1 — Kenny we knew ya well.
Kenny Lofton did much for the Indians during his late-season stay, but it appears he will not be back. Though neither ruled it out, neither GM Mark Shapiro or manager Eric Wedge mentioned Lofton when listing left-field candidates for next year. Lofton's return was fun, and he came within a game of the World Series, but it appears the Indians will turn to younger players.

2 — Your father's Browns.
The Browns that I covered from 1999 thru training camp of this year would have played a winless team and lost. If these Browns can beat St. Louis Sunday, it will say much about their gumption — and the rest of the season. Never has a game against a winless team had such ramifications.

3 — Feel any better?
Wonder if watching the Red Sox beat up on the Rockies and pick a guy off first in the eighth inning provides some solace to the Indians. If the Red Sox go on to sweep or win in the World Series in five, it might be a little easier to take the Indians' losing the ALCS after leading 3-1.

4 — How do they do it?
My hat is off to guys who cover baseball year-round. After two weeks it's evident how challenging the job is. Night games, road trips, weird hours, endless commercials … that is not an easy beat. Of course it's not like working, but it does involve a lot of time and body-clock adjustment.

5 — On the line
Interesting how Todd Grantham is a little besieged these days. The Browns offense has picked up its play, but the defense is struggling so people are asking questions of Grantham. Let's be honest, though. The defensive line is weak, there is no big-time impact linebacker and the safeties are young. Grantham doesn't go from a good coach two years ago to a bad one this year. The next step in the Browns development will be to address the defense.
Bye for now.

6 — Set the alarm clock
OK Cavs, time to wake up. Season starts Wednesday.

7 — Read this
Heck of a story in the New Yorker about baseball super-agent Scott Boras, the man who got Barry Zito $120 million and Alex Rodrigues $250 million. He's also the guy who wants A-Rod to get $500 million this offseason if he opts out of his Yankees contract. Boras actually had the gall to say that he wonders about society's priorities when he sees money go to arts and cultural centers. Didn't they make a movie about this guy starting Steve Martin. Called "The Jerk."

Red Sox fans on the T after the game were singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and "Sweet Caroline" and generally whooping it up pretty good on the streets.

To the victors ….

But you just wonder when the local team will win one of these. The Indians had three chances to close out the ALCS and didn't.

Someday it will happen for a Cleveland team. Someday.

We just have to keep believing that.

Meanwhile, let's not let the disappointment of losing that 3-1 ALCS lead obscure what was an outstanding season. And let's not forget that the core of this Cleveland team is under contract for next season. Those are good things, right?

What were the Indians saying after the Game 6 loss?

Here are some quotes:

From Fausto Carmona:

"I'm really disappointed. I didn't have luck on my side." (said through a Spanish language reporter)

About the home run ball to J.D. Drew: "It was a little down, but right on the middle of the plate."

Carmona admitted he did not like some of the ball-strike calls of umpire Dana DeMuth, but added he still needed to make the right pitches.

From Victor Martinez, who was asked many questions about the ball-strike calls:

"The umpire had a tough game."

"One pitch can change the game."

"I told him (DeMuth) he missed a lot of pitches that really changed the game. But the bottom line is we didn't do the job."

Martinez was most upset about the first pitch to J.D. Drew in the first inning, a pitch he thought was a strike.

On whether the Indians can come back in Game 7: "You never know what will happen. If we can't then we should take our suitcases and go home."

Manager Eric Wedge:

On Carmona: "They hit a couple balls on the ground there early in the right spot. Not much you can do about it. Still didn't do a very good job of working ahead. Had good stuff. Almost worked through that inning, again, and J.D. got him. Then things sort of dominoed on him."

On losing the last two games by a combined 19-3: "Hey, it's going to come down to Game 7 against the two teams that won more games than anybody in the regular season, two teams that beat up on each other a little bit over the course of the past week. And that's the way it should be. It's something everybody should look forward to."

On the ball-strike calls: "We felt like it was a little tight, but then again we weren't exactly pounding the zone, either. Victor was a little bit upset and I was a little bit upset, but that's part of it."

On why he brought Rafael Perez in in the third inning despite his ALCS struggles: "We're trying to give them a different look with a left-hander and also trying to get Perez going a little bit. Initially just trying to work through that inning and trying to control damage, but obviously it didn't work out."

Notes from the ALCS:

The road team has won the last two Game 7s when one team had a 3-1 series lead.

Boston's 10 runs through three innings was an ALCS record.

Since the start of the sixth inning in Game 4, the Red Sox have outscored the Indians 22-3.

Curt Schilling is now 10-2 with a 2.25 ERA in postseason play. Schilling is 4-0 in his five starts when his team has faced elimination.

