CLEVELAND — When David Spade, Jon Heder and Jon Lovitz are the focal point in the clubhouse instead of David Ortiz, Josh Beckett and Manny Ramirez, you know you’re in a pretty good place.
So it is for the Cleveland Indians, who spent part of Wednesday afternoon huddled en masse in front of a plasma television watching, not game tapes, but rather “The Benchwarmers,” a film about a gritty, gutty group of underdogs who want to take it to the big boys.
Hmm … art imitating life, perhaps?
“Even though we’re ahead, that’s the way we have to feel, like we’re still underdogs,” first baseman Ryan Garko said.
The Indians may not be able to play the role for much longer. A victory tonight at Jacobs Field in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series would send the team to a World Series date versus the Rockies.
While Cleveland’s advantage does appear mountainous, there are a few factors that could allow Boston to whittle away at its 3-1 deficit. First and foremost is the Red Sox have Josh Beckett on the mound. The only Boston starter in the series to get through the fifth inning, Beckett went six in a 10-3 Game 1 win.
The 27-year-old has allowed just two runs in 15 innings this postseason. Against Los Angeles in the division series, he hurled his third career playoff shutout, just one shy of Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson’s all-time mark. That output has fostered Beckett’s growing reputation as a big-game pitcher, but the right-hander says postseason success is grounded in plain-old everyday basics.
“I don’t view this start any differently than I would my fifth start of the season,” Beckett said. “You have to execute more pitches now because everybody is locked in at this time of year. There aren’t too many people playing in the middle of October that aren’t doing some things right.
“You’ve just got to make adjustments. I think that’s what I’ve done so well this year, making adjustments within at-bats.”
If the Red Sox win tonight, they would get to return home for the sixth and possibly seventh games of the series. It would also certainly foster talk of the pressure then shifting back onto Cleveland, having to clinch at Fenway Park after missing out on an opportunity to close things out at home.
The Indians looked pretty comfortable at Fenway last weekend, especially in a seven-run 11th inning that provided the 13-6 win in Game 2 which may have turned the series completely around.
“It’s not about where we play or who we play, it’s about how we play,” Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. “Regardless of regular season, postseason, home or away, who we’re playing, it’s about what we do to prepare. It’s about what we do in regard to how we compete against ourselves and going out there and just trying to play good baseball.”
The Red Sox trailed only the Rockies and Baltimore in fielding percentage during the regular season, but they’re the team that has appeared flustered as the series has progressed. First baseman Kevin Youkilis didn’t make an error all year, but committed his first in Game 4 when he let an easy pickoff throw get away. He conceivably could have had another earlier in the contest when he staggered and bobbled and dropped a foul pop fly that helped the Indians en route to their seven-run fifth inning.
Along the same vein, Boston has appeared increasingly anxious at the plate. As a team the Red Sox are hitting .270 in the series, but 17 of their 37 hits have come from Youkilis, Ortiz and Ramirez.
ALCS pitching matchup
Red Sox pitching. The hullabaloo over whether Josh Beckett could have, or should have, pitched for Boston in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series is over. Now the right-hander can try to add to his status as one of baseball’s best postseason hurlers. Beckett, 27, is being asked to stave off his team’s elimination. He got Boston off to a good start in the series, going six innings in a 10-3 victory. If Beckett continues to do what he has done in the playoffs – 4-2 record, 1.87 ERA and three shutouts – the legend will grow more.
Indians pitching. After leading baseball in innings pitched and winning 19 games in a legitimate Cy Young bid this season, C.C. Sabathia has looked ordinary in the playoffs, getting shelled by the Red Sox and Yankees. Sabathia said Wednesday that the problem isn’t fatigue, but rather losing command of his fastball on both sides of the plate. In Wednesday’s bullpen session, Sabathia said he worked on staying taller – at 6-feet-7, he’s already imposing enough. If Sabathia can once again make his pitches look as if they’re descending from Mount Olympus, he might even be able to outduel Beckett.
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
