Our man on the scene in New York brings you full blogging coverage of game 3, as Matsuzaka outguns the always, er, dangerous Josh Fogg.

• Giant Papi starting at first, with Yooooouk sitting: I don’t like this move much. I understand the need for Papi’s bat to be in the lineup, but I’d be comfortable watching the Sox play some NL-style baseball tonight. Get Pedroia, Ellsbury and Yoooouk to knock balls around the park, and have Manny and Lowell drive them in. I also understand you can’t deviate too much from what got you here, but Papi has mostly been a high-average, extra base hitting machine of late, but hasn’t left the park too much. Watching him run the bases in Colorado is going to leave me having heart palpitations, and I’m not a 300 lb man. If I had to guess, I’d say that he’ll bat early and if the Sox get any kind of lead, Yooooouk comes in around the 5th or 6th for the rest of the game.

• Colorado’s offense: for all the vaunted offense the Rockies showed all year, they haven’t hit that well in the playoffs even before this round. They’d better hope that Holliday, Atkins, et al just left their HGH at home and didn’t want to fly to Boston with it. They’d also better hope that they have been rubbing creams and clears on each other’s back for the last 36 hours and that shit kicks in soon.

• Matsuzaka vs. Fogg: Josh Fogg might be the least-scary starter ever in the World Series (to be fair, I don’t remember what I ate for lunch today, much less any other non-Boston starter in World Series history). Matsuzaka better hope his array of breaking balls works in the thin air. This one could really be a 9-8 game.
• Manny in the Coors outfield: This scares me to death. It should be funny though.
• Here’s a fun stat that makes my pants a little tighter: Boston relievers’ key numbers in the postseason:
o Hideki Okajima – 9.2 IP, 0 ER, Opp BA .147
o Mike Timlin – 4.1 IP, 0 ER, Opp BA .071
o Jonathan Papelbon – 7.2 IP, 0 ER, Opp BA .148

Feel free to tell me what an idiot I am in the comments section. But remember, I’m beautiful and will steal your wives and girlfriends. Tread lightly.

The Rockies have rejiggered their batting order a bit, substituting Cory Sullivan in CF for Willy Taveras. Odd choice considering Willy was the lone run scored in game 2. Order reads: Kazuo, Tulowitzki, Holliday, Helton, Atkins, Hawpe, Torrealba, Sullivan and Fogg.

Sox lineup: Ellsbury, Pedroia, Papi, Manny, Lowell, Drew, Varitek, future Hall of Famer Julio Lugo and Matsuzaka.

Let’s do this thing!Top 1:

Ellsbury is only 3 for 16 in the postseason, but he’s fun to have leading off because he just blazes around the bases. He hits a swinging bunt up the 3B line. No throw.

Pedroia hits a slow grounder to short and beats out Tulowitzski’s throw. Men on first and second, none out, and no balls hit out of the infield.

Giant Papi is up. This had better be a HR or fly out. I really don’t want him to have to run anywhere. I read one time that hockey players hated playing in Denver because of the thin air, and those guys are real athletes. Papi just swings a bat really well. I worry for him and his family.

Papi strikes out on Fogg’s best pitch of the night. I’m actually okay with that. Just walk very slowly back to the dugout, David. Thank you.

There’s a sign being held up by a Rockies fan that reads “Big Papi Eats Big Boogers.” I prefer to think it’s not that it’s a stupid sign, but that it’s so profound that no one on Earth can understand its meaning.

Manny flies out to left, 2 outs.

With two outs, the Sox are 16 for 32 with 14 walks. Commence wishful thinking.

Lowell flies out to center. I thought these hits were supposed to all leave the park? Stupid humidor.

Bottom 1:

Kazuo hits a line drive to right, which JD Drew helpfully played off his shin, giving Matsui 2nd base. At least Papi won’t have to field any pickoff throws.

Daisuke strikes out Tulowitzki on a nice outside fastball that moved a little bit. Whoever tells me which of his 14 pitches that was wins a hug from Broder and Hideki Matsui’s pornography collection.

Holliday hits a grounder to Daisuke, who turns and gets Matsui hung up between 2nd and 3rd and gets tagged out. 2 down, Holliday on first.

Let’s see if the presumed NL MVP takes a smaller lead this time, shall we?

Helton grounds to Lowell, who takes the easy play to 2nd.

Top 2:

JD Drew grounds out 4-3 on the first pitch he sees.

Varitek nearly castrates Josh Fogg with the barrel of his bat, which shatters and bounces over the mound. Tulowitzki (hereafter, Tulo), makes a great play to get ‘Tek at 1st. 2 out.

