WAKE UP!!!

Besides, if it wasn't for a freak insect storm Fausto would have lost to another "over-the-hill" pitcher last week.

I'm more of a weeknight guy.

Hopefully, I am way off base.  We have our best taking the mound tonight, and a steller performance could be the start to the beat down we deliver in the series.

(because you asked)

In the name of Ba'll, the patron saint of Asdrubal (it's true...look it up on google!), I beseach some of you to come back off the ledge.

I think they are very much alive.  

Sure, there is much to be concerned about:

1. The way C.C. has pitched in his last two outings.  He's pitching like he has Randy Johnson's arm and Chuck Nagy's head.  He gets it together or winter will arrive sometime mid-week.

2. The fact that Beckett is now going game 4 and 7, almost for sure.  He's hittable, just not as hittable as Wakefield, hurt, in the cool of October.  However, even this has a silver lining: if Beckett goes in game 4, we have CC at home in 5 against Schilling and Carmona against Dice-K in game 6.  Yes, bad news for game 7, but only if there is a game 7.

3. The way Gutz played.  He looked lost in his head last night.  I'm not saying he could have dove for that liner, but I'm saying it looked to me like the thought never entered his mind.

1. Fausto going tonight.  Schilling is likely to give the Tribe 2-3 runs in 7 innings.  If Fausto is on, it's looking very good.

2. The Tribe probably had some let down after the Yankees.  They just got punched very hard in the mouth.  If they can't shake it off, they aren't a WS team anyhow.

3. The fact that the Raffies are tanned, rested, and ready.

4. A split here is a victory in every single sense of the word.  If I had asked you all if you'd take 1-1 after 2, you would have said yes.  With giddy excitement.

5. Westbrook at home in game 3 against a plummeting Dice-K.  If we win tonight, we're going up 2-1, you just watch.

6. I'm getting my soup ready.  First time ever, so it's sure to work.

Most important of all: Remind yourself that, when they win, whether that's in two weeks or two decades, you are going to look back on now with pride and say to yourself, "I was with them all the way..."

I'd be much more annoyed if people were posting wildly about how we were never that good anyway, and trade CC NOW, and we're toast, and it's probably just because God hates Cleveland, and...

But the Tribe fans I've heard from are calm.  Boston was favored in game one.  We're hoping to head home with a split; 2-0 would be sick but unlikely.

Absolutely everything that we felt last night will melt away if we win tonight.

If we lose tonight, we have a lot of work to do, but this is a seven game series, folks.