Indians' week ends weakly
CLEVELAND -- Ninety-three wins gets you two division titles and a wild card in the National League. It gets you a winter vacation in the American League, where 95 proved to be the magic number to advance.
The Indians probably knew that going into yesterday's finale at Jacobs Field. They needed help here -- a victory over the White Sox -- and in Boston -- a Yankee win -- and got neither. If nothing else, the Indians rendered anticlimactic the final five innings of the Red Sox-Yankees game in falling, 3-1, to the White Sox, allowing Bostonians to prematurely celebrate.
The loss capped a dismal closing week for the Tribe, which had hoped to vault into the playoffs by virtue of having its final six games at home. Instead, the Indians went 1-5 down the stretch, including three straight losses to the Central Division champion White Sox. Chicago finished the season with a 14-5 record against the Indians, including a numbing 9-1 at Jacobs Field.
When it was all over, shortly after Grady Sizemore's grounder to second ended things, what remained of the sellout crowd of 41,034 stood and applauded as their team headed for the showers. Sizemore got some words of encouragement from Chicago skipper Ozzie Guillen and reliever Bob Wickman came out and threw a hatful of baseballs into the stands. Later, thousands of fans walked slowly, quietly, and politely into the stadium and were allowed to circle the bases at a pace that made David Ortiz look fleet.
''You don't see that everyplace," Guillen said afterward. ''I think the Cleveland fans should be proud of this team, what this team did, what it did for baseball. They're going to be a team to watch for years to come."
Just not this week.
The White Sox, however, will be hosting Your Red Sox and they say they are up to the task. The weekend sweep showcased White Sox baseball at its best -- excellent starting pitching, terrific relief, and opportunistic offense. They don't have a starter hitting .300. They don't score runs in droves. They simply find a way to win -- 99 times this season.
''We got the pitching and we manufactured a few runs to win the game," said outfield Scott Podsednik with a shrug. ''That's what we've been doing all year."
They got solo runs in the first (a titanic homer by Jermaine Dye), the second (an RBI single to left by Joe Crede), and in the third (a sacrifice fly by Paul Konerko). Starter Brandon McCarthy kept the Tribe scoreless until Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez led off the sixth with back-to-back doubles, and then Luis Vizcaino and El Duque finished the job. The Indians went with a whimper; only one runner reached second base in the final three innings -- Aaron Boone because of defensive indifference in the ninth.
Chicago finished the season winning five straight and eight of 10.
The Red Sox won the season series, 4-3, including a couple of July bludgeonings in Boston (9-8, 7-4.) That was when the White Sox were going through their only rough patch of the year.
''They're the world champions. They know how to play in the playoffs. They have the veterans," Guillen said of the Red Sox. ''We can't be worrying about facing Manny or stuff like that. We have to play White Sox baseball."
Agreed Konerko, ''We know they can score runs. The numbers don't lie. But I'll take my shot with the guys we have, with the staff holding up. We've gotta be patient and find a way to win. That's what we've done all year."
And it was all year. The White Sox were wire-to-wire division winners, holding it by themselves from April 18 to the end of the season. Their 99 wins are tops in the American League. Yet, with the Red Sox on tap, who could argue with Guillen when he said, ''I think we're the Cinderella of the playoffs. Not too many people thought we'd be here. The way we look at it, we have nothing to lose, so we are not going to change a thing, just go out and play. You don't win 90-some games just because. You win 90-some games because you play good baseball."
Unfortunately for the Indians, ''90-some" is not enough in 2005. Ninety-three wins would have made the AL playoffs in each of the previous 10 years that the wild card has been around.
It was more than three Indians' division champion teams won in the late 1990s. Only seven previous Cleveland teams have won more.
This one, however, has nothing but memories and the goodwill of its fans.
