A team of destiny: 2007 Cleveland Indians

The Cleveland Indians celebrate on the field after clinching the 2007 American League Central Division Title with a 6-2 win over the Oakland Athletics at Jacobs Field on Sunday, September 23, 2007. [1] Photo by Andrew/Flicker.

John Butler jbutle58@lakers.mercyhurst.edu

SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – In 2007, the Cleveland Indians put together one of the most memorable seasons and postseasons in the clubs one-hundred-twenty-one-year old history making it to game seven of the 2007 ALCS. But nobody thought it was possible except two men in particular – General Manager Mark Shapiro and Manager Eric Wedge.

Shapiro and Wedge drafted, signed, or received high quality talents from trades during their tenures with the Cleveland Indians from 1991-2015 and 2003-2010 respectively. The two’s partnership resulted in drafting CC Sabathia, Jhonny Peralta, Fausto Carmona (Roberto Hernández) and Ryan Garko. They signed Casey Blake and Victor Martínez while also inking Kenny Lofton at the 2007 trade deadline for the AL Central Division and playoff push. Regarding trades, four big splashes rounded out the core of this very exciting team which were Jake Westbrook, Travis Hafner, Cliff Lee, and Grady Sizemore. On June 27, 2002, the Indians received Sizemore, Lee, Brandon Phillips, and Lee Stevens from the Montreal Expos for Bartolo Colon and Tim Drew. [2] This made the club much younger as they already had phenomenal starting pitching in rookie of the year candidate CC Sabathia. Also, do not forget about the signing of Joe Borowski. And the two Rafael’s. Perez. And Betancourt. Lastly, without utility and role players and rookies, Jason Michaels, Kelly Shoppach, Trot Nixon, and early August rookie call up Asdrúbal Cabrera then the club does not win the division. The ballclub meshed perfectly which included an above average starting pitching staff led by Sabathia and Carmona, got timely hitting from Martínez, Hafner, Blake, Peralta, and Sizemore, and had three fantastic relievers nobody wanted to face. That was the recipe for success and Wedge’s Indians did that and even more in 2007.

The ballclub come into the 07-season coming off a disappointing 78-84 finish the previous year. Wedge managed the Tribe to an eighteen-game improvement with a 96-66 record tied for the best mark in the AL. Cleveland’s record was eight games better than the Detroit Tigers who went 88-74. [3] And the Indians were headed to host its first home postseason game since the 2001 ALDS Game 4 against the historic 116-46 Seattle Mariners. But 2007 seemed to be Cleveland’s year because everything fell into place so beautifully…until it didn’t.

The Indians had a date with their hated rivals, the New York Yankees in the 2007 American League Division Series. With the spark of huge swings from everybody in the lineup except Franklin Gutierrez while getting five long but batted tested frames from Sabathia sent 44,608 at Jacobs Field home happy. The Indians took an ever-important win in Game 1 of the series; however, it would be a daunting task to repeat facing clutch postseason pitching performer Andy Pettitte. Wedge sent rookie sensation and sinker baller Fausto Carmona (Roberto Hernández) to battle Pettitte and the Yankees.[4] Carmona went 19-7 .704% 3.06 ERA GS 32 GC 2 SHO 1 IP 215.0 BB 61 SO 137 ERA+ 148 FIP 3.94 WHIP 1.209 AVG .248 in the regular season. [5]

From the get-go Carmona and Pettitte were in a classic pitcher’s duel. Through the first seven and a half innings only one run was scored on a Melky Cabrera solo homer into the lower concourse in right in the top of the third. Cleveland had baserunners in almost every inning against Pettitte but he dug deep to get out of six jams and that’s why he’s paid the big bucks.

In Game 1 the Indians were 5 for 8 with RISP resulting in a lopsided 12-3 victory but when Pettitte exited the game in the seventh for rookie phenom Joba Chamberlin, the Indians were 1 for 10 with RISP. [6] [7] Chamberlin got Pettitte of the hook by escaping trouble by producing a Casey Blake fly ball to Bobby Abreu in right.

