The World Series is upon us.  The opener is a mere day and a half away. 

The red-hot victors of 21 of their last 22 games, the Colorado Rockies oppose the Boston Red Sox, who in typical fashion, got down by 3 games to 1 to the  Cleveland Indians before roaring back to take the final 3 games and the AL pennant, outscoring the Indians by 30-5 in the process.

I will not even begin to venture a prediction of the series victors.  One can throw away the on-paper records for the entire season because this series comes down to who has the most heart and more stamina.

It comes down to who will be more adversely affected by rest, or lack thereof; the Colorado Rockies who charged from out of nowhere to catch San Diego for the wild-card, blew through the offensively potent Phillies and the Arizona Diamondbacks and then got 8 days off, or the Red Sox, who led the AL East for the entire season, cut through the LA Angels, charged back against the Indians and got 3 days off.

AP baseball writer Mike Fitzpatrick gives an excellent position-by-position analysis of both teams for Yahoo sports, although I disagree with his pick of the Red Sox in 5 games. 

As a lifetime Phillies fan, Future Hall of Famer Curt Schilling is one of my favorites, David “Big Papi” Ortiz and Manny Ramirez are fun to watch and I sure hope that Mike Lowell ends up at 3rd base for the Phils in 2008, but those children of destiny — the Rockies are full of young talent and are sentimental favorites.  It’s a tough call and a series to be watched as a fan of the game, not necessarily of either city.

It is too early and too hard to make a call in this series.  Let’s look again after the first two games — the Rockies need to win at least one of the first two in Boston to come back to Colorado for the next three. 

Starting pitchers for Wednesday’s series opener in Fenway Park are Rockies’ ace lefthander Jeff Francis vs Red Sox ace Josh Beckett.   Thursday’s game two pitchers are as yet undetermined.

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Well, I was half right.  Back in February, I predicted that the Phillies and the Boston Red Sox would oppose each other in the 2007 World Series.  I predicted wrong about the NL entrant.   But the Red Sox, after having disposed of the Cleveland Indians with a 7th game 11-2 pasting, will have to contend with the red-hot Colorado Rockies, who tore through the Phillies and the Arizona Diamondbacks to reach the Series.

Rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka went 5 innings and left with a 3-2 lead as Jake Westbrook was touched for single runs in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd innings before settling down to pitch 6 innings. The Red Sox held on to the lead despite single  Indians’ runs in the 4th and 5th innings and got insurance on 2nd baseman Dustin Pedroia’s 7th inning one out, 2 run shot.  A 6 run Red Sox outburst in the 8th inning put the game and the series out of reach.

Pedroia went 3 for 5 with 5 RBIs for the game including the 2 run homer and an 8th inning 2 out, bases-clearing double amidst the Red Sox’ 6 run explosion.  Both drives were hit off of Indians’ reliever Rafael Betancourt who was bludgeoned for 7 runs in 1 2/3 innings and should have been long gone rather than facing Pedroia a 2nd time.

AP Sports Writer Jimmy Golen recaps the game for Yahoo sports;

After digging out of a 3-0 hole against the Yankees in the  ‘04 ALCS, the Red Sox needed three straight wins to advance this time. The Rockies, who have won 10 in a row and 21 of 22, will come back from a record eight days off.

“The Rockies are on a magical run and we are going to have our hands full. We’re going to try and represent the American League the best we can,” Epstein said. “We haven’t grown up any since ‘04. That’s part of what keeps these guys so good. It keeps us all loose and we never stop believing.”

Colorado outscored Boston 20-5 in winning two of three during an interleague series at Fenway in June. The Red Sox did even better in winning the last three games against Indians, outscoring them 30-5 in that span.

Matsuzaka pitched five solid innings, and [Hideki] Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon each threw two scoreless innings in relief. Boston also got some help by a key blunder by an Indians base coach when Cleveland trailed just 3-2 with a chance to tie the game.

