The Boston Red Sox traded for Curt Schilling for one reason and that is to pitch and win game one of the division series.

The Angels make you beat them before the sixth inning or else you have to deal with their bull pen anchored by Scott Shields, Brenden Donnelly, KRod and Troy Percival.

Not a lefty in sight for Mike Scoscia.

You can’t let Vladimir Guerrero beat you, but you better keep Chone Figgins and Darin Erstad off base ahead of the free swinging AL MVP candidate.

To win a five game ALDS or NLDS you have to play almost flawless baseball for the entire series.

The game changes by the minute and whoever makes the fewest mistakes wins.

Click below for more!The Twins will go as far as today’s starter Johan Santana takes them. If he goes out after 7 innings with a lead it may not be enough. I think he has to take his team into the 9th inning especially in New York.

We’ll see.

The Yankees have to hope Mike Mussina has recovered from whatever has been ailing him and try to get the ball to Tom Gordon in the eighth inning. Paul Quantrill may be exhausted, so Gordon should be the key today.

The Yankees hit Joe Nathan hard earlier this season, it might be in the closers head.

Game one better go the Twins way or else it will be a short playoff adventure for the Minnesotans.

The Dodgers are fortunate they pulled out Saturday’s game against the Giants with seven runs in the ninth inning or else they would be playing the Astros today to see who wins the NL Wild Card.

The Cards need five innings from Woody Williams, then Tony La Russa can do what he does best and that is make seven pitching changes and bring home the win.

The Dodgers bullpen is not what it was earlier in the season and if the Giants pen wasn’t the disaster it turned into the last two weks of the year, the Dodgers would be on the outside looking in right now.

All that said, it would take a major choke job by the Cards to lose this series.

Both the Cards and the Dodgers can catch the ball, meaning the little things will determine the winner of this jam packed series.

There is nothing more exciting in baseball than the five game division series, you never know what can happen, but two things are for sure, good defense and a great bull pen will go a long way in taking you to the next round.

Next round picks as of this morning:

Anaheim over Boston
St. Louis over Los Angeles
Yankees over the Twins

All rights reserved to change my mind if things look different tomorrow.

Astros and Braves thoughts tomorrow.