Cautiously optimistic.

My playoff posts are generally short, as I am pretty tired by the time the game wraps up, and we'll be keeping the trend this time around. The last time I did a Lackey v. Lester playoff post, I was grappling with a tough loss. This time around, things are much, much better. The Angels let their bats do the talking to help back up an incredible night of pitching against Boston in the opening game of the ALDS, and finished up with a very enjoyable 5-0 victory. Simply huge.

There were plenty of gigantic positives from tonight's series opening game:

1) Big John Lackey brought his A game with 7.3 innings of 4 hit shutout ball. He was on point the entire night, outside of a little rough patch in the sixth where he threw seven straight balls. He recovered from that slight misstep unscathed, and pushed his shutout through with just 1 walk and 4 punch outs.

2) Torii Hunter was able to step it up as our main man. The Big Game Hunter had a 1 for 2 night with a walk and a game changing 3 run bomb off of Lester in the fifth (pictured above). As soon as the ball left the bat, Torii knew the ball was gone, and it was a really long jack to give us the lead.

3) Bobby Abreu was the ultimate walk master. Who can remember a time when a guy went 0 for 0 in a game with 4 walks? El Comedulce was the ultimate table setter in tonight's game, and will most likely go down as the most underrated super start in the match. 4 walks?! Are you kidding me? Huge, huge game.

4) Kendry Morales may have gone just 1 for 4 in the game, but his one hit was a clutch two run double that saved the Angels from getting a big doughnut after getting the bases loaded with 0 outs. When evaluating his night, keep in mind that his one two run hit came in his only AB from the left hand side, which is his much better side.

5) Darren "The Wizard" Oliver was so studly out of the pen for the Angels. 1.2 innings of perfect ball from DO. So often when a starter goes a great distance with epic numbers, the bullpen comes out weak and doesn't bring it. Not so tonight. Our always impressive veteran came onto the mound and held the Red Sox in check to keep the game in our favor.

Of course, there are some things that we need to consider working on coming into tomorrow's game two:

1) As a team, the Angels left 8 runners on base. Lester was able to get out of a bunch of jams, from the opening inning to the bases loaded opportunity for Vladdy in the third. When you're in the middle of a pitching duel, as we were for much of this battle, it breaks a fans' heart to see his squad fail to get the runner home early on.

2) Chone Figgins was sweet with the glove, but awful with the bat. Our mighty leadoff hitter, who easily has had his career year here in 2009, went 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts in the game. We were able to make up for it thanks to Abreu's awesome OBP for the game, but Figgy is going to have to be the spark plug if we are going to roll through this series.

3) The Halos didn't have a single stolen base. I realize that this is most likely completely related to Figgins not getting on base during the game, but the Angels didn't really have the runners set in motion at all against the four Boston pitchers. Don't forget that going first to third and putting pressure on a pitcher with stolen bases is one of our biggest assets.

Just a couple of other quick points about this game that I'd like to point out. Would you believe how many close calls on the base paths we had tonight? C.B. Bucker was playing like Howie Kendrick's proud father as the first base umpire, calling HK safe in two different situations where he was clearly out. I hate Youkillis, but he obviously had a good reason to complain. On the other side, there was no way that Jeff Mathis should have been called for a catcher's interference early in the game. Either way, you really don't want umpiring to decide a game; it didn't tonight, but with this umpiring crew, it may as we go on.

I'm so happy right now. The 5-0 win against the Red Sox gives the Angels the all important first win in the ALDS this time around, and now all eyes focus on tomorrow night when we go at it again. Game 2 will feature Jered "The Caveman" Weaver against Josh Beckett. Becks finished his season with a 17-6 record and a 3.86 ERA for the Sox, holding down a 1.19 WHIP and getting 199 Ks. In his last outing, against Cleveland, he went just 5 innings of 4 run ball, which followed up a 6 inning start against KC where he allowed 12 hits. KC may have only managed to knock in 2 runs, but you know if we get 12 hits off the guy, we'll be a lot better off in the run column. Meanwhile, J Weav can easily argue that he was our ace throughout the season. Big Baby went 16-8 with a 3.75 ERA, holding down a 1.24 WHIP and getting 174 Ks. The Northridge native, who just turned 27 four days ago, has been hot lately. He pitched 5 shutout innings against the A's in his last start, 6 innings of 2 run ball against the A's prior to that, and 6 innings of 3 run ball against Texas prior to that. He has shown flashes of brilliance during the 2009 season, and now it is time to get his name on the National stage with a big game 2 outing.

Game two is really important, and hopefully we can put up like we did tonight. Let's keep it rolling boys.