So Cleveland will have to do it in Boston. They had their chance to win the American League in Cleveland but a whole buffet of mistakes and disappearances cost them. Here they are in no particular order.
* Why did C.C. come out for the seventh inning? He had already thrown 106 pitches and struggled through six innings. Even with his struggles, the tribe was only down 1 run. The bullpen is rested, they’ve been great, why not use them? Wedgie this ones on you.
* Where has Travis Hafner gone? In his last eight at-bats he has made nine outs. Included are six K’s and a double play. Yeah, that’s want you out of your No. 3 hitter. It’s never good when people are talking about pinch hitting Kelly Shoppach or Josh Barfield for Travis Hafner but last night I would have done that. At the time, in the first inning, Hafner’s double play didn’t seem that bad since it tied the game. But by the fifth inning, that had cost the Indians the game.
* Where has Grady Sizemore gone? He’s been mediocre at the plate, but that’s not even the problem. His fielding was awful last night. The long single to Manny which could have been a home run is a ball Grady catches nine times out 10. Why was he back peddling for it? He knows you have to play that ball like a wide receiver and time your jump at the wall. I’m not saying it’s an easy catch but Grady has made that catch dozen of times. Then what was that attempt on Youkillis’s triple (are you kidding me, that man got a triple!)? Sure the diving attempt looked good but it was a horrible effort. He should have been under that ball easily. Why was he looking at Gutierrez? Why did he let up running for that second? Just a bad play. You’re the centerfielder, you’re (suppose to be) the star, go make that play.
* The Indians second best reliever, Rafeal Perez has also decided to go Captain Cheesecake on us and not pitch like he did all season.
* All that said, Beckett owned the Tribe last night. When your only run comes off a double play you know that’s true. Kenny should have just taken one for the team and clocked Beckett in the face after their little girlie scuffle.
Now it’s on to Boston. Not a good thing. At least they don’t have to face Beckett again. They had their chance to do it at home and they blew it. Some guys on this team better wake up and find themselves before they find themselves at home watching Boston play Colorado.
In 1995 and 97, Cleveland won the AL on the road. Let’s just hope that trend continues. Not the trend we saw last night.
I’m being completely objective here as I hate both teams, I think the Tribe is in trouble. The Red Sox appear to have their swagger/gayness back and Eric Wedge looks like he’s completely given up even though they were up 3-1.
Rally Pie.