Game Three - Boston Red Sox & Tampa Bay Rays...JON LESTER IS IN THE BUILDING

Boston Red Sox baseball returns to Fenway Park today, Monday, October 13th. Happy Coumbus Day to every one of you. The weather will be downright perfect with sunny skies and temperatures in the very low to mid 70s for those of you lucky enough to be holding onto tickets for the important contest. The Red Sox have their best pitcher going. Jon Lester will face the sometimes tough Matt Garza in front of 38,000 plus of the Fenway Faithful. The shadows will affect those players in the batting box, which has to give a slim advantage to the lefty Lester. But he's been lights out this year day or night. The game will start at 4:37pm EDT and the winner will have a 2-1 series lead with two more games coming up at Fenway tomorrow and Thursday. If needed, the last two games will be Saturday and Sunday down at the Trop. But first things first...what happened to Josh Beckett? Here is what he and manager Terry "Tito" Francona had to say on that very subject...

"I can understand it," Beckett said about the queries from the media. "But if I tell you I'm fine, that's what you've got to go on. Unless you guys are getting information somewhere else, I don't know what to tell you guys. You guys keep asking me the same question about my health. I tell you I'm fine. Just go on that. Write that. I'm fine."

"He feels pretty good physically," manager Terry Francona said. "We spent a few minutes with him a little bit ago just trying to go through what his day will be like today, because today is a big work day. And again, just to double-check and make sure he's OK, because as we all know, when guys are competing, guys will fib or try to get through it. No, he's fine. He's certainly battling some consistency issues, and I think some of that is having some of your starts interrupted and then having the oblique a couple weeks ago. You know, it's been a battle for him."

Peter here, and quite frankly, I don't believe it. PERIOD. Someone like Josh does not just lose 3-5 MPH off his fastball without an underlying, maybe hidden reason. Is it the oblique? That would explain many things, but I don't think the Sox front office will be making any health annoucements because that would be giving Tampa Bay way too much information. We'll just have to wait until Saturday if a game six is necessary. One thing I DO hope, and that is this. I hope the club is not risking Josh's overall long term health in any way whatsoever. NO WAY, NO HOW.

This afternoon's game will be telecast on TBS and TBS HD. The Dodgers made their series a 2-1 affair (Phillies in the lead) and game four will follow the Sox game at 8:30pm EDT or so on FOX and FOX HD. I'd like to see Joe Torre's Dodgers knot the series at two...that would make for even more exciting October west coast baseball. But most importantly, we need a huge start from Mr. Lester in what will be his biggest start of the year, bigger than anything since his no hitter and before that his 2007 World Series clinching victory. So I have a really good inner feeling about game three. A SOXY feeling. I hope you do, too. If Boston scores three runs or more, put a check mark in the win column. Jon has been attacking the strike zone aggressively lately, not wasting too many pitches. And that was one of his only faults...too many pitches in too few innings. NOT ANY MORE!

So enjoy your holiday and this afternoon's Fenway Park brand of baseball, baseball as only the Boston Red Sox can do it. You can click on the title of this post for more on the upcoming Monday afternoon excitement, courtesy of the Boston Globe. Thank you so much for stopping in, and as always, BE WELL. Go RED SOX NATION, go RED SOX INTERNATIONAL. GO SOX.