Red Sox eye sweep of AL series tonight

Boston isn't overconfident after what happened to Oakland last year.
BOSTON (AP) -- This isn't the first time Terry Francona has come back to Fenway Park with a two-game lead in a playoff series.
Things didn't turn out so well last year when Francona was on the Oakland coaching staff and the Red Sox beat the Athletics three games in a row to advance to the AL championship series. He took away some lessons that he thinks he can apply as the Boston manager.
"I would make sure whoever is in charge of the base running is a different person than me," he said with a rueful chuckle. "The base running was horrendous, and that was my area."
The Red Sox were on the verge of elimination last year when Oakland made four errors and a pair of colossal base-running blunders in Game 3 to open a door. So you'll excuse the Boston players if they aren't overconfident now that they have a 2-0 lead on the Anaheim Angels with a chance to clinch the best-of-5 series tonight at Fenway Park.
"We'd like to do it sooner than later. We can't let the Angels get any breathing room," said outfielder Johnny Damon, who was on the A's when they blew a similar lead to the New York Yankees in 2001.
"I told the guys last year, 'We're in a good spot. We're supposed to lose,' " Damon said. "Hopefully, the Angels don't feel that way."
Escobar gets call
Anaheim's Kelvim Escobar will try to keep the Red Sox from earning their first sweep since they beat Oakland for the AL pennant in 1975; the Red Sox went on to lose the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. The Red Sox haven't had a 2-0 lead in the playoffs since the 1986 Series, which they lost to the New York Mets.
Anaheim can take just a little bit of consolation from their 2002 playoff run, when they lost the first game of each series but managed to win it all.
"I don't care what happened in 2002," catcher Bengie Molina said. "I wanted to win Game 1 and Game 2, too."
Bronson Arroyo will pitch for Boston, making his first career postseason start. He doesn't have to be as good as co-aces Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez, who preceded him to the mound in the division series; the 27-year-old right-hander just has to be as good as he was in his last nine starts -- all Boston wins -- when he went 5-0 with a 3.78 ERA to help Boston clinch the AL wild card.
Arroyo got the nod over Tim Wakefield, who is scheduled to start Game 4 on Saturday, if necessary.