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All for naught Indians rout Jays, keep hope alive ... for a few hours
CLEVELAND (AP) -- The charter plane waiting for the Indians at the airport never got off the ground. Neither did Cleveland's season. For the first time in six years, the Indians' season ended just as October was starting: Cleveland was eliminated from the AL wild card race on Sunday despite winning its final game. "We're playing well right now and that's what makes this tough," said Indians manager Charlie Manuel. "It's too bad we came up short." The Indians' season officially ended at 7:18 p.m. with sprinklers soaking the grass in an empty Jacobs Field and most of Cleveland's players already at home. They had kept their slim playoff chances alive with an afternoon 11-4 win over David Wells and Toronto, only to finish one game out when both Oakland and Seattle won their games. "I got a real empty feeling inside," said Manuel, who watched the West Coast games in his office. "I don't even feel like I'm going home. It will probably hit me later tonight." Cleveland is in a state of disbelief. Not only did the Indians lose the AL Central this season for the first time, but they're not going to the playoffs despite being the AL's best team after the All-Star break and finishing with 90 wins -- three more than the stumbling World Series champion New York Yankees.
"It hurts a little more because how well we've been playing," Manuel said. "I think we're a playoff-caliber team. But we had our chances. We had 162 games. But it seemed like we could never get over the hump. We got ourselves in a hole and we just couldn't get out." The Indians temporarily extended their season by at least a few hours when they pounded Wells (20-8), who lasted just 2 1-3 innings. But they still needed either the Mariners or the Athletics to lose on Sunday, and for a while it looked like both might go down. "I was pulling awfully hard," Manuel said. "But pulling awfully hard doesn't get it done." Manny Ramirez homered in perhaps his final at-bat for the Indians and Jim Thome, Sandy Alomar and Kenny Lofton added homers for Cleveland, which went 46-30 after the break. A few of the Indians players stayed around to watch the late games, cheering anything positive done by the Texas Rangers or Anaheim Angels. When the Angels took an early 2-0 lead, some of the Indians seated in front of the big-screen TV cheered. Others couldn't bear to watch. "This is nerve-wracking," Omar Vizquel said. "It's probably tougher to watch this game on TV than to be in any game I've ever played." The Indians had made travel arrangements for four cities, and a charter plane, tentatively headed to Seattle at 10 p.m. EDT, was waiting for them had the Mariners lost and forced a playoff. But the equipment bags stacked near the door weren't heading to the airport after all. "Either way, I'm still proud of this team," Travis Fryman said. "You can use any adjective you want to describe character and they would apply to this team. We beat the best teams and the best pitchers we had to, and as a team, that's all you can do."
Ramirez is eligible to become a free agent, and David Segui, Sandy Alomar and Kenny Lofton are all in the final year of their contracts. Ramirez's situation is the most troublesome. He and his agent have already turned down a $75 million, five-year deal from the club. Indians owner Larry Dolan has promised he'll make a final offer to Ramirez, who seems to drive up his price with every at-bat. In the seventh, with one fan holding a sign saying, "Uncanny Manny" and more than 42,000 chanting "Man-ny, Man-ny", Ramirez connected for his 38th homer -- a 452-foot shot that rattled through the trees in a picnic area beyond center field. "I was just lucky," said Ramirez as he left Jacobs Field for maybe the last time on a golf cart. "So long." As Ramirez came out for a curtain call, Dolan smiled and leaned back in the chair in his luxury suite. "That was great theater," Dolan said. Alex Gonzalez and Tony Batista homered for the Blue Jays (83-79), who dropped their final four games. Thome's three-run homer, his 37th, chased Wells in the third inning. The line drive into Toronto's right-field bullpen gave the Indians a 7-2 lead and gave Cleveland fans reason to believe that there might be some healing at the end of this injury-marred season after all. But even the final out of the season had fans worried when Fryman collided with reliever Ricardo Rincon. Fryman remained on the ground for several moments after getting his wind knocked out. "I was thinking, 'Oh, God, I thought I was going to make it through the season without getting hurt,"' Fryman said. Wells came in with a 17-3 career mark against Cleveland, going 4-0 against them in the postseason and beating them twice this year. But the left-hander lost to Cleveland for the first time since June 22, 1997, and probably lost any chance of overtaking Boston's Pedro Martinez in the Cy Young balloting. "He wasn't really feeling good, he wasn't on top of his game," said manager Jim Fregosi. "But he went out and gave it all he had. He's got a cold and a little bit of the gout." Steve Woodard (3-3), who beat Martinez on Sept. 20 in one of many must-win games the Indians played down the stretch, gave up a two-run homer to Gonzalez in the first before retiring 17 in a row. Woodard's performance -- four hits in 5 2-3 innings -- allowed Manuel to save ace Bartolo Colon and Dave Burba for a possible playoff game. In the final 13 days of the season, the Indians beat Wells, Martinez and Roger Clemens -- three pitchers who have dominated them. "We did everything we could, beat the best teams and beat the best pitchers," Fryman. "It's not in our hands any longer." Notes: There were signs all over the ballpark addressed toward Dolan on Ramirez's future. Among them: "My Granny Said Pay Manny" and "Manny Please Stay, Dolan Please Pay." ... Roberto Alomar finished the season with an 18-game hitting streak. ... Wells missed a chance to tie the Blue Jays' club record for wins in a season. Jack Morris and Roger Clemens each won 21 games for Toronto. ... Cleveland led the majors in attendance for the first time since 1948. And their 3,456,278 led the AL for the second straight year.
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