Did that game really happen last night?  I’m still in disbelief.  Did Dice-K really take a no-hitter into the 7th inning? 

It just seems so unplausable to me.  I’ll admit that midway through the first inning, when Dice-K was walking the bases loaded, I was thinking “Sox are destined to lose this one by 5 or 6 runs” and “I’m never watching a Sox game in which this guy starts ever again.” 

Wow, did Dice-K ever come through.  In inning 2 to 7, I understood why the Sox wanted him so much.  I’m also completely conviced that the key to his starts is Varitek quickly figuring out which of his 87 pitches are working that night and how to use them.  Sometimes, it takes an inning for that to happen.  Sometimes, it takes a few.  The key is that it happens and that when it happens it’s not too late.  Nor has it taken a pitch count of 72 in the third inning.

Meanwhile, the Rays did something I didn’t think they would in this series.  They made a mistake, no I’m not talking about the green light swinging on 3 and 0 counts (managers don’t do that enough anymore in my opinion), I’m talking about Crawford misplaying a ball in the outfield.

Lastly, a shout out to the Sox set up man and Terry Francona.  Tito knew exactly which buttons to push in the 8th inning.  Yeah, we were all petrified when he brought in Okie with a few guys on base, but it worked perfectly.  Okie to get one guy out with runners on can work.  It has to work for the sox to win.  I think we will be seeing Okie brought in to pitch just to Pena, then follwed up with Masterson or Delcarmen to face Longoria a few times in this series.

Still… can’t …. believe  that Dice-K did what he did last night.  With Beckett and Lester going the next two games, this series has the potential to be over really fast.  Almost as important, it takes the pressure off Beckett to be 2007 Beckett.  Still need a quality start, but he’s not pitching with his back against the wall.  The pressure is squarely on the Rays.  No way can they go down 2-0, having to beat Lester at Fenway.