Travis Hafner is hitless in his last 15 at-bats and is the fifth player in ALCS history to strike out 10 times in a series.

Well, that was not the way to end a series. The Indians still have two more games to reach the World Series, but their best chance clearly lies with Fausto Carmona in Game 6. Jake Westbrook can win Game 7 of course, but let's be honest: Who wants to get this thing to a Game 7?

The Indians attributed the Game 5 loss to one person: Josh Beckett. "He was unhittable," Paul Byrd said after watching from the dugout. And he was. Especially because, as manager Eric Wedge said, his team did not make adjustments, which left players constantly between offspeed and fast ball all night long. That leaves you lunging, which doesn't work with a pitcher like Beckett. Wedge said his players needed to be more aggressive and take a chance now and then. Instead, they looked at a lot of hittable strikes.

As for Beckett, he was rather pointed when the notion was brought up to him that the Indians had Danielle Peck sing the National Anthem. Peck subbed for Taylor Swift, who canceled at the last minute when her handlers realized she was double-booked (a curiousity in itself). Peck is from Coshhocton, and the word is she's an Indians fan. She also dated Beckett at one point in her life (much to Beckett's good fortune, from the looks of her).

Asked after the game about Beck being present, Beckett snapped: "I don't get paid to make those (blank) decisions." He added: "Thanks to them for flying a friend of mine here and letting her see the game for free." Well, then.

For the record, the Indians said they were unaware of the Beckett-Peck connection.

Two hours until gametime and I wonder: When did October become July in Cleveland? The night at Jacobs Field is gorgeous. Crystal clear blue skies. Temperature in the low 70s. Amazing weather for what could be an amazing night.

Meanwhile, there's Manny Ramirez, who told Boston reporters Wednesday: "If we go play hard and the thing doesn't come like it's supposed to come, we'll move on. We'll come next year. Why should we panic? We've got a great team. If it doesn't happen, good. We'll come next year and try to do it again." This apparently did not inspire the Red Sox fans.

Ryan Garko returns to the lineup tonight with Victor Martinez back behind the plate. Otherwise, Eric Wedge sends the same lineup out as he has throughout the postseason. For Boston, Bobby Kielty goes to right field in place of J.D. Drew.

After Game 3 I wrote a story about how the Indians fared against Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. Turns out Ortiz's injured knee has been really bothering him. It flared up in the marathon of Game 2 and bothered him in Game 3, as the Boston Globe reported here.

Give Ortiz credit for fighting through a torn cartilage injury that will require surgery after the season, but also give credit to the Indians pitchers for limiting his damage in Game 3. Even with a bad knee, Ortiz is dangerous. In the third game he hit one to the wall, nailed one that second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera snagged and lined a shot to right field.

In the last 10 games of the regular season, Jake Westbrook pitched 65 2/3 innings and gave up 25 runs, an ERA of 3.43. Included in those outings was an appearance against Detroit when he gave up 12 hits but only three runs. This is vintage Westbrook. He is a guy who is able to spread hits around becuase he is always one ground ball away from getting out of an inning.

In the American League Division Series though, Westbrook gave up a long fly ball to Johnny Damon that turned into a Yankee Stadium home run. Through three innings, Westbrook was sharp, but he wound up giving up six runs in five innings. He said he needed to mix things up more, and he needs to do so tonight. Because the Red Sox have proven one thing in this series: They are a patient team at the plate, and they will not swing at pitches out of the strike zone.

The Indians need the guy from the regular season to show up tonight, not the guy who faced the Yankees in the middle innings.

Not a good first inning for C.C. Sabathia. He had said he has his best control and command when he's between 91 and 94 miles per hour. In that inning he was up around 95 or 96, and the Red Sox hit four balls hard. One turned into an out when Sabathia threw his glove up and saved his face, but the other three led to a run. A double-play ball by Mike Lowell was a fortunate end to the innng.

Sabathia needs to slow down and settle down … because with Josh Beckett pitching the Indians probably will not score a lot of runs. Sabathia also needs to change speeds a bit more. He seemed to throw a large majority of fastblls and the Red Sox were sitting on them.

Some places are hyped and they don't live up it. The atmosphere at Fenway Park, though, is something else. Crowded streets around the park. Bands playing. Small concourses. Lots of concrete. A vendor walking through the stands selling "chowdah." It's trite, but Fenway Park is one special place.

Wind appears to be blowing in from the Green Monster in left field. Or at least from left field to right. This would theoretically favor C.C. Sabathia against Boston's right-handed bats.

There's a New York establishment called Foley's on 33rd right across the street from the Empire State Building. It has all sorts of offbeat sports stuff … including a bottle of Off signed by Laz Diaz. That was the bottle used in the "bug game" Friday night in Cleveland, and Diaz was the home plate umpire. That's not something you'll see very often.