Red Sox find that old magic

For the most part, this has been a refreshing playoffs with young players rising to the occasion, providing a needed infusion of new faces onto the big stage.

Until Saturday, that is, when Curt Schilling and the rest of the Red Sox showed why they were the best team in baseball this season, and why they're still the favorite to win the World Series, even with Colorado's incredible hot streak.

Down 3-1 to the Cleveland Indians - who have won the exact same number of games this season (103) - the Red Sox forced Game 7 with as dominant a performance as you'll see in the postseason, a 12-2 shellacking at Fenway Park.

The Indians have to put Saturday's game out of their heads tonight to even have a prayer. And I'd give that a 1-in-10 chance of happening.

What's gone wrong with the Indians? Their aces have been awful, and it's amazing they're even still in the series given how C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona have pitched. Credit the Boston hitters for having a great plan against them, waiting for hittable fastballs and crushing them. Sabathia and Carmona are great when hitters have to swing at their best stuff. The Red Sox rarely do.

And Indians DH Travis Hafner, who played very well down the stretch after a slumping summer, is scuffling big-time. If I'm Tribe manager Eric Wedge, I change up the lineup tonight, moving Hafner to sixth or seventh in the order to take some pressure off.

As I wrote 10 days ago: Red Sox in seven. Playing at home, with the Fenway fans behind them - too much for the young Indians to overcome. The pressure is on, and this is what the Red Sox paid the big money for Daisuke Matsuzaka, and I have a feeling he'll be much better tonight than he was in Cleveland. Josh Beckett should be available for a couple of innings if needed, although in a perfect world, he'll be saved for Game 1 of the World Series at Fenway on Wednesday.

Jake Westbrook is on the mound for Cleveland, and he's lost his last four road starts. He's 1-1 in Fenway, and allowed six runs during the game he won. But given the alternatives, he's Cleveland's best hope.

There will be comparisons to 2004 after the Red Sox finish off the comeback. But 3-1 is a lot easier to come back from than 3-0. There are three-game sweeps every weekend in Major League Baseball, and especially when the teams are at home. The '04 Red Sox won the last two at Yankee Stadium.