Future Hall of Famer Julio Lugo hits a double to right, bringing up Daisuke. Mocking Julio only makes him stronger.

Can someone tell me whether Daisuke batted in Japan? He’s 0 for 4 this season to date and looks like he’d rather be throwing his 250th pitch on 2 days rest than where he is now. I don’t like his RBI chances.

He strikes out…inning over…no score.

Bottom 2:

Daisuke hits Atkins in the shoulder, which thankfully protects his head, on the first pitch of the inning. Apparently tonight’s Sox strategy is to decapitate or castrate enough Rockies that they leave early to go trick or treating (Happy Halloween, Taiwan!)

Strikes out Hawpe, who has 7 K’s in 9 ABs in the Series. A-Rod nods in approval.

Torrealba scorches a line drive to left, but the humidor told the thin air to get fucked and the ball dies harmlessly in Manny’s glove.

Sullivan then grounds to short, where Future Hall of Famer Julio Lugo does his damndest to misplay it, but instead ends up getting the 6-4 out.

Top 3:

Ellsbury goes the other way down the third base line, and barely beats out Holliday’s throw to 2nd for a double. My God, Ellsbury is fast.

Pedroia drops a bunt in front of the plate that Torrealba throws high, Pedroia safe at 1st, Ellsbury at 3rd.

This is the kind of situation where the Sox have GOT to capitalize. They left a bunch of guys on in game 2 and if they’d done so, I’m not spending 2 hours chainsmoking and sweating.

Papi Gigante!!!! Double down the line to right on the first pitch he saw. Fogg just missed high in the middle of the plate. 1-0 Sox and I assume they’ll give the IBB to Manny.

Yep, IBB to Manny.

Remember what I wrote earlier about starting Yoooouk instead of Papi? I hope you have enough evidence now that I don’t know anything about baseball.

Bases loaded for Lowell.

Did everyone here know that Lowell only has one testicle? It’s true!

Mikey One-Ball grounds through the middle for a base hit, scoring Pedroia from third and, miraculously, Papi from second.

3-0 Sox!

Drew does something that resulted in an out, but I wasn’t watching. I’m sure he did it without emotion and that it was utterly boring.

Speaking of boring, for my Eastern readers, I love The Boredoms. Noisy!

Varitek singles to center and Manny makes an amazing slide into home, but called out. It was really close, but probably the right call.

Future Hall of Famer Julio Lugo walks on 4 pitches. Here comes Daisuke with the bases loaded. We all know what comes next, and it looks like: HR – Matsuzaka (GS – 1), 4 RBI. A man can dream, dammit.

Daisuke gets a base hit! Between SS and 3B and brings in 2 runs. First hit of his MLB career, first RBIs of his MLB career, and first Japanese pitcher to get a hit in a World Series. Fox has Royce Clayton miked on the Sox bench, who sees the hit and says of Daisuke “He Ichiro.” That was the tits.

5-0 Sox, men on 1st and 3rd.

Ellsbury singles on a bloop to center, advances to 2nd, Lugo scores. 6-0 Sox!
Josh Fogg is done. In fact, even before the move was made, my fiancée said, “The Fogg is rolling out!” I’m both embarrassed and awed by that comment.

Frankin Morales relieves Fogg, and induces a grounder to Atkins for the third out. 6-0 Sox and I’m switching from Gatorade to beer. If you thought what’s been written so far was bad, wait till you see how this devolves as we move forward.

Bottom 3:

Daisuke K’s Morales on 3 pitches. That was borderline redundant.

First use of the word “gyroball” by McCarver. It lives!!! But isn’t it basically a screwball? Someone smart tell me what’s up.

Kazuo also strikes out.

Tulo grounds out to short, and Lugo’s throw makes Papi reach for the catch and look briefly like an athlete.

1-2-3 innings make me happy.

Top 4:

Papi grounds out.

In high def, Manny’s dreads look like black celery.

Manny ropes one that dies at the track for the second out. Humidor 1 – Manny 0.

Lowell grounds to Morales for the third out, and the Rockies crowd legitimately goes nuts. I wish I were so easy to please.

Bottom 4:

The slick fielding Giant Papi snares a tough grounder and beats Holliday to first. 1 out.

Daisuke gets his 5th strikeout by sitting Helton down on the 12th pitch of the at bat. Helton’s goatee is displeased.

Atkins draws a walk, which Hawpe follows up by flying out to Future Hall of Famer Julio Lugo in shallow left. Because Hawpe didn’t strike out, the Coors crowd gives him a standing ovation.

