CLEVELAND - Swat! Take that, New York Yankees.
Helped by a freakish invasion of bombarding bugs that rattled rookie reliever Joba Chamberlain in the eighth inning, the Cleveland Indians rallied to beat the Yankees 2-1 in 11 innings Friday night to take a 2-0 lead in their AL playoff series.
Travis Hafner's bases-loaded, RBI single with two outs in the 11th scored Kenny Lofton with the winner.
Lunacy. Surreal. Hitchcockian. Call it whatever you'd like. October baseball has rarely witnessed something like this.
“I'd never seen anything like it,” Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter said. “It's like somebody let them loose ... just when you think you've seen it all.”
With bugs sticking to his muscular, sweaty neck, Chamberlain threw a wild pitch in the eighth that gave Cleveland the tying run. Three innings later, the Indians won it.
“They bugged me, but you've got to deal with it,” Chamberlain said.
Umpire crew chief Bruce Froemming said he never considered stopping the game.
“It was just a little irritation,” he said. “We've had bugs before. I've seen bugs and mosquitoes since I started umpiring. It might not be a perfect scenario.
“Within about 45 minutes, basically they were gone. There was just about a 10-minute period where everybody was lathering up,” he said.
By the end of the night, the Indians were swarming Hafner and heading to New York looking for a sweep.
Lofton, a gnat-like nuisance to the Yankees so far in this series, walked on four pitches to lead off the 11th against Luis Vizcaino. Franklin Gutierrez failed twice to get down a sacrifice before hitting a single.
Casey Blake moved the runners up with a bunt before the Yankees walked Grady Sizemore to load the bases. Rookie Asdrubal Cabrera missed his chance at being a hero by popping up right in front of the plate, but Hafner delivered.
Cleveland's designated hitter lined a single on a 3-2 pitch to right-center - making Cleveland 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position - and was mobbed by his teammates as an exhausted crowd of 44,732 towel-waving fans celebrated a win they'll talk about for years to come.
A day after the Indians slugged their way to a 12-3 win, Fausto Carmona and the Yankees' Andy Pettitte put pitching back into the series.
New York finished with just three hits, all off Carmona during his nine spectacular innings. Rafael Perez went two innings for the win.
Game 3 will be Sunday at Yankee Stadium, with Jake Westbrook trying to pitch Cleveland to a sweep against Roger Clemens.
The final four innings were like a low-budget, late-night horror flick. Call it: The Bugs Who Ate The Yankees.
“You could see them when you looked,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. “It was like blankets of stuff out there.”
Chamberlain, the wildly popular 22-year-old, came in for Pettitte in the seventh with runners at first and second. He struck out pinch-hitter Gutierrez and got Blake on a soft fly to right to keep the Yankees up 1-0.
That's when everyone started buggin' out.
Chamberlain needed to be sprayed with repellant before taking the mound in the eighth as the pesky insects descended upon the ballpark on another muggy fall night. Chamberlain wasn't alone, either, as Alex Rodriguez, Jeter and the rest of the Yankees infielders waved their gloves and caps in front of their faces to keep the little pests off them.
Chamberlain walked Grady Sizemore to open the eighth and threw a wild pitch before asking for another dose of spray. Plate umpire Laz Diaz, who also was under attack, consented and watched as Chamberlain held out his arms as if he was going through an airport security scan as a trainer sprayed him down.
Cabrera sacrificed before Hafner lined out to first. Then, on a 1-0 pitch to Victor Martinez, Chamberlain uncorked another wild pitch that went all the way to the backstop before caroming directly to catcher Jorge Posada.
With Sizemore barreling down the line, Posada quickly shoveled the ball to a charging Chamberlain, who was upended at the plate by the Indians leadoff man, a former high school football star.
For seven innings, in a white-knuckle game as tight as October can offer, Pettitte masterfully worked his way out of jam after jam.
Pitching in his record-tying 35th postseason game, Pettitte gave the Yankees 6 1-3 shutout innings, using every inch of postseason experience in his 6-foot-5 frame to hang with Carmona and keep the Indians from running the bases like they did in their 12-run, 14-hit rampage in the opener.
Cleveland put a runner in scoring position in the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings off Pettitte, who managed to keep them away from the plate. He worked around Sizemore's leadoff triple in the sixth.
