Off Day

I remember Sunday night, the last time we had a day off. I remember how happy I was, as I was completely drained from two straight nights of post-season baseball. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for today. I hate having to wait another 24 hours for our first (hopefully the only one we'll need) chance.

From my perspective, the Tribe is down 0-3. I will have no one tell me any different because I can't allow myself to think any other way.

This has been a post-season of poetry.

The Tribe lost home field advantage and an opening round match up with the Angels by losing five of seven games to the Red Sox. Two of those starts were by Cliff Lee. A third was by Jeremy Sowers. Our three game difference came from two guys no longer in the rotation.

But of course we'd get the Yankees first. And in game in which Johnny Damon led off with a solo home run, we ran away with it. They scored first; we scored a lot.

Then came the bugs. The pretty boys from the Big Apple, clearly covered in the latest scents availble from Madison Avenue, were like mana from heaven for the midges. The perfection of the clean cut pinstripes covered in bugs, unable to concentrate for fear of getting dirty, losing to a working class team from a working class town was better than any book or movie.

Of course these are the Indians we're talking about, so a sweep was out of the question. There must always be doubt in their fans' minds, if not in their hearts.

How much better could it have been to see the Indians win the first round at Yankee stadium behind not just Paul Byrd, but an ideal, one far too rare in modern baseball? How often does LOYALTY actually pay off in this game? How often does a team so readily eclipse a group of individuals?

It had to be the Red Sox.

The Red Sox Nation prides themselves on being lovable losers, victims of a curse that, even after its been lifted, seems to justify their martyr complex. Oh, how they've suffered! They don't want to be a big market team, the Yankees made them that way! They're just blue collar guys with blue collar fans who happen to wear pink hats.

It had to be the Red Sox.

Again, because this is the Indians, Game 1 went exactly as we should have expected, but were fooled into believing otherwise. Our ace, our potential Cy Young winner, was yet again overthrowing, barely able to contain himself after eight day of nothing but daydreaming about his eventual start. And things looked about as bleak as they could.

And then our other ace faltered. But, as I mentioned before, this has been a post-season of poetry. Point to Tom Mastny, long the forgot member of the bullpen. Point to Jhonny Peralta, long the maligned short stop. But most importantly, point to an aging right fielder riding the bench, spending his first season away from the Boston Red Sox, brought in to face a left handed pitcher when he wasn't even hitting right handers that well anymore.

Poetry.

It's amazing how this team learns. Jake Westbrook learned from his start against the Yankees and came out throwing strike after strike after strike and the next thing you know we had the series lead.

And the next night our hitters whiffed at knuckleball after knuckleball and the next time through the line-up said "you know, that's a neat trick, but you've already pulled that one on me before."

Look at it this way: Casey Blake struck out twice in the same, seven run inning in Boston. Last night, he had two hits and two RBIs in the same, even run inning in Cleveland.

So it's only fitting, then, that the man on the mound tomorrow night is C.C. Sabathia. This will be the first time he's pitched a second time in a post-season series. He's only on one extra day of rest than he would normally be. He's watched the rest of the pitching staff, minus Carmona, go right at the heart of the Red Sox order. He's seen Paul Byrd strikeout David Ortiz.

Potentially the largest man to ever win the Cy Young gets to do exactly what he's wanted to do ever since he got to Cleveland. Truly, there is no more appropriate Game 5 starter than C.C. Sabathia.

I'm off tomorrow, so I'll have all day to stew in preparation for what I consider a must win game, given my outlook. I'm guessing I'll be dipping into the Jack Daniels ever earlier than normal.