Don't give up 'cos you have friends.  Don't give up, you're not beaten yet.  Don't give up, I know you can make it good.  -Peter Gabriel

Public Service Announcement:  Ok, here we go!  That one hurt.  That one was an attention grabber.  That one was a statement maker.  Back to back bombs in the first inning will do that to you.  Not just any back to back bombs, but Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria now join Hall of Famers Tony Perez and Johnny Bench as the only players to hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning of a League Championship Series.  Yowza!  That's saying something.  That's saying a lot. 

These young Rays have had a lot to say this series.  Nine days after his 23rd birthday, Evan Longoria became the youngest player in major-league history to hit five career home runs in the postseason.  Teammate BJ Upton became the 4th youngest to do the same thing.  With three bombs in Game two, four in Game four and another three last night, the Rays became the first team ever to hit at least three bombs in each of three consecutive postseason games.  Ever.  Holy Cow!  So as much yipping and yapping I've been doing; saying history favors the Sox, these Rays have been making history of their own.  Like the second-longest errorless streak for any team during one postseason.  Just three games shy of the record set by the Cardinals in 2004.  That's how you win championships.  I'm not going all Roberto Duran yet, but the Sox have their work cut out for them.

Just so you know, in major-league history, there have been sixty-six previous instances of teams taking a three-games-to-one lead in a postseason series.  Eleven of those teams came back to win the series.  Last year it was the beloved Dustin Pedroia who brought the adoring Fenway Faithful to its feet in Game Seven with a seventh-inning two-run jack off Cleveland Indians reliever Rafael Betancourt, who had been magnificent in the regular season and absolutely invincible in the playoffs. During the 2004 ALCS, Bob Ryan wrote, "They are down, 3-0, after last night's 19-8 rout, and, in this sport, that is an official death sentence.  Soon it will be over, and we will spend another dreary winter lamenting this and lamenting that."  That was before Joe Buck said; "Damon hits it in the air to right field.  Sheffield back, in the corner, AT THE WALL, A GRAND SLAM!  Johnny Damon and the Red Sox have blown it open early!"

I know things look grim Sox Fans, but if anybody can overcome, all the way to a World Series championship, it's these Boston Red Sox.   It all starts with Daisuke Matsuzaka Thursday.   He's delightful, he's delicious, he's delectable, he's delirious, he's de limit, he's deluxe, he's de-lovely, he's D-Nice although he hates to admit it, he's taking out you suckers and you don't know how he did it.  Roll Sox, roll!

Peace out homies.  Six Two and Even!

I've been beat up.  I've been thrown out; but I'm not down.  I'm not down.  I've been shown up; but I've grown up.  And I'm not down.  I'm not down.  -Clash

Public Service Announcement:  ok, here we go!  I know.  I know what I said.  I said, "There aren't a lot of sure bets in baseball, but you can bet your bippy Jon Lester at Fenway Park is one of them."  Can you blame me?  Taking the loss last night, Jon Lester ended the Red Sox starting pitchers' nine-game winning streak.  Jon Lester ended the fifth-longest winning streak by a team's starters in postseason history.  I was just going with history.

And history is why I'm still not worried.  I haven't heard no fat lady singing yet.  This thing is far from over.  Nothing is over until we decide it is!  Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?  Hell no!  Was it over when the Yankees' offense erupted in the highest-scoring game in League Championship Series history to take a commanding 3-0 lead back in '04?  Hell no!  Was it over when veteran Sox starter Tim Wakefield was routed in a seven-run fifth inning to allow the Cleveland Indians to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the ALCS last year?  Hell no!

So why do folks think it's over now?  To these guys?  To this team who is one of only four active teams never to have even sniffed a World Series.  That's why I'm going with my guys.  That's why I'm going with the reigning Champeens of the World.  That's why I'm going with having been there.  Having done that.  That's why I'm going with one very scary baseball team in the postseason.  The never say die Red Sox.  The punch you in your eye Red Sox.  The when pigs fly Red Sox.  That's why I'm still not worried.

Public Spectacle:

Peace out homies.  Six two and Even!

They call me Mr. Dynamite.  I blow things up in black and white.  Do you remember Mr. Dynamite?  He blew things up in black and white.  -Iggy Pop

Public Service Announcement:  Ok, here we go!  Little Reggie Golden Shoes.  He's all growns up and he's all growns up and he's growns up.  You can say he's not a feature back.  You can say you don't think he was worthy to be a top pick in the NFL Draft.  You can do whatever you want.  But know this.  Reggie Bush is a football player.  A very special football player.

