American League Championship Series Set

In what turned out to be the only Divisional Series to go beyond three games, the Cleveland Indians finished up their series with the New York Yankees, winning the series in a 6-4 victory in Yankee Stadium on Monday night.

Boston made quick work of their opponent, the Los Angeles Angels, in a series in which they outscored the Angels 19-4. Now they face a Cleveland team starting on Friday that should prevent Boston from having such a potent offense.

Boston will look to their pitching staff, led by Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Curt Schilling to keep Cleveland sluggers Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez from being able to show off their power at the plate.

In what many view as being the most dominant pitching duo in baseball right now, C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona will be expected to shut down the Boston hitters. After what many viewed as a risky move starting Paul Byrd in Game 4 against the Yankees, a team he has not typically performed well against, rather than Sabathia on three days rest, the Indians will now have their rotation set up for what should be a battle of excellent pitchers in the first few games.

It is expected that Josh Beckett will take the mound for Boston in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series on Friday night facing C.C. Sabathia, with Matsuzaka facing Carmona Saturday night in Game 2. Depending on how the series is going after Game 3, there could be another matchup of Sabathia and Beckett in Game 4, with both starters on 3 days rest, depending on how desperate each team is, where the series is at, and how confident each manager is in the rest of their pitching staff.

Sabathia and Carmona combined for a record of 35-17 in the regular season, also combining for 346 strikeouts in 456 combined innings pitched. To compare that to Boston's aces, Beckett and Matsuzaka combined for a 35-19 record, a combined 402 innings pitched and 295 strikeouts.

This series should go all seven games, finishing up in Boston, as they have home field advantage. Both teams have power hitters, Cleveland with Martinez and Hafner and Boston with David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. Both teams also have speedy base runners, with Julio Lugo (33 stolen bases) and Coco Crisp (28 stolen bases) in Boston and Grady Sizemore (33 stolen bases) and Kenny Lofton (23 stolen bases) in Cleveland.

What the series will essentially come down to which team can rattle the other team's pitcher first (and no, I don't mean by swarms of gnats as New York experienced in Cleveland) and drag out innings to cause the starting pitchers to burn through their pitch counts. Both teams have decent bullpens, but no pitchers in their bullpen that come close in comparison to their aces in their starting rotation. Whoever can knock out the opposing team's starting pitching staff early has the best shot at taking the game. Game 3 will also be a crucial game in Cleveland for both teams, as Curt Schilling is expected to face Paul Byrd. Byrd has been inconsistent in his starts and has a relatively high ERA. Schilling has had a mediocre season, but he also is the starter that the Indians have the best chance at beating.

While there are many great hitters on both teams, this series is going to be more of a pitcher's duel, featuring ace vs. ace for each team throughout the series. With the great pitching and great hitting that both of these teams have, do not be surprised if the ALCS winner also goes on to win the World Series

Prediction:
Cleveland take ALCS in 7 games
ALCS MVP: C.C. Sabathia, Cleveland Indians Starting Pitcher

Statistics used in this article are from ESPN.com