Another day, another pitcher’s duel at the Jake last night. This time it was the Indians who got the better of the Red Sox as Fausto Carmona outdueled his counterpart, Josh Beckett, on a night full of strikeouts rather than hits. Carmona’s changeup was downright nasty and Beckett, well he made one mistake. That one mistake was the difference in the game. Let’s take a look at the headlines from last night’s game and other happenings appearing in the Boston and Cleveland area papers on this Thursday morning in RSN.

Duel doesn’t go Sox’ way. [Boston Globe]

Carmona brilliant as Cleveland Indians shut out Boston Red Sox, 1-0. [The Plain Dealer]

Beckett, Sox lose duel: One mistake mars matchup with Carmona. [Boston Herald]

Carmona, Gutierrez lead win over Red Sox. [Akron Beacon Journal]

A Pitching Gem, With One Flaw. [Hartford Courant]

Real down-and-outer. [Pro Jo]

Cleveland Indians GM Shapiro in Buffalo as trade deadline nears. [The Plain Dealer]

Team is interested in Devil Rays’ Wigginton. [Boston Globe]

Wins make trades tricky for Tribe. [Akron Beacon Journal]

Pedroia’s attitude lifts spirits in clubhouse. [Boston Herald]

Schilling Rips Bonds – Again. [Hartford Courant]

Red Sox fans embarrass Tribe. [Akron Beacon Journal]

For Youkilis, money is secondary to winning. [Pro Jo]

Schilling’s words bring reply from Canseco. [Boston Globe]

The Simponized Boston Red Sox team. [Boston Globe]

For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant, Providence Journal, The Plain Dealer and Akron Beacon Journal websites.

If you’re a fan of pitchers duels, then this Red Sox/Indians series is what you are looking for. One night after Dice-K and the Red Sox beat the Indians 1-0, Fausto Carmona and the Indians returned the favor. Carmona was spectacular as his changeup was just downright nasty. He went 8 innings, giving up 4 hits, 2 walks and struck out 6. Josh Beckett wasn’t so bad himself either. He pitched a complete game, giving up 4 hits, 1 run, and struck out 7. Joe Borowski worked the 9th for his 29th save.

Both pitchers worked perfect innings in the first. In the 2nd, Carmona allowed a walk to Manny leading off the inning but got Kevin Youkilis to ground into a double play. He finished off the inning by retiring J.D. Drew on a ground ball to first.

Travis Hafner started off the 2nd inning by reaching on a Youkilis error at third base. Beckett got the hot hitting Ryan Garko to ground into a double play. Jhonny Peralta got the first hit of the game for the Indians with an infield single. Beckett got out of the inning by getting former Sox rightfielder Trot Nixon to strikeout on some high cheese.

The Indians struck for the only run of the game in the 3rd inning. Franklin Gutierrez took a fastball from Beckett and planted it in the seats in leftfield. Beckett followed that with a strikeout of Josh Barfield. Grady Sizemore got the third hit of the night off Beckett with a single bringing up Casey Blake. Beckett got out of the inning as he struck out Blake and Varitek threw out Sizemore for a strike’em-out-throw’em-out double play.

In the 4th inning, Coco lead off with a ground ball out. Carmona then plunked Pedroia in the ribs. With Big Papi at the plate, Pedroia went to second on a passed ball by Victor Martinez. That’s as far as he would get as Carmona got strikeouts of Big Papi and Manny to get out of the inning.

The Sox squandered a chance in the 6th inning as they finally got a hit. After Alex Cora lined out, Coco broke up Carmona’s no-no with an infield single that Peralta had no chance of getting Coco on. With Pedroia at the plate, Carmona threw a ball up-and-in that he took exception to. Pedroia ended up grounding out but Coco advanced to third. Big Papi then hit a single to Barfield, who was stationed in shallow right. Barfield threw home trying to get Coco and he did as his throw just beat the semi-slide of Coco. If Manny had been doing his job as the on-deck batter, he would have been there telling Coco to slide a bit earlier. But he didn’t and that ended the inning.

The Red Sox blew a chance to score in the 8th with some poor baserunning. Jason Varitek led off the inning with a single off of Carmona. Hinske followed that with a fly out. With Cora at the plate, Varitek was thrown out as he started to go to second and turned around. Garko applied the tag and all of the sudden there was two outs. It did look as though it was a case of a missed sign by Cora or Tek. Cora ended up reaching on an infield single and was pinch-run for by Julio Lugo. Lugo was thrown out stealing to end the 8th inning with Coco at the plate.
If you had forgotten, Beckett was still pitching for the Red Sox and just cruising right along throwing strikes. Beckett had set down 14 batters in a row since the 3rd inning, before Nixon broke up that little streak with a single to right in the 8th. Jason Michaels came into run for Nixon but was left stranded there as Beckett got Gutierrez to strikeout and Barfield on a fly ball to right.

Borowski came on in the 9th for Carmona and had an uneventful inning. He retired Coco and Pedroia on strikeouts and jammed Big Papi on a fastball that he popped to third base.

I guess the biggest question right now is what will happen tomorrow when Kason Gabbard and Cliff Lee take the mound. I sure as heck hope not. Hopefully these last two games open up the yes of the Red Sox brass to show them they need some help on offense. Although, I am probably going to contradict myself by saying when the way these pitchers were throwing, it’s hard to argue that a team needs offensive help.

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The guys pictured above got themselves in a good ol’ fashioned pitcher’s duel on Tuesday night at the Jake. And it was Daisuke Matsuzaka and the Red Sox who came out on top 1-0 over C.C. Sabathia and his Indians’ teammates. Dice-K did run into trouble but was able to work himself out of it. I am sure like me you might have been thinking when is he going to have the one bad inning he always has. Well he didn’t. Dice-K even said he wanted to pitch the 8th but when he heard the dynamic All-Star duo of Jonathan Papelbon and Hideki Okajima were coming into finish the game, he sat back and watched. Let’s move on to the headlines about last night’s game and other happenings from the Boston and Cleveland area on this sunny day in RSN.

Sox are a bit better. [Boston Globe]

Indians fall to Red Sox. [The Plain Dealer]

Dice-K drives in a run: Sox score 5th straight win. [Boston Herald]

Boston blooper bumps Tribe. [Akron Beacon Journal]

1 For The Road. [Hartford Courant]

Dice-K outduels C.C. [Pro Jo]

Indians’ top pitching prospect Adam Miller in Cleveland, but hurt. [The Plain Dealer]

Crisp is movin’ on up. [Boston Globe]

No. 1 prospect out until next month. [Akron Beacon Journal]

Speed readings on Papelbon’s radar. [Boston Herald]

In Tight Game, Defense Huge. [Hartford Courant]

Staying focused. [Boston Globe]

‘New’ Coco old news to Indians. [Boston Herald]

For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant, Providence Journal, The Plain Dealer and Akron Beacon Journal websites.

Daisuke Matsuzaka with some help from Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon shut out the Cleveland Indians 1-0 at Jacobs Field in game two of a four game series. Matsuzaka would go seven shut out innings yielding 4 hits, 3 walks and would strike out 5 he also hit a batter. Then Okajima and Papelbon would kick the door closed in the 8th and 9th as the Sox would go onto their 61st win of the year.The Sox would get the only run they would need in the fourth inning.

After a pair of 1-2-3 innings in the second and third C.C. Sabathia would see his streak of 8-in-a-row end with one out in the fourth when Kevin Youkilis would get his second hit of the night on a ball that was trapped in right field by Trot Nixon. Manny Ramirez, who has had good success against Sabathia, got jammed and followed with a single to left. Coco Crisp would strike out for the second time in the game but Mike Lowell would come up with a two out RBI single to left when Ben Francisco started the wrong way and then dove and trapped the ball allowing Youkilis to score and Ramirez to go to third. Jason Varitek would foul out to Ryan Garko in front of the Boston dug out to end the threat and send Matsuzaka to the mound with a 1-0 lead.

While the Cleveland ace had a minor glitch in the first inning giving up a two out single to Youkilis. Boston starter Matsuzaka nearly crashed. Grady Sizemore singled to open up the first and he stole second. With Casey Blake hitting a ground ball to Julio Lugo at short Sizemore tried for third but was thrown out. Matsuzaka then walked Victor Martinez on a 3-2 pitch to put runners at first and second. Travis Hafner then hit a screaming grounder to Youkilis who could only get a force at second. Lugo tried to get Hafner at first with Matsuzaka covering but the throw was late. Matsuzaka would then plunk Ryan Garko with a pitch to load the bases but he would escape that jam when he struck out Jhonny Peralta.

Matsuzaka seemed to settle in after that first inning and through the first three innings would allow only a third inning lead off single to Sizemore, it was his second hit of the game. He would once again steal second but would end up stranded there.

Matsuzaka got into a mini jam in the fourth against the Erie Warriors. Garko would lead off with a double to left, Peralta would ground out to Lugo failing to move Garko to third, Nixon would work a walk but then Matsuzaka would get back-to-back strikeouts of Francisco and Josh Barfield with both swinging a high fast balls out of the zone. The Tribe would strand two more runners and had left 6 natives on the warpath through 4 innings.

We will be back with more after this short break: Spider Pig, Spider Pig, doing what ever a Spider Pig does……Well seeing as everyone else is on the Simpson’s movie bandwagon I thought we might as well be. You know the world is going Simpson’s. The Simpson’s Movie in theater’s this Friday.

Sabathia who was now cruising along worked a 1-2-3 5th inning getting a pair of strikeouts. Then in the sixth with two out would give up an infield single to Ramirez, his second of the game and the team’s fifth of the night but the Sox wouldn’t threaten any further as Crisp would ground into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.

Matsuzaka got the first two outs of the fifth finally keeping Sizemore off the base paths with a strike him out. The Sox would then get make a couple of nice plays in the field. Blake would fly out to Wily Mo Pena in left who crashed into the wall as he caught the ball for the second out. The ever dangerous Martinez would draw his second walk of the game but Hafner, who’s power numbers are down, would ground out into the shift to Dustin Pedroia to end the inning.

Matsuzaka buzzed through the Indians in order in the 6th as Garko would fly out, Peralta fouled out and Nixon popped out. Both pitchers through 6 innings looked pretty well in control each having struck out five and Matsuzaka had allowed 2 walks and a hit batsman in addition to 3 hits, while Sabathia had given up 5 Boston hits.

Tribe starter Sabathia would get yet another 1-2-3 inning in the seventh and Chief Wahoo’s boys would try to threaten in the home half of the inning. Francisco led off with a single to left, Barfield failed to sacrifice him to second when he bunted too hard right to Youkilis who threw to Lugo to force Francisco. After Sizemore flied out to center Barfield would steal second for the Tribe’s third theft of the night. But Blake would fly out to Drew in right and the Indians would blow another good opportunity to score against Matsuzaka because for the third time tonight they failed to execute at the right time.

The Sox tried for an insurance run in the eighth with one out, Lugo would double off of Indians reliever Rafael Betancourt but he would be left there as Pedroia would foul out to the catcher and Youkilis would fly out to left.

Okajima would work a perfect eighth against the heart of the Cleveland order, Betancourt in his second inning would work a perfect ninth setting the stage for Papelbon.

Pap would get Peralta to pop out to Pedroia as he and Lugo collided for the first out, former Dirt Dog Nixon became a strike out victim. Nixon would go down swinging on a high fastball for the second out. Papelbon would put some cheese on the ball as he got Francisco on 3 pitches for his 15th consecutive save since his only blown save on May 1st against Oakland. Papelbon has converted 23 of 24 chances this year.

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