Now the Red Sox, who three years ago came from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Yankees in the ALCS, return home trailing only 3-2. The Indians have to like the Game 6 pitching matchup, when they'll send their other Cy Young candidate, Fausto Carmona, against Curt Schilling, who struggled in Game 2, getting knocked out in the fifth inning.
Then again, the Indians had to have liked that matchup in Game 2, and the Red Sox beat up Carmona pretty good, though the Indians won in extra innings.
Game 7 Sunday, if it gets that far, would be Jake Westbrook and Daisuke Matsuzaka, a rematch of Game 3, won by Westbrook and the Indians. Again the advantage would figure to be with the Indians.
But you just get the feeling the Indians would have preferred to spend the next few days reading about poor old disrespected Joe Torre, don't you?
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Robin Ventura, the forgotten man [PERMALINK]
Manny Ramirez's drive in the top of the third bounced off the top of the right-field fence and back onto the field. Ramirez thought it was a home run, but the umpires correctly ruled that the ball never went out. David Ortiz scored from first to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead that would stand up, but Ramirez, who had loafed out of the box, ended up at first base with a long single.
Fox's announcers, Joe Buck, Tim McCarver and Chris Myers, repeatedly referred to Ramirez's shot as some variation of "the longest single in postseason history," or even in baseball history. I spent several innings wondering how long it would take before one of them remembered Robin Ventura's grand-slam single in the 1999 NLCS. That single went over the fence. And it was only eight years ago.
Answer: Whole game. And counting, I guess.
What's funny about that is that not too many people in baseball history have hit a single over the fence, which is how it goes in the books when you hit a home run but pass a base runner. And even fewer have done it with the bases loaded, as Ventura did in 1999. But you want to know the name of one of the few players other than Ventura who has hit a grand-slam single?
He was Steve Carlton's personal catcher with the Philadelphia Phillies, which is why he was playing on July 4, 1976, in Pittsburgh, where he hit a home run with the bases loaded, but was called out after passing Garry Maddox at first base.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Tim McCarver. (At the link, scroll down to the play-by-play.)
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And another thing: Your shoelaces! [PERMALINK]
What is Josh Beckett's problem with Kenny Lofton flipping his bat when he walks? Of all the things batters do in the box after a walk or a hit, Lofton's little bat flip, really just a quick laying down of the bat, is about a 1.5 on the insult-o-meter. Out of 100. It's nothing. It just gets Beckett's goat for some reason.
Thursday night's almost fight was the second time in three years the two have had words after Lofton flipped his bat upon walking -- or, in the case of Thursday night, thinking he'd walked, since the pitch Lofton dropped the bat on was called a strike. Lofton said after the game that Beckett's the only pitcher who has a problem with it. Strange.
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Next: McCarver lectures on win-expectancy matrices [PERMALINK]
Whoa, Tim McCarver said "small sample size" when discussing Jacoby Ellsbury's high batting average against left-handed pitching this year.
He actually warned that maybe we shouldn't conclude that Ellsbury is a good hitter against lefties, and therefore that he should have started Game 5 against C.C. Sabathia, just because he hit .346 in 26 at-bats against left-handers this year, his rookie season.
I would have bet on a lot of things happening before I bet on that one.
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NFL Week 7 [PERMALINK]
During the baseball playoffs this column imposes a two-sentence rule on NFL game blurbs, because otherwise the Friday column would get too long and the fact that I'm not paying much attention to the NFL this month would be obvious. I'd rather you not know that.
The correlation between my not paying much attention to the NFL and my success at picking winners is ridiculously but not surprisingly high. I figure if reducing blurbs to two sentences improves my success rate, think what reducing them to one sentence can do. This column is nothing if not willing to embrace change, especially when it saves a little work, so for NFL Week 7, we have a one-sentence rule.
The picks of my kids, 4-year-old Buster and 2-year-old Daisy, are included as usual. Both take all favorites of six points or more. Daisy flips a coin for the remainder of the games, Buster just picks 'em.
Winners in caps:
Sunday early games
BALTIMORE (4-2) at Buffalo (1-4)
The Bills are better than their record, but not by a lot.
Buster: Buffalo
Daisy: Baltimore
TAMPA BAY (4-2) at Detroit (3-2)
Detroit's two losses are by a combined 66 points.
Kids: Detroit
Tennessee (3-2) at HOUSTON (3-3)
You can't go home, again, Vince Young.
Buster: Houston
Daisy: Tennessee
New England (6-0) at MIAMI (0-6)
What the Heck™ Pick of the week, and maybe the What the Heck™ Pick of all time.
Kids: New England (16.5-point favorite)
San Francisco (2-3) at N.Y. GIANTS (4-2)
Is it possible Tom Coughlin isn't a lame duck?
Kids: New York (9-point favorite)
Atlanta (1-5) at NEW ORLEANS (1-4)
"And here come the Saints!" -- Chip Caray
Kids: New Orleans (9-point favorite)
Arizona (3-3) at WASHINGTON (3-2)
I just didn't see Kurt Warner getting hurt, did you?
Kids: Washington (8.5-point favorite)
Sunday late games
N.Y. Jets (1-5) at CINCINNATI (1-4)
So at what point does it become just stupid not to turn the Jets offense over to Kellen Clemens so he can get the take-his-lumps part of his career out of the way in a lost year?
Kids: Cincinnati (6-point favorite)
Kansas City (3-3) at OAKLAND (2-3)
The Chiefs are a lot better than I thought they'd be, the Raiders are a little better than I thought they'd be, and that isn't saying much about either.
Buster: Kansas City
Daisy: Oakland
Minnesota (2-3) at DALLAS (5-1)
The Cowboys get back to the soft part of their schedule.
Kids: Dallas (9.5-point favorite)
St. Louis (0-6) at SEATTLE (3-3)
Will 8-8 be good enough to win at least a share of the NFC West title, and will anyone notice whether it is or not?
Kids: Seattle (9-point favorite)
CHICAGO (2-4) at Philadelphia (2-3)
Big NFC Championship Game preview -- whoops.
Buster: Philadelphia
Daisy: Chicago
Sunday night game
PITTSBURGH (4-1) at Denver (2-3)
The Broncos are struggling, but they're good enough, and tough enough at home, that we'll get a good idea here if the Steelers are for real, which I think they are.
Kids: Pittsburgh
Monday night game
INDIANAPOLIS (5-0) at Jacksonville (4-1)
Hey, Patriots, the Colts are 5-0 and nobody's talking about them. They get no respect. Isn't that outrageous? Pats respect-card humor gets a pass from the one-sentence rule. And as long as it's broken: I'm taking the Colts here, but this will be a tough one for them.
Kids: Jacksonville (Go, kids!)
Season record: 55-34
Last week: 8-5
What the Heck™ Picks: 0-6
Change in winning percentage since the start of October and the general ignoring of the NFL by this column: +.070
Previous column: Cleveland Indians minstrel show
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About the writer
King Kaufman is a senior writer for Salon. Visit his column archive. You can e-mail him at king at salon dot com or visit his Facebook page.
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