One blast aside, Indians didn't have a shot
As the Indians' leadoff hitter, it was left to Grady Sizemore to try to set the tone against Josh Beckett last night in Game 1 of this best-of-seven American League Championship Series.
After he struck out in his first two at-bats - both swinging - and then grounded out to third baseman Mike Lowell in his third plate appearance against Beckett in the sixth, it seemed only natural to leave it to Sizemore to size up the mood in the visitors' clubhouse after the Indians absorbed a 10-3 pounding from the Red Sox before a Fenway Park crowd of 36,986.
But Sizemore was nowhere to be found afterward. The Indians center fielder, who went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts (falling to 3 for 15 in his career against Beckett), had made a quick exit, just as starting pitcher C.C. Sabathia had done after giving up eight runs on seven hits and five walks in 4 1/3 innings.
"Now we have to turn the page," said designated hitter Travis Hafner, who gave the Indians the lead when he took a Beckett fastball deep over the visitors' bullpen in the first. "We want to get out of here with a split. You just have to put this game behind you and come back tomorrow and play better."
While Beckett inspired awe from the Angels when he twirled a shutout in Game 1 of the Division Series last Wednesday night, there weren't many deferential comments from the Indians' clubhouse last night.
"I don't know," said Kenny Lofton (2 for 4), when asked what made Beckett special last night. "I don't know what you want me to say. He pitched a good game. I don't know what to say. You're asking the wrong person."
Was Beckett dominating? "To me, no," Lofton said. "I got a hard double off the Wall [in the fifth inning]. If I struck out three times then I could say yeah, but that didn't happen to me so what do you want me to say? It's hard for me to talk about other people."
Other members of the Tribe were willing to offer praise.
"He pitched great," said first baseman Ryan Garko, who went 1 for 2 against Beckett and reached in the fifth when he was grazed by a pitch on his left sleeve. "I think he's right up there with one of the best righthanded pitchers in the league. He didn't disappoint tonight. He just kept pounding the zone and kept getting ahead of guys. He doesn't make very many mistakes."
Except for the one Beckett made to Hafner in the first. "He threw a fastball up in the zone. I just put a good swing on it," the DH said. "When you have a chance to score first and give your starting pitcher a lead, it's usually a good thing."
It is when your starting pitcher gets the opposition out. But Sabathia struggled mightily to throw strikes.
"They were early in the count and they were aggressive and they hit him, it happens," said right fielder Franklin Gutierrez.
As for Beckett? "He was throwing his strikes and he was commanding his pitches and he was ahead in the count and that's what was making him so successful," Gutierrez said.
The net effect was that it left the Indians with a one-game deficit in this series, which resumes tonight with Fausto Carmona looking to give his team a pick-me-up against Curt Schilling.
"I think the one good thing about tonight, even though we got down by a lot, was that we kept having good at-bats, and we even scraped a couple of runs across," Garko said. "We'll be all right. It's just one game."
Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com. 