After my bedtime

Some playoff thoughts to chew on as we wait for the playoffs to start late enough on Wednesday that it's almost Thursday ...

I am hoping I can keep my eyelids open to the final pitch, but given the way playoff baseball goes - you know, with the commercials and the pitching changes and the commercials and the mound meetings and the commercials and the stategy and the commercials - I'm not so confident I'll make it through. Besides, I'm reminded of the last time I stuck out a 10 p.m. start to the finish. It was the first game of the ALDS in Oakland in 2003, and I fought sleepiness and ruined any chance of being productive the following day only to see Derek Lowe give up a walk-off bunt single in extras. I'm not sure I can take that again.

In truth, though, those of us on the East Coast shouldn't complain (that doesn't mean we won't). I mean think about it - those on the left coast get screwed almost every day when it comes to sports television. All the important games start when the average person is still at work, and football starts before you finish your first bowl of Cheerios on Sunday. Football at 10 a.m.? No thanks. So if we have to watch one late baseball game, so be it. After all, the Angels have homefield advantage for a reason - they earned it. It's not their fault that the home field of which we speak is in Los Angeles of Anaheim.

As for real thoughts, I have two. The first relates to David Ortiz, and his uncanny ability to produce the most when times are most desparate. The Sox are about to enter the postseason with JD Drew having four more at-bats than me since mid-August and with Mike Lowell looking like he needs a walker to get around, not to mention with Josh Beckett battling what can become one of the most nagging and lingering injuries in sports (the dreaded oblique). And yet my feelings of doom are assuaged slightly by the fact that the big man has been tearing the cover off the ball lately.

After almost a full year of lackluster power, Papi caught fire down the stretch. He hit a bunch of homers, but more than that, he was spraying the ball to all fields with power. And it couldn't have come at a better time. If our lineup, which is already without Manny, has to go with wounded soldiers in Drew and Lowell, at least Papi can provide some pop.

What he's done is amazing. He missed almost a third of the year with injuries and looked like a shell of himself most of the other time and still drove in more than 90 runs. You get the sense the guy could be productive if he hit right-handed for an entire season. But the fact that he seems to have found his mojo again right before the playoffs is just what the doctor ordered.

What the doctor didn't order, and this is my second thought, is Beckett's injury. Beckett was the one thing we had to make the Angels quake with fear despite the fact that they are 100 times healthier, dominated the regular-season series and are playing at home. But the memory of Beckett absolutely abusing them in Game 1 last year has to stay with you. Now, instead, they get Jon Lester.

Don't get me wrong, I love Lester. In fact, based solely on the merits of his performance this season, he was probably the best pitcher in the rotation. But he's still an unproven commodity in the playoffs, and that brings me to my real second thought: His performance in Game 4 of the World Series last year is hugely overrated.

Because Lester is such a great story, his performance in that game somehow grew to become Red Sox lore. People point to it and say, "Hey, the dude has already pitched the clinching game of the World Series. He's money." But think about it - how much pressure was there, really? If he pitched terribly, the Sox could always have gotten them the next day. And if that didn't work out, they had the next day. And if that didn't work out ....

Ok, you get the point. Pitching with a 3-0 lead in a series is hardly a nerve-wracking experience. Obviously any start for a young pitcher in the World Series is sure to bring its share of nerves, and Lester was masterful in staying focused and pitching a gem, but honestly, I'm tired of people painting it as a heroic showing. It was solid, it was impressive, and it was dominant. It may even have been considered clutch. But I'm not ready to anoint him "playoff tested" after that game alone.

Maybe after tonight, when he has to pitch the first game of a short series in a hostile environment against the team with the best record in the American League, he can earn that title. I, for one, am certainly hoping he does.