Thing One: Whether Christian Vazquez can slow down the Indians running game. Cleveland is one of the best base-stealing teams in all of baseball. There is one reason (and one reason alone) that Vazquez made the ALDS roster—his arm;
Thing Two: Whether David Price can exorcise his Post-Season Demons. Price's teams are 0-8 in post-season games that he has started in his career. Yeah, no kiddin'. If he can reverse this mojo and be at least a 'mini-ace', Boston could take this series in four;
Thing Three: Whether Boston's historic offense can keep it up in the playoffs. The Red Sox team OPS in 2016 was a ridiculous .810. The Carmine Hose got offensive contributions up and down the line-up. They should be able to feast on the Tribe's depleted rotation. We shall see;
Thing Four: Whether Craig Kimbrel has really "fixed" his mechanical problem. Supposedly, Boston's closer identified and corrected a mechanical flaw in his delivery that caused his late-season meltdown. Now is the time to prove it;
Thing Five: Whether old friend Andrew Miller can neutralize David Ortiz in key match-ups. Miller will be used by Tito multiple times to tactically take down Ortiz's game-changing abilities. This could be key.