The Boston Massacre

Wow. It's as if the Cleveland Indians forgot how to pitch, hit, and play defense all in one night. Now because of that, it all comes down to one night.

The Boston Red Sox, back of an ageless Curt Schilling and 13 hits, thumped the Tribe in Game 6, 12-2, setting up an ALCS showdown tonight at Fenway Park. It was a career night for J.D. Drew as he went 3-5 with a grand slam and 5 RBI, and it was officially an ALCS to forget for Fausto Carmona as he, once again, pitched miserably, getting ranked after just 2 innings. Heck, it was so lopsided, Terry Francona let Eric Gagne pitch the 9th!

If the Indians do, in fact go "New York Mets" and capsize just before the finish line, they'll need look no further than their two regular season aces. In this series, C.C. Sabathia and Carmona have combined to go 0-3 with a 12.67 ERA, 2.63 WHIP, 16 BB and 16 K in 16 1/3 IP. They were both 19 game winners.

And they're not the only struggling Indians. Grady Sizemore is hitting just .208. Travis Hafner, just .130. And Kenny Lofton, who seemed to come alive against the Yankees in the Divisional round, is back down to Earth, at .217.

On the flip side, as has been the case for this entire ALCS, when Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis play well, the Red Sox win. Last night, the #1 and 2 hitters combined to reach base 7 times in 10 plate appearances, 5 times with hits. They also scored 4 times.

Now, a quick note about Schilling. So much has been made (and rightly so) about Josh Beckett's postseason dominance. But if you look at them, Schilling's numbers in October are just as remarkable. In 18 starts for the Phillies, Diamondbacks, and Sox, he's 10-2 with a 2.25 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 116 K and 23 BB in 128 IP. Compare that to 5-2, 1.78 ERA, 0.72 WHIP, 73 K, and 13 BB in 65 2/3 IP (8 starts and 1 relief appearance). Sure, Beckett's numbers are a little better now, but let's see what he has left when he's 40!

Tonight however, it's a rematch of Game 3, Jake Westbrook vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka. Westbrook and the Tribe won their previous meeting 4-2 in what was easily the lowest-scoring game in the entire series. He silenced the Boston bats by getting 14 groundballs and 3 double plays over 6 2/3. He doesn't pretend to be overpowering and will need to establish his sinker early to avoid an early exit. Dice-K on the other hand has yet to complete the 5th inning in either of his postseason starts, and has now pitched 214 innings this season. If he retires at least 4 hitters tonight, it will be the most innings he's thrown in a season since 2001. No matter who wins tonight, I think most baseball fans would agree this has been one heck of an entertaining series.

And in the "your timing couldn't have been worse" category, the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting Indians' hurler Paul Byrd received shipments of HGH between August of 2002 and January of 2005. The story is written by the same two guys who wrote Game of Shadows- the book that outed Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, and Marion Jones, among others. If the Indians lose this series, this story will likely go away. But if they win, you'd better believe all eyes will be on Byrd in his next start.