Live (Sort of) From the Jake

Post #50!!!

Tuesday, October 16, 2007
ALCS Game 4: Boston Red Sox @ Cleveland Indians, Jacobs Field

Now that I've had a little over 24 hours to recuperate, I think I can finally discuss Game 4 of the ALCS with a clear head...almost.

My wife and I were able to find a great deal on tickets on eBay, paying less than face value for seats 26 rows deep in Section 108 in right center field. So, we packed up our "I ♥ Manny" and "We're watching the Sox while Jeter's playing golf" signs and headed an hour and a half due west to Jacobs Field.

This is one time when I wish I would have stayed home.

Being a Red Sox fan and a baseball fan in general, I don't even feel right saying it. In fact, it might be Un-American to say. But seeing this particular baseball game live and in person was not a fun experience. I never thought that I would ever not have fun at a baseball game, but Game 4 was absolutely disheartening.

All of the Sox' flaws were on display Tuesday night: the ineptitude of the middle relief corps, the offensive awfulness that is the lower half of the lineup, and the inability of Sox starters to get more than 15 outs in the playoffs. It was a frustrating evening on all counts. Between that and the Indians fans constantly waving their stupid white hankies, I wanted to vomit and left the stadium physically ill.

Things started off fantastically. Wakefield's knuckler seemed to be working. He was working down in the zone, and he struck out six guys through his first four innings of work. He threw 67% strikes and didn't even allow a hit until the fourth inning. Unfortunately, the offense sputtered as if Dice-K was on the hill.

Then, the fifth inning happened, and all hell broke loose. What transpired in the bottom half of that inning may have been the worst half hour of my life. Casey Blake snapped the scoreless tie with a harmless home run to left. Gutierrez then singled, which was followed by a Shoppach beanball. After Shoppach was retired on a 4-6 fielder's choice by Sizemore, Asdrubal Cabrera stepped in for what turned out to be the turning point in the game.

With Gutierrez on third and Sizemore on first, Cabrera hit a lazy pop foul ball behind Youkilis at first. Youk just about twisted himself into a pretzel before getting underneath the ball where he proceeded to bobble the ball 14 times and ultimately dropped it. This was a huge mistake by Youkilis because it would have turned into an inning-ending double play. Gutierrez had taken off from third base after the ball had first touched Youkilis' glove thinking Youk had made the catch. By the time the ball fell to the grass, Gutierrez was halfway home. Had Youkilis caught the ball on one of the bobbles, he would have had plenty of time to get up and fire to third to double off Gutierrez. Just as bad was the actual result of the Cabrera at-bat; he bounced a would-be inning-ending double play off of Wakefield's glove which resulted in an RBI single and opened the flood gates. The inning should have ended twice with the culmination of Cabrera's at-bat with the Sox only surrendering the home run, but the inning would painfully continue.

Wakefield was lifted after a Hafner strikeout and an RBI single by Victor Martinez which gave the Indians a 3-0 lead. During

Wally would never sell out on Red Sox fans.

the pitching change, I went from irritated to frustrated to downright furious by what was displayed on the Jacobs Field scoreboard. The Indians, who have this "It's Tribe Time Now" slogan going on, played a video which showed emblematic figures with red "It's Tribe Time Now" t-shirts overlayed on their torsos. Fine. I've got no problem with pumping the crowd up by showing images of Wolverine or George Bush donning a "It's Tribe Time Now" t-shirt. What pissed me off, though, was when images of the Green Monster, Wally, Tom Brady, and Bill Belichick surfaced - all sporting this ridiculous paraphernalia. Poor form. Poor sportsmanship.

Manny Delcarmen relieved Wakefield, and Manny Del-couldn't-get-anyone-out. Delcarmen's fourth pitch was the dagger as he gave up a frozen rope homer to Jhonny Peralta which may or may not have killed someone in the right-field bleachers. Just before Peralta's at-bat, the guy sitting to my right - an Indians fan - leaned over to me and said, "This is a huge at-bat for you guys. Three-run leads don't scare me, but four- and five-run leads do." Well, asshole, how do you feel about six-run leads?

When all was said and done in the fifth, the Indians put up a seven spot on Wakefield and Delcarmen as well as a huge bruise on my pride. Youkilis, Ortiz, and Manny did their best to rekindle any hope that may have been left in the souls of my wife and I by going back-to-back-to-back. The fifth inning had been so bad, though, that I could barely muster enough excitement to raise our "I ♥ Manny" sign after Manny admired his moonshot of a home run. In retrospect, it's doubly irritating that I was angry enough to the point where I could not get excited about back-to-back-to-back home runs. Seriously, how often do you get a chance to see that happen live?

The game ended with Rafael Betancourt doing his usual thing and retiring the Sox in order in the eighth and ninth innings on 15 total pitches. Fitting enough, JD Drew and Coco Crisp made the final two outs.

A 7-3 final score and a 3-1 deficit in the series with one more game to go in Cleveland. With Sabathia and Carmona looming in Games 5 and 6, I don't like our chances, but stranger things have happened.

It's time to Cowboy Up. In Beckett we tru...pray!