ALCS 2: Spiders 13, Red Sox 6 (11)

Spiders - 100 311 000 07 - 13 17 0
Red Sox - 003 030 000 00 -  6 10 0
  
ALCS tied 1-1

After Kevin Youkilis lined out to center in the bottom of the ninth with Jacoby Ellsbury carrying the potential winning run at second, Boston had their best hitters up in the bottom of the tenth. But against Tom Mastny, David Ortiz (bbcb) grounded out to second, and Manny Ramirez (bb) and Mike Lowell (cb) both flew out to right field.

Jonathan Papelbon pitched the ninth and tenth (throwing 36 pitches), so Eric Gagne began the top of the 11th. He fanned Casey Blake, but gave up a single to Grady Sizemore and a walk to Asdrubal Cabrera. Terry Francona brought in Javier Lopez to face Trot Nixon. Dirty Hat lined a single to center, scoring Sizemore and breaking a 6-6 tie that had stood since the sixth inning. After a wild pitch made it 8-6, Victor Martinez was intentionally walked and Ryan Garko singled in another run. Jon Lester took over. Jhonny Peralta's double made it 10-6 and after a second out, Franklin Gutierrez's three-run dong to deep left made it 13-6.

Facing Joe Borowski in the home half, J.D. Drew opened with a single and Coco Crisp singled with one out. But Julio Lugo grounded into a 6-4-3 game-ending, series-tying double play. Time of game: 5:14.

Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning. Lowell also had a two-run single in the third.

I figured the teams would split the first two games, and they did, though this route is a bit tougher to take. Still, I cannot fault Francona's bullpen management at all.

Cleveland's trio of Jensen Lewis, Rafael Betancourt and Mastny shut down the Red Sox when it counted, allowing only one baserunner in the 6th through 10th innings.

***

Lineups:

Grady Sizemore, CF        Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Asdrubal Cabrera, 2B      Kevin Youkilis, 1B
Travis Hafner, DH         David Ortiz, DH
Victor Martinez, C        Manny Ramirez, LF
Ryan Garko, 1B            Mike Lowell, 3B
Jhonny Peralta, SS        J.D. Drew, RF
Kenny Lofton, LF          Jason Varitek, C
Franklin Gutierrez, RF    Coco Crisp, CF
Casey Blake, 3B           Julio Lugo, SS

***

Fausto Carmona / Curt Schilling

Not that I necessarily need to be doing shots of Pepto and getting all sweaty-palmed when watching a game, but I was considerably more nervous during many mid-season games that I was last night. Beckett was in total control throughout and the Boston bats collected 12 hits (five doubles) to go along with eight walks.

Odds are tonight will be a different story.

The Red Sox hitters have not seen much of Carmona. Youkilis has faced him five times and Coco Crisp, David Ortiz and Alex Cora have seen him four times. Most of the PAs were in his win over Boston in late July.

Cleveland's batting numbers against Schilling are here.