Rockies Up 2-0; Red Sox Take Game 1

The Red Sox took advantage of a, once again, erratic C.C. Sabathia (4 1/3 IP 5 BB 7H 8ER). C.C. has really got to calm down, he's trying to rear back and blow the ball by everyone, by doing that he's very wild and leaving too many pitched over the plate. The Tribe scored first on a Travis Hafner solo shot in the first and the Sox quickly responded with a RBI single by Manny Ramirez (2-2 3RBI) in the bottom half of the inning. From then on the Red Sox had control of the game (10 runs on 12 hits), Josh Beckett was Josh Beckett (6IP 2ER 7K) and continued his dominance in the postseason. Eric Gagne is still very scary even with a good lead, giving up a double to Lofton and a single to Peralta in the 9th but he did register 3 K's.

The D'Backs played a better game last night by continually putting runners on base but they lacked a few big hits to really put the game away. Ubaldo Jimenez looked very impressive until the 3rd when there were runners on, he was rushing his delivery and was working into very deep counts. The 5th inning was a major dissapointment for Arizona, Alberto Callaspo, pinch hitting for Doug Davis, went after the first pitch he saw and grounded out instead of working the count and getting a pitch to hit. Chirs Young and Stephen Drew both reached base on a HBP and a walk. Eric Byrnes on a 2-1 count popped a curve ball, which was in the dirt of the left handed batters box, into foul territory for an easy out and squashed what could have been a big inning. The bullpens for both teams have been outstanding. I'm questioning Bob Melvin on leaving Jose Valverde in for his third inning of work. Yeah, he was lights out the whole season but not even having anybody ready in the bullpen and waiting in the wings in case of a meltdown was a really bad move. Despite a few major mistakes by Arizona, this game was one of the best games in the playoffs by far.