I have always been of the belief that the most important games of a five or seven game series are the even numbered games. Those games can either get you even if you lost the first game, or give you a commanding lead, either 2-0 or 3-1. That being said, it was nice for the Tribe to win game one against the Yankees, 12-3, last night, but it doesn’t mean the Tribe is off and running. It does mean that the 0-6 record in the regular season means nothing.
The key to last night’s triumph was the Indians ability to answer the Yankees scoring in the first and fifth innings. After Johnny Damon’s lead off home run in the first, C.C. Sabathia gutted through the rest of the inning without allowing another run. The Tribe tied the game with a Ryan Garko single, but Kenny Lofton’s two run single up the middle was huge. It put Cleveland on top and showed me the Yankees or post-season play did not intimidate the ballclub.
The same thing occurred in the fifth inning after the Yankees closed to within a run at 4-3. First, Sabathia came up huge by striking out Jorge Posada and getting Hideki Matsui to pop up with the bases loaded. Then in the Tribe half of the frame, Victor Martinez belted a two run homer to put the lead back to three runs at 6-3. The Indians bats added three more to effectively put the game away at 9-3. Lofton and Martinez came up huge last night.
In reading this morning’s paper, I was glad to see I was not the only one who thought Bruce Froemming’s strike zone was the eye of a needle. I felt C.C. got squeezed on the first batter of the game when Damon took a pitch that appeared to catch the inside corner, but was called a ball. As a matter of fact, could Derek Jeter stop his ridiculous jumping back on any pitch on the inner half of the plate? To Sabathia’s credit, he said in the post game press conferences that the umpire called a good game, once again showing the maturity he has developed since his rookie season.
The Yankees are throwing Andy Pettitte (read: soft tossing lefty) tonight, which is supposed to be a disadvantage for the Indians. However, in past post-season series, Cleveland has never had that second good starter like they have now in Fausto Carmona. If Carmona is on his game, I like the Indians chances to go up 2-0 in the series. But, he is pitching on long rest (he hasn’t started in eight days) and is throwing first post-season game.
We said the other day that the Indians needed to score runs in this series to win, and at least for last night they did. They have to be patient against Pettitte tonight. The last time they faced the veteran lefty, the hitters swung early and often and the Yankee starter threw only 60 some pitches through the first six innings. If Pettitte can go six tonight, Joe Torre will go with Joba Chamberlain for two innings and Mariano Rivera for one inning to secure the victory. They have to make Pettitte work and get into the soft part of the New York bullpen.
Regardless of what happens tonight, the invincibility of the Yankees has been erased. The Indians know they can compete with the pinstripers.
KM
Cleveland Sports Perspective 