CLEVELAND — Casting their line far and wide across New England and beyond, the Boston Red Sox have reeled in any number of baseball “experts,” like sabermetrician Bill James, in its attempt to land a World Series victory.
However, Game 3 of the American League Championship Series may have decisively proved that the big one that got away is Warren Buffett, a man who knows something about getting maximum value from an investment.
While Jake Westbrook’s $6 million salary is nothing to sneeze at, it is a relative pittance when compared to the $103 million package that Boston dropped on Daisuke Matsuzaka to lure him from Japan. But Monday night at Jacobs Field, with a sellout crowd reveling in the irony, it was the pauper who came out on top.
For the better part of his 6 2/3 innings, Westbrook, he of the 6-9 regular-season record, and a 10.80 postseason ERA, was better than good. And when he faltered, the Indians’ bullpen was again dominant. The end result was a taut 4-2 win that gave Cleveland a 2-1 advantage in the best-of-seven series.
“What he did against that lineup was just incredible,” third baseman Casey Blake said of Westbrook. “He threw with so much more confidence than in his last game.”
Making his first-ever postseason appearance last week against the Yankees in the divisional playoffs, Westbrook gave up six runs on nine hits, lasting just five innings. The dismal performance was mainly the result of too many pitches winding up too high in the strike zone. But on Monday the 30-year-old more than rectified that problem – 15 of the 20 outs Westbrook recorded came on ground balls, including three double plays.
“You always know you’ve got a good chance to have a good day with Jake putting the ball on the ground the way he was,” Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. “Obviously they’ve got a good lineup over there, but Jake did a good job controlling the ballgame.”
That was never more important than in the sixth inning. Although ahead 4-0, Westbrook was in trouble, giving up a one-out single to Kevin Youkilis, then walking David Ortiz. That brought up Manny Ramirez. And while the sellout crowd lustily booed the former Indian every time he left the visiting dugout, they certainly knew that the slugger was quite capable of changing the tenor of the game with one swing.
So did the Indians.
“I was thinking that the chance of them coming away with no runs was pretty slim,” Blake admitted.
But that’s exactly what happened. While Ramirez indeed hit a rocket, the ball went straight to shortstop Jhonny Peralta, who deftly turned it into a 6-4-3 double play.
“I can’t say enough about the defense behind me tonight,” said Westbrook, a first-round draft pick of the Rockies in 1996. “I mean, it was fun to be a sinkerball pitcher tonight.”
As has been the case throughout this “Revenge of the small-market postseason,” there’s a sense of pleasure to be derived from watching the big guys take it on the chin.
Earlier in the series, Indians general manager Mark Shapiro admitted he really wouldn’t know what to do if he suddenly found himself with an $81 million windfall – the difference between Cleveland’s payroll and the Red Sox’s, whose tab will run an estimated $143 million this season.
As it turns out, he may not have to worry about it. Instead, it’s Boston GM Theo Epstein, manager Terry Francona and the rest of the Bosox brain trust who are fretting at this point, unable to pump any more cash into a pitching staff that, save Game 1 winner Josh Beckett, looks perilously close to caving in.
With Matsuzaka and moldy Curt Schilling and his $13 million salary falling short the last two contests, tonight in Game 4 the Red Sox will turn to 41-year-old knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who wasn’t even on the team’s roster for the division series against Los Angeles.
“There’s still work to do,” said Blake, “but I like where we are right now.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
