Caption contest: What was Manny thinking here?

1. I did this!
2. So that’s what a walk-off home run looks like from the batter’s box.
3. WOOOOOOOOOO!!!
4. I didn’t say “Simon Says.”

You know what, I could care less what he was thinking. There are few things sweeter as a Sox fan than Manny being Manny with two on and two down in the bottom of the 9th of a tie playoff game…against K-Rod. And he didn’t just go deep, he probably caused a 10 car pile-up on the Mass Pike when he broke somebody’s windshield with that blast.

But baseball is a team game. And unless you pitch like Beckett did during the first game, you can’t receive all of the credit for a win. So, thanks to Tito for having the quickest hook I’ve ever seen from him. Pulling an obviously ineffective Dice-K after 4.2 innings is gutsy, and so is putting Paps in the game with two down in the 8th. But as soon as a reliever started to lose it, Tito was running out to take the ball. Way to manage for the playoffs Tito.

“Nancy” Drew also came through with a 2-run, 2-out single in the bottom of the first. Of course he then went 0-3 for the rest of the game.

And last but certainly not least credit should also be given to the anti-Steve Bartman who stole a foul-pop up almost out of the glove of the Angels catcher in the 5th. With one out and runners at the corners, Manny ended up working a walk which allowed Mike “El Cubano” Lowell (Kim’s new nickname for him), to score the runner with a sac fly. Basically, no anti-Bartman means the Sox are trailing going into the bottom of the 9th. They should find this guy and give him a playoff share.

Sox up 2-0. Let’s get one more.

And in honor of Manuel Aristides Ramirez, here’s your playoff beard pic for the day:

What do Melky, Orlando and Asdrubal have in common? They’re all Cabreras playing for AL playoff teams. So I’m hereby declaring that no one named Cabrera is allowed to play in the World Series. So once all of them have been knocked out…
P.S. Asdrubal Cabrera is so replacing Dan Uggla on the All-Name Team

Wow. Just, wow. I can’t remember ever feeling that confident during a playoff game. It’s not exactly the MFY lineup, but Josh Beckett looked like Nolan Ryan pitching to a little league team. He gave up one infield single, one seeing-eye single and two legit base hits. The more amazing thing was that by the time each Angel stepped into the batters box he blinked and the count was 0-2. I hope this is par for the course for Beckett, seeing as his last playoff start (game 6, 2003 WS) and this one were both complete game shutouts.

Since it the playoffs that also mean that it’s time for Big Papi to do his thing (2-run blast in the 3rd), and Youks also looked pretty damn good staking the Sox out to a 1-0 lead in the first with a HR in the monster. I would have liked the Sox offense to do a little more (4 LOB and 3! GIDP), but I guess they wanted to save it for a pitcher who will actually need their help.

Who else is already sick of “Frank TV”? I hope that show chokes like the MFY in the 04 ALCS.

I’m also going to try and start a new feature here for the playoffs (if you say post regularly, haha, you’re a freakin’ riot): the playoff beard. Oh yes, that’s right, as long as the Sox keep winning, I’ll keep avoiding shaving. I hope to have the nastiest half-beard possible in a couple of weeks. Apparently superstition is the only way I can get Kim to agree to let me grow a beard. So without further ado, here is playoff beard 2007 day one:

Before we get deep into the playoffs, here are my first round picks:

Rockies over Phils
Cubs over D-backs
MFY over Indians
Anaheim over Sox

Now, you might wonder how I could pick the Angels over the Sox. It’s very simple. Last year I went 0-4 in the first round. Plus, I truly believe that in a 5 game 2-2-1 series the underdog has the advantage. So, if we’re all lucky I’ll be 0-8 in the past two years divisional series.