In Game 1, pitchers were on the offensive

Baseball managers, coaches and players say it all the time: Pitching wins. And in Game 1 of the 2008 American League Championship Series, pitching ruled.

On both sides.

For as much as Daisuke Matsuzaka shut down the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field tonight, Rays starter James Shields similarly took the Sox out of their game. Red Sox hitters swung at the first pitch 13 times in Game 1, but nine of those came in the first five innings, when Shields was pounding the strike zone with such regularity that the Red Sox had no choice but to get aggressive.

And once they did that, Shields had the upper hand.

Remember, the Red Sox scored the first run of this game thanks largely to a check-swing double by Mark Kotsay; the game's second run scored only after a Kevin Youkilis liner squirted out of Carl Crawford's glove for a double. Had both those plays ended up differently -– and it wouldn't have taken much, there is every chance these teams would still be playing.

"It's a mortal sin to waste good pitching," Rays manager Joe Maddon said when asked about his team's inability to score despite a brilliant effort by Shields.

And he was right.

As for the Rays hitters, they, too, acted slightly out of character thanks to aggressive pitching by the opposition (in this case Daisuke Matsuzaka). During the regular season, Tampa walked more times than any AL team but the Red Sox, yet manager Joe Maddon twice had his players swinging at 3-0 offerings with the hope of catching lightning in a bottle. In the second instance, Carlos Pena did so with runners at first and second with nobody out in the bottom of the eighth inning against lefty Hideki Okajima; against lefties this season, Pena batted .190.

"We're down by two and there's two guys on. That's a three-run homer staring us in the face, so I was good with it," said Maddon. "I've done that with our guys often in different situations with certain guys."

Still, it was nonetheless interesting. Maddon said he was concerned about a potential matchup of Evan Longoria against Justin Masterson if Pena walked, which speaks volumes about where Longoria is at the moment. He is Tampa's cleanup hitter, after all, and most clubs would jump at the chance to have their cleanup hitter bat with nobody out and the bases loaded.

Instead, Maddon turned loose Pena, who hit a flyout. Longoria then bounced into a double play to end the inning.

Interesting, eh?