Franklin Gutierrez hit a sharp grounder over third base that bounced off the photographer’s box in front of the grandstand and into shallow left. But Skinner held up both hands for the speedy  [Kenny] Lofton, and the 40-year-old outfielder skidded to a stop.

Lofton looked back for the ball and, seeing it in no man’s land in shallow left, snapped his head back to stare at Skinner.

“The ball was behind me. It’s not my job. My job is to pick up the third base coach. He stopped me. I just got to do what he says. He’s the third base coach,” Lofton said.

Said Skinner: “The ball kicked off hard there and it’s hard to tell exactly where it is.”

“I’ve seen it bounce right back to the shortstop. When you have to make a decision and that’s what I did. The ball ended up a little deeper than I thought. But it was one out, runners at first and third. We were OK,” he said.

“We won three games in a row and they won three in a row,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said. “I’m disappointed, obviously, we weren’t able to finish it off.”

Westbrook settled down after spotting Boston a 3-0 lead, retiring seven consecutive batters.

In the 7th inning, Indians manager Wedge sent Betancourt to replace Westbrook.  AP Sports Writer Golen picks up the action from here;

Jacoby Ellsbury — another rookie — bounced a chopper through third baseman Blake for an error. After Lugo’s sacrifice bunt, Pedroia was up.

The diminutive second baseman, with eight major league homers to his credit, hit an 0-1 pitch into the first row of the Monster Seats to make it 5-2.  

He also doubled to clear the bases after Boston loaded them in the eighth against Rafael Betancourt.

With the score 5-2 in the 8th inning and Boston still catchable, no one else seems to be questioning why Wedge stayed with Betancourt to the tune of 6 Boston 8th inning runs.

MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan offers this explanation which just doesn’t seem to wash in the situation;

 Rafael Betancourt was a big reason why the Indians led 3-1 after four games. What happened to him over the final three games is part of what went wrong for the Indians.

Go back to Game 5 on Thursday when the Indians trailed 2-1 going into the seventh.  [C.C.] Sabathia had thrown 106 pitches, but Wedge sent him out to the seventh instead of bringing in Betancourt. Wedge said he did not want to use Betancourt for two innings, but the Indians had been off Wednesday and had another day off Friday.

Sabathia gave up a double to Dustin Pedroia and a triple to Kevin Youkilis. Wedge then went to Betancourt before David Ortiz’s sacrifice fly gave the Red Sox a 4-1 lead.

In almost the same situation in Game 7, Betancourt was brought in to pitch the seventh with the Indians trailing, 3-2. This time Betancourt couldn’t do the job. Pedroia hit a two-run home run off him in the seventh and the Red Sox scored five more off him in the eighth.

Despite Betancourt’s 5-1 regular season mark and 1.47 ERA, and his 8.1 innings of 2 hit, 8 strikeout, shutout ball in the post-season to that point; when a reliever gives up a 2 run homer in one inning and comes back in the next inning to get the first out before giving up a double, a single and a run in a game that is not yet out of hand — it’s time to make a move.  But Wedge stayed with Betancourt and the game did get out of control and beyond reach.

For the boxscores and recap on Sunday’s game, click here.

The World Series opens on Wednesday in Boston for the first 2 games, then switches to Colorado for 3 games with the final 2, if necessary, being played in Boston.  Pitching rotations have yet to be determined.

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Boston veteran Curt Schilling came up big in another post-season money game pitching a 7 inning 2 run, 6 hit gem and rightfielder J.D. Drew began an offensive onslaught (as well as his own career game finishing 3 for 5 with 5 RBIs) with a two-out bottom of the 1st inning grand slam as the Red Sox cut loose for a 12-2 shelling of Fausto Carmona and the Cleveland Indians to force a decisive 7th game in the ALCS.

Schilling, one of MLB’s all-time best postseason pitchers, posted his 10th post-season victory against 2 losses dating back to Philadelphia in 1993 as well as Arizona in 2001 and his heroic performance on a surgically repaired ankle for the Red Sox in 2004.

