Travel days suck.

Phil,

What do you think happened to NZ? They had some bad luck close to the try line late in the match, but they also didn't have the same back line play that they had earlier. Do you think it was the lost of the fly half and scrum half?

Losing Dan Carter & Jerry Collins (flanker) didn't help, but they made some really bad conservative in game decisions as well.

The last French try was off a forward pass it seems as well.

They'll win the next one, it is in NZ

Is anyone else worried about Cleveland? Their pitching has looked very good and that lineup is tough.
I'm still worried about getting out of this round. Gagne hasn't pitched yet.

I'm still worried about getting out of this round. Gagne hasn't pitched yet.

The off days are helping us there wok.

It would seem there's a clear deliniation between regular season Tito and 8 day best of 5 post season Tito.

I don't think so. I think it's more that Sox fans are kind of mental.

No, I agree with the original statement. It's very clear that regular season Francona manages for the long-term, and post season manager Francona manages for the short-term. Which is exactly what you want out of a manager. Hell, there were months worth of threads here asking for Francona to make winning a priority -- the posters here thought he was managing for the long-term too much. It was clear he was managing for the short term last night. He did that in 2004 as well; he managed that post season virtually flawlessly.

I'm 31 years old and Tito is the best manager the Red Sox have had in my lifetime. Here's hoping he keeps it up.

Tito's managing in these 2 games has lead me to stop criticizing him. He's done everything right.

Tito was great yesterday.

I think we were all scared he would leave Dice K in too long. Also he didn't hesitate when MDC hit Vlad, he pulled him straight away. That was a GREAT move , IMHO.