Bug Off Yanks: Tribe Takes 2-0 Series Lead

Oct 06, 01:15 AM

Current Headlines:

Cleveland, OH (Sports Network) - After struggling to hit with runners in scoring position all night, Travis Hafner came through with a bases-loaded single in the 11th inning to send Cleveland to a 2-1 win over the New York Yankees, moving the Indians to the brink of a sweep in their American League Division Series.

The Indians went 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position and left 14 men on base in Game 2, but Hafner's line drive to right-center field on a 3-2 pitch off Luis Vizcaino boosted the Indians to the victory on a strange night at Jacobs Field.

It was a game where the focus was on the bugs for a while as much as the players.

Rookie Joba Chamberlain, who threw just one wild pitch all season, uncorked two in the eighth inning, including one that allowed Cleveland's Grady Sizemore to score the tying run. Chamberlain was among the players battling swarms of flying bugs, and even after being sprayed by insect repellant, had a multitude of them on his neck, hat and jersey.

"I've never seen anything like that before, especially all of a sudden coming on the scene like that," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "The only thing we wanted to do is make sure the kid was all right and was able to see. That was the biggest problem."

Rafael Perez (1-0) retired the Yankees in order in the 11th, and Vizcaino (0-1) walked Kenny Lofton on four pitches to start the bottom of the inning. Franklin Gutierrez fell behind 0-2 after fouling off two bunt tries, but came back to ground a single to left field. Casey Blake dropped down a perfect sacrifice bunt and Sizemore was intentionally walked to load the bases. Asdrubal Cabrera popped out below the pitcher's mound before Hafner won the game with Lofton raising both hands as he crossed the plate.

"You've got to keep putting yourself in position to win the ball game with one swing of the bat," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "We kept pushing and eventually it worked for us."

The Indians, who won 12-3 on Thursday, are one victory away from their first playoff series win since 1998.

"Last year that was a game that we would lose," Hafner said. "This year it's different. We kind of find a way to cover up mistakes or leaving runners on base and find a way to win."

Despite beating Cleveland in all six meetings during the regular season, the Yankees are on the verge of being ousted in the first round of the playoffs for a third straight year.

Melky Cabrera homered and threw a runner out at the plate for the Yankees, who were limited to three hits and are hitting a paltry .121 (8-for-66) over the first two games.

The game was dominated by the starting pitchers in New York's Andy Pettitte and Cleveland's Fausto Carmona.

Pettitte was lifted after yielding seven hits over 6 1/3 innings. He walked two, struck out five and got out of several jams before the bugs became a problem.

Carmona limited the Yankees to three hits and struck out five over nine innings.

Alex Rodriguez continued to struggle in the postseason, as he went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts for the Yankees. He's 4-for-47 over his last 14 playoff games, and the Yankees have been limited to eight hits over the first two contests of this series.

Game 3 of the best-of-five set is Sunday at 6:37 p.m. (et) at Yankee Stadium. Jake Westbrook will head to the mound for Cleveland, while seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, who hasn't pitched since September 16 due to a left hamstring injury, goes for New York.

The bugs subsided by the 11th inning, but before that the pressure mounted as a scene, reminiscent but on a much smaller scale from Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds," played out.

Both teams had problems fighting off the swarms of flying insects, and Chamberlain, swatting his hat while on the mound several times, walked Sizemore on four pitches to start the eighth inning.

The game was stopped for a few minutes as insect repellant was brought out, and Chamberlain was sprayed all over his uniform and cap before facing Asdrubal Cabrera. With the bugs crawling on his neck and face, Chamberlain's first pitch was in the dirt, and the wild pitch moved Sizemore to second.

Sizemore moved to third on a sacrifice bunt, but Doug Mientkiewicz caught Hafner's sharp liner at first base. Chamberlain, who had just one wild pitch during the season, then threw low on his second pitch to Victor Martinez, and despite a fortunate bounce, catcher Jorge Posada's flip home was late, as Sizemore slid as the pitcher arrived at the plate at the same time.

"It was annoying up there," Hafner said. "So guys were using bug repellent and trying to put it on their helmet, on their back, on their chest and stuff to kind of try and keep them away. But every now and then one would get in your eye, you gotta call timeout and stuff. But it was kind of annoying."

The problems only mounted for Chamberlain, as he hit Martinez and walked Ryan Garko. The right-hander struck out Jhonny Peralta to end the inning and left the mound wiping his brow from the throng of insects.

"He was having trouble seeing out there," Torre said of Chamberlain. "I'll tell you one thing about the kid, he never lost his composure, which is something that obviously was unusual and certainly didn't panic in any way. Unfortunately, it was at a bad time."

Carmona, battling the swarm in the ninth, gave up an infield hit to Bobby Abreu with two outs. Abreu stole second, but Rodriguez continued his postseason struggles by swinging through an inside pitch to strike out,

"I knew there were a lot of flies, but I was trying to stay focused and hit them in front of them," Carmona said. "I was not going to allow nothing or nobody to distract me. I stayed focused on that."

Mariano Rivera retired the Indians in order in the bottom of the frame, and Perez did the same to the Yankees in the 10th.

Sizemore struck out to start the bottom of the 10th, but reached first after the ball whizzed past the glove of Posada, who threw high to first base. The Indians loaded the bases with two outs, but Peralta struck out.

The Indians threatened to go ahead in the second inning, as Peralta walked with two outs and stole second. Lofton then singled up the middle, but Melky Cabrera, who led all AL center fielders with 14 assists during the regular season, threw out Peralta at the plate.

Melky Cabrera drilled a 2-2 pitch from Carmona over the wall in right field with one out in the third, and the Yankees turned away an Indians threat in the bottom of the inning.

Both teams stranded a runner in scoring position in the fourth, and a base running gaffe cut down a chance for the Indians to tie the game in the fifth when Lofton was picked off trying to steal third.

Pettitte then gave up a triple to Sizemore leading off the sixth, but he came back to get three straight outs. Asdrubal Cabrera grounded back to the mound, and Hafner and Martinez struck out, with Pettitte emphatically pumping his fist after escaping the jam.

Good defense from the Indians kept it a one-run game. With Hideki Matsui on first and two outs in the seventh, Sizemore made a diving grab of a ball hit to center field by Posada.

The Yankees worked out of another jam in the seventh, this time with Chamberlain putting out the fire. Peralta nearly homered, doubling off the high wall in center field with one out. Pettitte then walked Lofton, but Chamberlain used his slider to strike out pinch-hitter Gutierrez, and Blake lofted a lazy fly ball to right to end the inning.

Game Notes

This was Pettitte's 35th career postseason start, tying Tom Glavine for most all time...The Yankees announced Friday that public address announcer Bob Sheppard will not be able to attend the Division Series games in the Bronx due to a bronchial infection. He will be replaced by longtime backup Jim Hall. Sheppard, in his 57th season as public address announcer at Yankee Stadium, will have his streak of working 121 consecutive postseason games at Yankee Stadium broken...The only other time the Yankees lost the first two games of the ALDS was 2001 versus Oakland, and New York won that series...This was the lowest hit total for the Yankees in a playoff game since Game 2 of the 2001 World Series against Arizona's Randy Johnson...Rivera has a career 0.78 ERA in the postseason...Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter tied Bernie Williams' all-time MLB record by playing in his 121st playoff game.

10/06 00:37:14 ET