The Boston Red Sox's comeback from two games down, which was finalized on Sunday night with an 11-2 thrashing of the visiting Indians, added to an already rough playoff history for Cleveland. The Indians had dreams of returning to their first World Series since 1997, when they were two outs away from winning Game 7 before blowing the lead and losing in the 11th inning. They seemed well on their way, with a split at Fenway and wins in Cleveland in Games 3 and 4. But the Indians could not close out the Red Sox, who made another miraculous comeback to earn the AL pennant. In honor of the Indians 'heartbreaking loss, we present the Top 10 Tribal Tragedies from the ALCS.
10. Papelbon's Dance: The Indians must have wanted to see an encore of Jonathan Papelbon's now-legendary dance, which he performed after the Red Sox clinched the AL East. The Sox closer did not disappoint, boogying down with the Dropkick Murphys and teammate Kevin Youkilis.
9. Dice-K's Two Nations: Cleveland has to fight for fans within its own state (against the Cincinnati Reds, so not a big fight, but still...) The Red Sox, however, had two nations behind them. With Dice-K and Hideki Okajima, Boston had Japan in their fan column to go along with their own Red Sox Nation.
8. J.D. Drew's Slam: The Indians just got flat-out unlucky with this one. At any other at-bat with J.D. up in a clutch situation, he would either swung at a curveball in the dirt and look really bad doing it, or would have done the my-bat-is-glued-to-my-shoulder routine for three strikes. But in the ominous Game 6, J.D. finally earned his $13 million salary with one swing of the bat - a first-inning grand-slam that brought back memories of Troy O'Leary in the 1999 ALDS for Tribe fans.
7. The Bugs: Someone forgot to crop-dust Jacobs field with sugar water in the Sox series, because the bugs didn't come on cue in Game 5 to annoy Boston into defeat. Or can only Joba blow a game because of bugs?
6. Rafael Betancourt's meltdown: The previously unhittable reliever must not have gotten his proper dose of steroids in Game 7, as he gave up seven runs in one and two-thirds innings to blow any chance of a Cleveland comeback. Maybe he should have asked teammate Paul Byrd if he had any extra prescription HGH lying around.
5. Kenny Lofton: Forty-year-old Kenny may still have his speed, but apparently he's lost his composure on the basepath. Is his eyesight too poor to see that Manny Ramirez had not even gotten to the ball when he was rounding third in the seventh? Or were his feelings still too hurt by Josh Beckett to concentrate on running the bases?
4. Sabathia and Carmona: The big guns just didn't fire for the Indians. These two guys shut down the Yankees and combined to go 38-15 with ERA's just over 3.00 in the regular season. Carmona lasted just two innings in Game 6 and gave up seven runs, while Sabathia managed six innings but gave up four runs to get the loss in Game 5.
3. White Towels: The only towels in Fenway were those used to wipe the champagne from the faces of the victorious Red Sox. Boston may have heard the tribal roar and been distracted by the white helicopter army in Cleveland, but in Fenway the tide, not the towels, turned.
2. Garko's Fateful Words: Garko added some bulletin board material to fire up the Red Sox after Game 5, when he said that "The champagne tastes just as good on the road as it does at home." Maybe he should ask some of the Sox players if they agree.
1. Kevin Millar's Cowboy Up: It wasn't enough for the Sox to have one 2004 playoff hero, Bill Mueller, return to throw out the first pitch in Game 6. They had to pile it on and bring Millar back to do the honors in Game 7. Don't think the Red Sox were not planning this one. They brought back the man behind "Cowboy Up" to ruin things for the Indians. Yee-haw!
-by Tim Judson and Ethan Landy
