Nice Of The Indians To Show Up

It might have taken a while to discover it, but it turns out, the Yankees didn't just lose last night; the Indians — the other team, the ones in the darker jerseys — actually won. They weren't just there; they weren't just reacting to the Yankees. All told, they had a lot to do with the series win.

For all the talk about Joe Torre and Alex Rodriguez and Chien-Ming Wang, the reason the Yankees lost this series is because the Indians were amazing with runners in scoring position and had three outstanding starting pitchers. In retrospect, it seems odd that everyone assumed Paul Byrd was going to get hammered last night; we know wins are a counting stat, but you still don't win 15 games by being totally incompetent. Cleveland had as good a series as you could hope a team to have; the surprise, perhaps, is not to that the Yankees lost, but that the Yankees pushed it to four games.

So the Indians move on, and we are all saved the Drama To End All Dramas that is a Red Sox-Yankees ALCS. For that, Cleveland, we suppose we must thank you.

Torre's Run [Fair And Foul]