Sports Writer Jimmy Golen recaps the game with player comments for Yahoo sports;

“This was about our offense just doing a phenomenal job,” Schilling said. “J.D. Drew is a special player. I’m sure he’s not real proud of the year he had … but he is the definition of ‘even keel.’ I mean, he doesn’t snap. He doesn’t get too high, too low. He just goes up and he plays the game. And tonight, that wins the game.”

Drew has struggled to live up to the five-year, $70 million contract the Red Sox threw at him last winter even though no one else seemed interested in bidding. He was signed to protect David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez in the lineup, but manager Terry Francona dropped him from fifth to sixth in the lineup when he failed to deliver timely hits in the regular season.

Coming into the game, Drew was 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, 1-for-11 in the two series combined and just .237 with a chance for an RBI in 2007 overall. When he came up with the bases loaded in the first inning against Carmona, he delivered.

Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis reached on infield singles, and Ortiz looked at six straight pitches for a walk. Ramirez struck out, then Mike Lowell was out on a shallow fly to right, not deep enough to score Pedroia.

All Carmona needed was to get Drew.

“He almost worked through that inning, and then J.D. got him,” Wedge said. “And then things sort of dominoed on him. It just wasn’t in the cards for us.”

Drew hit a line drive into the camera box in straightaway center field to give Boston a 4-0 lead, raising one fist as he rounded the bases. Called back from the dugout by the same fans who had clamored for him to be replaced in the lineup, he gave a two-fisted wave.

“I’ve had a few of those in my career,” Drew said. “None here so far. But it was great. I think the atmosphere was great.

“It has been a tough year, my expectations are high. I didn’t have the year I would like to have, but I feel like I had a good September and started getting things turned around. Just wanted to go into the playoffs and have good at-bats.”

Drew came up again in the third after Ramirez and Lowell walked to start the inning and singled to center to make it 5-0 and spark a six-run inning that essentially ended it.

After stumbling in his previous outing, Schilling came back to show why he is considered one of the best postseason pitchers in baseball history. He gave up Victor Martinez’s solo homer in the second inning and otherwise held the Indians scoreless until Ryan Garko tripled and scored on Jhonny Peralta’s sacrifice fly in the seventh.

By that time, it was already 10-2.

But there was still time for one last redemption: Eric Gagne, the former star closer booed off the mound in previous postseason appearances, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

1st baseman Kevin Youkilis also had a 3 for 5 game while driving in a run.

For the boxscores and recap on Saturday’s game, click here.

And so the ALCS comes dfown to Sunday’s 7th game, a rematch between  game 3 pitchers; Cleveland’s 30 year old, 8 year veteran Jake Westbrook, who held Boston to 2 runs on 7 hits while walking 3 and striking out 2, and Boston’s rookie from Japan 27 year old Daisuke Matsuzaka who was pounded for all 4 Indian runs in 4 2/3 innings.

The Colorado Rockies wait in the wings for the ALCS victor and the start this week of the 2007 World Series.

For the boxscores and recap on Sunday’s game, click here.

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As was posted on this blog yesterday; “There’s still life in the Red Sox — it ain’t over ’til it’s over!”

Boston got a masterful 8 inning one run, five hit, eleven strikeout performance from their ace Josh Beckett, a two hit, 3 RBI day from 1st baseman Kevin Youkilis, 2 RBIs from dh David “Big Papi” Ortiz enroute to a life-sustaining 7-1 win over CC Sabathia and the Cleveland Indians in Thursday’s game 5 to drive the series back to Fenway park for at least game 6 on Saturday.

AP Sports Writer Tom Withers provides background and a recap of game 5 for Yahoo sports;

Josh Beckett, standing tall as ever on the mound, rose above it all — October’s biggest star.

