Green: A game of millimeters
Baseball is often called a game of inches. But not when the Indians play the Red Sox. Then, it’s more like a game of millimeters. Until this ALCS, the 2007 MLB postseason had witnessed four series sweeps, and just one series that went beyond the minimum. Leave it to the Beantown Nine to make things … tight.
The only game in this series that hasn’t been a squeaker was Game 1. In Game 2, despite the final score, the game was knotted up through five innings. In Game 3, the home plate umpire was just a bit inconsistent with the width of his strike zone — but “just a bit” is all it takes to blunt the finesse of Daisuke Matsuzaka, who’s had enough problems finding the strike zone anyway, and who relies on strikeouts more than most. And in Game 4, none of the breaks went Boston’s way. Ortiz just happened to be hit with a batted ball between second and third base, taking a run away from Boston. Youkilis, coming off a Gold Glove-caliber season, just happened to fumble Asdrubal Cabrera’s foul pop-up, allowing Cabrera to take another hack. And Wakefield, who had heretofore mystified the Indians, just happened to put his glove in the wrong spot by a hair’s breadth on Cabrera’s subsequent comebacker. If Wake catches that ball, it’s an easy double play to nip the rally in the bud. If he lets the ball go, it’s an easy 4-6-3 for Dustin Pedroia. If, if, if: such a tiny word. Such big consequences.
Through the first six innings of Game 5, it looked like the Sox might be edged out again. Mike Lowell’s line drive — with runners on — fell just a couple of inches foul. Manny Ramirez’s 390-foot bomb landed a single inch away from being a home run. But then, for the first time since the 11th inning of Game 2, the ball literally bounced Boston’s way — right off the tip of Grady Sizemore’s outstretched glove for a bases-clearing triple. The Indians gave Boston’s boys an inch, and they took it a mile.
Going into Game 6, with no room for error, it was up to Curt Schilling, the old dog with the new changeup. We’ve seen the veteran harness the game’s hairsplitting nature to his own advantage, painting the black with his aging fastball. But after a frustrating, injury-riddled season, could he do it again? After all, Curt ain’t as good as he once was. But, to borrow a line from Toby Keith, he’s as good, once, as he ever was.
Tonight, there’s no more breathing room for either ballclub. Both had 96 wins in the postseason, and both have three wins in this series. And now, for one of them, the World Series is just inches away.
Sarah Green is a freelance writer who can be reached at sgreen@gmail.com.
