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BOSTON -- Here's the deal: If the Red Sox, with their multi-faceted arsenal, don't find a way to win this afternoon, the next time you hear Sweet Caroline at Fenway Park will be when the Bruins play the Flyers on New Year's Day.
Game on.
That's where it's at in Boston. The Red Sox, who have been in the American League championship series or beyond in four of the past seven years, are on the verge of being swept by a perennially tame opponent, the Los Angeles Angels, in the opening round.
"I hope coming back here does something, because the next place is not home, but home," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "We can say everything we want but the best thing for us to do is show up and win. That kind of simplifies things."
There is nothing terribly complicated about why Boston is in an 0-2 hole in this American League Division Series. They are hitting .131 as a team (8-for-61). The only player on the Sox with more than one hit in the series is Jacoby Ellsbury, who has two, and drove in the team's only run while in Anaheim. In total, over two games, Boston has 11 total bases. Sounds like a Blue Jays road trip, huh?
Francona doesn't pretend to have any answers. This is baseball. They've used the Angels for a playoff punching bag for years and it looks as if this L.A. team just isn't going to take it any more.
"If I had that answer, we wouldn't have lost the first two," Francona said yesterday. "What has happened has happened. Now we'll show up (today), do what we always do on early games, have 12 pieces of bacon, a Red Bull and go get 'em."
John Lackey and Jered Weaver have pitched back-to-back gems for Los Angeles. In many respects, so have Jon Lester and Josh Beckett for Boston but their mistakes have ended up in crooked numbers on the scoreboard. Today, the Angels send lefty Scott Kazmir to the mound against Clay Buchholz. The dynamic always changes when the venue is Fenway.
"It's a quirky ball park, and we've played the majority of our games here," Francona saud. "Our hitters are certainly more comfortable here because the lefties -- we have more practice at using the left-field wall or the righties of pulling the ball. Right field is difficult. Centre field is a triangle. There's a lot of quirkiness here.
"And then our fans become involved. You get around the seventh inning and somebody throws ball one, all of a sudden the place starts shaking."
Boston has a recent history of comebacks. They came back on the Yankees after being down 0-3 in the 1984 LCS and then were down 1-3 against the Indians in 1987, winning both series.
WORST FEELING
"I remember in '07 we were down 3-1 against Cleveland," second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. "It was the worst feeling ever. You have that terrible feeling in your stomach that you don't want the season to end. So we just have to go out there and kind of take baby steps. You have to try to win every inning, win every pitch, and hopefully that leads to games."
If Boston can win today, Francona is ready to send Lester back to the mound tomorrow in Game 4.
"It's not just about bringing back Lester on short rest," Francona said. "That's actually probably not in our best interests. It has been proven out there that guys normally aren't stronger early. We know that. But it also gives us the ability of bringing Beckett back on regular rest. So if we're fortunate enough to go five games, Beckett and Lester will pitch four of them. That's the whole idea."
Before that happens, though, Buchholz has to get them through today.
If not, cue the Zamboni.
KEN.FIDLIN@SUNMEDIA.CA