Beckett dominated the Cleveland Indians for the second time and Manny Ramirez drove in the go-ahead run with a 390-foot single as the Boston Red Sox stayed alive in the AL championship series… in Game 5.

“Josh is unbelievable,” Youkilis said. “This year has been unbelievable for him and we hope he wins the Cy Young. He’s shown here in the playoffs why he should.”

Just the Red Sox being the Red Sox. They have plenty of practice at these postseason comebacks.

In 2004, Boston rallied from an 0-3 deficit to win the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees and went on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in four straight for its first World Series title since 1918.

The 27-year-old Beckett, who beat Cleveland in the opener, once again came through with the stakes at their highest.

The right-hander allowed only a run and three hits in the first, and only five total hits in eight innings. He struck out 11, walked one and was around the plate with almost every one of his 109 pitches.

Beckett went 16 2-3 innings without a walk this postseason before issuing one in the second.

“He’s got something others don’t have,” third baseman Mike Lowell said. “There is a different feel for us when he takes the mound. Time and time again he comes through.”

Beckett, who with each start carves his name deeper among the postseason pitching elite, is no stranger to comebacks.

In 2003, he pitched a two-hitter for Florida in Game 5 of the  NLCS as the Marlins rallied from a 3-1 deficit to eliminate the Chicago Cubs. Then, pitching on just three days’ rest in  Game 6 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium, he allowed five hits in a 2-0 win and was picked as MVP.

If the Red Sox can win two more, he might have another trophy for his mantle.

“We know what we have to do now,” said Beckett, 3-0 with a 1.17 ERA this October. “This is not where we want to be, but obviously, we’re inching closer to where we want to be.”

The Indians missed a chance to advance to the World Series for the first time since 1997, and will have to find a way to avoid being the latest Cleveland team to come close but not win it all.

Cleveland, which hasn’t won the Series since 1948, had won three straight to seemingly take control. But the Indians, trying to clinch a pennant at home for the first time, could do little against Beckett, who rarely shook off a sign from [Jason] Varitek and kept hitters guessing with a rocket fastball and knee-buckling curve.

Youkilis set the tone with a first-inning homer off C.C. Sabathia as Boston shipped the best-of-seven series back to the heart of Red Sox Nation to continue a season nearly canned for the cold New England winter.

Clearly, Ramirez & Co. cared.

“We made it happen,” Ramirez said.

For Sabathia, the Indians’ ace and leader, it was more disappointment. He allowed four runs and 10 hits in six-plus innings, his third straight sub-par performance this month.

Sabathia was angry with himself following Game 1 for not being more aggressive with Boston’s hitters, and when he couldn’t put David Ortiz away with two outs in the third, Ramirez made him pay.

A day after he rankled Red Sox fans by saying “Who cares?” if Boston were to lose, the enigmatic slugger struck back.

[In the 3rd inning] Ramirez sent Sabathia’s first pitch to center, where [Grady] Sizemore went back to the wall. But as he reached up, Ramirez’s shot caromed back onto the field.

Ortiz scored easily, but Ramirez, thinking his shot was long gone, was only rounding first when the Indians retrieved the ball. Boston manager Terry Francona argued it should have been a two-run homer, but after a brief meeting, the umpires kept Ramirez at first.

Slow-motion TV replays were inconclusive, and the ground rules at Jacobs Field state that a ball must completely clear the yellow line at the top of the wall for it to be a homer.

Whatever the outcome, it was Manny being Manny — again.

The funky, fun-loving outfielder irritated some of the Indians when he posed to admire a homer in Game 4, even though his 451-foot shot had only brought Boston within 7-3.

The Red Sox went up 4-1 and chased Sabathia in the seventh. After handing the ball to Wedge, the big lefty walked dejectedly to the dugout knowing he had missed a chance to get the Indians back to the Series.

“I don’t think we’re going into Boston on a downer,” he said. “I can live with this. I thought I made some good pitches.”

For the boxscores and recap on Thursday’s game, click here.

