Betancourt strikes again

CLEVELAND - He threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. He entered Saturday night's game in the seventh and struck out Manny Ramírez to end the inning, then went on to retire five consecutive batters before allowing his only hit in a scoreless ninth, which he highlighted with an incredible 11-pitch duel with Kevin Youkilis, who fouled off seven consecutive pitches before flying out to center.

Last night, in Game 3 before a Jacobs Field crowd of 44,402, it was more of the same for the Red Sox and for Indians reliever Rafael Betancourt, who has emerged in this best-of-seven series as the pit bull of Cleveland's pugnacious bullpen.

After taking the baton from Jensen Lewis to start the eighth, Betancourt, the righthanded opposite to The Other Raffy in Cleveland's bullpen (southpaw Rafael Perez), went to work and recorded a 1-2-3 inning against Youkilis, David Ortiz, and Ramírez to hand it over to closer Joe Borowski, who recorded a 1-2-3 ninth to put the finishing touches on a 4-2 victory that gave the Indians a 2-1 lead in the series.

"He's done it all year," said pitching coach Carl Willis of Betancourt, who has pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings of postseason relief (3 hits, 7 strikeouts). "He's got a lot of resiliency and he does everything he needs to do to take care of himself and prepare. And, on more nights than not, he's very efficient as well."

Although he seemed to overexert himself by throwing 42 pitches in Game 2, pounding the strike zone with a steady stream of fastballs, Betancourt knew another encounter with Youkilis awaited when he was summoned last night.

This situation was also perilous. So he mixed in a few breaking balls and a changeup.

"When I was facing Youkilis, I didn't want him to get on base," said Betancourt. "Because I knew David and Manny were going to come up to the plate with the tying run and they were going to look for the big bomb."

Betancourt retired Youkilis in another lengthy confrontation (eight pitches, five consecutive foul balls), striking him out on a changeup, then got Ortiz to line out to right field on one pitch, and induced Ramírez to pop up to second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera.

"I just tried to concentrate, pitch by pitch," said Betancourt. "After David swung at the first pitch and when you get two outs, that's when you get stronger and I finished that inning by getting Manny out."

Thirteen pitches. No hits. No runs. Three outs.

"You see those two guys coming to the plate, you just want to be able to pitch and just concentrate on those hitters," Betancourt said. "With nobody on base, I just threw those pitches where I wanted. It's a far different situation when you got somebody on base and they're the tying run."

"The bullpen, seventh or eighth inning, you get us there to set up for Joe, and I don't want to jinx it, but all year it's been almost a done deal," said Tom Mastny, who set down Ortiz, Ramírez, and Lowell in order in the 10th inning in Game 2. "We've had a solid run all year and you can't take anything away from what Raffy's done all year."

The only question that lingered, though, was whether he would be available to pitch tonight.

"I'll be ready," Betancourt said, somewhat defiantly. "It's the postseason. I'll be ready."

Said Willis, "You know what? He threw 13 pitches tonight, and that's after throwing 42 the other night. We felt like, if need be, we could get one out of him [tonight] and then we're off. For some reason, if he doesn't pitch [Game 4], he's got two days and then he's back to normal."