Dirty Water: Sox Talk With the Thunderstick, Postseason Edition

During the playoffs the Thunderstick and I are going to try to provide day-after assessments of the Sox games. Thanks largely to yet another big-game performance by Beckett (in six postseason starts the guy has three complete game shutouts, good enough for a tie for second on history's all time list) the Sox got off on the right foot against Anaheim and BoSox whipping boy John Lackey.

Thunderstick: Quite the game tonight. We got some dingers from Papi and Youk. We got runs up on the board early. We played clean in the field. But the story was clearly Beckett who put on absolutely pitching clinic. That's how you throw down the opening shot in the playoffs. Establish that you have the best #1 starter left in these playoffs. He was efficient, in control and pretty much unhittable. He rolled through that lineup so fast that not only did he get a shutout, complete game win, but he did it in time for me to click over and barely miss any of Gossip Girl (the next great teen drama which I know DCat readers are fans of even if they won't admit it). Couldn't be happier with game 1.

Two quick points--First, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to spend an inordinate amount of time over these next 48 hours worrying about Dice-K. Second, I love the playoff schedule. Not only does this 6:30 start mean that kids in Boston can stay up and watch the game in its entirety, but it also means us working stiffs can see the whole game and not be zombies at work the next day. God bless TBS even if Jose Mota is a disaster as a "sideline" reporter and they occasionally miss the first pitch of an inning. And God bless Comcast for adding TBS-HD to my cable package the day before the baseball playoffs start. God bless everyone (except the Yankees and their fans because they suck eggs).

dcat: Glorious. What else can we say? I'm not even worried about Dice, and I think that we got started exactly as we would have hoped. The Indians have a killer 1-2 punch, but I do not see how anyone could seriously doubt that Beckett is the pitching alpha dog in this postseason after last night. Then we have Big Papi blasting one, Lowell continuing his rbi run, and Youks plopping one into the Monster Seats. This is how we hoped they would start the playoffs, and is a welcome change from 2005 when they laid an egg in that first game against the ChiSox and never recovered, and then some nimrod scheduled his wedding for the day of Game 3.

The old cliche is that momentum is today's starting pitcher. I know Dice has been sporadic and it seems that he has that one inning in which he implodes every time around. But I just feel confident in the way that this team is playing right now, especially knowing how Theo and company have constructed recent Sox teams to perform in the postseason. I am really looking forward not only to the remaining games, but also to seeing how those dastards from the Bronx perform against the team with the racist mascot. Basically, I want five 15-inning games and a few injuries that look like they could have been drawn from the old SNL steroid Olympics. (OK -- I don't want catastrophic injuries, but let's just say that if Clemens' hemorhoids acted up a la George Brett or Jeter suffered a bizarre deep tissue bruise while removing Tim McCarver's lips from his ass cheeks it would not bother me).

And I'm happy to see Colorado and Arizona both win their first games, bringing me a step closer to seeing a World Series game this year. The traditionalist in me is appalled of course, but screw that guy, because selfish dcat is winning the argument. Oh -- and thanks for sending me a porn link, telling me it was "something funny," and not making it clear that the something funny was that you would find my wife being pissed at me for opening it on her laptop to be high comedy. I appreciate that.