Posted at 5:40 p.m., Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Indians beat Red Sox, on verge of World Series berth
By Tom Withers
Associated Press
Pumping his arms with an old-school windup from yesteryear, Paul Byrd blanked Boston long enough and the Indians used a seven-run rampage in the fifth inning to beat the Red Sox 7-3 today for a 3-1 lead in the AL championship series.
The Indians, who knocked out the New York Yankees and their monstrous payroll in the first round of the playoffs, now have the free-spending Red Sox on the ropes.
A victory in Game 5 on Thursday night would send Cleveland back to the World Series for the first time since 1997, when the Indians lost a seven-game thriller to the Florida Marlins.
Another Series first-timer — the amazing Colorado Rockies — are patiently waiting for an opponent.
And it just might be the Indians, who haven't won a world championship since 1948, when they beat the Boston Braves. Cleveland's 59-year drought is only eclipsed by the Chicago Cubs, those lovable losers whose futility now extends to 99 years this fall after an early-October flame out.
