Red Sox on brink of elimination

CLEVELAND, Ohio: The Cleveland Indians moved to within a game of the World Series on Tuesday after Jhonny Peralta's three-run homer helped dump the Boston Red Sox 7-3 in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series.

Cleveland, with a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven ALCS, can wrap up the pennant with a Game 5 win at Jacobs Field on Thursday and return to the Fall Classic for the first time since 1997.

National League champions the Colorado Rockies await the winner of the ALCS after booking their World Series spot with a four-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Tuesday's game featured one of the most unusual pitching duels seen in the postseason with Cleveland's Paul Byrd, the crafty right-hander with an old-fashion windup, up against Boston's befuddling knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

Byrd, who was on the mound for the clincher of the AL Divisional Series against the New York Yankees, improved his postseason record to 2-0, allowing two runs, both solo homers, on six hits in five innings of work.

"It's an amazing feeling," Byrd told reporters.

"I've never been this close (to a World Series) before. We want to put them away here on Thursday. That's a great team over there that could easily win three straight."

Cleveland made the breakthrough in the fifth, with Casey Blake slamming a leadoff homer to spark a seven-run explosion.

Asdrubal Cabrera and Victor Martinez followed Blake with RBI singles, chasing Wakefield from the game. Peralta then greeted reliever Manny Delcarmen by driving a three-run blast over the wall.

Blake capped the Cleveland burst by scoring Kenny Lofton with a sharp single to center, becoming just the 11th player in League Championship Series history to record two hits in an inning.

"He (Peralta) is very dangerous and we're finding that out," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona.

"I know I'm stating the obvious, it was the big blow in the game. If we can stop the bleeding right there it certainly gives us a much better chance. But we really dug ourselves a big hole."

The Red Sox rallied in the sixth with three consecutive solo home runs from Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez to trim the Cleveland advantage to 7-3.

It marked just the second time in the Major League postseason that a team had hit back-to-back-to-back homers.

But the Red Sox rally would fizzle after the sixth, Rafael Betancourt providing two innings of scoreless relief to seal the win for the Indians.

The Red Sox will have 20-game winner Josh Beckett on the mound for Game 5 in a bid to send the series back to Fenway Park for Games 6 and 7.

Agencies

(China Daily 10/18/2007 page24)