Carmona, making his playoff debut, was even better.
The 19-game winner allowed one run - Melky Cabrera's third inning homer - and two singles in nine innings.
Travis Hafner's bases-loaded, RBI single with two outs in the 11th scored Kenny Lofton with the winner.
Lunacy. Surreal. Hitchcockian. Call it whatever you'd like. October baseball has rarely witnessed something like this.
“I'd never seen anything like it,” Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter said. “It's like somebody let them loose ... just when you think you've seen it all.”
With bugs sticking to his muscular, sweaty neck, Chamberlain threw a wild pitch in the eighth that gave Cleveland the tying run. Three innings later, the Indians won it.
“They bugged me, but you've got to deal with it,” Chamberlain said.
Umpire crew chief Bruce Froemming said he never considered stopping the game.
“It was just a little irritation,” he said. “We've had bugs before. I've seen bugs and mosquitoes since I started umpiring. It might not be a perfect scenario.
“Within about 45 minutes, basically they were gone. There was just about a 10-minute period where everybody was lathering up,” he said.
By the end of the night, the Indians were swarming Hafner and heading to New York looking for a sweep.
Lofton, a gnat-like nuisance to the Yankees so far in this series, walked on four pitches to lead off the 11th against Luis Vizcaino. Franklin Gutierrez failed twice to get down a sacrifice before hitting a single.
Casey Blake moved the runners up with a bunt before the Yankees walked Grady Sizemore to load the bases. Rookie Asdrubal Cabrera missed his chance at being a hero by popping up right in front of the plate, but Hafner delivered.
Cleveland's designated hitter lined a single on a 3-2 pitch to right-center - making Cleveland 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position - and was mobbed by his teammates as an exhausted crowd of 44,732 towel-waving fans celebrated a win they'll talk about for years to come.
A day after the Indians slugged their way to a 12-3 win, Fausto Carmona and the Yankees' Andy Pettitte put pitching back into the series.
New York finished with just three hits, all off Carmona during his nine spectacular innings. Rafael Perez went two innings for the win.
Game 3 will be Sunday at Yankee Stadium, with Jake Westbrook trying to pitch Cleveland to a sweep against Roger Clemens.
The final four innings were like a low-budget, late-night horror flick. Call it: The Bugs Who Ate The Yankees.
“You could see them when you looked,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. “It was like blankets of stuff out there.”
Chamberlain, the wildly popular 22-year-old, came in for Pettitte in the seventh with runners at first and second. He struck out pinch-hitter Gutierrez and got Blake on a soft fly to right to keep the Yankees up 1-0.
That's when everyone started buggin' out.
Chamberlain needed to be sprayed with repellant before taking the mound in the eighth as the pesky insects descended upon the ballpark on another muggy fall night. Chamberlain wasn't alone, either, as Alex Rodriguez, Jeter and the rest of the Yankees infielders waved their gloves and caps in front of their faces to keep the little pests off them.
Chamberlain walked Grady Sizemore to open the eighth and threw a wild pitch before asking for another dose of spray. Plate umpire Laz Diaz, who also was under attack, consented and watched as Chamberlain held out his arms as if he was going through an airport security scan as a trainer sprayed him down.
Cabrera sacrificed before Hafner lined out to first. Then, on a 1-0 pitch to Victor Martinez, Chamberlain uncorked another wild pitch that went all the way to the backstop before caroming directly to catcher Jorge Posada.
With Sizemore barreling down the line, Posada quickly shoveled the ball to a charging Chamberlain, who was upended at the plate by the Indians leadoff man, a former high school football star.
For seven innings, in a white-knuckle game as tight as October can offer, Pettitte masterfully worked his way out of jam after jam.
Pitching in his record-tying 35th postseason game, Pettitte gave the Yankees 6 1-3 shutout innings, using every inch of postseason experience in his 6-foot-5 frame to hang with Carmona and keep the Indians from running the bases like they did in their 12-run, 14-hit rampage in the opener.
Cleveland put a runner in scoring position in the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings off Pettitte, who managed to keep them away from the plate. He worked around Sizemore's leadoff triple in the sixth.
Carmona, making his playoff debut, was even better.
The 19-game winner allowed one run - Melky Cabrera's third inning homer - and two singles in nine innings.
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