On Saturday, the Red Sox turn to future Hall of Famer Curt Schilling to win his 10th career post-season game against 3 losses (in 17 starts) in a rematch with 2nd year Cleveland starter Fausto Carmona in order to force the series to game 7.  Of course, the Indians would like to, as the saying goes, “put the BoSox out of their misery.”

For the boxscores and recap on Saturday’s game, click here.

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Since there was no game to report about on Wednesday, there are a potpouri of topics to discuss in the world of MLB.

Firstly, Boston and Cleveland return to action on Thursday in Cleveland as the Indians look to wrap up the ALCS in game 5 while Boston tries to stay alive.  Josh Beckett once again opposes CC Sabathia.

One of these two teams will oppose the historic white-hot, 21 of 22 Colorado Rockies in the 2007 World Series.

And you know that those Rockies, with 8 days off, must be chomping at the bit to get the Series under way.  After 11 years of frustration and with a lifetime .332 BA, first baseman Todd Helton knows that he’s been rewarded, that he’s finally in it.  And hot-hitting NLCS MVP leftfielder Matt Holliday, 3rd baseman Garrett Atkins, rookie shortstop Troy Tulowitzki as well as ace lefthander Jeff Francis, the two rookie starters Ubaldo Jimenez and lefthander Franklin Morales and closer Manny Corpas and whatever that substance that he’s using on his hands — they’ll all be there against whichever AL team wins the right to face them.

So who cares about Manny Ramirez’s casual off-field attitude? 

Maybe Manny simply sensed how this thing is going. Maybe he tried to portray looseness and had it come out wrong. The Red Sox don’t read as a team that could be talked out of the playoffs easily, not with Beckett and Curt Schilling coming, not when they’ve already mauled C.C. Sabathia once, not when one win gets them back to Fenway Park.

“We’re just thinking about Thursday,” Ramirez said. “Let’s see what the future is going to bring.”

As Yahoo’s Tim Brown writes; “He will show up with his bat and his act at game time Thursday, hitting as though he cares.”

Yep, Ramirez, David “Big Papi” Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, Mike Lowell, Dustin Pedroia will all be there with their hitting shoes on and Jonathan Papelbon will be there hoping to make the big save. 

The Indians, with their no-name offense which somehow gets it done game-by-game along with Sabathia, Fausto Carmona, Paul Byrd and closer Joe Borowski are up by three games to one but there’s still life in the Red Sox — it ain’t over ’til it’s over!

For the boxscores and recap on Thursday’s game, click here.

Back in the Bronx, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner is not pulling the plug in his customary knee-jerk-style on Joe Torre, but rather top team management has held two meetings with Torre.  But the  October 17 AP report states; “it was possible a decision would be made Thursday or Friday.”

Meanwhile, Bill Madden writes the following about the possible variables holding up a decision on Torre;

There are three ways to look at this non-announcement on a day in which Yankee legions had great expectations of a momentous decision coming out of Tampa — none of which would seem to bode particularly well for Torre. No. 1 is that either the powers-that-be — and in this case that would be Steinbrenner, his two sons, Hal and Hank, his son-in-law Felix Lopez, team president Randy Levine, chief operating officer Lonn Trost and GM Brian Cashman — really haven’t been able to come to a decision on Torre; No. 2 is that they have reluctantly decided to bring him back but are letting him sweat a little more, and No. 3 is they have decided to begin the Don Mattingly era but still need to figure out a seamless, kindly way to execute this transition.

The Phillies may have exited quickly in the post-season, but team members have already begun garning awards.  2nd baseman Chase Utley and centerfielder Aaron Rowand have been chosen to The Sporting News’ NL squad.  Shortstop Jimmy Rollins “barely missed making it three Phillies, losing out to [Florida’s] Hanley Ramirez.”

Meanwhile, Rollins, along with Yankees’ Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez were feted “winning the Oscar Charleston Legacy Award as the Negro League Baseball museum’s choice for the National League’s Most Valuable Player.”

