So last night, I'm watching game 3 of the World Series and saying this to myself over and over again.

For the first two games, the Sox took advantage of timely hitting, overcame horrid defense, and came out winners going away, but Game 3 was supposed to be different.

Except it wasn't.

The Sox STILL got timely two out hitting, including a two-out homer by Manny in the first and two out doubles and singles for more runs later. Every time they really needed a clutch hit, it came with two outs and put a run or runs on the board.

Pedro Martinez was the Pedro of 1995 (nearly). He threw three-hit ball thru seven innings, struck out four and walked one. The Cards had one good chance to get to him early (in the third inning), when their pitcher had some sort of seizure on the base paths and was thrown out going BACK to third on a deep grounder to short that resulted in a 6-3 putout where the Sox were CONCEDING THE RUN!! It reminded me of Lonnie Smith in 1991 in Game 6 against the Twins.

No. That's not it. It was like the baserunning version of Bill Buckner.

Now, I'm not nearly dumb enough to think that this is over. I would have said it was over until last week when the Sox came back from being down 3-0 to the Yankees. My ultimate fear is that the Cards rally big and take it back to Boston and a possible Game 7, which would be the ultimate cock punch for Sox fans. I'm really not sure anyone could even bring themselves to go to the game at the risk of seeing...well, you know.

So I am just not thinking about it. Tonight will be the first of four possible games for the Sox to exorcise the demons associated with 86 years of taunting, curse talk and any other kharmic bullshit that you see, hear, or read about these days.

I still can't watch the Cardinals bat. I just can't. Last night, I watched the last two outs in the ninth. Tha's all the strength I could muster. I just want one more. That's it. One more win.

Who's with me?

And one additional note here. Just so you know that this Sox team is good AND likeable, listen to this. The team voted to give recently traded shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and full playoff share, worth about two hundred grand. Each team has X amount of shares to pass out, and they are quite limiting. For them to think enough of an ex-teammate tells you all you need to know about these boys.

GO SOX!!!