Indians at Yankees, Game Four

With a win, the Indians wrap up the first playoff round and advance to the LCS to battle the Red Sox for the right to represent the American League in the LCS. However, if the Yankees win then a Game Five is forced for Wednesday evening on the shores of Lake Erie, and Indians fans can pray for more midges.

Finally some October drama.

The starter tonight for Cleveland is Paul Byrd, whose career #s against the Yanks: 1-4, 4.44 ERA in 48 innings over eight starts. And that includes a 0-2, 3.46 ERA in 26 innings over four starts at Yankee Stadium. His ERA in September: 5.21 over 38 innings. His 15-8 record on the season was greatly assisted with the help of the explosive Indians’ offense, which provided him an average of 5.42 runs per game. Of course, he’s facing any even more explosive offense in the Yankees’.

Luckily the Indians scored eight runs in less than five innings off of Chien-Ming Wang in Game One, so this Game Four has the makings of a high-scoring affair.

Unfortunately, for a recent historical perspective, the Indians had the Red Sox on a similar 2-0 rope in the 1999 LDS before being trounced in the next three games by a combined 44-18 score. Surely, Indians fans have short memories, and that playoff series is way in the past, right?

Victor Martinez gets the start at first tonight, forcing Ryan Garko and his 1.136 OPs through the series onto the bench, where he provides a threat for any late-inning clutch situations. This means Kelly Shoppach and his .472 season slugging percentage- and .133 career batting average against the Yankees- is behind the plate for Byrd. That’s exactly the type of move that results in unexpected playoff heroics and makes the manager look like a genius. So my money is on Shoppach for the tie-breaking ninth-inning single. The other line-up move by Wedge is to start rookie Franklin Gutierrez in place of Trot Nixon, who erased both of his RBIs with his two-run error in yesterday’s game.

For the Yankees, defensive master Doug Mientkiwicz, who’s been held hitless in five at-bats, returns to first base and bats ninth, moving Matsui, Cano, and Cabrera up one spot in the line-up.

This game will decide if 2007 will be like 1999 all over again. Discuss.