MLB.com’s Ken Mandel writes;

An outstanding dynamic shortstop, Rollins played stellar defense and became the first player in history to record at least 30 stolen bases, 30 homers, 20 triples and 30 doubles in a season. He led the NL with 139 runs scored. The switch-hitter is a two-time Award winner, earning the Bell honor for leading the NL in stolen bases (46) in 2001, his rookie season.

“He’s done about everything a guy could do,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “I don’t know what else you could do, unless he wants to sell tickets and sell popcorn.”

Ryan Howard won the Charleston Award last year, and went on to capture the NL MVP Award the following month.

Manager Charlie Manuel may not get the manager of the year award, but
he did get “a contact extension that could keep him in red pinstripes through the end of the decade” and apparently a committment “to bump their payroll to a franchise high and ensure he has a contending team.”

Whether the Phils actually make good on their apparent payroll bump-up committment will be determined by such situations as whether the club can  come to sufficient terms insuring that Aaron Rowand returns in 2008, paying Ryan Howrd sufficiently, bringing in a capable 3rd baseman with pop and power such as Boston’s Mike Lowell, keeping midddle reliever J.C. Romero on the club, etc.

Mandel also reports that the Phillies will keep their coaching staff intact.  For the most part, I’m okay with that but I have real questions regarding the judgement to retain pitching coach Rich Dubee.

Dubee, 50, handled a club-record 28 pitchers this past season, seven of whom made their Major League debuts. The team also set a franchise record with nine different pitchers earning saves. He shepherded a staff that suffered injuries to starters Adam Eaton, Cole Hamels, Jon Lieber and Freddy Garcia and relievers Tom Gordon, Ryan Madson and  Brett Myers, among others. As a team, the Phillies had a 4.73 ERA, fourth-worst in baseball.

The number of pitchers who went down last season was incredulous.
With the exception of Garcia who was later found to be damaged goods from day one of acquisition, the number of pitchers hitting the DL last season was of such a magnitude that one must question Dubee’s excercise and conditioning methods.   Only Jamie Moyer, Kyle Kendrick who came up in June, and Romero went through the season without a stint on the DH. I cannot ever recall another pitching staff in all of MLB so devastated by injuries.

Finally, I think the Phillies best move is keep Brett Myers closing games.   There is a lot of talk about acquiring Mariano Rivera depending upon the Yankees’ stand on Joe Torre.  But my opinion; off of his performance last season and his career-high ERA, he just wasn’t normal Rivera.  If obtained by the Phils, he should be set-up with Myers remaining the closer and jettisoning Tom Gordon.

In closing, the Phillies announced that they were declining the options on utilitiy infielder Abraham Nunez, and catcher Rod Barajas.  Apparently, as things stand now, the club will go with Carlos Ruiz and Chris Coste as their catchers next season.

The off-season’s gonna be real interesting.  Stay tuned.

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Cleveland batted for 35 minutes in the 5th inning, lighting up the scoreboard in a 7 run explosion after Boston’s Tim Wakefield and Cleveland’s Paul Byrd had dueled tossing shutout ball at each other for the first 4 innings.

Boston then responded by leading off the 6th inning with back-to-back-to-back solo homers by 1st baseman Kevin Youkilis, dh David Ortiz and leftfielder Manny Ramirez, the first two off of Byrd and the third off of rookie reliever Jensen Lewis.  But that was all the offense the Red Sox could muster for the game as Cleveland won by a 7-3 score to take a commanding 3 games to 1 lead in the ALCS.

AP sports writer Tom Withers recaps the game and gives background for Yahoo sports;

Led by a throwback pitcher who looks as if he stepped out of their 1948 team photo, the Cleveland Indians moved one win from another crack at winning an elusive World Series title.

