Indians pitcher Fausto Carmona was shelled as the Tribe fell 12-2.

Indians pitcher Fausto
Carmona was shelled
as the Tribe fell 12-2.

GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

BOSTON — The 2004 Indians collapsed in August, the 2005 Indians in September. The 2006 Indians collapsed, well, pretty much all season long.

The 2007 Indians have apparently chosen late October.

Boston scored 10 runs off Fausto Carmona and Rafael Perez during the first three innings Saturday night as the Red Sox clobbered Cleveland, 12-2 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.

Thursday morning, the Indians awoke with a 3-1 series lead — one victory away from playing in the World Series. This morning, they awoke to find themselves one loss away from once again ramming the iceberg with the dock in plain view.

Game 7, if you dare watch, will take place tonight at 8:23 at Fenway Park. Perhaps Jake Westbrook, the unflappable sinkerballer who shut out Boston for the first six innings of Game 3, will turn out to be the right man for the job.

The Indians’ top two starters, C.C. Sabathia and Carmona, certainly weren’t.

Here is a combined pitching line from their four ALCS starts, one that might be deemed too obscene for a family newspaper — 161⁄3 innings, 23 earned runs (12.67 ERA), 27 hits, 16 walks.

These same two pitchers (allegedly) were, respectively, the front-runner for the Cy Young Award and the runner-up for the American League ERA title during the regular season.

Carmona didn’t make it out of the third inning Saturday before being charged with seven runs. He also served up a bases-loaded, two-out, 3-1 sinkerball to J.D. Drew in the first inning that didn’t sink quite far enough. Drew reached down and lifted the ball over the center-field fence for a grand slam home run that gave the Red Sox a 4-0 lead.

Indians manager Eric Wedge spent much of the first inning questioning the configuration of umpire Dana DeMuth’s strike zone.

Carmona didn’t seem to have much luck measuring it either. He threw 36 pitches in the first inning and, as his frustration grew, Boston fans began chanting, “Fausto, Fausto.”

Their taunts only seemed to unnerve Carmona even further.

Visits to the mound by catcher Victor Martinez, pitching coach Carl Willis and team psychologist Dr. Charles Maher didn’t seem to help.

As bad as that first inning was, it would get worse in the third.

Two walks and Drew’s RBI single up the middle made the score 5-1 and brought Carmona’s workshift to a merciful end.

His replacement, Perez, gave up three more hits that drove in four more runs.

Second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera’s errant throw bounced off Boston baserunner Kevin Youkilis, allowing another run, and the Red Sox had widened the gap to 10-1. Long reliever Aaron Laffey picked up the final two outs of the third.

The Red Sox put 15 men on base during the first three innings, a span that required 97 minutes to complete. Laffey, the rookie left-hander, was unquestionably the star of a pretty lousy evening for the Indians. He pitched 41⁄3 scoreless innings, retiring 14 of the 16 batters he faced.

Veteran right-hander Curt Schilling really didn’t need all those runs, but he certainly appeared appreciative.

Schilling worked seven innings, allowing only Martinez’s titanic home run to right and a Ryan Garko triple followed by Jhonny Peralta’s sacrifice fly.

When Schilling left the field after the seventh, he tipped his hat to the crowd, then turned and tipped it to the press box — mocking critical members of the Boston media.

Manny Ramirez was walked by both Carmona and Laffey in the third inning, becoming the first player in LCS history to walk twice in the same inning.

Drew became the third Red Sox player to hit a grand slam in the postseason, joining Johnny Damon in 2004 and Troy O’Leary in 1999 (against Cleveland).

Martinez and Trot Nixon had two hits apiece for the Indians. Travis Hafner was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, making him 3-for-22 (.136) against Boston and the fifth player in LCS history to fan 10 times in a single series.

---

CLEVELANDBOSTON

abrhbiabrhbi

Szmore cf4000Pedroia 2b4220

ACbera 2b4000Yukilis 1b4231

Hafner dh4000DOrtiz dh4110

VMrtnz c4121Hinske dh0100

Garko 1b4110MRmrz lf2101

JhPlta ss2001Crisp cf0000

Lofton lf3000Lowell 3b4121

Nixon rf3020JDrew rf5235

Blake 3b3010Varitek c3000

Ellsbry cf5111

JLugo ss4112

Cora ss0000

Totals31262Totals35121311

Cleveland010000100—2

Boston40600002x—12

E—ACabrera (1), Garko (2). DP—Cleveland 1, Boston 1. LOB—Cleveland 3, Boston 8. 2B—Pedroia (2), DOrtiz (3), JLugo (2). 3B—Garko (1). HR—VMartinez (1), JDrew (1). SF—JhPeralta, MRamirez.

IPHRERBBSO

Cleveland

Carmona L,0-1267742

RPerez1-333210

Laffey4 2-310013

Borowski132220

Boston

Schilling W,1-0762205

Lopez100000

Gagne100000

Carmona pitched to 3 batters in the 3rd. Umpires—Home, Dana DeMuth; First, Randy Marsh; Second, Kerwin Danley; Third, Brian Gorman; Left, Paul Emmel; Right, Gary Cederstrom. T—3:09. A—37,163.