Stitching the Red Sox together

The Red Sox are in the postseason tournament for the fourth time in Epstein's five-year term, and tonight they play the Los Angeles Angels at Fenway Park in the first game of the Division Series.

"Do I think this team has a chance to win the World Series? Yeah, I definitely do," Epstein said as he sat in a conference room (guitar case on the floor) in the basement offices of the baseball operations department at Fenway last week.

Epstein agreed to a 45-minute interview on the condition that it would involve baseball-related issues only. He would not address published reports that he and his wife are expecting their first child and saw no need to revisit the tumultuous three months spanning his stunning resignation and eventual return to the team. He would not even reveal what tunes are loaded onto his iPod.

But he was happy to talk about baseball and the Red Sox' return to the playoffs after the disaster of 2006.

"This game will make you cry more often than not," said the 33-year-old GM, reminding us that he was a Red Sox fan long before he ran the team. "Not making the playoffs was a horrible disappointment, especially the way it happened. We had the best record in baseball after four months and we were playing a good brand of baseball and then it all fell apart really quickly because of a freakish run of injuries and because of lack of depth that I should have prepared better for.

"Last year I didn't do a good enough job and it caught up with us."