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October 14, 2007
BY SEAN McADAM
Journal Sports Writer
BOSTON – Bottom of the tenth: Ortiz, Ramirez and Lowell due.
If you’re a Red Sox fan, you’re taking bets on who becomes the hero. The game ends there, and, you think, so does the series.
The Red Sox go to Cleveland up 2-0, having won games started by the Indians’ two best pitchers. The games get played at Jacobs Field, but they’re merely a formality.
Except this: Tom Mastny retires the heart of the Red Sox batting order without incident, and a half-inning later, the Indians are winning by seven – seven! – en route to what has to be the most lopsided extra-inning post-season game in history.
The Red Sox went from anticipating a 2-to-0 lead to being tied in their ALCS with Cleveland.
''Change of momentum’’ doesn’t really cover it. How about whiplash?
''It would be a nice idea if you could run through the postseason without losing,’’ said Terry Francona. ''I don’t know how realistic that is.’’
It seemed plausible for a while. The Sox ground out at-bats against Fausto Carmona and chased him in the fifth inning, then torched the Cleveland bullpen with back-to-back homers from Ortiz and Lowell.
For a time, it looked like the Red Sox would join this year’s Colorado Rockies and the 1976 Cincinnati Reds to win their first five postseason games. But that was before the Sox were limited to a single hit over five innings, before the Red Sox self-immolated in the top of the 11th, and before the series changed drastically.
''It would have been nice,’’ said Kevin Youkilis, ''With those guys (Ortiz, Ramirez and Lowell) up, you like your chances to get the run across. But sometimes the bounces don’t go your way.’’
Case(s) in point: the bullet Youkilis hit in the bottom of the ninth, snared by Grady Sizemore in center; or the lineout by Ortiz to second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera, stationed approximately in Harvard Square.
So off the Red Sox now trudge to Cleveland. What had been a best-of-seven has now become a best-of-five. Strategically speaking, the first two games are a draw, canceling each other out.
Along the way, Curt Schilling’s air of invincibility was stripped some last night. Beating the Indians is going to be considerably more difficult than sweeping the Angels, as the Red Sox had already probably suspected.
''We’ve got to put it aside,’’ said Youkilis of the long and demoralizing defeat.
The Red Sox promised they would not be down for long.
''I wish we would have won,’’ said Francona. ''But if this does us in, we’re not as good as we thought we were. It’s a frustrating end to a really exciting game, but we’ll get on a plane in a little while, regroup and have a nice little workout tomorrow.’’
The Indians, relieved though they may have been to get a split, were careful not to ride too high as they left Fenway.
''It’s the postseason,’’ shrugged Eric Wedge, their manager. ''It’s one game.’’
But the Indians made a statement with their win. Their ALDS triumph over the Yankees was not a fluke, and, no, they will not be taking part in the coronation ceremonies for the Red Sox.
And there was this: the Indians came into Fenway, didn’t get five complete innings from either one of their top two starters, and still went home even. To win one of two on the road without their co-aces dominating is more than the Tribe could have hoped.
Clearly, if the Sox are to win the American League pennant, they are going to have to earn it.
''We didn’t play the way we wanted to the first night,’’ said Game Two hero Trot Nixon. ''Maybe we had some big eyes out there. But I think we learned a lot in that first game.’’
The Red Sox learned some things, too. They’re not going to roll, uncontested, through the post-season. And, they’ve got a fight on their hands and a very worthy opponent on the other side.
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