Cleveland Newspapers: The Collapse Joins The Fumble, The Drive and The Shot

Rough Monday morning for Cleveland sports fans, but hey, the Browns didn't lose yesterday and the Buckeyes are #1. Here's the reaction around from the area newspapers...

Nightmare ends Cleveland Indians season: "This magical season is over. The team that tied Boston for the most wins in the majors, the team that thrilled us with an unexpected playoff victory over the Yankees, is prematurely done. For now, file this one away among the city's sports failures, a list of heartbreaks that's getting way too long. We know the pains by name: Red Right 88, The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot, Game 7, The Sweep. It's quite a resume of suffering, but - let's be honest here - we've had ample time to build it. This town last celebrated a championship with the Browns in 1964. The Indians? The champagne's been chilling since 1948. But this year . . . oh, it should have been different.


Walks defined starting pitching in ALCS: "Baseball has really dropped the standard for pitching, as three runs in six innings is considered a "quality start." Well, Jake Westbrook was the only Tribe pitcher in this series to do it. He did it twice, including the two runs in seven innings he allowed in Game 3. He walked four (one intentional) in 13 innings. Compare that to C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Caromona, who combined to walk 16 in 16 1/3 innings. If you look at Boston, Josh Beckett had only one walk in 14 innings of his two victories. Curt Schilling didn't walk anyone in 11 2/3 innings against the Tribe. And Daisuke Matsuzaka didn't walk anyone in Game 7 in five innings. So Boston's four victories, its starting pitchers walked only one in 26 innings! Why were the Indians in so much trouble in this series? Because Jake Westbrook was their best starting pitcher."

Game 7 flukes not the problem; outscored 30-5 is: "Forget the decision to hold Kenny Lofton at third base in the seventh inning. Forget that Lofton was called out at second on a drive off the wall when replays showed he was safe. Forget a lot of that stuff. Because when a team has a chance to close out a series after being up three games to one and is outscored 30-5 in those three games, well, it's not meant to be."