Photo courtesy of the Arizona Diamondbacks

A very BIG show this week! More playoff coverage and special guests...A.J. Hinch, Director of Player Development for the Arizona Diamondbacks talks about how the N.L. West Champs were built. Then, pitcher Joe Savery, 2007 1st round draft pick of the Philadelphia Phillies, and Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus join us to discuss the Arizona Fall League.

You can listen to an archive or download it by clicking on the button below. You can also subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.

We have had some fantastic guests over the past several weeks including Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels, Tampa Bay Devil Rays Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations Gerry Hunsicker, Kansas City Royals GM Dayton Moore, and a variety of star bloggers and reporters from around the web.

Jose Valverde lost his cool and also lost the strike zone as he walked 3 and allowed the winning run to score in the 11th inning to give the Rockies a 3-2 win over the Diamondbacks. Each team used 6 pitchers in a tight struggle that last 3 hours and 35 minutes. Rockies lead the series 2-0.

FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 R H E  Rockies  0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 7 1  Diamondbacks  0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 9 1

W: M. Corpas (W, 1-0); L: J. Valverde (L, 0-1); S: R. Speier (S, 1)

HR: None.

Recapping the Game in Quotes

Q. Just talk about Jimenez and his stature tonight. He just kept hanging in there getting out of trouble and gritted it out for you?

CLINT HURDLE: He did. That's a good word. It was a gutsy performance. It was dicy out there. Pitched out of the stretch quite a bit. I think every inning three up, three down, then after that he had to make pitches. He pitched around some traffic. But he hung in there. He's got a lot of confidence, plus he's got good stuff. And he can always get back in the count when he's behind in the count. He's got stuff that's electric enough and gets some swings and missing some strikeouts helped him out tonight.

Q. They made reference to the 2007 Rockies, 19 out of 20 now, five wins in your first five post-season games, the first team to do that since the '76 Reds. Your thoughts on how your team is rolling right now?

CLINT HURDLE: We're playing with a lot of momentum. All 25 are in play. Everybody counts and nobody counts. Speier comes in and gets, closes the deal tonight. Corpas lets it get away and then holds the door. There was no safety net from our bullpen from the bottom of the 6th inning on. I thought they responded very, very well. And I don't know if that was our game plan going in. We didn't draw it up to win the first five. Again, we're locking it in to win one game at a time, starting to pick up some momentum. This is a good ball club we're going to play. We're going to face a very crafty and gutsy and very good performer in Livan when we get back to our spot. So that will be a challenge for us.

Manny Ramirez reached base 5 times and drove 3 RBI, and Josh Beckett pitched 6 strong innings as the Red Sox jumped out to a fast start in the ALCS by defeating the Indians, 10-3. C.C. Sabathia just didn't have it on this day as he gave up 8 runs on 7 hits and 5 walks in 4+ innings for Cleveland. Red Sox lead the series 1-0.

FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E  Indians  1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 3 8 0  Red Sox  1 0 4 0 3 2 0 0 X 10 12 0
W: J. Beckett (W, 1-0); L: C. Sabathia (L, 0-1)
HR: CLE: T. Hafner (1).

Game Notes

- Josh Beckett has won three consecutive postseason starts…Beckett surrendered a 1st-inning home run, his first run allowed in 18 postseason innings…Beckett had pitched consecutive shutouts in his last 2 postseason appearances and had not allowed a run since his final inning of Game 3 (8th inning) in the 2003 World Series against New York at Florida.

- David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez reached base all 10 times tonight…Both players were 2-for-2, with Ortiz walking twice and being hit by a pitch, while Manny walked three times (twice with the bases loaded)…The pair combined to score 4 runs and Manny drove in 3.

- David Ortiz has reached base safely in 16 of 18 plate appearances in 4 games this postseason (7 for 9, 8 walks, 1 hbp)…With 2 hits tonight, Ortiz extended his postseason hitting streak to 9 games…Since Game 5 of the 2003 ALCS against New York, Ortiz is batting .433 (39-90) with hits in 22 of the 24 postseason games during that span, with 21walks, 24 runs scored and 27 RBI.

- In 37 previous ALCS match-ups, the team winning Game One has gone on to win the series 22 times, or 60% of the series played.

Recapping the Game in Quotes

Q. Based on the success you've had in this postseason and certainly in 2003, are these situations you're completely unfazed by, or is it an occasion you rise to?

JOSH BECKETT: I don't know. I'm just out there trying to execute pitches. You know, there's a lot of media and stuff that goes into this thing, and if you start buying into that, all it does is create distractions. I think for us right now we're just trying to stay away from the distractions that some exterior thing might present. I think we're just out there trying to play good baseball, and for me it's just executing pitches.

Q. What were some of the keys going against C.C. Sabathia?

DAVID ORTIZ: Well, I guess tonight C.C. was a little wild. You don't get to see C.C. being wild like that too much, so you've got to take advantage of it. When he's in the strike zone, when he's making pitches the way he normally does, he's a tough guy to hit.

Q. You've had a hot September, really hot September, and really it's continued to the playoffs, how can you tell when Manny, other than him hitting, how do you know when he's going to be on? Is there something that he's doing that you can tell he's really on his game?

DAVID ORTIZ: Well, me and Manny, definitely we've been watching a lot of video, and we've been keeping the same workout and the same thing that we do during the season. Like I say, we're just trying to keep things simple and you don't have to rush when you're hitting, and it's because -- it's not like in the regular season that sometimes you get bad pitches, call for a strike and you don't know what to do. Next thing you know you're chasing pitches and things like that. The playoffs is a totally different game, and in your mind you keep the approach that you have, then you're going to have better results. That's what we've been doing.