Red Sox rock Sabathia, take game one

Cleveland Indians' Cy Young candidate C.C. Sabathia came into the American League Championship Series recovering from a poor outing way back in game one of the Division Series against the New York Yankees in which he walked six batters in five innings. It can't get much worse than six free passes, right? It certainly can, as the 290-pound left-hander was chased early by the Boston Red Sox after surrendering eight runs, walking five and allowing seven hits, in a 10-3 loss in game one of the ALCS on Friday night.

Travis Hafner homered in the top half of the first inning for Cleveland, putting the Indians out in front 1-0. However, Boston came right back in the bottom half of the frame, stringing together three consecutive hits capped off by an RBI-single by Manny Ramirez to tie the score.

The Red Sox then blew things open in the third, scoring four runs off two walks, one with the bases loaded, a hit-by-pitch, and two doubles. Julio Lugo doubled to lead off the inning, and after Dustin Pedroia laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Lugo over to second, Sabathia walked Kevin Youkilis and then hit David Ortiz to load the bases. He then proceeded to walk Ramirez, bringing in Lugo to give Boston a 2-1 lead. Mike Lowell followed with a two-run ground-rule double, and Jason Varitek added an RBI-ground-out to extend Boston's lead to 5-1.

The Red Sox would never look back, as staff ace Josh Beckett pitched six magnificent innings, striking out seven and allowing only two runs on four hits. Beckett is now 2-0 with a 1.20 ERA this postseason and has only allowed two runs in his past three postseason starts dating back to 2003 when he was part of the Florida Marlins' world championship team. He has also not walked a batter thus far in the playoffs.

Bobby Kielty knocked in two more runs with a bases-loaded single in the fifth and then scored on a double by Varitek later that inning to give Boston an 8-1 advantage. Ramirez then drew his second bases-loaded walk of the night in the sixth, and Lowell hit a sacrifice fly, extending Boston's lead to 10-1.