CLEVELAND - The idea was to pass "Go" and win a trip to Blake Street in Denver for a rendezvous with the Colorado Rockies in the 103d World Series. Instead, the Red Sox have stumbled into Bleak House in Cleveland, and they're running out of time to find their way out.
The Cleveland Indians are one game away from booking their own World Series plans, beating the Sox a third straight time, 7-3, last night to take a three-games-to-one lead in the American League Championship Series.
Any clinching party will have to wait a day. An added quirk in the TV-dictated scheduling has given the teams a night off before they resume play tomorrow night, with Josh Beckett all that stands between the Sox and elimination. Thirteen times a team has trailed in the ALCS, 3-1; it is of some small comfort to the Sox that the last two teams to come back and win both wore Boston uniforms: in 2004 (when they won four straight against the Yankees after losing the first three), and in 1986, when the Sox rebounded against the Angels, Hendu's home run the catalyst to that comeback.
"I think a lot of times you're a dangerous team," said first baseman Kevin Youkilis, whose glove betrayed him during the Indians' seven-run fifth-inning uprising that broke a scoreless tie. "For us, we want to go back home. You're dangerous when you have nothing to lose - throw all your guys out there and try to win one game."
Terry Francona's decision not to use Beckett on short rest and entrust Game 4 last night to Tim Wakefield looked splendid for four innings, with Wakefield working on a one-hit shutout. It blew up on him in the fifth, when Casey Blake took Wakefield deep to open the inning. Thirty-five minutes later, the Indians had their second seven-run eruption in this series. They scored seven runs in the 11th inning of Game 2, and they sent a dozen batters to the plate in the fifth last night.
"It happened quick," said Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia. "A lot of things. It was weird. Pop fly to Youk. He kind of slipped, then I slipped, and kind of ran into him. Ball just bouncing everywhere. A lot of things went on that didn't go our way tonight."
Three consecutive home runs in the sixth by Youkilis, David Ortiz, and Manny Ramírez scored high on the "wow" meter - only the second time in postseason history that happened - Ramírez punctuating the feat by hitting his 451 feet to the farthest reaches of center field. That the Red Sox were still trailing by four runs at the time did not deter Ramírez from striking a pose at the plate.
