Playoff Prospectus. Gary Huckabay sizes up the Red Sox/Athletics series and describes the Boston offense as "AC/DC, circa 1979, showing up to play your high school battle of the bands ... something that causes opposing teams to look over and exclaim "That ain't right." In short, Boston has built the offense that Oakland's been talking about building. ... Boston in 4. Too much offense for the A's to overcome. If Hudson falters at all in Game 1 and the A's start running their middle relievers out there, we could witness some truly ugly blowouts. ... If Boston makes some miscues, gets a poor performance in Game 1 from Pedro, and Macha can spot his bench guys perfectly, Oakland has a chance. But more likely, the A's suffer another first-round exit. ..."

Reminder: Ron Rapoport's column in today's Chicago Sun-Times looks at the 1918 Red Sox/Cubs World Series and cites my book.