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Westbrook, bullpen stymie Red Sox pair
By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal sports columnist
Published on Tuesday, Oct 16, 2007
CLEVELAND: David Ortiz stopped running halfway to first base.
His line shot in the eighth inning was about to rest in the glove of Indians right fielder Franklin Gutierrez, and Ortiz knew it.
Ortiz stopped and just stood still, staring into space.
He had hit the ball hard but gotten nothing from it. Ortiz turned to the dugout, then turned to look at right field, disbelief and shock in his gaze.
That blank stare symbolized the night for Ortiz and his Boston Red Sox counterpart, Manny Ramirez.
To beat the Red Sox and take a one-game lead in this American League Championship Series, the Indians had to silence the bats of Ortiz and Ramirez.
They did that, especially late in Game 3.
As Ortiz walked to the dugout, Ramirez walked to the plate. And he popped out to second.
The crowd roared, just as it roared when Ramirez grounded into an inning-ending double play two innings earlier.
This night belonged to the Indians in a big way.
It was one to savor, because they don't come a lot better than this 4-2 win over the Red Sox.
Not in the playoffs, not with the right to play in the World Series at stake.
This victory had good defense, power hitting, clutch pitching and that trademark scrappiness that has brought the Indians to the point where they lead the ALCS two games to one.
It also had Indians pitchers handling the two most dangerous hitters in the playoffs, Ortiz and Ramirez. Both had chances; neither produced a run.
There was some luck involved, sure, but the Indians will take it. What these two had been doing to playoff pitchers before Monday had bordered on the absurd.
Ortiz started the game hitting .615, Ramirez .429. Combined, they had scored 15 runs and had 14 hits, with five home runs and 13 RBI in five games.
These guys had demolished the Los Angeles Angels and started the Indians series by getting on base 10 times in 10 at-bats in Game 1.
Not so Monday in Game 3.
Controlling the batters
It started in the first, when Ortiz mashed a hard-hit ball to the right side. ''A bullet,'' his manager Terry Francona called it.
Asdrubal Cabrera somehow snagged it and turned to his right to start an inning-ending double play. It was a ''wow'' play by Cabrera, and a ''wow'' double play with third baseman Casey Blake handling the relay thanks to a shift and Ryan Garko staying on the bag to handle a wide throw. A ''wow'' play that generated momentum for the Indians in front of their home crowd.
In the second, Ramirez was at third with the bases loaded and no outs and he didn't score, thanks to Jake Westbrook's pitching.
In the fourth, Ortiz led off with a double, then led the Red Sox out of the inning by allowing Ramirez's ground ball to hit him, which short-circuited a rally.
Why Ortiz was running is a mystery. The ball was to short, and had he tried to advance, Jhonny Peralta would have easily thrown him out. Ortiz saved Peralta the trouble by getting hit.
In the sixth, Ramirez heard taunting chants from the crowd before and after he grounded into an inning-ending double play with two on.
And in the eighth, the pair made the final two outs when two swings from their bats could have tied the game.
Both hit the ball hard at times as Ortiz certainly could have attested when he stared into the sky after his line drive was caught.
Game 2 continuation
But the Indians' success against these two did not start Monday.
In the marathon of Game 2 on Saturday, the pair went 0-for-4 after Ramirez's fifth-inning home run. Two of those outs in the 10th inning came with Tom Mastny pitching for the Indians.
The following inning, the Indians scored seven runs to win in the 11th. Monday, they kept the duo from producing a run and won the game.
Cause and effect, perhaps? When the pair is quiet, the Red Sox do not win.
It might be impossible to completely silence the bats of Ortiz and Ramirez, but stifle them and the heart of the Red Sox offense is stifled.
Monday belonged to the Indians and their rowdy, raucous crowd that made the Jake shake with nearly every pitch.
The Indians played like a veteran team, and they handled the best the Red Sox had to throw at them.
It read in the lines of Ortiz and Ramirez, who had two hits but produced not one run.
After the game, Ramirez left the clubhouse just as the media entered. Ortiz sat quietly and stared at a TV.
Earlier on the field, he had looked around and almost seemed to be asking: ''How dare they do this to us?''
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/.
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