A Little Magic From Byrd: No. 4 Starter Comes Up Big

Oct 17, 06:31 AM

Current Headlines: By Jeff Goldberg, The Hartford Courant, Conn.

Oct. 17--CLEVELAND -- The Indians had two 19-game winners in the regular season. But they only have one two-game winner in the postseason.

It isn't C.C. Sabathia, who might win the Cy Young Award this season. It isn't Fausto Carmona, who might win one in the near future.

No, the man with the two wins is the last pitcher the Indians probably expected. First, Paul Byrd beat the Yankees to win the American League Division Series. Tuesday night, he pitched the Indians to the brink of the World Series.

Byrd's assortment of soft tosses baffled Red Sox hitters for five innings. By the time Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz measured Byrd for back-to-back homers in the sixth, the Indians were already comfortably ahead, cruising to a 7-3 victory in Game 5 of the ALCS for a 3-1 lead.

"Byrdie, this is the second time he's stepped up and did exactly what we needed him to do," Casey Blake said. "He's probably, at least in my eyes, he's the MVP of our team right now just because when we needed a big ballgame out of somebody, he stepped up. Byrdie is kind of the unsung hero here."

Byrd's pitches are rarely faster than cars in a passing lane. His strength is location, moving the ball from side to side. When he hits 90 on the radar gun, it's a cause for celebration. But he had four strikeouts in five-plus innings Tuesday, his most in a game since Sept. 6.

"I didn't really expect to strike anybody out," Byrd, 36, said. "I was hoping to jam some people. I had a good fastball. I hit 90 miles an hour, which happens a few times a year. I high-fived a couple of guys in the dugout and said, 'Hey, pick me up here, I just hit 90.'"

Byrd gave up four hits in those five innings, all singles, allowing one batter to reach second base.

"You know, he's such a strike thrower, and he got on a roll where, especially to his glove side, his cutter, away right, into the lefties, he opened up the rest of the plate for his off-speed pitches," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "Early on, even the first inning, very aggressive, in to the lefties, which again, with his off-speed pitches and the way he throws strikes really made him tough."

Things got away from Byrd in the sixth, after the Indians scored seven runs in a 35-minute fifth inning. Byrd allowed homers to Youkilis and Ortiz, the first two of three in a row by the Red Sox.

"It was very long," Byrd said. "As a starting pitcher you can get tight during that time. No excuses, though. I need to make better pitches when I go back out there. We had a 7-0 lead.

"I really wanted to get us seven, eight strong innings at that point and I was a little disappointed. If you would have told me coming in, you're going to have seven runs, you're going to have to sit for 35 minutes in the dugout, I definitely would have taken it. So it's a good problem to have."

Contact Jeff Goldberg at

jgoldberg@courant.com

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