No idea the place was bugged

CLEVELAND - The final details were that Luis Vizcaino allowed a single to Travis Hafner on a 3-and-2 pitch in the bottom of the 11th inning last night, as the Indians beat the Yankees, 2-1, to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five Division Series.

Fact is, that's not what was bugging the Yankees. They lost the game because they couldn't beat the bugs.

Reliever Joba Chamberlain came unglued in the eighth inning when a swarm of bugs invaded Jacobs Field and played havoc with his concentration. It was a scene out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

"They bugged me," said Chamberlain, "but it's not an excuse. You have to deal with it. I let my team down. I really disappointed myself and my team."

Even longtime Cleveland scribes, such as the Akron-Beacon Journal's Sheldon Ocker, had never seen a bug invasion like this. Indians vice president Bob DiBiasio recalled the midges that swarmed around old Municipal Stadium, which was closer to the lake. But these bugs were smaller. They were gnat-like in size, and were persistent little buggers that stuck to sweat.

If you were a suspicious type, you wondered whether the Indians shipped in some larvae from Lake Erie and hatched them just to mess with Chamberlain's head. Because those bugs sure did. Literally and figuratively.

The hard-throwing rookie had come on in relief of Andy Pettitte in the seventh inning. He got out of a two-on, one-out jam. The kid was unhittable. He came out for the eighth, and so did the bugs.

There were many of them swirling around his head. The dead ones were stuck to the back of his neck. They were in his face. A couple of times, trainers came out to spray insect repellent around his arms, neck, and cap. To no avail. Derek Jeter was having one heck of a time trying to ward them off at shortstop. Same with Alex Rodriguez at third.

"I just wanted to make sure the kid was OK," said Yankees manager Joe Torre, who visited the mound when he saw that Chamberlain was bothered. "I just wanted to make sure he could see."

It was a 1-0 game and Chamberlain was really bugged by the bugs. Teammates would come over to pat him on the backside, and probably killed a hundred of the nasty things in the process.

The kid, who has been entrusted with the setup role in front of Mariano Rivera, had an inning he will never forget. He walked two, threw two wild pitches, and hit a batter in the eighth. One of his wild pitches scored Grady Sizemore with the tying run. Chamberlain was able to collect himself enough to strike out Jhonny Peralta to end the inning.

Chamberlain screamed into his mitt as he walked off the mound in disgust.

The Yankees had this game won if it wasn't for the bugs. Chamberlain was throwing hard in the seventh, but he was so affected by the bugs he lost his composure in the eighth.

"It was worse right around the pitcher's mound," said Jeter. "I wasn't pitching, I can't say if it affected him, but it was pretty tough. Andy pitched a great game and Joba was throwing the ball very well. It's just unfortunate."

Chamberlain started the eighth by walking Sizemore on four pitches. They weren't even close, as he swatted away bugs that were flying into his eyes and made it almost impossible for him to concentrate on Jorge Posada's target. The bugs were certainly there for everyone, but it seemed as if Indians batters were less affected.

Sizemore got to second on a wild pitch, which was the first Chamberlain threw to Asdrubal Cabrera. After Cabrera sacrificed Sizemore to third, Hafner hit a ball so hard it nearly knocked over first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, who was playing in to prevent the run. Mientkiewicz caught it in self-defense and Sizemore couldn't score.

Chamberlain was so close to beating the bugs. But what did he do? Another wild pitch. Tie game.

The question of whether to stop the game was posed, according to vice president of umpires Mike Port, but in the end "we determined it was more of a nuisance than it was anything else. If we had stopped it, when do you resume? We just felt that the situation wasn't severe enough to warrant a stoppage in play."

The Yankees got two shutout innings from Rivera, while Cleveland countered with two scoreless frames from Rafael Perez. Rivera escaped a bases-loaded jam in the 10th, striking out Peralta.

But the Yankee lineup was again stymied, and the Bombers are batting .121 (8 for 66) in the postseason. Last year, it was by Tigers pitching in the AL Division Series. This year, it's Indians pitching. C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona did what they were supposed to do. Carmona was sensational last night, allowing three hits over nine innings, and only a Melky Cabrera third-inning homer stood in the way of a shutout.

In Game 1, the Yankees misfired on Sabathia. They worked his pitch count up (to 114 through five innings) and got him out of the game after five innings, but failed to capitalize. Last night, the Yankees got good pitching from Pettitte, who escaped a couple of jams during his 6 1/3 innings before handing the ball to Chamberlain.

The Yankees had the lead, 1-0. The way Chamberlain was throwing, the odds were good he would preserve it through the eighth, and hand it over to Rivera in the ninth.

If not for the bugs.

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com.