TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?

2004 was the best year ever. Because of '04 I make a concerted effort to be positive concerning the Red Sox simply because they deserve it. And when you consider their performance over the past four years as a whole, well, its pretty clear that this is a very good team with an excellent management team who knows what they're doing.

But despite that and in spite of myself, I still maintain a somewhat skeptical approach to baseball as a whole. I don't trust the universe and I'm still fearful of the baseball gods, vengeful though they be.

To that end, I'm a bit worried about how everything is turning up Red Sox roses in the first two days of the playoffs. In game one the Red Sox looked both healthy and totally unbeatable. Conversely, the Yankees looked healthy and entirely beatable, which is likely why they were beaten 12-3 by Cleveland last night. Thats two for two right there. I'm officially "wary."

But if you look beyond just the simple Red Sox/Yankees obviousness, the other teams that the Red Sox may encounter should they go on to beat the Angels don't look very good either. Yes, the Indians scored a billion runs off of Yankees ace Chien-Ming Wang, but the Sox have done that too, and Indians ace and likely Cy Young winner C.C. Sabathia didn't look very good either. In fact, the Yankees had him on the ropes in the fifth and couldn't finish him off. He didn't look very effective throwing five innings and giving up three runs while walking six.

Whats more, all the NL teams look highly beatable, but we kinda knew that already.

I guess what I'm trying to say is we're doing great so far. But we haven't beaten the Angels yet, or for that matter come close to doing so. Its only been one game and theres still a long way to go. Lets not get ahead of ourselves, though I admit its pretty easy to do.

Tonight: Game 2, Matsuzaka vs. Escobar. 8:37pm EST.

Lets Go Sox!!