No sooner had Jason Bay hit the go-ahead two-run home run last night than Chip Caray, the TBS lead announcer, said "Manny who?," turning a wonderful postseason moment into a cringe-worthy incident. 

For the love of god, no self-respecting Red Sox fan would ever diss the past contributions of Manny Ramirez. Not only was Caray’s comment lame and tired, but it demonstrated the biggest problem with postseason baseball announcers: They ape the instincts and reactions of the worst bandwagon fans.

It’s unfortunate, because Caray and Buck Martinez have called several Red Sox games on TBS this season. Given that, you’d think the commentators would be familiar with the team. So how do you explain Martinez’s comment that Ortiz has been struggling lately?

In the third inning, Big Papi came up with two men on and two men out. He popped out to shallow left, prompting Martinez to say he’s struggling, due in large part to his lingering wrist injury. Struggling? Really?

In the last 14 days, Ortiz is hitting .290 with 4 home runs and a 1.127 OPS.

If that indicates a player who’s struggling, well, struggle on, Big Papi.

Count me among the people who said, "#$^& a duck" when I heard Josh Beckett would not be starting Game One of the ALDS because of a strained oblique.

No, this development doesn’t portend doom for the Red Sox. But it would have been nice for Beckett to pitch two games in this series (if necessary). At this point, I’d just be happy to see him pitch one.

Frustrating? You betcha. Unless you’re Terry Francona, that is, who had this to say,

"I don’t think it’s frustrating. Things happen and you deal with them and if you deal with them well enough, you handle it. If you don’t, you go home."

OK, fine. But not frustrating?

In 2007, when the Sox won their second World Series in four years, Beckett was 4-0 in the postseason. In 10 career postseason outings, he’s 6-2 with a 1.73 ERA.

If the Sox have to rely on Paul Byrd as their third starter this postseason, well, the team’s going to need Jon Lester to pitch like Beckett pitched last October in order to repeat as World Series champions

It wasn’t seamless or uneventful, but Boston’s relief performance last night — three holds and a save — is what the team will need to play deep into October.

In relief of starter Tim Wakefield, Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okakima, Justin Masterson, Javier Lopez and Jonathan Papelbon pitched four innings of scoreless relief — even though Cleveland left the bases loaded in both the 7th and 8th innings.

Delcarmen was lifted in the 7th after allowing two hits and a walk. Okajima, who hasn’t allowed a baserunner to reach via hit or walk in his last five outings, ended the threat, working his off-speed pitch to the right-handed hitting Victor Martinez, inducing a pop out to first base.

Masterson came in to pitch the 8th, and looked sharp through two of the first three hitters, but then was lifted in favor of Lopez — who promptly walked the bases loaded.

I have to say, I’ve been confused all year by Tito’s use of Lopez. Traditionally, the lefty pitches better against right-handers, but lately he’s been brought in to pitch to lefties a lot more. Frankly, last night, with Sizemore coming to the plate, I’d have much rather seen Papelbon come in right then for the four-out save. Instead, Lopez walks Sizemore and Papelbon now has to come into a bases-loaded situation. Do we really trust Javier Lopez more than Papelbon, no matter who is at the plate? I sure as hell don’t.

The Boston Globe reports the Red Sox will retire Johnny Pesky’s No. 6 on Friday, which might lead the team to admit it’s full of crap about its RULES on this sort of thing.

The Red Sox will break their traditional requirements for a player’s number to be retired: that he is in the Hall of Fame, that he ended his career with the club, and that he played at least 10 seasons for the Red Sox. Pesky is not in the Hall of Fame.

Pesky, who will turn 89 Saturday and still maintains a locker in the Red Sox clubhouse, will join Bobby Doerr (1), Joe Cronin (4), Carl Yastrzemski (8), Ted Williams (9) and Carlton Fisk (27) as players whose numbers have been retired. (The Red Sox created a loophole for Fisk, who ended his career with the White Sox.)

So basically they’ll have broken the rules on two of the six players whose numbers they’ve retired. Where I come from, "traditional requirements" are built on bedrock, not a 66 percent success rate. If you’re flouting the rules one-third of the time, well, those aren’t rules. They’re recommended guidelines.

Congrats to Johnny Pesky, who certainly deserves this honor. And congratulations to the Red Sox for breaking their non-existent "rules."

It would have been poetic for the Yankees to lose their last game ever at Yankee Stadium, thereby clinching a playoff spot for the Red Sox. But really, how would the Red Sox team and the fans have celebrated that development? Basically, it would have been done privately, since the Red Sox (who beat the Jays yesterday in Toronto) were on their way back to Boston last night.

Instead, the team sends Josh Beckett to the mound tonight versus Cleveland. Could the pitcher and opponent be more apt?

Beckett threw a gem in Game 5 of last year’s ALCS versus Cleveland, when Boston trailed three games to one. That performance reinvigorated the Red Sox, who didn’t lose another game the entire postseason.

For all intents and purposes, Boston’s postseason begins tonight. Win and we’re in.

After that, focus on winning the American League East.

It’ll be interesting to see how Francona sets up his pitching staff for this final week: Will he make adjustments in trying to win the division title? Or will he (essentially) concede the division to Tampa Bay, focusing instead on setting up his starting rotation for round one of the playoffs?

First things first, however: The Sox need to win tonight. Do that and the team (and the fans) can do some celebrating on the home field.