SHL Playoffs: Jays, Indians Continue Trading Punches

In a seesaw battle that has seen both teams throw knockout blows, the only question that remains is: Who will be the last one standing?

The Cleveland Indians won Games 1 and 3 by scores of 8-3 and 9-1; the Toronto Blue Jays have rebounded from each loss to win Games 2 and 4 by scores of 9-6 and 10-8.  Assuming that pattern holds true, the city of Cleveland could be forgiven for expecting their Indians to take Game 5 in convincing fashion.  The only thing standing in their way is Roger Clemens and a lineup full of sluggers, who have pounded out 14 extra-base hits in four games, six of which have left the park.

Those sluggers were absent in Game 3, however, when Indians ace Addie Joss held them to seven singles, a triple, and three walks in an easy 9-1 victory that brought Cleveland to within one game of advancing to the League  Championship Series.  While Joss was taming
Toronto’s swatsmiths, his teammates were roughing up opposing hurlers Roy Halladay and Duane Ward to the tune of nine runs on 15 hits, including four doubles, and four walks.

The Indians wasted little time at the plate, scoring two in the second on consecutive singles by Hal Trosky, Joe Sewell, and Sandy Alomar, and a one-out hit by Nap Lajoie.  They plated two more in the fifth when Joe Jackson doubled, moved to third on a groundout and came home on an Albert Belle single; Belle scored the second run on a double by Sewell to make the score 4-0 in favor of Cleveland.

“Shoeless Joe” Jackson went 2-for-5 in Game 3 to raise his average in the series to .385

Meanwhile Joss was sailing through Toronto’s lineup, allowing only two runners past second through his first seven innings.  The Indians leveled the Blue Jays with a five-run eighth against Ward, who entered the game to start the inning.  Ward was clearly not up to the task—he walked Sewell, allowed a single to Alomar, successfully fielded a sacrifice bunt that moved the runners to second and third, hit Lajoie with a pitch, walked Tris Speaker to force in a run, allowed a single to Jackson that scored Alomar, walked Thome to force in a run, and surrendered a double to Trosky that plated Speaker and Jackson.  Ward was mercifully removed from the game in favor of Pat Hentgen, who finally retired the Tribe.  By then the Indians held a 9-0 lead.

The Jays scored their first and only run in the bottom of the eighth on singles by Roberto Alomar, Lloyd Moseby, and Ernie Whitt, but they went down quietly in the ninth and limped off with a 9-1 loss.

Cleveland was set up perfectly to take the series and advance to the next round with a rested Bob Feller scheduled to pitch Game 4.  Feller battled wildness and inconsistency in Game 1, just as he had all season, but kept the Jays off the board for seven innings before finally allowing three runs in the eighth inning.  Instead of going with Stan Coveleski or Gaylord Perry, both of whom had at least a week’s rest, the Tribe went for the kill shot and pegged Feller to take the hill.  The move backfired.

By the time the third inning came to a close, Toronto held a 5-0 lead.  They scored one in the first when Roberto Alomar singled with one out, went to second on a walk to Carlos Delgado, went to third on a walk to Ernie Whitt, and came home on a wild pitch.  They scored twice more in the second on an error, a sacrifice bunt, a walk, and a two-run single by Lloyd Moseby.  They scored two more in the third on back-to-back home runs by Delgado and Whitt, both of which landed in almost the same spot in the right field seats.

Cleveland stormed back in the top of the fourth and scored three to cut the deficit to 5-3.  Belle and Alomar drew one-out walks, and Al Rosen, who had had a quiet, but very good performance throughout the series, belted a three-run homer down the left field line to bring the Indians to within two.  The Tribe plated two more in the fifth to tie the game at five on singles by Lajoie, Speaker, and Alomar, and a sacrifice fly by Joe Jackson, and it looked like Feller was off the hook.

But Toronto kept their foot on the throttle and scored two in the sixth, one in the seventh, and two in the eighth to increase their lead to 10-5 and put the game away.  Troy Glaus untied the score with another monstrous home run to left to lead off the sixth.  Feller settled down and retired the next two batters, but booted Devon White’s grounder for an error, then surrendered a bloop single to shallow right that saw White hustling all the way around from first to score and make it a 7-5 ballgame.  That ended Feller’s night as he was replaced by C.C. Sabathia, who retired Moseby to end the inning.

He wasn’t as effective in the seventh, however.  Delgado rudely greeted the Indians southpaw with a home run to right to lead off the frame, his second homer of the game, and the team’s fourth.  Sabathia was greeted rudely again in the eighth when pinch-hitter Pat Borders led off with a single and scored on Tony Fernandez’s third triple of the series to make it a 9-5 game.  Alomar was intentionally walked to set up a double play, but the Indians could only record one out on a grounder to Trosky, and Borders scored Torontos’ 10th run of the game.

Cleveland made things interesting in the top of the ninth against Blue Jays closer Tom Henke, scoring three times to pull to within two at 10-8, but henke finally worked out of the jam to save the victory.  Lou Boudreau doubled to start the inning, moved to third on Lajoie’s third hit of the day, and scored on Speaker’s double to right-center.

Nap Lajoie went 6-for-10 in Games 3 and 4 and is hitting .474 going into Game 5

Lajoie also scored on the two-bagger and the Indians had two runs in, only one out, a runner at second, Joe Jackson at the plate, and Manny Ramirez on deck.  For the first time since the middle frames, the crowd was deathly silent, having had the wind knocked out of them by the ferocity and suddenness of Cleveland’s attack.

Henke uncorked a wild pitch and Speaker advanced to third.  Jackson slapped a grounder to Alomar at second, which plated Speaker to trim the score to 10-8, but also put the Jays only one out away from securing the win.  Then the Toronto manager made a move that confounded everyone watching—he brought in a left-handed reliever, B.J. Ryan, to face the right-handed hitting Ramirez.

Because the Indians outfield was so loaded with talent, Ramirez hardly played during the regular season, recording only 90 official at-bats, but he batted .356 with a .917 OPS vs. lefties, while hitting only .244 with a .600 OPS against righties.  But Toronto’s manager knew exactly what he was doing—Ryan had a reverse platoon split and actually performed better against right-handed batters than left-handed batters, holding righty swingers to a .217 average and .628 OPS in 184 at-bats.  The move paid off, though it was close, as Ramirez skied a drive to deep center field that was hauled in on the warning track by Moseby for the final out.

Game 5 will pit Blue Jays ace Roger Clemens (14-10, 3.35), who went seven innings in Game 2 for the win, against Gaylord Perry (12-4, 4.22), who hasn’t pitched since October 3, but who went 6-2 with a 3.09 ERA in his final eight starts.