Well Played, Sir

Very quickly, in what will be (maybe) the shortest post ever, is that tonight may have been the most emotional up and down so far this season watching the Sox. Just when I thought they were going to pack it in and I was ready to abandon all hope and watch HBO's Hard Knocks on the Kansas City Chiefs ('08 seasons tickets, here I come) the Sox pull one out of their ass and then add to it late in the game rather than coast.
It gave me some hope, despite the fact that perennial hack Julian Tavarez will start tomorrow afternoon. Back to tonight, the Sox did it with their traditional powers that be. Ortiz came through with a grand salami in the fifth, the bully line-up of All-Stars Okajima and Papelbon put the final nail in the coffin of the Angels. Hell, even Manny made a key defensive play. How often does that happen? It's a lot of fun to see the two best teams in the American League (save for the Yankees, who are playing with the best record in the last two months) slug it out and trade shots. Hopefully the Sox can score the knockout blow tomorrow before heading back out on the road next week. Talk all you want about the Central, I don't think any team other than the division champ will make the playoffs at this point. Here is an "early" post-season prediction.

Boston, New York, Detroit, LA with the dark horse being Seattle should the Sox, Angels or Yankees falter.

Oh, completely unrelated, but go see Superbad.