[cknox0723]

You know, all's we need is for (catastrophe) to happen two more times, and then we'll be the Other Sox.

Except thunder doesn't crash and lightning don't strike, not this time, not this year.

Loaiza gave up the lead in the sixth and then clouds my already-clouded mind further by giving us a seventh-inning baserunner with a sharply-hit one-out single to left-center. Angel Berroa boots Ramon Vazquez's hard-hit bouncer, a rather unassuming error that allows one to assume much more this late in the juncture. But Scott Podsednik continues to make me look silly for trading for him, hitting an easy bouncer to second instead of driving in runs. Only his catlike quickness saves us from an inning-ending double play, but even that becomes irrelevant, as "Buddha" Ordonez, supposed superstar, grounds to first to end the inning.

We failed. But Loaiza soldiers on unfazed, pitching a one-two-three seventh, and much to my amazement, I look up at the scoreboard and see that Baltimore right-hander Steve Woodard did the same, pitching out of a seventh-inning jam against Boston.

Cleveland starter Carmona and Loaiza match each other with quick, ground-ball filled eighth innings; elsewhere, Jorge Julio was bailed out not by Proven Closer (TM) Mo Rivera, who's saved seventy-six in his three years in MD in this universe, but by the man trying to earn his stripes in the relief ace role, 26 year old Jacobo Sequea. If his breakthrough performance this season (68 IP, 56 H, 18 R, 25 BB, 72 K, 2.16 ERA) is any indication, "Tremolo" will be a good one. If Sequea's grand test was an eighth-inning save situation, with Manny Ramirez on first base, Kevin Millar batting followed by Garciaparra, two batsmen who have accounted for about 200 of Boston's 700 runs this season, then he aced it. The first sacker whiffed on three pitches, the third being a 95 mile an hour fire-breather, and Garciaparra bounced the second pitch to third baseman Bautista. Boston's lesser lights were just as blinded by the brilliance of "Sequea Trees" in the ninth, and even if the Pale Hose can mess things up, the fourth straight loss by the Other Sox has all but sealed their playoff fate.

Back in the Second City (actually, since we are playing at Cleveland, it is more like the Fifteenth City), Joe Roa had all but sketched out his ninth loss of the season, entering in the bottom of the ninth of a ballgame that was still 2-2 and throwing a fat one to "Odysseus" Gerut, who smashed it deep into the outfield night. The only reason the game didn't end there was because right-center stretched on for a little while. But one base hit in three tries still would have ended it, with Gerut straddling second after his long hit. When Roa's 1-1 sinker to Ben Broussard didn't drop but a tear or two, it looked as though Cleveland would only need that one try. Broussard stung the unsuccessful pitch like mosquitoes to my arm, smacking a howling line drive right past the right of the mound. Tearing towards third was Gerut, and how Vernon Wells would ever throw him out at home, I don't know. We'd have to wait another day to clinch our playoff spot.

Except the ball never got into center field. The incomparable "Gumby" Kennedy had Broussard shaded up the middle just a bit, but even that couldn't explain how he timed his reflexive face-first dive towards second base just right so that the ball somehow met the webbing of his glove. I doubt he could explain it, either, even if he was more than a few bits of code; maybe Juan Uribe would know, but he's hitting .170 in Seattle now.

Doubling Gerut off of second was the easy part; retiring pinch-hitter Brad Snyder was just a formality. I knew immediately after reading the play-by-play line "Kennedy dives...AND MAKES THE CATCH!" that I had just seen something. Despite effectively skipping a month and a half of this season by simming it, despite taking as long as it has to complete the year and despite not finding the new "Hacktastic Julio", I'd found whatever I'd been searching for with this team. It was an imperfect something -- never made more evident than the top of the tenth, when the supposed piece that was to put us over the top destroyed another inning, grounding into a fielder's choice to eliminate Ramon Vazquez's leadoff walk and then getting thrown out trying to steal second. That's the **** that Podsednik was not supposed to do; he's the guy that should be able to steal when everyone knows he's going to run, and he's the guy that should be able to hit when we know that Ordonez is going to hit into a double play and Wells and Munson are going to strike out. He hasn't been, and to boot he cost us a brilliant pitching prospect.

But here we are anyway, nine games over .500 with just a couple to play, on the verge of the playoffs. Ain't nothing going to stop us...certainly not Corey Patterson's double off of Akinori Otsuka in the bottom of the eleventh of a game that's still two-two. The catcher Martinez bloops one into left-center and if it falls, the game's probably over. Instead, Podsednik swoops in -- I guess he's good for something -- and makes the catch. Otsuka retires the young up-and-coming outfielder Grady Sizemore, and after passing over the reliably mediocre first baseman Broussard, "Aki" ends the inning for good by striking out the journeyman Brad Snyder.

Brian Meadows, a soft-tossing 31 year old journeyman, shows how he can sometimes earn his keep by pitching a one-two-three 12th inning, though Ramon Vazquez does make a long and loud third out. Otsuka does a quick and dirty dance after a quick and clean one-two-three inning, bringing on the thirteenth frame of a game that is still 2-2.

Cleveland goes to the 34 year old veteran Armando Benitez with Podsednik, Ordonez, and Wells due up in the thirteenth, figuring that he will be more likely to have success against our three best hitters than a pitcher who gives up a hit per inning. Benitez's ERA is safely over six, but predictably enough he strikes out "Pods" and "Buddha", who would infuriate me with their incompetence but for the painful memories of Joe Borchard in the outfield.

Plus, I barely have the time to process the back-to-back strikeouts before Vernon Wells steps in.

"Backstop Martinez is pounding his glove as center fielder Vernon Wells steps in, batting one-for-five today. Benitez hit the outside corner with his stinky cheddar for strike one to both Podsednik and Ordonez, and from Victor's setup it looks as though that's where he'll aim at for a third straight batter. The right-handed Wells taps the plate, wags the bat forward one, and carefully settles in as Benitez comes to the set. The right-hander kicks and delivers a heater, Wells hacks and puts a charge in it, deep to right field! Going back is Gerut...but he's run out of room. You can...PUT IT ON THE BOARD...YESSSSSS!"

27 year old PJ Bevis, a Rule 5 draft pick one year ago, pitches the bottom of the thirteenth, retiring pinch-hitter Franklyn Gutierrez on a fly out to left and then turning the trick again on "Mr. September", center fielder Corey Patterson. Victor Martinez falls into an 0-2 hole, fouls off a pitch and then takes one low, and then takes one that he shouldn't. It's a called strike three, giving the Pale Hose win number eighty-five and the wild card spot.



CHW 3 CLE 2 (13)

WP: A. Otsuka (4-6)
LP: A. Benitez (5-6)
S: PJ Bevis (4)

Game Ball Goes To... The bullpen. Only fitting that they'd pitch five scoreless innings in the game that clinched our playoff berth.