Top 5:

I’m about to blow your minds. JD Drew has a 9-game hitting streak in the playoffs and just led off the inning with a double off the base of the wall in center. He’s batting .570 or so of late.

Morales throws a wicked breaking ball past Varitek for a strikeout…1 down.

Future Hall of Famer Julio Lugo is up, and is also 2 for 2 with a walk tonight. There’s no way I can stop mocking him now.

He flies out to Hawpe in right. I’ll go back to loathing him now.

Ichiro Matsuzaka is up and I fully expect him to drive Drew in. But he didn’t, grounding out to 2nd instead. Inning over.

Bottom 5:

Torrealba leads off with a single up the middle. That’s only the Rockies’ 2nd hit of the game.

Sullivan flies out to the track, 1 down.

PH Seth Smith hits a broken bat bloop single, but Torrealba had to wait to see if it’d be caught and only advances to 2nd.

I’m predicting a 4-6-3 DP. If I’m right, I get Broder’s pornography collection.

I was wrong. Matsui grounds to Future Hall of Famer Julio Lugo, but he had to range way to his right and made the smart throw to 3rd for the out. Sigh…back to flybitcheswithriches.com for my pornography needs.

Tulo strands 2 runners with a pop fly to short.

Top 6:

The Rockies finally figure out how to get Ellsbury out, which is to field the ground ball and throw really hard to first.

Pedroia flies out to center. I’m getting bored…maybe Papi can liven things up here.

Oops, I sat on the remote and flipped the channel. Papi’s apparently out but you don’t care how anyway.

Bottom 6:

Papi takes a seat, it’s Yooooouk at first in the defensive replacement.

Helton gets on with a walk, Holliday sits down, Atkins walks on 4 pitches and Daisuke’s night is done.

Just a great outing for him, though I worry about his inability to get through the 6th even when he’s been terrific. I’m guessing Francona is just being safe since there are arms in the bullpen that haven’t really been used. If you’ve got fresh arms, use ‘em. But there’s nothing bad to say about the start and the 5.1 IP effort.

Hawpe gets an RBI single on the first pitch he sees from Javier Lopez. Hawpe is not used to running to first base with any purpose, which explains the look of confusion on his face.

Torrealba follows with an RBI single to left, making the score 6-2. The worst thing about this is that the Coors crowd has woken up and is going nuts. Spillborghs comes in to pinch-hit for Sullivan, and Francona orders Lopez killed and summons Timlin from the bullpen.

Spillborghs crushes a Timlin fastball to straightaway center, and it dies about 6 inches from the wall. That one scared me. Lopez is allowed to stay alive for at least one more batter.

Wow, Future Hall of Famer Julio Lugo makes a spectacular play, robbing PH Jeff Baker of an RBI by leaping about 4 feet in the air and making the catch. He’s good at the hard ones, and…er…inconsistent on the easy ones. That’s being polite, right?

Inning ends, 6-2 Sox.

Top 7:

If you’re keeping score, which is absurd because this game ended long before you’re reading this, but Matt Herges at pitcher, Ryan Spillborghs in center.

Herges strikes out the side: Manny, Lowell and Drew. Wicked changeup. Yawn.

Top 8:

Matsui opens the inning with a leadoff bunt single that left Lowell and Varitek with no play. Then he steals 2nd easily.

I’m getting up, anyone need a beer? No? Okay, suit yourselves.

Tulo singles back through the box, advancing Matsui to 3rd. Timlin’s sinker isn’t really sinking, which makes it a crappy fastball, which doesn’t work very well.

It’s Okajima! This is a good time to see whether Francona remembers how to execute the double switch.

Now we’ve got Crisp in center, Ellsbury in right, and Drew on the bench. Let’s continue.

And Matt Holliday smokes a HR over the center field wall. 3-run HR, it’s a one run game. 6-5 Sox.

That was just killed, a no-doubter, it left a vapor trail. The humidor is pissed.

Okajima looks tired and frustrated, and Helton takes advantage by singling to left. Delcarmen is warming up and as much as I don’t care for him, he might be a slight upgrade unless Okajima can get it together quickly. He’s consistently missing his spots and it’s not close.

All those great stats I posted earlier about the Sox’ bullpen? They just got blown the fuck up in just over an inning.

Whew…BIG strikeout of Atkins on a Okajima splitter. Hideki lives to prove me wrong.

And all is right in the universe, as Hawpe strikes out again. As bad as Okajima looks throwing the ball, Hawpe looks standing in the box.

