Indians beat Yankees to reach championship series

NEW YORK: The Cleveland Indians strung together a stirring regular season and now they are working on an equally impressive Major League Baseball playoffs.

Paul Byrd allowed two runs and eight hits in five-plus innings and the Indians advanced to the American League Championship Series with a 6-4 win over the New York Yankees on Monday.

"I just tried to battle and get ahead and make them hit my pitch," Byrd said.

Grady Sizemore homered and Victor Martinez drove in a pair for the Indians, who won the best-of-five AL Division Series three games to one.

"I played the same way I had been all year," Sizemore said. "We knew this would be a tough atmosphere to play in."

Byrd struck out two and walked two while throwing 52 of his 77 pitches for strikes.

He worked his way out of trouble in each of the first three innings, getting fly outs with runners in scoring positions each time.

"I faced these guys a lot so they know what I bring to the table. They have a great team," Byrd said.

The Indians will travel to Boston for Game One of the American League Championship Series on Friday.

While that decision paid off, Yankees manager Joe Torre's decision to start Taiwan's Wang Chien-ming on three days rest for the first time in the righthander's career failed miserably. Wang lasted just over an inning and allowed four runs and five hits.

Including a disastrous Game One outing in which he allowed eight runs in 4 2/3 frames, Wang closes out the ALDS with a 19.06 ERA in the series.

AFP

(China Daily 10/10/2007 page24)