Whoever said you can't decide who is going to play in the World Series this fall during spring training obviously never met our very own Chase Becotte and Matt Gagnon.  Gagnon, an avid Red Sox fan, anticipates a World Series that would pain Yankee fans nationwide by matching up the Boston Red Sox with the New York Mets.  Gagnon decided to challenge Chase Becotte to a seven game series to decide The Show superiority on the OS Staff.

Unfortunately for Gagnon, Becotte's Mets are coming ready to play.  This is the beginning of a four part series (seven if necessary) of a simulation of the "future" World Series (ie. Gagnon's just wanting the Sox to win a fourth championship in the past 100 years).  So without further adieu, here is game 1.

BOSTON (AP) -- It didn’t matter to Johan Santana that he couldn’t hold on to a four-run lead in the first game of this best-of-seven series.

That’s because Carlos Delgado saved Santana from utter despair by hitting a tenth inning single off Jonathan Papelbon to put the Mets on top for good.

Santana pitched seven shutout innings before running into problems in the eighth. Manny Ramirez would hit a 430 foot two-run bomb to right center field, a culmination of a four-run eighth inning, bringing the Red Sox back from a 4-0 deficit. A classic Fenway comeback seemed to be happening once again.

"I knew I hung the curve to Manny as soon as I threw it," said Santana after the game. "In that split second after I was just hoping he didn’t get all of it. As soon as I heard the ball come off the bat though I knew the game was tied."

The eighth inning rally began with a single by Julio Lugo, followed by a Jacoby Ellsbury double which brought home Lugo. Dustin Pedroia then would walk up to the plate and hit a double of his own to bring home Ellsbury.

Santana regained some composure and struck out the next batter, David Ortiz; Ortiz struggled all day, striking out four times during a 0-for-5 day at the plate.

At this point, with a man on second and Manny Ramirez strolling up to the plate, Willie Randolph could have brought in Aaron Heilman to face the right handed slugger.

"You have to trust your best players," Randolph retorted when asked about the decision to keep Santana in to face Ramirez. "Johan had gotten Manny out the previous three times, and so I gave him the chance to get him out a fourth time."

Obviously that didn’t happen, but Heilman would come in after the Manny home run and turn away Mike Lowell to end the action packed inning. Heilman would also work a scoreless ninth frame after the Mets failed to answer back in the top of the ninth. The bottom of the ninth ended when the game-winning runner on second, Kevin Youkilis, was picked off.

The Mets built the 4-0 lead by scoring in the second, and then dropping a three-spot in the sixth. Josh Beckett ran into serious trouble in the sixth, starting off the inning by giving up a double to Carlos Beltran. The double was promptly followed by back-to-back home runs by Carlos Delgado and David Wright.

Hideki Okajima then relieved Beckett later in the sixth and would actually stay in the game until he was relieved by Manny Delcarmen to start the tenth.

"Hideki really helped us out by battling through two and two thirds," Terry Francona said during the post-game press conference. "We probably won’t be able to use him in game two but it was a necessary evil."

In the top half of the tenth inning Luis Castillo whacked a single off Manny Delcarmen to begin the inning; Castillo would later score the game-winning run. Carlos Beltran followed the Castillo single with a single of his own. Francona had to call upon Jonathan Papelbon at this point to try and quell the potential rally.

Delgado had other plans though as he hit a single which brought in Castillo from second. Later in the inning Ryan Church would later hit a triple that would bring in Delgado and push the score to 6-4 in the Mets favor.

"You can’t say much more about what Delgado did today," said Randolph. "He was incredible."

Billy Wagner came in for the save in the bottom of the tenth, and for a moment it seemed like another Boston rally was in the works. Ellsbury would get on base to start the inning, but the rally sort of died out after that base knock. David Ortiz came up with two outs and Ellsbury on second, and would strike out for his fourth and final time to end the game.

The probable Game 2 starters are Daisuke Matsuzaka and Pedro Martinez.

Box Score

Inning   1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10   R  H  E

NYM      0  1  0  0  0  3  0  0  0   2   6 13  0
BOS      0  0  0  0  0  0  0  4  0   0   4 10  0


New York Mets

Batting                 
                        AB  R  H  RBI  BB  SO
Jose Reyes, SS           4  0  1   0    1   0
Luis Castillo, 2B        5  1  1   0    0   0
Carlos Beltran, CF       5  1  2   0    0   1
Carlos Delgado, 1B       5  2  4   3    0   0
David Wright, 3B         5  1  1   1    0   0
Ryan Church, RF          5  0  1   1    0   1
Olmedo Saenz, DH         5  0  0   0    0   3
Brian Schneider, C       4  1  2   0    0   0
Endy Chavez, LF          4  0  1   1    0   0
Batting Totals          42  6 13   6    1   5

2B: Beltran, Schneider
3B: Church
HR: Delgado, Wright
SB: Reyes

Pitching
                    IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO
Johana Santana     7.2  8  4   4   0   9
Aaron Heilman (W)  1.1  1  0   0   0   1
Billy Wagner (S)   1.0  1  1   1   0   1
Pitching Totals   10.0 10  4   4   0  11  


Boston Red Sox

Batting                 
                        AB  R  H  RBI  BB  SO
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF      5  1  2   2    0   1
Dustin Pedroia, 2B       5  1  2   2    0   0
David Ortiz, DH          5  0  0   0    0   4
Manny Ramirez, LF        4  1  1   2    0   2
Mike Lowell, 3B          4  0  0   0    0   2
Kevin Youkilis, 1B       4  0  2   0    0   0
Jason Varitek, C         4  0  0   0    0   2
Bobby Kielty, RF         3  0  0   0    0   0
a - J.D. Drew, PH-RF     1  0  0   0    0   0
Julio Lugo, SS           4  1  3   0    0   0
Batting Totals          39  4 10   4    0  11

a - Batted for Kielty in the 9th.

2B: Pedroia, Ellsbury 2
HR: Ramirez
SB: Ellsbury

Pitching
                     IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO
Josh Beckett        6.0  7  4   4   1   4
Hideki Okajima      2.2  2  0   0   0   0
Manny Delcarmen (L) 0.1  2  1   1   0   0
Jonathan Papelbon   1.0  2  1   1   0   1
Pitching Totals    10.0 13  6   6   1   5