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Lackey shuts down Red Sox in Game 1
The Bottom Line — ... his night with fout hits allowed through six innings, but he walked Abreu four times and Torii Hunter eventually got to him in the 5th with a 3-run homer of the rocks. Bottom Line: The Sox just didn't bring it last night and now they have to hope that Josh Beckett can channel whatever he had going in 2007 and tie this thing up at 1-1 tonight. Weaver is good and very good at home... Beckett is good, but has struggled on the road this year (7-5, 4.13 ERA). On the positive side... The Globe is repoting that Victor Martinez will catch Beckett - not Varitek as Jon Heyman said ...

Kilgore: Martinez will catch Beckett in Game 2
The Bottom Line — ... that Jason Varitek would be catching Josh Beckett tonight. It was never reported by Heyman or any other source online, and now Adam Kilgore is reporting that Victor Martinez has been told HE will catch tonight - not Tek. "They definitely told me today," Martinez said late Thursday night. "I wasn't really sure if I was going to catch him." Bottom Line : Lineups will be due this afternoon and that's the on;y way we're gonna know for sure what happening. If Victor gets the nod, we can all stop calling Beckett "high maintenance" ... myself included.

Link-O-Rama: Bucknor behind plate for Game 2
Circling The Bases — ... found that home teams have a .540 winning percentage in the playoffs since 1995. During that same time home teams have a .539 winning percentage in the regular season. My guess is that conventional wisdom would say that homefield advantage is significantly more valuable in the postseason, but as is so often the case conventional wisdom would be off the mark. * Unlike the Yankees benching Jorge Posada to give Jose Molina the Game 2 start as A.J. Burnett's personal catcher, the Red Sox are sticking with Victor Martinez behind the plate despite Josh Beckett's success working ...