Helped by a freakish invasion of gnats that unsettled New York's rookie reliever Joba Chamberlain, Cleveland rallied to beat the Yankees 2-1 in 11 innings on Friday to take a 2-0 lead in their American League division series.
The best-of-five series will now move to Yankee Stadium for two matches, with the home side needing to win both to force a fifth game and retain hope of reaching the American League championship series.
New York went ahead in the second inning through Melky Cabrera's solo home run and held that advantage until Cleveland levelled off Chamberlain in the gnat-infested eighth.
PHOTO: AFP
In the bottom of the 11th, Kenny Lofton walked on four pitches against Luis Vizcaino and Franklin Gutierrez singled.
Casey Blake moved the runners up with a bunt before Grady Sizemore walked to load the bases.
Asdrubal Cabrera popped up in front of the plate to make it two outs before designated hitter Travis Hafner took a full count off Vizcaino before lining a shot to right-center to score the winning run.
A day after the Indians slugged their way to a 12-3 win, Fausto Carmona and the Yankees' Andy Pettitte put pitching back into the series.
Game 3 will see Jake Westbrook trying to pitch Cleveland to a sweep against veteran Roger Clemens.
Red Sox 6, Angels 3
In Boston, a Manny Ramirez home run with two outs in the ninth inning gave Boston a 6-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels and a 2-0 lead in their division series.
The Red Sox had earlier tied the game at 3-3 thanks to a front-row home fan who caught a tipped foul as it was falling into the glove of the scrambling Angels catcher Jeff Mathis. That prevented a third out in the fifth and Boston capitalized by getting the tying run later in the inning.
With that scoreline holding until the bottom of the ninth, Julio Lugo singled off losing pitcher Justin Speier and advanced to second as Dustin Pedroia grounded out at first.
Francisco Rodriguez relieved and struck out Kevin Youkilis, then intentionally walked David Ortiz -- his fourth walk of the game -- in the hope of retiring Ramirez and ending the inning.
"You've got pick your poison with those guys," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.
But Ramirez, who is coming off the worst offensive full season of his career, hit a 1-0 pitch over Fenway Park's Green Monster outfield wall and the seats behind it. It was his 21st postseason home run, one behind Bernie Williams' career record.
It was Boston's eighth consecutive postseason victory over the Angels, who blew a 3-1 lead in the 1986 AL championship series and got swept in the division series of 2004 when the Red Sox ended championship drought that had lasted 86 years.
Red Sox veteran Curt Schilling will face the Angels' Jered Weaver in Game 3 in Anaheim.
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) is considering reducing its pitch clock by two seconds to help players better adjust to the rules applied at the World Baseball Classic (WBC). The proposal aims to shorten the pitch timer from 25 seconds to 23 seconds with the bases empty, and from 20 seconds to 18 seconds with runners on base. Currently, the WBC mandates that pitchers deliver a pitch every 18 seconds with the bases empty and 15 seconds with runners on base. The issue was raised during a pre-season CPBL managers’ meeting on Tuesday by Rakuten Monkeys bench and batting
BELGIANS ADVANCE: Club Brugge gave Atalanta a lesson in efficiency, as Gian Piero Gasperini’s team had 29 efforts at goal, compared with seven from the visitors Seldom has a player’s sending off had such an influence on a game. AC Milan was to left rue Theo Hernandez’s second yellow card — for diving — as Feyenoord advanced to the UEFA Champions League last 16 at the former European champion’s expense with a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their playoff on Tuesday, giving the Dutch team a 2-1 win on aggregate. Bayern Munich, Club Brugge and Benfica also won their playoffs, eliminating Celtic, UEFA Europa League winner Atalanta BC and French team AS Monaco respectively. “In soccer everything changes in a second,” said Milan forward
‘SETTING THE TONE’: Donovan Mitchell said that their determination to dominate had nothing to do with past results, but was about a potential post-season clash The Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday boosted their NBA-best record with a 142-105 romp past the New York Knicks, tightening their grip on the Eastern Conference lead with an all-around dominant display. Donovan Mitchell scored 27 points to lead six Cavs players to score in double figures, connecting on five of seven three-pointers as Cleveland drilled 19 from beyond the arc. “I think the biggest thing was just try to set the tone early,” Mitchell said, adding that the determination to dominate had nothing to do with the Knicks’ first-round playoff win over the Cavs two seasons ago and everything to do with
RSS