Cleveland Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia, shown here in the playoff series against the Yankees, says he needs to better his control tonight against Boston.

AP / Ken Blaze

BOSTON — There has been a lot of talk about how hard Cleveland’s C.C. Sabathia can throw.

Against the Yankees in the ALDS, the 6-foot-7, 290-pound left-hander was lighting up the radar gun consistently at 96 and 97 mph.

But when Sabathia starts tonight against the Red Sox in Game One of the ALCS, he’ll be thinking that less is more.

“I’m going to take a little off and add to my control,” said Sabathia, who walked a season-high six batters in a victory over New York in their ALDS opener eight days ago.

“Instead of going out there and trying to throw every pitch 100 mph and leaving balls up and leaving them down the middle, I want to go out and throw 91 and 92 and spot it up, get in on guys, and if I need to hump up and throw hard, then I will,” said Sabathia yesterday.

Sabathia, a seven-year veteran at the age of 27, posted a Cy Young-caliber season in 2007. He went 19-7 with a 3.21 earned-run average. He admitted yesterday that he was a little too excited in his first post-season start.

“I’m going to work hard to keep under control [tonight],” said Sabathia.

Sabathia was pretty much an ace-in-training when he arrived in Cleveland, and now he has matured into a dominant force.

“I think when you look back to the middle of ’05 is when he really transitioned into the pitcher you see today,” said manager Eric Wedge. “Obviously he continued to improve the last couple of years, but he made some adjustments to his game mentally, physically, fundamentally, emotional, the whole nine yards. This is a guy who is a true number one [pitcher]. He’s a leader of our pitching staff.”

skrasner@projo.com