After New York's Johnny Damon led off the game with a home run, the Indians stormed back to batter Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang. Cleveland hitters went deep 4 times, and Ryan Garko, Victor Martinez, and Kenny Lofton each collected 3 hits on the evening. Indians lead the series 1-0.

FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E  Yankees  1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 5 0  Indians  3 0 1 0 5 2 0 1 X 12 14 0
W: C. Sabathia (W, 1-0); L: C. Wang (L, 0-1)
HR: NYY: R. Cano (1), J. Damon (1). CLE: R. Garko (1), V. Martinez (1), A. Cabrera (1), T. Hafner (1). Recapping the Game in Quotes Q. They hadn't seen C.C. in about three years, and back then at times he would have meltdowns. Did we see a difference between three-years-ago C.C. and tonight, him getting out of those jams in the 1st and 5th? ERIC WEDGE: That's a great question. That's the difference if you look at that 1st inning and you look at that 5th inning, because you can't let it domino on you. And when things are getting a little bit crazy, that's when you need to be the coolest cat in the house, so to speak. When you have that type of ability and you've had the year and the career he's had, there's every reason in the world for him to be that confident and to show that poise out there. I think that's what you saw. Q. How much was it command and how much did you feel that maybe you were squeezed a little bit on the strike? C.C. SABATHIA: It was command. Bruce did a great job behind the plate. I was fired up. I was trying not to throw hard and I looked up there a couple of times and I was throwing 97. I was like, just calm down, try to throw strikes. But it worked out, like I said. Matsui got the popup. Struck out Posada in the 5th. And everything turned out to be good tonight. Q. Eric, other than C.C.'s somewhat struggles tonight, could you have scripted it any better to get the bullpen guys their feet wet, the young guys? And, again, it didn't seem like the guys who have not been in the post-season before, the pressure didn't get to them, to get that all out of the way? ERIC WEDGE: I felt it was big, the job that Rafael Perez did tonight, particularly after us scoring some runs and separating a bit for Rafael to go out there and another one of our younger kids, go out there and control the ball game not for one but for two innings, the second was at the top of their order. And then Lewis pitched well, Betancourt had to work for it a little. But he hadn't pitched for five days. He needed to pitch tonight. I was very pleased with the effort of our bullpen and the fact we kept going offensively.

If yesterday was all about pitching, today was about hitting. The Rockies cranked out 10 runs on 12 hits and roughed up just about every Philadelphia pitcher they faced. Kaz Matsui doubled, tripled, homered, and drove in 5 runs for Colorado. Matt Holliday also hit his 2nd home run of the series. Rockies lead the series 2-0.

FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E  Rockies  2 0 0 4 0 4 0 0 0 10 12 1  Phillies  1 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 5 9 0
W: J. Fogg (W, 1-0); L: K. Kendrick (L, 0-1); S: M. Corpas (S, 2)
HR: COL: T. Tulowitzki (1), M. Holliday (2), K. Matsui (1). PHI: R. Howard (1), J. Rollins (1). Recapping the Game in Quotes

Q. Kaz isn't known as your team's home run hitter and he gets a slam today and you guys needle each other all the time; what did you say to him after that?

MATT HOLLIDAY: Nothing really. I haven't said anything to him. I know maybe some of the other guys did. It was huge. He's been great for us all season. He's a really good player. I mean, he just does a lot of things. His defense is underrated and, you know, he's come up with some very clutch hits for us throughout the season.

Q. Could you tell us, those of us who have not seen your ballclub a lot, what Matsui has done since he arrived?

CLINT HURDLE: Well, we've had him at the top of the lineup. He hits second for most of the time that he's been with us and he's been an offensive catalyst as far as barreling the ball up line-to-line. In Taveras's absence, he's moved up to the lead-off spot and been a nice fit for us there. He's been able to run, steal bases and defensively he's been a gem and turning double plays left and right. The team has embraced him and seems to be a very good fit. He has a very -- a very, very unique personality that has fit in well within the clubhouse
and the dynamic of that, and he likes to play and he's a very good player.

