Sox Send Halos to the Devil AGAIN!

Jason Bay has become a Red Sox! Manny Who? The left fielder who migrated at the trading deadline from the Steel city smashed a 2 run HR in the 6th inning to catapult the Sox to a lead they would not relinquish in Game One of the ALDS vs the LA Angels. Bay is smooth and is a breath of fresh air. We put up with Manny for 8 years. This kid is just what the doctor ordered for our Home town team!

Left hander John Lester went 7 innings for the win. He was helped by the bull pen. David Ardsma pitched the 8th and The Closah came in to smash the door in the 9th for the BIG WIN!

Jon Lester -- the ACE -- held the Angels down during his 7 innings of stellar pitching in Game One of the ALDS. Lester was just right for the call as Josh Beckett was scratched late on Sunday. The youngster is quickly etching his name in Sox play off history. he has not allowed an earned run during his young play off experience. he led the Sox to a stunning upset win in LA last night 4-2.

Bay makes Halos pay in Game 1
Left fielder's two-run jack helps Red Sox win ALDS opener
By Ian Browne / MLB.com

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ANAHEIM -- There was no way Jason Bay could know what that first slice of October baseball was going to taste like. That month had always been a time for the left fielder to become reacquainted with his family and hope that maybe the next season could be spent on a ballfield instead of watching his peers play on television.

But this time, Bay spent the first day of October sizing up a meaty fastball from John Lackey and hammering it over the fence in left field to give the Red Sox the crucial blow they had been searching for in Wednesday night's 4-1 victory over the Angels in Game 1 of the American League Division Series.

After playing 771 Major League games, none of which were of the postseason variety, Bay learned what the big stage was all about, putting himself front and center.

"Everyone wanted to know if it was going to be different," Bay said. "I had nothing really to compare it to, so I just [assumed] it was the same game. And you get out there and you can tell it's not -- it's a little bit different. But once you get over it and get into the throw of it a little bit, it's just baseball again. And I couldn't have picked a better kind of a first game, I guess, but, you know, I'm glad that we won and that's it."

How did the pressure of the moment not unnerve Bay?

"Because, man, he's cool as a cucumber," said Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon, who nailed down the save in the ninth. "He's got ice in his veins. In this game, the coolest cat always wins. It's that simple."

Of course, Bay's two-out, two-run bash in the top of the sixth inning would not have held such weight if not for a superb pitching performance by Jon Lester, who was thrust into the role of ace in this series when Josh Beckett couldn't take the opening nod because of a strained right oblique.

After working out of bases-loaded jam in the first, Lester was nails for the rest of the night. The left-hander allowed just one unearned run on six hits, with seven strikeouts and one walk over seven innings and 117 pitches of work.