Baseball Championships

By their own admission, the Boston Red Sox were a confused and distracted team four months into the regular season. Then on the final day of July they dealt their main distraction, outfielder Manny Ramirez, to the Dodgers, getting Jason Bay from the Pittsburgh Pirates in return in a three-team trade. Everybody knows what that trade meant to the Dodgers, who rallied behind Ramirez to win the National League West.

CHICAGO -- It's 52 degrees and getting colder at Wrigley Field as Manny Ramirez, waiting for the next Cubs hitter, shoves his right hand into his back pocket to keep warm. Suddenly a man in the bleachers behind the Dodgers' left fielder stands up, cups his hands around his mouth and yells, "Hey Manny! Take your hand out of your pocket! Get ready to run!" Ramirez either doesn't hear him, or pretends he doesn't hear him, but the Chicago fans are just getting warmed up.

Kosuke Fukudome may get a second chance to prove himself in the postseason, because Cubs Manager Lou Piniella said before Game 1 that he would like to start Fukudome in every game of the National League division series. "I'd like to stay just the way we are," Piniella said. "Fukudome is very capable of having a nice postseason, so let's see. With the wind blowing and everything else, we went with good defense in the outfield."

CHICAGO -- There was an unusual amount of facial hair on Chad Billingsley's boyish face Wednesday, but the 24-year-old right-hander said he wasn't growing a playoff beard. "I haven't had a start in a long time," Billingsley said. Billingsley says he only shaves on the day of his starts, something he hasn't had in eight days. He plans to maintain his routine this morning, though not everything about the latest cycle in his life is routine.

Jason Bay had never played on a winning team before being traded to Boston in the July deal that sent Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers. So this whole idea of playing baseball in October is new to him. "The last few years I've been home at this point," he said. "But I'm trying not to make too big a deal out of it. Try to make it as normal as possible."

Uh oh. The streaks live, all of them, all the haunting October memories the Angels could have extinguished with one victory. It took the Angels six months to earn home-field advantage, three hours to lose it. It took the Angels six months to win 100 games, three hours to turn their next game into a must-win.

Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said he did not consider using Reggie Willits to pinch-run for Vladimir Guerrero on Wednesday night after the slugger reached on a one-out single in the eighth inning, with the Angels trailing the Red Sox, 2-1. Guerrero, slowed in September by an irritated right knee, tried to go from first to third on Torii Hunter's bloop hit over first baseman Kevin Youkilis' head, running through third base coach Dino Ebel's stop sign, and was thrown out by about eight feet.

CHICAGO -- Cubs second baseman Mark DeRosa was asked if Thursday night's game against the Dodgers was "do or die" for Chicago in the best-of-five National League division series. "Yeah, I think it's pretty do or die," he said. "I do. You don't want to get on that 4 1/2 -hour plane flight [to Los Angeles] down 0-2." But Cubs Manager Lou Piniella strongly disagreed. "You've got to win three ballgames in these things," he said.

CHICAGO -- Takashi Saito is the Dodgers' closer again -- at least that's what Saito said he was told by pitching coach Rick Honeycutt at the start of the National League division series. Saito didn't fool the Cubs in the ninth inning of Game 2, giving up two runs on two doubles and a single, but for him to pitch at all is almost a medical miracle. "For me to be here with my teammates at this time of the year," Saito said, "I really can only think that I had luck on my side."