Q. Charlie, can you talk about the decision when you pulled Kyle and do you think it was a mistake in retrospect?

CHARLIE MANUEL: I don't think it was a mistake. I did it. But at the same time, I looked at it as basically what it was, I liked Lohse against Matsui, I liked him going against Matsui and one reason I liked him is because of his stuff, breaking ball, changeup and fastball. And Kyle, with the bases loaded there, and also it's the second time I got him up and when I put im in, he was going to go to the sixth inning. I made the decision and I was the guy that made it.

Another well pitched game. Seems like we say that a lot during the playoffs, doesn't it. The three games today gave us a total of 14 runs and 33 hits. The #1 starters were on this day I suppose. Brandon Webb is masterfull in this playoff nightcap and a couple of home runs give the Arizona all the runs they need to shut down Chicago. Diamondbacks lead the series 1-0.

FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E  Cubs  0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 4 0  Diamondbacks  0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 X 3 6 1
W: B. Webb (W, 1-0); L: C. Marmol (L, 0-1); S: J. Valverde (S, 1)
HR: ARI: S. Drew (1), M. Reynolds (1). Recapping the Game in Quotes Q. They were able to get on base quite a bit and you escaped quite a bit. Talk about how you were able to get out? BRANDON WEBB: Basically my off speed pitches were as good as I've had them probably this year. A lot of good change ups and curve balls, some of the big hitters just trying to execute pitches and get ahead of them and I was able to do that. That's where the big outs came from, especially the lead off double from Zambrano, struck out the side and used a lot of off-speed pitches to pitches to get the strikeouts. Q. Mark, I know Marmol is tough, but was there a feeling of relieve in the dugout when Zambrano came out? MARK REYNOLDS: Yeah, Zambrano is a top of the line pitcher. Any time he comes out of the game it's kind of a sigh of relief. Marmol, he's got a nasty slider and I was able to lie off two of them and get a fastball to hit, and he was lucky enough to get a hit and put a good swing on them. Q. Can you talk about the decision to remove Zambrano. Was he cramping up at all? LOU PINIELLA: No, he wasn't cramping. In fact, he probably could have gone another inning. We're thinking of putting him back in on Sunday on three days' rest. 85 pitches, our bullpen has done a good job all year. We turned it over to them. Today Marmol couldn't get his breaking ball over. But the reason we didn't win this game was we scored one run on four hits. You're not going to win on the road, or you're not going to win anywhere scoring four hits on one run. I give their pitching credit, but that's probably the story of the ballgame. Q. Did this kind of go to hell, this contest, with two outstanding pitchers pitching up to their capabilities? LOU PINIELLA: They both pitched well. Webb pitched seven innings. We had some chances at him. We just didn't take advantage of them. I don't know how many people we left in scoring position, but it had to be a few. We didn't get the big hit. We talked about coming into this series that the important thing for us was to hit their pitching. That was the important thing. That's what we talked about, and we didn't tonight. Hopefully we will tomorrow.

Josh Beckett was made for the post-season. What else can you say? Beckett and Big Papi come up big as usual, and game 1 goes to the Sox. Red Sox lead the series 1-0.

FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E  Angels  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0  Red Sox  1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 X 4 9 0
W: J. Beckett (W, 1-0); L: J. Lackey (L, 0-1)
HR: BOS: D. Ortiz (1), K. Youkilis (1). Recapping the Game in Quotes

Q. Talk about what you had tonight and why were you so effective.

JOSH BECKETT: You know, I was ahead of a lot of guys, you know. And they get a lot of guys that are those guys that foul a lot of pitches off. And I just didn't want to get wrapped up in
trying to strike a lot of guys out, because those are the at-bats that will end up killing your pitch count and you're out after 5 1/3 because you got 120 pitches. And as I said, I just stuck with pitch to pitch. Trying to get outs as quick as possible. You know when you have a defense like I have, it's pretty easy to sit back and do that.

