Plain Dealer columnist reflects on the Cleveland Indians' loss in the ALCS
Tuesday, October 23, 2007

In the end, they played bad baseball. When the Indians needed to be at their best, they were at their worst.

For that, there's no excuse.

Understand that Boston is gifted enough to beat the Indians three games in a row with both teams playing well. But what happened to the Tribe in the final three games of the American League Championship Series was discouraging.

They didn't hit. They didn't pitch. They set league championship series records for striking out the most times (63) and for having two pitchers each starting two games (Fausto Carmona and C.C. Sabathia) and each having ERAs over 10.00.

At times, they were so overwhelmed, it made you wonder.

What happened to that overachieving team with 96 victories, best in baseball along with Boston? What happened to the team that knocked off the Yankees in four games in the first round, including the clincher in New York? What happened to the team that did have control of the Boston series?

Most fans know the Tribe had a 3-1 advantage in the best-of-seven ALCS. Then they didn't just lose three in a row, they were outscored, 30-5. Most of their pitchers seemed frightened, refusing to throw strikes as Boston drew 20 more walks than the Tribe's batters.

Too many of the Tribe hitters were so tight, they seemed to be trying to squeeze their bat handles into sawdust. In the last three losses, the Indians batted .222 and were a dismal 3-of-17 (.176) with runners in scoring position.

By the final few innings of Sunday's 11-2 loss at Fenway Park, the defense even collapsed. For the series, the Tribe gave up four unearned runs -- Boston allowed none. You won't beat Boston when your two aces fail to win any of their four starts. Or when Travis Hafner hits a homer in his first series at-bat, then is 3-of-26 with 12 strikeouts after that. Or when Grady Sizemore is 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. He had two RBI, one on a homer, another on a sacrifice fly. He left 14 runners on base.

You won't beat Boston when you fail to finish the job at home.

It may be hard for some fans to remember this morning, but the Indians were losing by a 2-1 count heading into the seventh inning of Game 5 at Jacobs Field. Tribe Time was now, as the T-shirts proclaim. But that's when Eric Wedge suddenly began thinking about tomorrow, acting like this were the middle of July and he needed to save his bullpen.

The Tribe manager sent C.C. Sabathia to the mound for the seventh inning.

He looked weary (especially mentally) after 106 pitches in six pressure-packed innings where he was surrounded by more runners than a track coach. In the seventh, Sabathia was hit hard, and the 2-1 score was suddenly 5-1.
After the game, Wedge talked about maybe needing three relievers to get through the seventh inning . . . about not over-working Rafael Betancourt . . . about two games coming up in Boston.

Listening to that, there was only one response - Say What?

The Indians were off the day before Game 5, and there was an off day after Game 5. Plenty of time to rest.

With Boston's Josh Beckett on the mound, maybe it didn't matter because he seemed to be changing in a phone booth rather than the clubhouse. But Game 5 was the time to keep the score 2-1, to see if perhaps Beckett would make a mistake. Or maybe Manny Ramirez would be distracted by an airplane flying by as he stood in left field, maybe allowing a fly ball to drop in front of him.

But that 2-1 game became a 7-1 loss, and the Indians were never the same.

In their last 19 innings, the Red Sox scored 28 runs.

Several times in the playoffs, Wedge said, "It's not about where you play or who you play, but how you play."

Sounds good in theory, but no one should want to play Boston in Fenway Park unless there's no other choice as the Red Sox have baseball's best home record over the last five years.

This is certainly not to blame Wedge for the collapse that began in Game 5 and continued over the weekend in Boston. His leadership is why the Indians were battling Boston when everyone else was at home for the season.

In those three losses, Kenny Lofton was 1-for-11; Jhonny Peralta 1-for-10; Hafner 1-for-12 and the Indians managed only five runs in their last 27 innings. They never led once in the three losses.

The Indians emerged as one of baseball's best teams by doing the things Wedge has stressed since taking the job in 2003 . . .

Separate, don't let a bad game or bad inning carry over to the next.

Be patient at the plate, don't make easy outs early in the count.

Throw strikes, and Tribe pitchers walked the fewest hitters in the American League.

But in the last three games of the ALCS, they went 0-for-3, and paid for it dearly.