ALCS Game 2: Boston 6, Cleveland 13

Wow. I have seen some pretty remarkable, even "crazy" ball games over the years, but this one may topped them all.

I think I'd better start by rehashing the same intro I used for Game 1: at times you may hear me refer to what I call the "the beauty and the horror" of baseball: barring a rain out or some kind of natural calamity, a ball game isn't over until the 27th out is recorded. There is no time limit on innings or on the game itself as a whole, and there is no "shot clock" on individual at-bats. Therefore, anything can and does happen. With that said (again), let's talk about Game 2.

Aside from the traditional "come home with a split" situation that any team plays for in a seven-game series, Game 2 of the 2007 American League Championship Series represented, in effect, a "must-win situation" for the Cleveland Indians as falling behind 2-0 to the Boston Red Sox would knock the Tribe into a hole that hardly any team in baseball would be able to climb out of. Beyond that threat, Game 2 would also hinge upon the performance of Fausto Carmona and the crucial, trusted cogs in the Cleveland bullpen against an offense that managed to deliver an early knockout punch to #1 starter C.C. Sabathia the night before. While hopes ran high for the Tribe's boy wonder to carry the day as he so brilliantly had a week before in "The Bug Game," there was also the disquieting thought of what might happen to this series if the Red Sox managed to get to the Indians' #2 starter as well.

Initially, Game 2 started off in a similar fashion as Game 1, with Cleveland coming out of their first half-inning leading the Red Sox by one run. From that point onwards, however, it was a very different game from the previous match: this one was an emotional roller coaster ride for Cleveland fans as the game wound onwards.

Like any roller coaster ride, the game followed a long, menacing climb in tension with a terrifying, steep drop as Carmona started to give up walks and (eventually) runs in the third inning. Scoreless second and fourth innings weren't made any easier to watch as the Sox methodically ratcheted up Carmona's pitch count the same way they did to Sabathia: by sitting there and waiting for strikes they wanted to hit. Clearly rattled, Carmona darted in and around the strike zone (which, in his defense, was apparently amoeba-shaped) rather than knocking Red Sox back away from the plate. By the start of the fifth inning, Carmona had thrown nearly 100 pitches, and despite being ahead 5-3 in the game, was experiencing his worst start in four months.

After allowing the red-hot David Ortiz to reach base yet again, Carmona's evening was over. Fausto's replacement was Rafael Perez, one of the Tribe's premier relievers who had been incredibly effective against the New York Yankees in the ALDS. That success did not repeat against Boston: the next batter in the lineup was the always-dangerous (and currently white-hot) Manny Ramirez who did what he does best a few pitches later and knocked one of Perez's pitches straight into next week, tying the game at 5. A minute later, the score was 6-5 as a solo home run from Mike Lowell whipped the Fenway crowd into a frenzy while fans in Cleveland watched horror struck as one of the most dependable bullpens in baseball coughed up consecutive home runs.

At this point in time, even though the game was still well in reach with Boston only up by a run, it was all one could do not to slip into a state of near-despair: it seemed like every single star pitcher on the Indians staff had lost the ability to throw strikes sometime over the preceding week. Perhaps worse (in the case of Carmona and Sabathia), they appeared to have developed a sudden mistrust in their own abilities, and it was the negative effects of this that the patient Red Sox batters were gleefully exploiting. Both of the team's ace pitchers had been knocked from their respective games in the fifth inning, and seeing the previously-unhittable Perez melt down immediately after that was almost too much to bear.

Almost in spite of this pitching calamity, Cleveland was still very much in this game largely thanks to its offense (primarily Grady Sizemore and Jhonny Peralta) exacting a near-matching toll on Boston's Curt Schilling (whose start had been moved up to create a better match up with Carmona ... funny how that worked out exactly right). The removal of Schilling from the game in the fifth inning was a small victory for the Tribe, and following a sacrifice grounder from Franklin Gutierrez at the top of the sixth, the teams finally deadlocked as the first real pitcher's duel of the series was engaged: but instead of being waged by the well-known starters as everyone had been expecting, this battle was fought by the bullpens.

For four solid innings, this game remained locked in a 6-6 tie as relievers Jensen Lewis and the Herculean Rafael Betancourt held the rampaging Sox offense scoreless while their counterparts (Hideki Okajima, Mike Timlin and Jonathan Papelbon) did the same to Tribe hitters. It was a thrilling (if exhausting) stalemate whose highlight was Betancourt stared down (and struck out) damn near the entire Boston lineup in a nerve-wracking, tortoise-paced battle of precision location versus reflexes. This 2.1 inning performance alone provided a ray of hope for Indians fans as Betancourt demonstrated brilliantly that it was indeed possible to keep Boston off the bases when it mattered most.

While Betancourt's performance was dependably masterful, what followed was a complete surprise. With the game still tied at the bottom of the tenth inning and Betancourt no longer an option (having just pitched his longest appearance of the season), Tribe manager Eric Wedge was running out of workable throwing options and decided to send long-relief man Tom Mastny to the mound to face the three biggest killers in the Sox lineup (Ortiz, Ramirez, and Lowell). Until this point, Mastny was seen as an average, slightly walk-prone reliever who lately has been used to eat innings in blowout games when the more valuable pitchers weren't needed, thus this move was the baseball equivalent of the Hail Mary play. To the utter amazement and joy of Tribe fans, the move worked: a ground out and two fly outs later, the inning was over and the game was still tied. Unbelievable.

By the eleventh inning, Boston manager Terry Francona was also running out of viable options, and thus Cleveland was blessed with facing Eric Gagne for the second time in two nights, and promptly started getting men on base as they had against him the previous evening. Francona moved quickly to replace Gagne with sidewinder Javier Lopez after Wedge decided to pinch-hit Trot Nixon (once a beloved Red Sox right fielder), but the Red Sox gamble failed as Nixon punched in a base hit that brought Grady Sizemore across the plate from second, breaking the tie at last.

Then came the collapse: the Indians went on a hitting tear as they eventually pulled six additional runs off the quickly wilting Red Sox at the top of the inning (capped off by a slumping Gutierrez's three-run bomb over the top of the Green Monster). At this point (1:30 AM EST), even a Joe Borowski appearance to close out the game (with, of course, two base runners) was little to worry about. Ballgame.

As the tired teams promptly boarded flights bound for Cleveland and frazzled, but happy fans finally staggered to bed, questions began to swirl over both teams' pitching staffs that will be talked over relentlessly by fans and media until Game 3 kicks off tomorrow night at Jacobs' Field (which will feel like a vast, spacious football arena in comparison to the ridiculously-cramped Fenway Park). Boston now faces uncertainty over their bullpen being strong enough to withstand a prolonged pounding from the Tribe should Game 3 starter Daisuke Matsuzaka fall early (not to mention planned Game 4 starter Tim Wakefield). Meanwhile, Cleveland must figure out what the hell is wrong with Sabathia and Fausto that apparently isn't wrong with Betancourt, Mastny, and closer Joe Borowski, and they need to fix the problem, pronto. Until this happens, fans are left to wonder what might happen when the now-inevitable Game 5 comes along and Sabbathia makes his next scheduled start (or Carmona in a now-hypothetical Game 6).

In the meantime, all hail Tom Mastny and Trot Nixon!