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Selection of Shoppach proven to be wise
By Sheldon Ocker Beacon Journal sportswriter
Published on Tuesday, Oct 09, 2007
NEW YORK: So it all came down to the Indians' superior pitching: C.C. Sabathia, Fausto Carmona and, of course, Paul Byrd.
You probably thought Byrd was the weak link in the cast-iron chain. Think again. Byrd was the winning pitcher in a 6-4 victory over the New York Yankees on Monday night at Yankee Stadium, propelling the Tribe into the American League Championship Series against the Boston Red Sox that begins Friday at Fenway Park.
In winning the AL Division Series three games to one, the Indians' all-around pitching superiority bullpen, too was more than a match for the Yankees' powerful lineup.
''It was Paul Byrd all the way for us,'' Indians manager Eric Wedge said. ''Today, he controlled the ballgame. He was aggressive, and he made pitches when he had to. I liked the way he composed himself.''
Byrd was led into the press room postgame Sunday, but there was little interest in him among the media.
''There were only two questions,'' Byrd said. ''Did I think C.C. (Sabathia) should start, and how would I feel if he did. I walked out of there like a loser. I told me wife, 'I think I'm a pretty heavy underdog.'''
The Tribe offense did enough to prevail Monday night, but it wouldn't have hurt to mix in another run or two after the fourth inning. The Indians stranded six runners from the sixth through the ninth, two in scoring position.
Joe Borowski got his first chance to save a game in the series and did so. It wasn't clean Bobby Abreu homered but Borowski retired Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada.
Yankees manager Joe Torre tried to beat the odds by starting Chien-Ming Wang on only three days' rest. The noble experiment Torre had little choice lasted three batters into the second inning.
''Wang looked like he was throwing hard, but he was getting the ball up,'' Torre said. ''Usually you can tell early with him. If he keeps the ball down, he'll get ground balls, but he didn't get many ground balls.''
Wang gave up two runs in the first on Grady Sizemore's leadoff homer and Jhonny Peralta's RBI single. Franklin Gutierrez and Casey Blake began the second with singles, and Kelly Shoppach was hit by a pitch to load the bases, signaling the end of the line for Wang.
''We wanted to build momentum,'' Sizemore said of his home run. ''We wanted to jump on them early and take the wind out of their sails.''
Wang was replaced by Mike Mussina, whom Torre had rejected when contemplating a starter. Mussina hadn't pitched for 10 days, and in his last start of the regular season, he was shelled for six runs in five innings.
But he still can do one thing that baffles many Tribe batsmen: throw tantalizingly slow curveballs. For the most part, Mussina got away with his smoke-and-mirrors act. The first batter whom he faced, Sizemore, bounced into a run-scoring double play, and Asdrubal Cabrera blooped an RBI single to center to hang another earned run on Wang.
However, Mussina kept the Indians in check until the fourth, when Victor Martinez singled home two runs. Mussina stayed around for 42/3 innings, giving up two runs and letting one in for Wang.
In addition to the controversy surrounding Wedge's decision to start Byrd, the inclusion of Shoppach in the lineup seemed to be a mistake to some, even though the backup catcher has been Byrd's personal catcher all season. Shoppach did nothing to make Wedge regret that move, whacking two doubles and scoring a run.
As it turned out, Byrd was the last thing the Tribe needed to worry about. Despite dire predictions seemingly from media around the globe that Byrd's occupancy of the mound would be brief and painful, he probably fulfilled the expectations of Wedge, though the manager didn't announce his assumptions.
Byrd was seen by many observers as a guy without sufficient velocity and ball movement to stand up to the Yankees' lineup of mashers. Part of that analysis was based on his only 2007 start against the Yankees on Aug. 11, when he gave up seven runs in two innings.
But that is hardly Byrd's only experience against the Bombers. The lineup that faced him Monday night had a career batting average of .315 with three home runs in 111 at-bats against him. But that inflated batting average against him was produced largely by two players, Jeter and Doug Mientkiewicz, whose combined average was .370. The other seven players were batting .277 against Byrd.
So Byrd lasted five innings and gave up two runs, eight hits and two walks, a perfectly acceptable performance.
Wedge sent Byrd out for the sixth, which might or might not have been a wise decision. After Byrd makes two revolutions around the lineup, hitters often have seen enough of his assortment of 87-mph fastballs and off-speed breaking balls to begin timing his pitches.
So when Byrd gave up a leadoff home run to Robinson Cano in the sixth, Wedge hustled to the mound to change pitchers, bringing in lefty Rafael Perez.
In two previous appearances in the series, Perez was a dominating presence, throwing four scoreless and hitless innings, striking out five. But Perez looked like he was feeling the pressure Monday night and gave up a run and three hits in two innings. Rafael Betancourt followed by retiring the side in order in the eighth, striking out two.
Torre accepted the defeat with grace.
''I want to congratulate Eric Wedge,'' he said. ''He turned this club around. They were tough. If you made a mistake, they beat your brains out.''
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com.
NEW YORK: So it all came down to the Indians' superior pitching: C.C. Sabathia, Fausto Carmona and, of course, Paul Byrd.
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