And Okajima gets out of the inning by inducing a Torrealba grounder right back to himself. I can’t see him going back out there in the 8th, but we’ll see what the Sox do on offense coming up.

Top 8:

Wanna kill an hour someday? Ask Broder what his batting average would be in a full season against major-league pitching.

Fuentes in to pitch, gets Varitek to ground out, and walks Future blah blah blah Lugo.

Coco singles up the middle, putting Lugo on 2nd. Somewhere, a Rally Monkey is quietly crying.

Ellsbury drops a fly ball into right that was just fair. Hawpe tried to make a sliding catch but barely missed it. Lugo scores, runners on 2nd and 3rd. 7-5 Sox. Ellsbury with four hits tonight and my love for him grows just a little more.

Pedroia knocks it to right and Hawpe’s mighty arm can’t get him at 2nd. 2 more runs in, 9-5 Sox.

Ellsbury and Pedroia are just killing the Rockies. They’re a combined 7 for 10 with 3 runs, 4 RBI on 4 singles and 3 doubles. Combined, they’re younger than Roger Clemens.

That may or may not be true. Look it up and let me know.

Yooooouk grounds and Manny flies out, inning over. That was huge. You love to see a team get challenged for the first time all series and just smack the other team down. Hooray, Sox!

Bottom 8:

Delcarmen in to pitch. I feel better about this with the current lead. To continue along these lines, if the Sox were up, say, 19-5 instead, I still wouldn’t want Gagne in there.

Spillborghs fouls out to right.

Willy Taveras pinch hits. And by “hits,” I mean “lines out to 2nd.”

Kazuo Matsui singles up the middle, Joe Buck mentions that it’s his 3rd hit of the night, and 100,000 Mets fans silently scream.

Tulo walks, bringing up presumed NL MVP Matt Holliday with 2 on. And yes, I’m trying to jinx him.

Pedroia out, Alex Cora in; Delcarmen out, Papelbon in.

Hey, here’s a question sparked by Buster Olney in his excellent ESPN.com Insider blog: why weren’t the Rockies bunting at Papi to make him chase the ball, get him winded, etc.?

Okay, Papelbon vs. Holliday. If you’re looking for a must-win situation for the Rockies, this is it.

That was quick. One pitch, one loud fly out. To the ninth we go!

Top 9:

Former Minnesota Twin LeTroy Hawkins in, and immediately gives up a single to Lowell.

Cora drops a sacrifice bunt, moving Lowell to 2nd.

Mikey One-Ball steals 3rd and no throw at all. Hawkins must have blacked out and forgot there was someone standing behind him.

Why is baseball kind of great? The fact that less than a minute after Lowell takes third, they put on the screen that Lowell is the first Red Sox player to steal 3rd in the playoffs since 1974. Who was looking for that in advance, really? And who bothered keeping track?

Varitek sac fly to center, Lowell scores. 10-5 Sox! I’m feeling good/tired/hot.

Lugo grounds out to short, and it’s Papeltime!

Bottom 9:

Papelbon gets Helton to fly out to right-center. 1 down.

Atkins grounds out to 3rd. 2 down

Hawpe up, is there any way for this to end besides a strikeout? If I’m Hawpe, I just bunt to keep another K off my line.

Well I’ll be damned. A clean triple into the right field corner for the K-man. I predict that’s his last hit of the season.

Torrealba comes up and grounds out 6-3.

Game over, 10-5 Sox.

4 hours, 19 minutes of baseball mercifully draws to a close.

Brief closing thoughts:

• The Sox are just relentless, and if any one of their 6-7-8-9 guys actually hit, they win. I don’t think there’s anything the Rockies can do.

• Say what you will about the absurd amount of money the Sox put down to negotiate with Daisuke, but that’s a criticism of the ludicrous posting system in place. Fact is, the guy won 15 in the regular season and despite his ups and downs in the second half and in the playoffs, he came through when needed. Big game from him today.

• The Rockies’ offense certainly woke up tonight, which indicts the long layoff even further. That needs to be changed because the Rockies are the 2nd straight team, after the Tigers, to fall way behind after long layoffs.

• As a Sox fan I hesitate to type this, but this Series has to be over now. If all else fails, Beckett and Schilling are still lying in wait. If the Sox decided to start Lester and Julian Tavarez in games 4 and 5, I’d still put all my money on Boston.

I find it hard to believe anyone’s still reading now, but if you are, thanks for sticking through it. I’m going to sleep, to dream of a receiving a massage from Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia.