ALCS Game 6: The Liveblog!

After the first five completed series in this post-season saw the losing team in the series win exactly one game, we've finally got a match-up that's living up to the hype. The Indians and Red Sox both won 96 games in the regular season and now they're playing toe-to-toe in the ALCS. Tonight's Game 6 features a guy who will go to the Hall of Fame based on his post-season resume, Curt Schilling, and the young Fausto Carmona, ace #1B in the Indians rotation. Neither pitched well in Game 2, though both were awesome in their respective division series.

Anyways, Fenway will be rocking tonight as the Red Sox try extend their season one more day and the Indians try to avoid the daunting task of playing at Game 7 at Fenway. This is by far the biggest game of this October, so follow along after the jump for the liveblog of the festivities, the McCarverisms, and the game, because games like tonight's are the reason that we all watch baseball all year.

Pregame: I am nestled in with chips, Coke, and beer, if necessary. I am fully prepared for this thing to stretch into sometime tomorrow and I will be with you for all of it, dear reader, no matter what transpires.

Hey! Did you know that the Red Sox have come back a lot in the post-season? Including in the 1986 ALCS? Or that Schilling pitches well in the post season? Because all of these things that happened in the distant past are very important to tonight's game (and I know 2004 isn't that long ago, but Schilling is an entirely different pitcher today than he was then). Or something like that.

Random thoughts: is Fausto the coolest name ever for a guy that's starting such a huge game? What are the odds Tim McCarver drops a Goethe reference tonight? Yeah, probably not so good.

Top 1: Paul Byrd is very enthusiastic while announcing the Indians' lineup. He seems happy to be able to call Kenny Lofton the oldest guy on the team. And he mentions Casey Blake's terrifying beard, which adds a point for him in my book.

Grady Sizemore juuust misses a homer over the Pesky Pole as it slices foul. If Fox's gun is to be believed, Schilling is only hitting about 88 on the gun with his fastball. That's not good for the Sox. Sizemore ends up grounding out to Lugo to kick things off. Asdrubal Cabrera follows with a ground out to Pedroia and it looks like Schilling's splitter is working early tonight, which is going to be key if he can't crack 90 mph tonight.

To illustrate, here are the pitch speeds from Travis Hafner's at-bat: 88 mph fastball, 75 mph curveball, 92 mph fastball to get the swinging strikeout. I think 92 is all the gas Schill is going to have tonight, but it might be all he needs if he can change speeds like that.

Bottom 1: Julio Lugo gives us the Red Sox lineups. We get nothing but names and positions here. Just a weak effort compared to Paul Byrd's.

In direct contrast to Schilling, Carmona's first three pitches to Dustin Pedroia clock in at 96 mph. Cabrera almost makes an awesome play on a bouncer up the middle, but Pedroia legs it out for an infield hit. Youkilis follows with a grounder deep in the hole that Peralta gets to, but can't throw anyone out on. Two tough breaks for Carmona to start this one off.

Carmona is clearly shaken by the way the game started because he walks Ortiz on six pitches. The two balls that were called strikes were very borderline. That brings Manny Ramirez up with the bases loaded. That's not good.

After a tense six pitches, Carmona strikes out Manny on what I think was a 98 mph sinker. That or a nasty moving fastball. Just a filthy, unhittable pitch. Mike Lowell insanely swings at the first pitch and pops up to Trot Nixon. Can Carmona somehow get out of this unscathed?

NO HE CAN'T!!! JD Drew, yes, THAT JD Drew takes Carmona deep to dead center for a grand slam and his first four post-season RBIs!!! 4-0 Red Sox!

Text message received from my Red Sox fan friend: "It's all forgiven." I dunno, PostmanE mentioned how emotionless Drew was running around the bases and he was right. That guy just has no heart.

Carmona walks Varitek before getting Ellsbury to bounce to end the inning. It took him 36 pitches to get through that inning and the Sox lead 4-0 after one.

From our good buddy Andrew Johnson at AOL Sports: "As one of the few Boston fans who has defended JD Drew all season, I'd like to tell Bill Simmons and the beer guy at Camden Yards to suck it."

Top 2: Apparently Carmona went after home plate ump Dana DeMuth after the inning. Right, because that was the problem and not the grooved 3-1 fastball to JD Drew.

The Indians have a way to come back, but the deficit just got a little smaller because Victor Martinez crushed a homer to almost the same spot Sizemore's hit went foul in the first. Don't pack things up just yet, Indian fans.

Schilling bounces right back with a strikeout of Garko, a groundout from Jhonny Peralta, and a pop-up from Kenny Lofton. Even with Martinez's homer Schilling has thrown 22 pitches in two innings, or 14 less than Carmona threw in one.

Bottom 2: Astute observation from Joe Buck: just about every Red Sox player other than Mike Lowell has taken a strike tonight. They're going to make Carmona work for it.

Carmona gets Lugo to strikeout to open up the second. Pedroia works him for a long at-bat before doubling over Kenny Lofton in left-field. Lofton misplayed the ball pretty badly.

Kevin Youkilis then hits a grounder deep into the hole and Peralta has no play because Pedroia took off in front of him and flew to third. Kevin Youkilis has two infield hits tonight. Just think about that. No harm's done though because Ortiz swings at the first pitch and hits it right at Peralta, who is nicely positioned for the rare 6-3 double play. Carmona throws 16 more pitches this inning, but escapes with no harm. Still 4-1 Sox.

Top 3: Trot Nixon singles into right field over a diving Dustin Pedroia's glove. I hate to be a jerk, but, umm, a taller man would've definitely made the play. Casey Blake's beard follows up with a single to left field and with the top of the lineup coming up, the Indians are in business. Fenway is noticeably quieter.

Sizemore stupidly swings at a 2-0 pitch and flies out to left field, which is a giant out for Schilling in this situation given that Sizemore almost took him deep in the first. Cabrera gets into one, but JD Drew tracks it down at the warning track. Nixon is able to move to third for Pronk.

Hafner grounds out to Youkilis and that's a giant, momentum-swinging out with Schilling killer Victor Martinez in the on-deck circle. The Indians put the first two guys on but strand them. Still 4-1 Sox.

Bottom 3: Another Dane Cook commercial. I thought everyone hated these, but apparently the crusty old Murray Chass, who hates everything that's happened in baseball since around the time of Bobby Thompson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World" loves them. What an odd couple.

Manny looks at a 3-0 strike and jaws at the umpire. So at least we know he knows that the count is at all times. He then gets a generous call on the next pitch for ball four. Carmona then walks Lowell on four pitches, none of which are close. He's absolutely toast out on the mound right now. Every pitch Wedge leaves him out there is one more pitch too many.

And JD Drew singles home Ramirez to make it 5-1. Eric Wedge comes to get Carmona three batters too late. It's Rafael Perez time.

We've also had our first real McCarverism on the night. After Ken Rosenthal talks about how Carmona and Sabathia are likely tired because they've both exceeded their career high inning totals by more than 50, McCarver simply says something along the lines of, "I don't but that fatigue stuff because this is the League Championship Series!" Man, tired is tired when it comes to pitching arms. Carmona might have thrown hard tonight, but he had no clue where the strike zone was. He was definitely gassed out there.

Perez gets Varitek to fly out to center, which moves Lowell to third. From there he's singled in by Ellsbury, which is the first non-JD Drew RBI on the night. Julio Lugo immediately follows with two more by doubling down the third base line to bring Drew and the speedy Ellsbury in. It's 8-1 Red Sox. Perez walks Pedroia and is really struggling. Eric Wedge looks like he's about to vomit or punch someone in the face or both.

Well, that's just brutal. Kevin Youkilis doubles off of the monster, scoring Lugo. Still, Lofton plays the ball nicely and gets Youk caught between first and second base. Somehow, Asdrubal Cabrera throws the ball off of Youkilis's head, resulting in him being safe and first and Pedroia scoring as well. Perez is done for the night. I didn't think anyone could've looked worse than Carmona, but he definitely did.

Some dude named Aaron Laffey is in and he gets Ortiz to ground out to Garko on one pitch, though he makes an awful throw to second and they can't get Youkilis out to complete the DP. I would say that's the kind of play that kills you in the playoffs, but the Indians are down 10-1 so it probably won't matter.

Laffey walks Manny on four pitches and was clearly terrified of him. I don't blame him, though. If I was a 22-year old lefty in my first playoff game ever, I'd be terrified of Manny, too. It doesn't hurt him though because Lowell fouls out to Nixon to finally end the inning.

If you're still watching, we're moving the party over to the Innings 4-6 post because this one's getting a bit lengthy. Don't despair yet, Indians fans. Stranger things have happened than a 9 run comeback in the ALCS and if you stick around, I might even be able to come up with one or two of them.