Red Sox have history of comebacks, but not much else

With his unorthodox windup, Paul Byrd has been more than effective this postseason. Elsa/Getty Images

MAILBAG Comments, questions or obviously unfounded criticism? To e-mail Donovan, use the form below. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

World Series Coverage   Monday John Donovan: Rox, Sox built to last Albert Chen: Ellsbury an unlikely hero Joe Sheehan: Scenes, notes from clincher Red Sox celebrate World Series victory Sunday Sox clip Rockies 4-3 to win World Series John Donovan's Report Card for Game 4 Jon Heyman's 15 Greatest Mr. Octobers Lowell takes home Series MVP honors Dynasty in the making for Red Sox? Clock strikes midnight for Rockies' ride Time.com: Red Sox are the new Yankees Saturday Red Sox down Rockies 10-5, take 3-0 lead John Donovan's Report Card for Game 3 Tom Verducci: The Sox are superior John Donovan: The Coors Field factor Jon Heyman: Four keys to Game 3 Friday Melissa Segura: Corpas gets his wish John Donovan: Rockies' lumber slumber Jon Heyman: How the Sox got Beckett Joe Sheehan: Electric night at Fenway Thursday Schilling, bullpen shut down Rockies 2-1 John Donovan's Report Card for Game 2 Tom Verducci's five cuts for Thursday Albert Chen on the Red Sox's bullpen John Donovan: Rockies turn to a rookie Joe Sheehan: Postseason drama lacking Tale of the Tape: Rockies vs. Red Sox World Series Fungoes Joe Lemire on Rockies-Red Sox Schedule/Box Scores Game 1: Red Sox 13, Rockies 1 Game 2: Red Sox 2, Rockies 1 Game 3: Red Sox 10, Rockies 5 Game 4: Red Sox 4, Rockies 3

CLEVELAND -- We are barreling, baseball fans, toward one bizarre World Series, an unprecedented matchup of smallish markets and smaller payrolls, a mishmash of no-name rosters in a Fall Classic that will be, almost certainly, a TV ratings dud.

That's not all bad. And, anyway, we're not quite there. The one team that can change all of that just happens to have pulled off the most famous back-from-the-dead act in the history of playoff baseball.

You can't count out the Red Sox. No matter how sorry they've looked in the past week.

Still, if you're tired of the Yankees and seen enough of the Sox -- and a lot of fans outside of the East Coast fit firmly into that category -- this World Series to-be is headed right for your wheelhouse. The upstart Indians, who already have taken care of the Yanks, are a game away from knocking out the Sox after a convincing 7-3 win here Tuesday night gave them a 3-1 lead in the first-to-four American League Championship Series. A World Series with the National League champion Rockies is that one slim win away, a possible Fall not-quite-Classic that will give baseball its eighth different Series winner in the past eight years.

Thank Paul Byrd for the possibility. Thank an underrated Cleveland lineup that won't let an overrated and dog-tired Boston rotation off the hook. Thank the Indians' steely bullpen, and a couple of nice bounces Tuesday, and the Indians' bearded third baseman Casey Blake. Thank shy shortstop Jhonny Peralta.

Whatever you do, realize this: The Indians are feeling it. It's going to be hard to stop them now.

"We don't get intimidated by anybody," said the Indians' superb switch-hitting catcher, Victor Martinez. "We're just making sure we give it a pretty good ride. And we've succeeded so far. It's amazing."

The Indians bolted to their sixth win in eight tries this postseason -- not quite Rockies-like, but not bad -- by punching around Boston starter Tim Wakefield and jumping on reliever Manny Delcarmen in a seven-run fifth inning. Wakefield hadn't pitched since Sept. 29, but his knuckleball handcuffed the swinging Indians early; he struck out seven in the first four innings.

Blake, the slight and bearded one, changed things in the fifth, pulling a 65 mph papillion down the left field line to start the inning. From there Wakefield and the Sox simply imploded.

Wakefield gave up a soft single down the left-field line. He hit a batter. His normally sure-handed first baseman, Kevin Youkilis, flubbed a foul popup down the first-base line. (Youkilis later would drop a pickoff throw, the first error he's had in 2007.) Indians second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera hit a surefire double play ball toward second base -- but Wakefield deflected it and the ball dribbled behind the mound for a run-scoring infield single.

Martinez drove in another run by taking a low knuckler almost out of the dirt and squeezing it through the left side of the infield. And then Boston's Delcarmen, who had given up one hit in three postseason appearances, left a 95 mph fastball up and on the outside part of the plate that Peralta drove into the seats in right, a three-run homer than gave Cleveland a 7-0 lead.

"He's very dangerous," Boston manager Terry Francona said of Peralta, who is 6-for-17 (.353) with a par of doubles and two homers the ALCS, "and we're finding out."

The 36-year-old Byrd never has been accused of being scary, but he made the start for the Indians on Tuesday and delivered his second Houdini-ish outing of the postseason. Byrd breezed through the first four innings without giving up a run, but staked to his 7-0 lead, he served up back-to-back home runs to Youkilis and David Ortiz in the sixth. Cleveland manager Eric Wedge went to his bullpen, which gave up an immediate home run to Manny Ramirez -- strutting, strangely, down the line -- but that was it.

With his quirky over-the-head double-pump windup, Byrd looks like a colorized version of some Gashouse Gang newsreel star. But his style, if you want to call it that, has been effective in the postseason. In his two starts, Tuesday against the Red Sox and in Game 4 of the AL Division Series last week against the Yankees, he has thrown 10 innings and given up 14 hits. But he's won both games.

"I didn't really expect to strike anybody out," said Byrd, who struck out four. "[But] I had a good fastball. I hit 90 mph, which happens a few times a year. I high-fived a couple of guys in the dugout and said, 'Hey, pick me up here, I just hit 90.'"

Said reliever Jensen Lewis, who gave up the final home run, to Ramirez: "[Byrd] has won two huge games for us. The guy's a warrior. He just goes after every pitch. He changes speed, he puts the pitch he wants in a good location. He's got that funky delivery, so he's kind of hard to pick up. He's been great for us."

After a day off, the Indians (ranked No. 23 in payroll) get their first chance to close out the ALCS on Thursday -- and make their reservations for the Series against the awaiting Rockies (No. 25) -- when ace C.C. Sabathia squares up against Boston ace Josh Beckett. That's going to be a difficult win for the Indians; Beckett is 2-0 with a 1.20 ERA in two starts this postseason.

But, if the series heads back to Boston for the final two games, the Indians get a go against Curt Schilling and, if the Red Sox force a Game 7, Daisuke Matsuzaka. Both of those pitchers have been beaten, and badly, this postseason. In fact, with Wakefield's poor outing Tuesday, the Sox have not had a starter get into the fifth inning in their past three games. The other two were pitched by Schilling and Matsuzaka.

It's the first time this season that the Red Sox, who allowed an AL-best 4.06 runs a game this season, have had three straight outings from their starters of less than five innings.

Sure, the Indians have a ways to go against a Boston team that won 96 games this season. And the Sox, as if anyone could forget, were down 0-3 in the 2004 ALCS to the Yankees before pulling an historic turnaround.

"We know. We're up 3-1 but that doesn't mean anything," Martinez said. "You better finish them up."

The Indians are close. It's going to be hard to stop them now.