Shaky team tries to keep the faith

CLEVELAND - They will forever be able to dig down deep for inspiration from the 2004 American League Championship Series, at least the players who were there to witness it. The ones who weren't are certainly aware of the story, of the comeback from 0-3, and that should be inspiring enough.

The counter to that would be that Dave Roberts, Pedro Martínez, Orlando Cabrera, and Johnny Damon aren't walking through that door any time soon. The players who replaced them in Boston must play their parts to perfection.

No, the ALCS is not over, not by a long shot. And the Red Sox are trying to keep their composure as they head into Game 4 tonight down, two games to one.

It's fair to say the Sox look shaky after last night's 4-2 loss.

It's also fair to say the Indians seem to have them a little wobbly, not quite staggering, but wobbly, and tonight part of the impetus to get them to stand up tall lies in the hit-or-miss nature of Tim Wakefield's dancing knuckleball.

"I'd give him the ball in any situation," said Sox reliever Mike Timlin of his longtime friend. "He's a professional. He knows how to pitch in any situation. Whatever the situation, he goes out and plays ball."

While Wakefield will have to play the role of stopper, he'll have to do it against a very confident team that's playing where it loves to play, The Jake, where their fans have taken to booing Manny Ramírez.

Trot Nixon's game-winning 11th-inning hit in Game 2 has resonated throughout the Indians clubhouse and given them a confidence that perhaps they didn't have before.

They needed someone to step up and give them a well-pitched start last night, and Jake Westbrook did that, inducing 14 ground ball outs and three double plays in 6 2/3 innings. He did what C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona have been unable to do.

"We needed it," said manager Eric Wedge. "Our bullpen has been working hard. That was a close game throughout. You needed to make pitches and you needed to get two-out hits. We got all of those things."

The Indians bullpen has been very good. Closer Joe Borowski has not wilted. He has not blown a save and he has looked very effective, especially last night when he preserved a two-run lead in the ninth.

"It's the way it's worked around here all year," said Borowski. "The guys in front of me have done a great job and they get to me and you have this crowd on its feet, how can you go wrong? The last thing you want to do is let down for these people. I come in full of adrenaline and full of determination. If you can't feed off of this, you're not alive."

First baseman Ryan Garko had a similar refrain.

"We have to take advantage of being home," he said. "We feel very comfortable here. We're relaxed. We're letting it all hang out.

"We got some good swings against Daisuke [Matsuzaka] tonight. He's a heck of a pitcher, but we were able to do tonight what we weren't able to do the last time we faced him. We didn't come up with the big hit at the right time. Tonight we did.

"Kenny [Lofton's] two-run knock was huge for us. That allowed the whole team to come out and relax."

The ability to relax was a common theme. Timlin didn't think the Red Sox were exhibiting that.

"It's not fun to lose, and maybe we need to tighten up a few things," Timlin said. "They got key hits, and even though we seemed to hit the ball well tonight, hits that might get in on some nights didn't get in tonight.

"The thing is we need to come here and have fun. This is the playoffs. This is a time to really enjoy what we've done all season. We need to have fun winning. Maybe we're too tense. I don't know. But we need to think of this as baseball. That's what it is."

There are certainly things of concern.

The last two starts, by Curt Schilling and Matsuzaka, have not been very good. At least not playoff-good. After last night's game, Matsuzaka sat for the longest time with hands over his head at his locker, despondent, with nobody around him. He was outpitched by Westbrook. This has to be tough for the first-year player who won 15 regular-season games but has been very shaky in two postseason starts.

The offense can be too reliant on Ramírez and David Ortiz, and it's evident they need others to step up. The Sox got nothing from leadoff man Dustin Pedroia, who went 0 for 4 and is now hitting .167 over three games. They are not getting power - with the exception of Jason Varitek's two-run homer - from the middle of the lineup. J.D. Drew went 1 for 4 last night, but the Red Sox desperately need power from him in the No. 6 spot and they are not getting it.

Wakefield might be everything Timlin said he is, but he has also been struggling with back/shoulder issues. He was kept off the Division Series roster because he needed the extra rest to heal. His side sessions have been effective, but they are side sessions.

A loss tonight would send the Sox into a potential final game here Thursday. They have to win three of the next four games, and they'll have to do it with Wakefield, Josh Beckett, Schilling, and Matsuzaka. Beckett has come up big, and there's no reason to believe he won't continue to pitch at a high level.

But he is due to have an outing where he doesn't have his best stuff. Sabathia and Carmona have already gone through it, but they failed early in the series and their team came away from Fenway Park with a split.

The main pitchers out of the Sox bullpen - Timlin, Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima - all did fine work after Matsuzaka. But by that time, the horse was out of the barn. It's imperative in a series such as this that you get quality starts. The Indians stole one with Carmona pitching poorly. But last night they deserved to win because Westbrook was excellent and he got the Red Sox batters out with his bread and butter: the sinker.

"There are guys on this team who have been down a lot worse than 2-1," said Sox infielder Alex Cora, referring to '04. "This is a team that's not going to be hurt by that. We're not going to say, 'Oh my God, we're down, 2-1, what are we going to do?' and throw our hands up and give up.

"We have to win a game or two here so we can bring this back to our ballpark. Everyone has a lot of faith in being able to get that done."