Just about everything went right for the Cleveland Indians tonight, as they erased the New York Yankees for the season (and possibly ended Joe Torre's 11-year tenure as manager) and advanced to the League Championship Series, where far more daunting foes await in the form of the Boston Red Sox and their three-headed dragon pitching combo.
For now, however, the focus is on tonight's victory and we'll take a few moments to celebrate this latest upending of the fabled Yankees mystique. As it turns out, the breaks started running Cleveland's way immediately after the end of Game 3 as Torre announced the Game 4 starter would not be the previously-scheduled Mike Mussina, but instead staff ace Chien-Ming Wang on three days rest. As it turned out, that decision was every bit as disastrous as allowing Roger Clemens to start Game 3, only in this instance, the Yankees ultimately failed to ever take back the lead in the contest as they had the previous night. Mussina picked up the slack as well as he could, but the Cleveland offense, aided and abetted by the familiar likes of Grady Sizemore, The Pronk, and a quietly consistent Jhonny Peralta never let up, even when faced once again with elite closer Mariano Rivera (who damn near gave up a three run homer to Casey Blake at the end of a breathless eighth inning).
Perhaps most importantly for Cleveland's tender nerves, the decision to pitch Paul Byrd instead of C.C. Sabathia on short rest worked out far better than imagined. With that in mind, I'll take this opportunity to publicly offer my apologies to Byrd for doubting him as much as I did last night: his performance this evening was five innings of cunning and grit that kept the Yankees at bay just long enough to hand the game over to the near-bulletproof Indians bullpen (only a solo bomb hit off of Rafael Perez by the likely Most Valuable Player of the American League marred the utter domination of the Yankees offense over the series by Cleveland relievers).
I'll also offer a shaky-handed tip of the cap to much-maligned Tribe closer Joe Borowski, who managed to slam the door in the ninth in his usual style: you know, the one that makes Indians fans clutch at their hearts while fumbling for the Maalox bottle. Seemingly incapable of having a 1-2-3 type of inning, Borowski allowed a solo home run from Bobby Abreu to stop the hearts of the fans back home, allowing the Yankees within two runs, before delivering the final strikeout blow to New York's hopes as the infield and visitor's dugout erupted in celebration.
No comments:
Post a Comment