SHL Playoffs: Tribe, Jays Split First Two of Divisional Series

The first two games of the divisional series between the Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays have resembled a heavyweight bout, with Cleveland taking round one and Toronto round two.  The Blue Jays recovered from the haymaker the Indians threw at them in Game 1.  Will the Indians be able to recover from the uppercut the Jays blasted them with in Game 2?

Game 1: Few players in baseball history are as linked to a team as Bob Feller is to the Indians.  If one were to play a baseball word association game and “Indians” was the word, the answer “Feller” would come up more often than not.  “Rapid Robert” spent his entire 18-year career with Cleveland, winning 266 games before being enshrined in baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1962, and if not for World War II, Feller would have tacked three more seasons onto his career (four, if you consider he started only nine games in 1945), and easily would have reached 300 wins.

So if anyone was going to start Game 1 of a playoff series wearing an Indians uniform, you’d think it would be Bob Feller.  Indeed, Cleveland management went with Feller to start its divisional playoff series against the Blue Jays, but the decision was far from a no-brainer.  Not only was Feller not the ace of the Indians staff, but you could argue that he was only the fifth best pitcher in the rotation.

Addie Joss

Addie Joss led the team in wins with 19 and in ERA at 3.50, but he pitched the final game of the season and wasn’t available.  Feller tied “Sudden Sam” McDowell in wins with 16, but McDowell’s ERA (4.57) was more than a quarter-run lower than Feller’s 4.83.  Gaylord Perry (4.22) and Stan Coveleski (4.25) also posted lower ERAs than Feller.

But Feller became the sentimental choice and he didn’t disappoint, holding the Blue Jays to three runs in 8 2/3 innings before being replaced by closer Doug Jones in the ninth.  It wasn’t his best performance of the year—he surrendered nine hits, walked six, and fanned only five—but he held the Jays scoreless through seven, bending throughout but not breaking until a three-run eighth made the score more respectable.  But that’s all it did; the Tribe already had an 8-0 lead by then, and the game, for all intents and purposes, was over.

Feller was in trouble early and it looked like sentimentality would be the undoing of the Indians.  Devon White led off the game with an infield single and advanced to second on a basehit by Roberto Alomar, and before the Cleveland “bugs” could find their seats, the Jays were threatening to score.  But Feller coaxed Lloyd Moseby to ground into a double play, and, following a walk to Carlos Delgado, got Ernie Whitt to bounce back to the box to end the threat.  The Indians hitters decided the Jays’ early rally was too close for comfort and took matters into their own hands in their half of the inning.  Tris Speaker belted a one-out solo homer to left-center off Jays starter A.J. Burnett to give the Tribe a 1-0 lead, then Jim Thome walked and Albert Belle singled with two outs to put runners at first and third.  Hal Trosky put a charge into the crowd and the ball and sent a screaming liner to the wall in right, but Moseby pulled it in on the warning track to quell the tide.

Feller got into trouble again in the second, walking Joe Carter to lead off, but got another double play grounder and struck out Burnett to end the inning.  Cleveland came up in the bottom of the frame and immediately went to work, although they almost came away with nothing.  Joe Sewell singled to right, but Sandy Alomar lined out to short, and Feller bunted into a force out at second, erasing Sewell from the bags.  Nap Lajoie lined a single to left to put runners at first and second and Speaker lined a hit to right to plate Feller and send Lajoie to third.  Joe Jackson walked to load the bases, and Thome drew a walk to force in Cleveland’s third run of the game.  Belle popped to third to end the threat.

Feller cruised through the third, but Burnett was not so lucky.  Trosky picked a better spot this time and slammed a double off the right-center field wall to start another Tribe attack.  Sewell moved Trosky to third with a groundout, then Alomar cleared the bases with a two-run shot to left-center to give the Indians a 5-0 lead.  Burnett got out of the inning without further damage.

Feller was wild in the fourth and walked two more, but Alomar proved the hero again when he gunned down Moseby trying to steal second.  A groundout by Delgado and flyout by Carter kept the Jays off the board for the fourth straight frame.  The Indians, on the other hand, were relentless.  Speaker singled for his third hit in three trips to the plate, Jackson singled to put runners at first and second, a passed ball by Whitt moved the runners to second and third, and a single by Belle plated Speaker and ended Burnett’s night.  Scott Downs took the hill for Toronto and got Trosky to fly out, but surrendered a basehit to Sewell that plated Cleveland’s seventh run and closed the book on Burnett who allowed seven runs on 10 hits and three walks in only 3 1/3 innings.

Feller continued to walk a tightrope when he allowed a lead off double to Troy Glaus in the top of the fifth, but Alomar made another brilliant play when he gunned down Glaus at third on Downs’ attempted sacrifice bunt, and Feller did the rest by retiring Tony Fernandez and White in order.  Downs stayed in the game and held the Indians scoreless for the first time, although Speaker rapped out his fourth straight hit with two outs before Jackson grounded out to short to end the “threat.”

