ALCS Game 6: A Game for the Ages

I'll cut to the chase: the 1995 Cleveland Indians will be representing the AL in the Cloverland Series against the 1906 Chicago Cubs. Cleveland defeated and eliminated the 1939 New York Yankees in a see-saw Game 6 that went to the 17th inning before it was decided.

The Yankees staked Steve Sundra to a 1-0 lead on a leadoff triple by Red Rolfe and a single by King Kong Keller. Sundra and Charles Nagy, starting in place of injured Chad Ogea, traded zeros until the 4th, when Cleveland broke out for 5 runs, punctuated by a three-run home run by Yankee-killer Manny Ramirez. Facing elimination, Yankee manager McCarthy brought in Marius Russo to try and limit the damage.

New York came back in their next at-bats, scoring three to pull to within 1 of the Indians. Further trouble for Nagy in the 6th brought in Paul Assenmacher from the bullpen, but that did not prevent a Bill Dickey sacrifice fly from scoring Frank Crosetti with the tying run. A parade of further Cleveland relief pitchers worked in and out of trouble, but the Yankees just couldn't plate another run.

Meanwile, Russo worked 5.1 innings of two-hit relief. Oral Hildebrand came on with two on in the 10th and nobody out, and induced a double play from Kenny Lofton to keep the Yankees hope alive. Albie Lopez came in to put down a New York rally in the 13th. Cleveland nearly put the Yankees away in the 15th, but Manny Ramirez was thrown out trying to score on a ground ball to Crosetti.

Leading off the 16th, Keller hit a line shot home run into the right field stands. The still-packed stands fell silent hoping against hope the Indians could respond. Respond they did with one out in the 16th, as Carlos Baerga tied it up with a solo home run. And on to the 17th the game went.

Finally in the 17th, the game reached its climax. Eddie Murray opened the inning with a single, but Hildebrand, in his 8th inning of relief, struck out Ramirez and Paul Sorrento. As Tony Peña stood in, most spectators were probably thinking about the next inning. Peña refocused their attention by smacking a double down the left field line and scoring Murray on a close play at home. As suddenly as that, it was over and Cleveland was going to the Series.


Notes: The Yankees were victims of bad baserunning, both in cases where I had a choice to send or not send runners, and in cases where I had no choice. It's something of a problem with the game itself, though in theory it should even out. But it certainly felt like the Yankees got the short end during this series.

The ALCS MVP, much as it pains me, is Manny Ramirez. He finished with "only" a .286 average, but 2 HR, 7 RBI, and a .667 SLG. Dennis Martinez would be another plausible candidate (2-0, 0.56 ERA), but Manny's performance in Game 6 plus some outfield assists he made (even given the previous point) swung me to give him the vote.

This is the first time the Yankees won't be in the Series. They faced the '06 Cubs in Season 1, and defeated the 1934 Tigers in the playoffs en route to their shocking ouster by the 1897 Beaneaters in Season 2. They also were present in Season 0, the season I did with Strat-O-Matic cards back in the mid-80's, defeating the 1953 Dodgers to win that Series.