(Doggy Insanity!)
(ColbyPants!)
(MurphyDawg!)
(OllieDude!)
(OtisBurger!)
Manny Ramirez homered off Francisco Rodriguez with two outs in the ninth inning Friday night, and the Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-3 to take a 2-0 lead in their AL playoff series.
Boston, which tied the game in the fifth thanks to a friendly -- and legal -- grab by the son of a Red Sox part-owner, has a chance to complete the sweep on Sunday in Anaheim when Curt Schilling faces Jered Weaver in Game 3.
Schilling, the bloody-socked hero of Boston's 2004 title, was on his way to the West Coast with Games 1 and 4 starter Josh Beckett, manager Terry Francona said a few hours before Friday's game. If so, they landed in time to catch the ending of the grueling, 4 hour, 5 minute affair, in which Daisuke Matsuzaka needed 60 pitches to get through the first two innings and lasted just 4 2/3.
Four relievers from Boston's well-rested bullpen threw 4 1/3 innings of hitless ball. Anaheim's relievers matched them until Julio Lugo opened the Red Sox ninth with a single off losing pitcher Justin Speier. On a hit-and-run, Lugo took second on Dustin Pedroia's grounder.
It was Boston's eighth consecutive postseason victory over the Angels, who blew a 3-1 lead in the 1986 AL Championship Series and got swept in the first round of '04 when the Red Sox ended their 86-year championship drought.
They could be well on their way again.
GO RED SOX!!
TomC
9" X47
This was one beast of a cigar. I smoked it during the second Red Sox/Angels ALDS game, and it took the majority if the length of the game to go through it. It was a beautiful looking example of a La Flor Dominicana cigar, wrapped in a beautiful leaf that just glistened with oil. It really smoked rather well considering the size of the stogie, the draw was never an issue and the burn was not bad, the only construction issue was the ash was flaky and fell off rather often.
It is too bad that the cigar didn't live up to the billing. This cigar was all strength and tanginess to the exclusion of all other flavors. Now mind you I like the LFD tanginess, but I like to have other flavors involved as well. Maybe with a little age, these will round themselves out a bit and develop more nuance. Alas right now it is all gusto and youth, and after about five inches or so it became kind of a challenge to see how far I could smoke the cigar. Cigars smoking should not be a challenge. If you have some of these, sit on them a while, and let me know what they are like in a few years.
TomC
