Pick Your Poison

Big Papi? Or Manny? Who would you rather pitch to with two out in the bottom of the ninth with a tie game? Last night the Angles made their decision and Manny made K-Rod and manager Mike Socia pay after pitching around Papi.

He may play left field like he’s cloaked with the defensive ability of a Little League player, but he can still hit a baseball. Manny smoked one straight over the Monster down to Lansdowne Street for his first playoff walk off dinger since 1996. This is the first time I’ve provided a quote, but I couldn’t pass this one up.

"I am one of the best players in the game," said Ramirez, who missed almost all of September with a strained side muscle and finished with the worst full-season stats of his career. "I have confidence in myself, and I know my train doesn't stop here."

I love Manny, and yet I hate Manny. I love having him on my team because he does shit like he did last night, but I hate him because he’s an incredible douche bag. Most days I just wish he would just keep that fact to himself, but like most bags of douche that I’ve known in my life it’s almost an impossibility to do so. One saving grace is that Manny is within one home run of tying Bernie Williams for the all-time post-season record for going yard with his 21^st last night. Anytime you can supplant a Yankee in a record book is a good day no matter how high a rating on the douche-o-meter.

A close second on my personal hero list for last night’s game is Danny Vinik. Don’t know who that is? He’s the smart lad who stole a foul ball in the fifth from Angles catcher Jeff Mathis. Manny probably should have been out on this at bat, but he ended up walking and then Mike Lowell ended up hitting a sac fly to center to score Dustin Pedroia to tie the game at three. Even Stephen King gave the kid a high five. That’s kinda cool, right? Maybe not. Never the less, good job Danny because you could be (and maybe already are) the next Jeffrey Maier.

Dice-K had two awful innings to start the game. The bullpen and the Boston O were able to transform his performance into an afterthought, but now that the Sox are up 2-0 and will more than likely win this series, he’s making me nervous about what he’s going to do in an ALCS or possible World Series game. Hopefully he doesn’t have to play for another six to seven days to help his “shoulder fatigue.”

JD Drew came up big in the first to get the Sox on the board with a two RBI single. It’s nice to see him finally earning his $13 million contract. Yikes. David Ortiz went 1-for-1 last night. How’d that happen? Well, I’ll tell you. He was walked four goddamn times. I guess the Angels still aren’t over Papi hitting one of his two walk-off homers of the 2004 postseason. Walking Papi gets you to Manny though, and last night we saw how much trouble it can get you into.

Sunday in LA will be the time and place for Game Three. Curt Schilling will take the mound for the good guys and Jered Weaver will throw for the Halos. I'm sure I'll piss off my future in-laws who will want to watch the Kansas City Chiefs play with my requests to change the channel to the Sox game.