Indians nine innings for game four
Posted October 8th, 2007 by Pat McManamon
Few thoughts on Game Four vs. the Yankees:
1) Well … let's be blunt. Most of us are fully expecting the Yankees to beat up on Paul Byrd tonight and send this series back to Cleveland for Game Five. And if that happens, it sets up a fascinating pitching matchup between C.C. Sabathia and Andy Pettitte.
2) Like to be Eric Wedge? Pitch Byrd and everyone rips you for not starting Sabathia on short rest. Start Sabathia and he gets lit up and eveyrone rips him for bringing the team's ace back too soon. Kind of a no-win position.
3) The outcry for Sabathia to start almost seems like the clasic "from the outside" view. Pitching Sabathia really goes against every ounce of conventional wisdom with starting pitchers. There are overwhelming stats that show pitchers do not do well on three days rest in the playoffs. And the numbers are not close. This is where the team knows the players best. The team is together 24/7 for the entire season, then in come all these experts with a typewriter from the outside world for the playoffs and they decide they know better. In this case, Wedge has to trust his instincts — and his logic.
4) I mean, let's ask this: Does anyone out there think that Wedge would start Byrd if he really believed Sabathia gave his team the best chance to win? I don't think he's doing this in a vacum.
5) Indians made some silly plays Sunday night. Victor Martinez should have taken the sure out at first on that three-foot dribbler; instead he threw to third and got no outs. Jhonny Peralta had a couple hits, but also had a bad throw to first that started a Yankees inning. Jake Westbrook got a pitch up to Johnny Damon. And who knows what Trot Nixon was doing on that single that went under his glove to clear the bases. Not good. Just can't do that many silly things in a playoff clincher.
6) This is the worry with Westbrook and Byrd: They simply can't afford mistakes. A mistake by those guys goes over the fence. A mistake by Sabathia or Carmona might not. This is the difference between a good pitcher and a great one.
7) A great career might have ended when Roger Clemens left the mound in the third inning. Not really the way Clemens wanted to go out, with a sore hamstring and his catcher telling the manager to get him out. But then again, Clemens had one glorius retirement sendoff a few years ago and he keeps coming back and coming back and coming back. It has to end sometime.
Joe Torre is 67 and has taken the Yankees to the playoffs 12 years. The guy loves managing, but you wonder why he might not just give it up after this season and beat his owner to the punch.
9) If Byrd goes five innings tonight the Indians would be thrilled. Then the Jensen Lewis-Rafael Perez-Rafael Betancourt-Joe Borowski bullpen quartet could take over. Hey … a guy can dream, can't he?
