

The moment I never want to forget from Game 6 came when Asdrubal Cabrera, Cleveland's second baseman, plunked Kevin Youkilis in the head during a botched rundown. Youkilis scorched a ball off the Green Monster in left field and overran first base. The relay went to Cabrera who chased Youkilis back to first. Ten feet from the bag, Cabrera tried to toss the ball over Youkilis to the first baseman, Ryan "Champagne-Tastes-Just-As-Good-Away" Garko, but bounced the ball off the top of Youk's helmet instead. In that split second, Youkilis dropped and slid back to first base safely. It's a play worthy of the blooper reel when the postseason DVD comes out.

Last night's Game 7 was much closer than the final score of 11-2 indicates. Boston led by as little as a run at one point and the game would have been tied if it hadn't been for a bad call by the third base coach to hold Kenny Lofton at third in the seventh inning.

In the bottom of that inning, Dustin Pedroia, Boston's leadoff man who hadn't batted in a run all series long, launched a towering home run over the Monster to put Boston ahead by three runs.

Hideki Okajima, the Boston reliever who throws strikes without looking at the plate, pitched a scoreless sixth and seventh innings, but was replaced by Jonathan Papelbon in the eighth after letting two batters reach base with nobody out. That turned out to be Cleveland's last best chance to win.

It was a short-lived chance. Papelbon squelched their offense in the top of the eighth and their defense collapsed in the bottom of the inning. Sloppy fielding and a three-run double by Pedroia gave Boston a nine-run lead. Papelbon pitched a scoreless ninth and Coco Crisp made a brilliant, body-jarring catch in center field for the final out

Boston now gets two days to rest before hosting Colorado. The Rockies will enter Fenway with eight days of rest and a ten-game winning streak on the line. While it would be sweet if Colorado won its first World Series in franchise history, it would be sweeter if Boston won its second title in four years.

Prediction: Boston wins in six games. Beckett and Schilling stop Colorado's streak. The Rockies strike back in Games 3 and 4, but the Red Sox return to finish them off in Games 5 and 6.