Back To Beantown We Go

Thanks to another impressive pitching performance by bullpen ace Josh Beckett, some timely hitting by the Red Sox batters and a few Indian errors, the ALCS will go to at least six games. As in the series opener, a lop-sided score favoured Boston tonight, 7-1 in this case. Cleveland continues to be the only team in 2007 to come up short in any game in which they could close out a series, having failed against the Yankees in Game 3 of the ALDS (they'd accomplish it in Game 4 of that series, though). And now they've blown their first chance to knock out Boston, and in the process allowed the series to move back to Fenway Park, much to the delight of the Red Sox Nation everywhere.

Is this the beginning of a major momentum shift in this series, or a mere delaying of the inevitable? If Curt Schilling manages to pull off a minor miracle in Game 6, then it would certainly set up quite the drama for a final, winner-take-all seventh game, including incredible pressure on the overpriced Japanese starter for Boston, Daisuke Matsuzaka. This guy reportedly threw 250 pitches in a 17-inning game while in high school (few hurlers in the majors ever exceed 120 pitches in a game) and was a legend in Japan before signing a very lucrative deal with the Red Sox. Pitching in a Game 7 in order to get into the World Series would make for quite the story, both here in North America and back in his homeland. But there's still the matter of a Game 6 on Saturday night to enjoy before any serious talk of such things can happen.