When this postseason started I wrote that it would be the most exciting we had seen since this three tiered fromat started.

Guess what? It has been the best.

Every team had an arguable chance to make it to the world series. Every team had flaws which could sink it at any time.

The Cubs flaw was its bullpen. Dusty Baker crafted a pitching staff led by top of the rotation starters who threw in the mid to high 90’s. The plan was simple. Let the big boys take the ball into the eighth inning, then and only then trust Kyle Farnsworth and Mike Remlinger to get the ball to season hero Joe Borowski to close the game.

Everything was peachy until game six on Tuesday night. Mark Prior limped through the seventh giving up three hard outs. It was clear in the eighth that he didn’t have the stuff to end the game against the Marlins, a good hitting team. Prior gave up the lead, the bullpen added fuel to the fire. Marlins come back to win game six, a tough loss for the Cubs.

Marlins even the series 3-3 and they look very relaxed heading into game seven.

Kerry Wood tried to go as far as he could Wednesday night in the deciding game. When a big pitcher loses his stuff, the game can get ugly. This one did as it turned nasty after the Cubs took the lead 5-3. The Marlins were on Wood quickly like white on rice.

Wood couldn’t muster the strength to hold the lead. Dusty left him in, as he did Prior, hoping that somehow the Marlins would hit the ball at one of his fielders for the needed outs. They didn’t and routed Wood and his bullpen mates, taking control of the game and the pennant.

When the Marlins starter, Mark Redman, faltered, McKeon went to his starters for relief. Brad Penny and Josh Beckett (the Marlins played 66 innings in the playoffs, Beckett pitched 19.6 of them), held the Cubs totally in check while their bats added more insurance.

Baker wouldn’t go to Carlos Zambrano or Matt Clement for some reason when Wood faltered, McKeon rolled the dice with his frontliners and that, my friends, is why the Marlins won the NL pennant and the Cubs didn’t.

The Cubs big pitchers weren’t used in game seven after Wood gave up the lead, the Marlins were and they held the line turning the game in their favor.

Click below for more!Before the ALDS started we said the biggest problem the Yankees had was getting the ball to Mariano Rivera.

Finally, for Red Sox fans their bats came alive at the right time and they knocked a subpar Andy Pettitte out of the game and then won the game against the Yankees relief corps.

NY’s Jose Contreras had a fine sixth inning, but came back in the seventh and left his splitter high over the plate and the Sox crushed him, regaining the lead.

Felix Heredia walked in the go ahead run, then Trot Nixon closed out the game with a two run bomb off Gabe White in the ninth.

Anyone see Mariano Rivera yesterday? Only warming up gently in the eighth on the chance that NY could get the lead against Mike Timlin.

Grady Little went too far with John Burkett almost costing his team the game and the pennant in game six.

It was obvious that Burkett wasn’t going to get through the fourth inning. Nick Johnson ripped him, Alfonso Soriano had no trouble, Burkett was throwing beach balls up there.

Still no Grady Little until NY regained the lead and the crowd. Little has been slow on the job all series.

By the way, the fans don’t seem as daunting during the day as they do at night.

Boston shut the door with Alan Embree (just keep throwing those high fastballs to Jason Giambi, he can’t catch up), Timlin, and Scott Williamson. Beautiful relief pitching.

What was Boston’s major flaw coming in has turned into its biggest strength, the bullpen.

The Yanks lost the game when its middle relief failed (its flaw), and the Sox won the game with its end of the game staff (former flaw).

Boston finally got some production from Kevin Millar, David Ortiz, and Bill Mueller, with the trio going 7-15 and 4 RBI’s. Even Nomar had four hits, with his triple a key blow.

Anything can happen in game seven as we saw last night. This is the first game seven in Yankee Stadium since 1957 when the Milwaukee Braves and Lou Burdette stopped the Bombers to win the world series.

Who has the edge tonight?

Pedro has been hittable, we know that. He now throws a steady diet of low 90’s, high 80’s fastballs and 78 MPH curves or change ups. He no longer blows the opposition away. We saw what happened to him on Saturday when he got frustrated not having his best stuff.

He is a tough pitcher who won’t give in. I like the way he stares in on the mound, just like Roger Clemens does.

Expect the Yankees to score three to four runs off of Pedro in six innings. Will Grady Little let this game get out of hand? Probably, he hasn’t gotten his starter out at the right time the whole series, I don’t expect much else from him tonight.

Tim Wakefield will be ready early, Derek Lowe will be there too for a few batters if necessary. Timlin and the relievers who have come through should be called on by the sixth if the game is on the line.

What will Roger Clemens bring to game seven? He is 40 years old and is coming back once again, thankfully for NY, on normal rest.

This maybe his last game. He will be pumped sky high. The Red Sox need to make him throw alot of pitches early in the game, they must lay off his splitter. The Sox all have to turn into Scott Hatteberg and Erubiel Durazo and wait the Rocket out.

Exploit the flaws!

Get into the Yankee bullpen early, keep Rivera out of the game.

For NY, let Pedro wear down as he will, take the three runs that he gives you, keep it close and pray the bullpen can get the ball to Rivera for six outs to close the game.

Which manager will go to the pen at the right time? Which one will trust his first reliever and in what inning? Jack McKeon played his cards correctly last night and Miami won the pennant.

Defense is crucial tonight. Bill Mueller (some nice plays), Nomar, and Todd Walker haven’t played particularly well in the field. Tonight one error or failed double play chance can prove costly.

Alfonso Soriano is usually in the middle of some defensive lapse for NY. The Yankees are vulnerable in the outfield too. Bernie Williams doesn’t cover the ground he used to and Hideki Matsui and Karim Garcia do something awkward every game.

The Red Sox have lived with the long ball, they will need a couple tonight. The Yankees put the ball in play, the Sox better catch it because their defense will be tested in this game.

I’ll say defense decides the game tonight, the team that plays the most solid game in the field wins the pennant.

Before there were playoffs matching divsion winners in 1969, whoever won the regular season advanced immediately to the series. The phrase winning the pennant was all we lived for as fans, “pennant” isn’t used as much today, now it is winning the LCS, but for me I want to win the pennant, see it fly over the ballpark next April.

Tonight the pennant is on the line, not the LCS!

Red Sox-Yankees, in a flat footed tie for the AL pennant, now that sounds right.

The Red Sox owe the Yanks for 1949, 1978, among other misses and not to mention the “Babe business”.

Pedro and the Rocket, for the pennant, you can’t write it any better than that.