Indians-Red Sox preview

There are plenty of great storylines for the American League Championship Series, which begins Friday night in Boston.

The Cleveland Indians are a kind of poor man's version of the Boston Red Sox (literally, as Boston's payroll of $143 million dwarfs Cleveland's $61.6 million) with a lot of top-character players, outstanding starting pitchers and deep bullpens.

Two of Boston's outfielders got their start in the Indians organization in Manny Ramirez and Coco Crisp. The Indians have Trot Nixon on their bench, one of the Red Sox's "idiots" in their memorable 2004 championship run.

Boston pitching coach John Farrell was Cleveland's director of player development for five years, helping develop many of the young stars he'll plot against this series. Farrell was a teammate of Boston manager Terry Francona in 1988 with, you guessed it, the Indians.

Boston and Cleveland had identical 96-66 records in the regular season, but the Red Sox have home-field advantage based on winning the season series 5-2. Look for pitching to rule this series - these teams played back-to-back 1-0 games in July at Jacobs Field. Boston has the deeper rotation, led by postseason dynamo Josh Beckett, but Cleveland has the young dual aces in C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona. In a close game Boston could have a big edge: In a seven-game series, the Indians will almost certainly have to count on Joe Borowski to finish out a close game. Will he be up to that challenge?

Click here for a look inside the matchups, and who has the edge at each position.

Prediction: Red Sox in seven.

Schedule (all times EDT, all games on Fox):

• Game 1: Indians (Sabathia 19-7) at Red Sox (Beckett 20-7), Friday, 7:10 p.m.
• Game 2: Indians (Carmona 19-7) at Red Sox (Schilling 9-8), Saturday, 8:21 p.m.
• Game 3: Red Sox (Matsuzaka 15-12) at Indians (Westbrook 6-9), Monday, 7:10 p.m.
• Game 4: Red Sox (Wakefield 17-12) at Indians (Byrd 15-8), Tuesday, 8:21 p.m.
• Game 5: Red Sox at Indians, Thursday, Oct. 19, 8:21 p.m.
• Game 6: Indians at Red Sox, Saturday, Oct. 20, time TBA
• Game 7: Indians at Red Sox, Sunday, Oct. 21, time TBA