When Bear Bryant was coaching the Alabama Crimson Tide, good 'ole Bear brought a young USC fullback, Sam Bam Cunningham, into the Tide locker room.  Bear Bryant brought Sam into the lily-white Alabama locker room after he ran roughshod all up and down Denny Field.  Legend has it, Sam Cunningham did more to integrate Alabama in sixty minutes that day, than Martin Luther King was able to do in twenty years.  Legend has it, in that locker room, Coach Bear Bryant said to his team of Mr. Cunningham, "This is what a football player looks like."  Reggie Bush may not have done much for civil rights in this country, but he is indeed what a football player looks like.   

Reggie Bush looked like football player yesterday.  Has all year.  Caught his 200th pass yesterday.  No other running back has ever had 200 career catches in his first thirty-four games.  Not Keith Byars.  Not Larry Centers.  Not Marshall Faulk.  Not anyone.  Not ever.  Reggie Bush caught his 200th career pass in what has become for him, just another day at the rock quarry.  Just another seventy-five all-purpose yard day, bringing two to the hizzy, as the New Orleans Saints hammered the Oakland Raiders in the Superdome.  Bush:  "I expect to make plays when I get a chance.  So, as long as those opportunities keep coming, I'm going to continue to make plays."  That's what a football looks like.  Yabba Dabba Doo!  

Public Spectacle:

Peace out homies.  Six Two and Even!

Well, its been building up inside of me for oh I don't know how long.  I don't know why, but I keep thinking something's bound to go wrong.  But she looks in my eyes and makes me realize and she says, don't worry baby.  Don't worry baby.  -Beach Boys

Public Service Announcement:  Ok, here we go!  And here they come.  Here come all the Tampa Bay fans.  Or should I say, here come all the fans of teams who don't have a horse in this race.  All the fans of teams who don't have a horse in this race are marching in the Ray Parade Pride.  I don't care.  Let 'em march.  Let 'em march the Bataan Death March.  It's their own damn funeral.

I know what happened last night.  I saw what happened last night.  Saw what happened to this generation's Bob Gibson.  All I know is, Boom Boom Beckett won all four of his playoff starts to lead the Red Sox to the World Series title last season.  All I know is, Boom Boom Beckett entered this October with a 6-2 record and 1.73 earned run average in ten career postseason games.  All I know is, Boom Boom Beckett still gets to toe the rubber.  Bad oblique or no bad oblique, I still take my chances with Beckett.  Give him another injection of painkiller.  Give him some more of that anti-inflammatory medication.  Put the rock in his hand and trot him out there.  And ye without sin cast the first stone.  Evan Longoria:  "He's tough.  He battles.  Whether he has his best stuff or not, he goes out and gives a solid effort.  You could just see it in his eyes: He didn't want to come out; he's such a competitor."

Even with Beckett's sub-par performance, the Sox took this game to extras.  On the road.  They smashed four bombs deep into the St. Petersburg night.  Three bombs in one inning.  Yowza!  Two bombs by Dustin Pedroia.  Get the papers, get the papers.  Todd Walker who?  The Rays should consider themselves lucky Boom Boom didn't have his good kung-fu.  Very lucky indeed. 

So now the Rays come to Boston.  Now the Rays come to Fenway.  Now the Rays come to Fenway Park in Boston to face the best pitcher in this here postseason.  There aren't a lot of sure bets in baseball, but you can bet your bippy Jon Lester at Fenway Park is one of them.  Jon Lester, the very bester.  The pound your chester.  The bulletproof vester.  Bulletproof at Fenway Park.  11-1 with a 2.49 ERA in seventeen starts at Fenway Park this year.  Against the Angels, Lester did not allow an earned run in fourteen innings.  Not one.  The most innings for any pitcher in any Division Series.  Goodness!  You know what that spells?  Sure you do.  Bad news for the Rays.

Then it's Dice-K.  He's delightful, he's delicious, he's delectable, he's delirious, he's de limit, he's deluxe, he's de-lovely, he's D-Nice although he hates to admit it, he's taking out you suckers and you don't know how he did it.  And after he does it, the Rays are down 3-1.  So yes, Boom Boom Beckett lost a bad one, but I'll take 3-1.  Wouldn't you?  What, me worry?  Roll Sox roll!

Peace out homies.  Six Two and Even!

We interrupt this Red Sox broadcast to bring you a little Boston Celtics basketball. A very little. Just enough so you know that I'm paying attention. I know it's early. I know we're only three games into this preseason. I know. I don't care. I'm really starting to like this Big Bill Walker character:

But what makes me like him even more, is this:

Peace out homies. Six two and Even!