I’m writing this as I sit here watching game 2 of the ALCS. The score is currently 0-0 in the top of the second and Varitek just doubled down the right field line. I’ll make comments as we go along.

I did want to say a couple of things about game 1, though. Tim Wakefield and the bullpen came up huge last night. For the first six innings Wake was as good as I’ve ever seen him. The Yankees had no chance against the knuckleball and it wasn’t until he started missing the strike zone in the 7th that Grady had to get him. Then Embree, Timlin and Williamson kept the Yankees at bay the rest of the way.

Speaking of Timlin, you could make a case for him as the Red Sox MVP thus far in the playoffs. He’s been perfect out of the bullpen so far, not allowing a runner to reach base in any of his appearances. Given the Sox bullpen problems all season, the fact that they have been coming up big pretty much since game 2 of the Oakland series is nothing short of miraculous.

Sox lead 1-0 after one and a half, but they’ve had seven baserunners so far. It would have been really nice if they had scored a couple of more runs.

My favorite non-game part of last night’s telecast was Fox’s interview of “objective” Yankees fan Ed Hillell. Ed was interviewed after Todd Walker’s disputed home run off the foul pole. A young fan apparently touched the ball as it hit the pole, and the right field umpire called it foul. He was quickly overruled by the home plate umpire, who called it a home run. The kid who touched the ball was quickly inundated with media types and was so overwhelmed that he left the ballpark. Ed, who was sitting nearby, claimed that the ball would have gone foul had it not been touched, while the replay clearly showed that it would have hit the foul pole. The Fox broadcast team of Joe Buck, Tim McCarver and Bret Boone spent pretty much the rest of the game hosing on poor Ed, who has now officially used up his 15 minutes of fame. Even the game summary referred to him with the notation for Walker’s home run (Ed still thinks it’s foul!). I thought it was all pretty funny and Ed no doubt had about 600 messages on his answering machine when he got home.

Game 2 is now through 2 and 1/2 and the Empire leads 2-1 on a Nick Johnson home run.

Last night marked the first time I had to make the big decision between taping Enterprise and Smallville. I have two VCRs, so I can usually tape both and watch them later after the kids are in bed. However, since I wanted to watch the game on one TV, I couldn’t tape both. I ended up deciding to tape Smallville, since it was the second part of a cliffhanger continued from last week. It’s incredibly annoying, though, that two of the very few network TV shows I actually watch regularly are on at the same time.

That’s it for tonight. Still 2-1 in the bottom of the third. More on game 2 tomorrow night.