Pumping his arms with an old-school windup, Paul Byrd blanked Boston long enough and Casey Blake homered to start Cleveland’s seven-run rampage in the fifth inning…

Byrd found his unique windup almost by accident. Following shoulder surgery in 2002, he began swinging his arms, hoping the momentum it created might give him more velocity. After trying it out during batting practice, a few teammates told him they had a hard time picking up the ball.

That’s all he needed to hear.

Against the Red Sox, he even double-pumped a few times — once on a strikeout pitch to Ortiz.

“We want to put them away here,” Byrd said as Indians fans kept rocking after the final out. “That’s a great team over there. They can easily come back and win three. We’re taking absolutely nothing for granted. We’ll enjoy the win for now, but we want to put them away at home in front of these great fans.”

The Indians, who knocked out the New York Yankees and their monstrous payroll in the first round of the playoffs, now have the free-spending Red Sox on the ropes. Even three straight homers couldn’t rally Boston.

Blake homered leading off the fifth [inning] against Boston’s  knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who… had Cleveland’s hitters swinging at air for nearly four innings.

But in the fifth, helped by a dropped foul pop and a ball seemingly destined for an inning-ending double play that tipped off Wakefield’s glove, the Indians blew it open by hanging a seven spot on the scoreboard — just as they did in the 11th inning at Fenway Park to win Game 2.

Blake, Cleveland’s clutch third baseman who has hit several big homers this season, drilled an 0-1 pitch onto the home-run porch in left, a shot that seemed to awaken the Indians’ bats.

“I just didn’t want to look like an idiot,” Blake said. “I got lucky there, hit one on the barrel and that got us going.”

Franklin Gutierrez followed with a single and Wakefield plunked Kelly Shoppach. A groundout moved up Gutierrez, and Asdrubal Cabrera followed with a foul pop toward the photographer’s pit next to Boston’s dugout.

Youkilis, the first baseman, seemed to have it under control, but the ball squirted from his glove. Cabrera then hit a liner — a possible double-play ball — that Wakefield deflected and trickled behind the mound.

Wakefield struck out Travis Hafner, but Victor Martinez’s RBI single made it 3-0. That chased Wakefield, who lasted 4 2-3 innings — the third straight Red Sox starter to last exactly that long, all of them done after a Martinez single.

“You can’t go to the bullpen in the fifth inning three games in a row,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.

The down time seemed to hurt Byrd, who gave up back-to-back homers in a seven-pitch span to Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz to open the sixth before Indians manager Eric Wedge rescued him.

As Byrd walked to the dugout in favor of rookie Jensen Lewis, Cleveland’s towel-twirling fans saluted the 36-year-old…

Lewis gave up a homer to Manny Ramirez, who posed to admire his 451-foot shot, as the Red Sox became the first team in ALCS history to hit three straight homers.

They came too late as the Red Sox missed a chance to even the series and now must hope they can conjure up some of their 2004 magic when they came back from an 0-3 deficit.

A victory in Game 5 on Thursday night would send Cleveland back to the World Series for the first time since 1997, when the Indians lost a seven-game thriller to the Florida Marlins.

The amazing Colorado Rockies — are patiently waiting for an opponent.

And it just might be the Indians, who haven’t won a world championship since ‘48, when they beat the Boston Braves. Cleveland’s 59-year drought is only eclipsed by the Chicago Cubs, those lovable losers whose futility now extends to 99 years this fall after an early-October flame out.

These Indians are burning brightly.

“The scene switched in a blink,” Boston second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. “Everything is kind of slipping away, but we’re still playing. If we don’t win, we go home. We’ve got to get to the ballpark and get a win.”

For the boxscores and recap on Tuesday’s game, click here.

Boston and Cleveland have the day off on Wednesday before returning to action on Thursday in Cleveland as the Indians look to wrap up the ALCS in game 5 while Boston tries to stay alive. Josh Beckett once again opposes  CC Sabathia.

For the boxscores and recap on Thursday’s game, click here.

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