A Tribe
triumphant
Tuesday,
October 09, 2007
Paul Hoynes
Plain
Dealer Reporter
"No. 1,
they asked me if C.C. Sabathia should start Game 4
instead of me," Byrd said. "No. 2, they asked me if C.C. did start
instead of me, how would I feel. That was it. I walked
out of there feeling like a loser. I think I'm a pretty heavy underdog."
Well, Monday
night belonged to the underdog. Byrd and the Indians eliminated the Yankees,
6-4, in Game 4 at Yankee Stadium. They will play
Byrd pitched five hard
innings against a Yankees lineup that scored seven runs against him in one
inning on Aug. 11 at Jacobs Field. He allowed two runs on eight hits.
"I felt great, I felt
ready," said Byrd, soaked with champagne and beer. "I love this team.
I've been on teams with more talent, but never on a better team. I think a lot
of us are still at recess. We've never grown up. Look at this place."
Grady Sizemore gave notice
early to sold-out Yankee Stadium of the Indians' intentions with a leadoff
homer against Chien-Ming Wang, who was pitching on
three days' rest.
"We wanted to score
early," Sizemore said. "We didn't want to go home and play Game 5 in
a do-or-die situation. I can't say enough about Paul Byrd. He's a big-game
pitcher."
It was widely speculated
that Wedge had made a tactical error by not bringing Sabathia
back on short rest to pitch Game 4. The common sentiment was the Yankees would
roll over Byrd.
Wedge refused to start Sabathia because Byrd had won 15 games during the season
and Sabathia threw 114 pitches in five innings in
Thursday's Game 1 victory. Now he'll have Sabathia
and Fausto Carmona, who
each won 19 games during the regular season, ready to start Games 1 and 2 in
the ALCS on full rest.
The Indians staked Byrd to a
6-1 lead through four innings. They did it by making Wang throw so many pitches
that Joe Torre - whose days of managing the Yankees
may be over after getting bounced in the first round of the postseason for the
third straight year - called for Mike Mussina with
the bases loaded and no one out in the second.
"Wang's sinker wasn't
doing what it usually does," said Casey Blake. "He may have been
tired."
The Indians beat Wang twice
in the ALDS, reaching him for 12 runs on 14 hits in 5 2/3 innings.
Jhonny Peralta, who hit .467 (7-for-15) in
the series, put the Tribe ahead, 2-0, with a two-out single in the first. The
Indians stretched the lead to 4-0 in the second after Mussina
relieved.
Franklin Gutierrez scored
when Sizemore bounced into a double play. Asdrubal Cabrera
blooped a single into center to score Blake with two
out.
"Those guys really
picked me up," Byrd said. "They scored early and I was able to settle
in."
The re-created bullpen -
General Manager Mark Shapiro called last year's version "life-shortening"
- followed Byrd with four solid, if tenuous, innings of relief. The names were
familiar - Rafael Perez, Rafael Betancourt and Joe Borowski.
So were the Borowski-induced heart flutters.
Borowski gave up a one-out homer to Bobby Abreu in the ninth to make it 6-4 before retiring Alex
Rodriguez and Jorge Posada for the save. Posada just missed hitting another
homer with a foul down the right-field line before striking out.
"All year long they say
I've put some drama into the game, so I guess I had to do it again," said Borowski. "It was one home run with no one on base. It
didn't matter."
Said
Wedge, "I have so much confidence in Joe. Very few things in life are black
and white. A closer's job is. He gets it done."
Byrd, 2-1 in the postseason
for his career, was gone after giving up a leadoff homer to Robinson Cano in
the sixth to make it 6-2. Wedge immediately called for left-hander Rafael Perez.
Byrd,
pitching on 11 days' rest after a 2-3 September, threw 77 pitches. He struck
out two and walked two.
The Yankees
started seven batters who were left-handed or switch-hitters. They hit .294
(5-for-17) for the night. That's not great news for the Indians, but relatively
speaking it wasn't bad. Lefties hit .322 this year and .369 last year against
Byrd.
Perez, who
had retired 12 straight Yankees in Games 1 and 2, had a harder time Monday. He
retired Melky Cabrera after relieving Byrd, but
pinch-hitter Shelley Duncan and Johnny Damon singled. The threat ended when
Derek Jeter bounced into a double play, but Rodriguez was waiting in the seventh.
Rodriguez, who ended an 0-for-6 ALDS slump with two singles in Game 3, hit a
one-out homer in the seventh to make it 6-3. Perez, taking forever between pitches,
got through the inning with no further
damage.
Betancourt pitched a 1-2-3
eighth.
Indians pitching held the
Yankees to a .228 batting average. Jeter hit .176 (3-for-17) and Hideki Matsui
hit .182 (2-for-11).