No one wins every game in baseball: even the best teams generally win only 60% or so of their games in a given year, and dealing with a tough loss is just another part of the game. That said, losing a game in the postseason can sting like a bastard when you your heart was set on slamming the door on the other team that night once and for all.
In retrospect, getting up two wins to none in a five-game series may have made some Cleveland fans a tad more cocky than was warranted (ahem): expecting the other hottest team in baseball since the All-Star Break to simply roll over and play dead just because you won the last two games is a pretty silly idea, and guess what? It didn't happen!
At the very least, Game 3 wasn't a one-run heartbreaker. While Jake Westbrook as a #3 starter can be very effective when his sinkerball pitch works the way it should (and it did for four innings), he can also quickly come apart when said pitch begins to rise ... which is exactly what happened as the fifth and sixth innings turned into a shooting gallery from which the Tribe could not recover (especially with the 1-2 punch of a slightly less-immortal Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and Im Ho Tep on the mound and safe from marauding swarms of midges).
All that said, Game 3 also provided a couple of sweet laughs, especially as oft-maligned Tribe right-fielder (and creator of the Rally Pie) Trot Nixon teed off one last time on a truly pathetic Roger Clemens.
While tonight's loss in the Bronx still leaves the Cleveland Indians only needing to win 1 of the next two games in order to move on to face the Boston Red Sox in the League Championship Series starting on Friday, letting the New York Yankees into this series in any shape or form may prove to be a costly error as the relentless pinstriped minions of King George will next pitch their best starting pitcher (on short rest) against our #4, who quite honestly won most of his 15 regular season wins this year on a combination of old school guile, a lot of luck, and a robust performance from the offense. Pitting the first two factors against one of the most patient (and potent) offenses in all of baseball is already a pretty daunting task, but when one also notes that the Cleveland bats have been noticeably quieter since their Game 1 explosion on Thursday, Game 4 begins to smell like trouble.
Sometimes all you can do as an Indians fan is take a slow, deep breath and remind yourself "this isn't supposed to be easy."
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