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Indians score seven in 11th to even series

Oct 14, 2007 - 7:30 AM By Tom Covill PA SportsTicker Staff Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) -- For the second night in a row, the battle between outstanding starting pitchers never materialized, so a pair of top-notch bullpens stared each other down until an old hero had a chance to ruin the party.

Trot Nixon drove in the winning run with a single in the top of the 11th inning to lead the Cleveland Indians to a 13-6 victory over the Boston Red Sox in Game Two of the American League Championship Series that lasted 5 hours, 14 minutes.

Franklin Gutierrez capped a seven-run explosion in the 11th frame with a three-run homer for the Indians, who evened the best-of-seven series at one game a piece and return home to host Game Three on Monday.

"We showed some resiliency," Nixon said. "To start something up in the 11th inning, it's kind of ridiculous to be playing at 1:30 in the morning, but you don't get these opportunities too much."

After C.C. Sabathia and Josh Beckett, who combined for 39 wins in the regular season, hooked up in Game One, Cleveland sent 19-game winner Fausto Carmona to the mound against Curt Schilling, whose 1.93 postseason ERA was the best in history. Both hurlers were coming off outstanding starts in the ALDS but neither lasted long Saturday.

Carmona didn't get an out in the fifth, being charged with four runs, four hits and five walks. Schilling, staked to a 3-1 third-inning lead, lasted just 4 2/3 innings, allowing five runs and nine hits.

"Everything about this one falls on me," Schilling said. "We put together a great inning to take a lead, and I forced our bullpen into a situation. You're asking your bullpen to put up a lot of zeros and it's not fair.

"It's about me coming up small in a big game," he added.

Nixon was drafted by the Red Sox in the first round in 1993 and spent his entire professional career with the organization before signing with Cleveland as a free agent in the offseason. The 33-year-old outfielder was a member of the 2004 World Series winning team and therefore will have a place in the hearts of

Red Sox Nation for the foreseeable future, though that stance may have softened some on Saturday.

The lefthanded hitter came up with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning with two runners on. Boston countered with lefthanded reliever Javier Lopez, who started Nixon off with a ball before the former Red Sox drove a single into center field to snap a 6-6 deadlock.

"If anyone knows this ball park, it's Trot Nixon," Lopez said. "He knows the atmosphere here and he wasn't intimidated by any means and he looked relaxed. I've had the experience of facing him before and I threw a good pitch and he put enough barrel on it to get it into the outfield and give his team the lead."

"I knew they had a couple of lefties left in the bullpen, I was just excited to get a chance," Nixon said. "Lopez can be difficult on lefthanders. He's a submariner. I just shortened up and put enough bat on the ball and snuck it in. It wasn't hit that well."

The floodgates opened for the Indians after that, as they piled on six more runs in the frame for a blowout win.

"We always say it's better to be lucky than good sometimes and with Trot, that's one thing you can say, he got the ball to get in there," Boston first baseman Kevin Youkilis said. "Trot's a tough out and we never like to see him up there in that situation but it's tough, tough to lose that game."

"Trot hadn't faced a lot of lefties in quite some time, but he had a good at-bat and it unravelled from there," Boston manager Terry Francona added. "A frustrating end to an exciting game.

Eric Gagne (0-1) was charged with the loss after surrendering a walk and a hit before yielding to Lopez. Gagne, who was acquired at the trading deadline in July to stabilize the bullpen, had a 6.75 ERA in 20 appearances with Boston before the playoffs and had been resigned to mop-up duty before coming into Saturday's tie game.

The Red Sox looked to be winning the battle of two strong bullpens before the 11th-inning meltdown, with four relievers combining for 5 1/3 scoreless frames before Gagne was charged with two runs, Lopez charged with three and lefthander Jon Lester charged with two in the 11th.

The Indians' bullpen combined to toss 6 2/3 scoreless innings after Rafael Perez yielded back-to-back homers in the fifth inning.

Tom Mastny (1-0) pitched a scoreless 10th for the win.

Both teams had their chances to win in the ninth, with the Indians missing an opportunity to drive in a run from second base with Ryan Garko at the plate and reliever Rafael Betancourt winning a 12-pitch at-bat with Youkilis to end the Red Sox's threat in the bottom of the frame.

"It's just one of those things," said Youkilis of his line drive. "You do everything right and sometimes it doesn't pay off. There's a lot of luck involved in this game. You get on top of that ball just a little bit more, you get on top of it. You can sit here and be the Monday morning quarterback."

"We took home-field advantage back," Garko said. "We're going back in front of our fans. It's huge, especially with Curt Schilling on the mound. We know how good he is and what a great postseason pitcher he is. We knew it would be a tough test tonight so it will be a nice plane ride home."

Betancourt pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings before yielding to Mastny, who did what has been nearly impossible for pitchers so far this postseason, retiring David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell in order to extend the game to an 11th frame.

Ramirez homered in the fifth to tie the game at 5-5. It was his 23rd career postseason home run, making him the all-time leader. Lowell then followed with a solo blast, putting the the Red Sox back on top, 6-5.

Cleveland came back to tie the score, 6-6, in the sixth when Gutierrez grounded out to score Peralta from third. Peralta hit a three-run homer in the fourth for a 4-3 lead.