Q. You've come through so often in clutch situations, do you concentrate more? Do you feel differently in big games or key at-bats? Or is it always the same?

DAVID ORTIZ: I don't know. I think I get prepared to play the game, and I'm the kind of guy that I try to give everything I have. I know this team counts on myself a lot, and a lot of guys count with me and watch how I do things. I take a lot of responsibility for whatever is happening around here. Like I say, you know, this is a game that you play in the short series, and you've got to make sure that whatever you can get, you get it. Otherwise sometimes it turns to be kind of late.

Q. What did Josh have going for him tonight? And can you talk about Lackey's lack of strikes throwing strikes.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yeah, I'll start with John first, I think you're right on the money with John, early in the game getting early-count strikes was tough. He was trying to get back in the counts and it's too good of an offense for you to be behind as he was. As the game went on, he started to get ahead. You saw the game was easier for John, and he put guys away. Beckett was about as good as we've seen him. I don't think you're going to be able to pitch a much better game than that. We didn't get too many looks at him, you know. And we just didn't quite pitch early in the game at a high enough level to stay within a run or two to give ourselves a chance to manufacture or do something. But obviously, you know, the way Beckett was throwing the ball tonight, runs were going to be at a premium, and we didn't get any.

Nobody expected a game in which the Phillies would be held to just 4 hits. Both starting pitchers were strong in a well played game. Rockies lead the series 1-0.

Recapping the Game in Quotes

Q. Jeff, it looked like you and the bullpen did a really nice job of painting the corners. Is that pretty much the key to succeeding against the Phillies?

JEFF FRANCIS: Yeah, it's probably the key to succeed against any team. You can't leave it over the heart of the plate at any time. You need to be able to throw balls and strikes effectively; not only me, but Troy, Brian and Manny were exceptional.

Q. I know it's not basketball, but the fact that you're able to sort of keep the crowd, keep a lid on that, how key was that?

GARRETT ATKINS: It was huge, it kind of let us settle in a little bit. Once we got those three runs they didn't wake back up until Rowand hit that homer and Pat followed right behind him. You know we expect them to be ready to go tomorrow.

Q. Did you think your hitters might have been -- because for most of them it's their first post-season game, a little uptight; and Cole, I think you alluded to it, is that part of your problem in the second inning, maybe the difference?

CHARLIE MANUEL: I think some of our hitters might have been a little uptight. But you know what, that's the fourth time I've seen Francis pitch and the third time this year. And he definitely was way better than the other two times we faced him. His command and his control was very good. He was mixing his pitches good and his location I felt like was way better than before. And he was aggressive; he threw enough balls inside where he could go out on the right-hand part of the plate and work on our right-hand hitters and he did a great job on our lefties and that's the best I've seen him pitch. You put those two together, his pitching and the fact that we might have been a little uptight and trying too hard, and he ended up throwing a helluva game.

As you're all aware by now, the Cardinals dismissed General Manager Walt Jocketty today. Here's what the organization had to say about it...

Bill DeWitt Jr., chairman of the board and general partner of the St. Louis Cardinals, today announced that the team is parting ways with senior vice president and general manager Walt Jocketty.

“Walt will be remembered as the Cardinals' GM during one of the most successful and memorable periods in team history, and we will always be extremely grateful for his contributions to our many triumphs over the past 13 seasons,” DeWitt said.  “It is now time to move forward with an undivided vision and purpose that is consistent with the St. Louis Cardinals philosophy of building and operating the best top-to-bottom organization in baseball.”

DeWitt today named John Mozeliak as interim general manager.  Mozeliak recently completed his fifth season as the Cardinals assistant general manager.

The Cardinals will immediately conduct a search for the club’s new general manager and honor the remaining terms of their contract with Jocketty, who was hired by the Cardinals in October 1994.  Jocketty helped build Cardinals teams that won seven division titles, two National League crowns and the 2006 World Series championship.