King Kaufman's Sports Daily
The Indians lay another 7 on the Red Sox, take a commanding lead in the ALCS and threaten Fox with a flyover World Series.
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Oct. 17, 2007 | The Cleveland Indians have perfected the art of the seven-run inning, turning in their second in three games Tuesday night on the way to a 7-3 win over the Boston Red Sox and a three games to one lead in the American League Championship Series.
For their next trick, they'll take the day off, the signature move of the 2007 postseason. The series steps aside Wednesday for ... for who knows what, and resumes with Game 5 Thursday, also in Cleveland, expected showers and thunderstorms be damned because even with copious open dates built into the schedule, Major League Baseball is happy to play its most important games in rainstorms.
The National League champion Colorado Rockies spent Tuesday laying in supplies for the longest layoff in baseball history. Several players announced plans to develop and build a hotel and retail complex in Denver that's expected to be open for business by the first pitch of the World Series.
Boston starter Tim Wakefield dazzled and confused the Indians with his knuckleball in the early going Tuesday, giving up nary a hit before Jhonny Peralta pounded one off the left field fence for an ironic foreshadow of a double with two outs in the fourth. Wakefield struck out seven and walked two in those four innings of one-hit shutout ball, and in retrospect he should have called it a night.
Not that handing the baseball to their bullpen has been doing the Red Sox a lot of good in this series.
In the fifth, the Indians said, "Ah, we get it now," and, with the help of a little luck, piled up the seven runs that took them to the brink of their first World Series appearance in 10 years, their second in 12 and their third in 53.
Casey Blake led off with a homer, Franklin Gutierrez singled, Wakefield hit Kelly Shoppach with a pitch, and then, after Grady Sizemore hit into a fielders choice to leave runners at the corners, Asdrubal Cabrera hit a pop foul behind first that Kevin Youkilis caught, bobbled, bounced off of second baseman Dustin Pedroia and finally dropped. Gutierrez had tagged and would have scored had Youkilis held onto the ball, but it also would have been two outs.
Cabrera then hit a bouncer up the middle that Wakefield got a glove on, preventing Pedroia from making a likely play. The infield single made it 2-0. Twice over now, Travis Hafner's strikeout might have been the third out. Instead it was the second, and Victor Martinez's single made it 3-0 and chased Wakefield.