Oh the evil portents and the tempting of fate and whatnot

After this past weekend's serial debacles, the Lib Chron sports department is reeling and badly in need of redemption. Unfortunately the last hope of mankind at this hour happens to be the Boston Red Sox playing in October. Talk about a prelude to disaster. If you're not quite yet ready to have your hopes and dreams crushed, you may want to start with this ESPN.com piece in which Jayson Stark picks the Sox to win it all making this among other remarkable statements,

BECAUSE THIS IS A BETTER TEAM THAN THE 2003 RED SOX, A BETTER TEAM THAN THE 1999 RED SOX, EVEN A BETTER TEAM THAN THE 1986 RED SOX

Good God, just rip my heart out now, why don't you! Remember last week when I talked about that blind boxer? I hope you're properly braced for impact because this one's gonna hurt too.

On the bright side, it turns out that both of my preseason World Series picks are still alive. Not that I find Yankees/Astros all that appealing, but I do like being right every now and again.

Tonight's winners: Twins, Sox, Dodgers, Cheney (network spinners are looking to make up for their skewering of Bush last week)