The Whole Delivery

Yankees celebrity their return to the ALCS for the first time in 5 years First, one the Angels-Red Sox's series, which I will have more on tomorrow. Well, Torii Hunter is no question the team leader of this team now. And really, all signs point to his three run shot off of Jon Lester in Game 1 as the symbol of this series. Until today. The fact that the Halos got Jonathan Papelborn to give up his first runs in the postseason ever, and come back to score 3 in the 9th on two outs is a testament to how focus, determined, and calm they were to overcome their Sox bugaboo this time. More on the Red Sox side of things tomorrow, but their big names just did not come through at all. And will that lead to Daniel Bard replacing Papelborn as the club's closer now, with Papelborn possibly headed out the door in terms of some rumors? I doubt it in my mind, but that is something to watch for indeed, and more tomorrow. To the Yankees-Twins series, just the little costly mistakes became magneti...

Is never irrelevant. Chamberlain must pitch better tonight, massive start for him. And Manny Declarmen, when will Francona learn that he isn't good at all .

But with Clay Buchholtz on the mound against CC Sabathia, that will be a problem, though Buchholtz has his quality change up going, so you never know. To fall 5.5 games behind the Yankees would be disastrous, even with Lester going against Pettitte.

Rays win the series 4-3. ALCS MVP: Matt Garza

(Photo from the Boston Globe's Stan Grossfield at Boston.com) Whatever happens tonight, you still have to give them credit. A lot of credit. The fact that this Boston Red Sox team, led by its best manager in probably team history, has, was, and is right now, putting up this fight is a testament to Terry Francona, arguably the greatest manager in their teams history, and these players' grit and determination. The Rays gave this team life. And sometimes, when you give a team new life, especially one such as the Red Sox, you are asking yourself a whole lot of trouble at the moment.

Jim Rogash/Getty Images We can come back is what the Red Sox fans will and now utter. We did it againist all odds to our mortal enemy in 2004. We did it last year, down 3-1 and needing to win in Cleveland. We can certainly do it one more time, and we can do it this year. Especially with a day off, the Red Sox and their fans will believe that they can recover and right the ship after the embarrassment of losing by the combine score of 22-5 the last two nights and placing themselves in another difficult deficit in tehir League Championship Series. Yes, when their opponents the last two times have reached the third victory, the Red Sox have prevented that fourth one from happening unless it is they who achieve that ultimate feat. And with the day off, the Red Sox will have Daisuke Matsuzaka going, hoping he can pitch like he did in Game 1 aganist the Rays. Then again, they better hope he doesn't, because despite him being outstanding aganist runners in scoring position all year, with ...