The script remained much the same in the sixth—Feller walked Moseby and Delgado, but the Jays couldn’t score; Whitt fanned on four pitches, and Carter grounded out to Thome at third, and the Jays stranded two more.  The Indians, meanwhile, recovered from their scoreless fifth and put the finishing touch on their impending victory when Belle walked with one out in the sixth and Trosky knocked him in with his second double of the game to make the score 8-0.

Neither team scored in the seventh, but Feller’s luck finally ran out in the eighth when the Jays plated three runs.  White Fanned to begin the frame, but Alomar and Moseby singled, Delgado doubled both runners home, and Carter singled in Delgado to complete the scoring.  Feller finally got out of the inning with the score 8-3 in favor of Cleveland.  Mark Eichhorn retired the side in order in the bottom of the eighth, and the Jays staged another late rally in the ninth—White and Moseby singled to put runners at first and third—but Jones struck out Delgado to end the game, and the Indians walked away with an 8-3 victory in Game 1.

Game 2: The second game of the series pitted flamethrowers Roger Clemens and Sam McDowell against each other, but it was the hitters who dominated the game.  The Blue Jays struck first and wasted little time in doing so, parlaying a Tony Fernandez lead-off triple and a mammoth Troy Glaus homer into two runs in the first.  Clemens allowed a one-out single to Tris Speaker in the bottom of the first—the safety was Speaker’s sixth straight—but got out of the inning relatively unscathed.

The Jays struck again in the top of the second when Pat Borders doubled, moved to third on McDowell’s error of Clemens’ grounder, and scored on a wild pitch.  Roberto Alomar, Lloyd Moseby, and Glaus walked to force in another run, but Carlos Delgado struck out to end the inning with Toronto sporting a 4-0 lead.

The next two innings came and went without incident—Nap Lajoie and Speaker singled in the third, but Clemens worked out of the jam—but the fifth inning witnessed an Indians uprising that had them score twice to cut the lead in half.  Lajoie doubled with one out and Speaker walked, marking the eighth consecutive time he’d reached base in the series.  Joe Jackson laced a three-bagger off the right-center field wall to score both runners, but he was stranded at third when Clemens struck out Jim Thome and Albert Belle to end the inning.

The Indians threatened again in the bottom of the sixth, but questionable moves from Cleveland’s coaching staff cost them at least one run and possibly two.  Hal Trosky led off the frame with a single, moved to second on a passed ball, and advanced to third on a Joe Sewell bloop single to center.  Sandy Alomar ripped a line drive at Joe Carter in left, who caught the frozen rope, then uncorked a perfect throw to the plate to nail Trosky for the second out of the inning.  Sewell moved up to second on the throw, but Cleveland’s manager left McDowell in to hit for himself and he fanned to end the inning.

The Blue Jays, perhaps realizing they dodged a bullet, came up in the top of the seventh with a sense of urgency and plated three more runs to put the game on ice.  Moseby singled and stole second, Glaus was intentionally walked, and Alexis Rios smoked a three-run homer to left-center to increase the Jays’ lead to 7-2.  Bob Lemon came in to replace McDowell, but the damage had already been done.

The Indians weren’t going away quietly, though.  Lajoie walked to lead off the seventh and it looked like Speaker was going to record yet another hit when he smashed a shot towards right, but first baseman Fred McGriff, who had pinch hit for Delgado earlier in the inning, snared the liner and stepped on first ahead of Lajoie for the double play.  Clemens couldn’t quite capitalize on his good fortune, however—he walked Jackson and surrendered a two-run homer to Thome to let the Indians back in the game at 7-4.

Fortunately for the “Rocket,” his teammates added two insurance runs in the top of the ninth and held off one last Indians rally to secure a 9-6 victory.  Moseby doubled, moved to third on back-to-back walks to White and McGriff, and scored on pinch-hitter Willie Upshaw’s sacrifice fly.  White moved up to third on the sac fly, and scored when Sandy Alomar threw the ball into center field on a stolen base attempt by McGriff, to make the score 9-4.

Tris Speaker has reached base nine times in 10 trips to the plate in the first two games of the divisional series against the Blue Jays

Cleveland staged one last rally in the bottom of the ninth against reliever B.J. Ryan and had an excellent chance to tie the score before the southpaw worked out of the jam.  Manny Ramirez pinch hit for Lemon and singled to lead off the inning, but was erased at second by a fielder’s choice groundout off the bat of Lajoie. Speaker singled for his eighth hit in nine official at-bats, and both runners advanced an extra base when Moseby tried to gun down the lead runner at third.  Jackson doubled off the right-center field wall to bring both runners home and cut the lead to 9-6.  But Ryan coaxed groundouts out of Thome and Belle to end the game and even up the series at a game apiece.

Game 3 will pit Joss against Roy Halladay, who went 13-17 with a 4.47 ERA, but didn’t face Cleveland in any of his 33 starts.  Joss faced the Blue Jays once and was brilliant, allowing only one run on four hits in 10 innings on April 9 in a no-decision.  Game 4 could be a rematch of Game 1 starters Feller and Burnett, although the Indians have two starters in Coveleski and Perry who are fully rested, while the Jays have Jimmy Key on full rest.