Red Sox 1
Indians 0

Daisuke Matsuzaka wiggled his way out of three jams and the Sox offense squeaked one out against The Tower of Power, C.C. Sabathia, for a nice, crisp win.  Not to jump the proverbial gun, but the Sox looked more like the championship team I believe they are last night.  The competition was world-class, the bullpens did their job, and the defense was inspired, if not perfect, on each side.

The lone run was a product of two failed diving catches in the Indians outfield, you can’t fault them for their efforts, but Ben Francisco was most certainly playing too deep in left against Mike Lowell on the winning blast - er, bloop. We saw a new lineup, with Coco batting fifth against the tough lefty and J.D. Drew relegated to eighth.  By the way, J.D., you’re starting to piss me off.

The Indians left the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, at least Daisuke got his usual inning of wildness out of the way early.  He was helped by a baserunning gaff by Tom Sizemore’s illegitimate son, Grady.  In the bottom of the fourth, Matsuzaka escaped a lead off double by Ryan Garko and a walk to Trot Nixon by striking out Francisco and Josh Barfield.  His cause was helped again by heads-up play by Kevin Youkilis in the seventh - he gunned down Francisco at second on a failed sacrifice bunt by Barfield.  From there, it was up to the bullpen.  Hideki Okajima wasn’t quite ready to go when he entered in the top of the ninth, but a gift call on 3-0 from Joe West kept that all-important lead-off man off the bases.  The tone of the inning is a lot different with the go-ahead run at the plate in the form of Travis Hafner.  Okajima settled down and emerged unscathed.  Yadda yadda yadda, Papelbon slams the door for save number twenty-three.

Predictably, the Royals rolled over for the Yankees last night.  The lead remains 7.5.

Tonight, Josh Beckett opposes Fausto Carmona.  If you haven’t heard of Carmona, crawl out from under the rock.  He’s 12-4 with a 3.52 ERA, last time out he held the Rangers to 3 hits and no runs over 8 IP, but doesn’t like pitching at home (4.70 ERA).  Of course, nearly a year ago he was victimized by some late inning heroics by David Ortiz, who may be back in the lineup tonight.  If that’s the case, I think J.D. needs to grab some pine for a week or so.