Carmona kept a low pitch count through seven giving him a chance to go back out for the eighth. He made quick work of Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, and Doug Mientkiewicz. Before Sizemore walked to the batters box, midges invaded Jacobs Field that caused a short delay since the umpires sprayed OFF on Chamberlin’s cap and let the Yankee infielders spray it on their uniforms and ball caps until the end of the game. Once Chamberlin recollected himself, the Indians gained a sliver of momentum. Chamberlin walked Sizemore. Threw a wild pitch. Sizemore advanced to second. Two pitches later, Cabrera bunted Sizemore over to third with less than two outs. Then, Mientkiewicz caught a smoking liner off Hafner’s bat. It looked like the Yankees would get out of a seventh jam. But on a 1-0 count to Martínez, another pitch went to the backstop and it ricocheted back to Jorge Posada who threw it to Chamberlin covering where Sizemore slide into him. This tied the game at 1 which provided hope to a ballclub that had been shooting themselves in the foot all evening long.

Wedge let Carmona finish what he started and had to retire the meat of the Yankees order. Carmona with bugs all around his face sent down Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter immediately but allowed an infield single to Abreu. The go-ahead run was on with two outs with the two-time AL MVP Álex Rodríguez stepping to the plate looking to be the hero. Carmona and A-Rod had a nine-pitch battle resulting in Carmona striking him out with his nasty sinker. This rookie showed phenomenal poise in his first postseason start against the dangerous lineup that he never feared by doing this: IP 9.0 H 3 R 1 ER 1 BB 2 SO 5 HR 1 on just 113 pitches. [8]

The Indians had all the momentum going into the home half of the ninth, however, they had to start a rally against future Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera. Mo dazzled the bottom part of the order with his devastating cutter. Rafael Perez relieved Carmona where he retired the middle part of The Bronx Bombers lineup. In the tenth, Mo escaped a bases loaded two out jam and this October Classic went to the eleventh. The Yankees had no answers to Perez going one. Two. Three. With Mo not pitching the bottom frame, Torre summoned Luis Vizcanio giving Cleveland an opportunity to walk it off. Lofton and Gutierrez reached on a walk and single respectively. Blake sacrificed them over ninety feet. Vizcanio intentionally walked Sizemore to load the bases. Unfortunately, Cabrera popped out and yet again the Indians were blowing scoring chances away until Hafner hit a liner into right center and Lofton walked to home plate sending Jacobs Field into a euphoric frenzy. This game had everything. A fantastic pitcher’s duel. A swarm of insects. A Hafner walk off. And a rockin’ Jake.

The emotional victory over the Yankees put the Indians up 2-0 with the series heading to New York. Cleveland could not finish them off in Game 3 but clinched a date with the 96-66 Boston Red Sox in the ALCS after winning Game 4 6-4. The celebration began on the infield at the “House That Ruth Built” in the last postseason game at Old Yankee Stadium. What the Indians did in the ALDS against the Yankees always goes unnoticed since they literally ended the Yankee dynasty, Joe Torre left to manage the Los Angeles Dodgers, and forced George Steinbrenner to relinquish ownership power to his two sons, Hal and Hank Steinbrenner. Talk about how losing a series can have a domino effect for one organization. The Indians had a collection full of talented and decent ballplayers but the Yankees were loaded with Jeter, Hideki Matsui, Abreu, A-Rod, Posada, Cano, Cabrera, Damon, Rivera, Pettitte, Chamberlin and probably had the largest payroll in Major League Baseball but were out in the ALDS.

The 2007 ALCS featured the top two teams in the American League in the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox. Boston was three years removed from winning their first World Series in 86 years who were determined to win a second title in as many years. It was Cleveland’s first trip to the ALCS since 1998 when they fell short 4 games to 2 to the Yankees.

Red Sox right-handed starter Josh Beckett dominated the Indians on the mound leading them to a 10-3 win in Game 1. Cleveland evened the series by taking an ever-important Game 2 13 to 6 in eleven innings. This shifted the momentum to the Indians with the ALCS heading to Jacobs Field in Cleveland. The highlight of those two games was when Kenny Lofton poked a 0-0 fastball off Daisuke Matsuzaka to the top of the rightcenterfield wall. [9] It was just out of the reach of J.D. Drew. Wedge’s ballclub took the the two games giving them a commanding 3-1 lead and Terry Francona and the Red Sox were one loss away from being eliminated. But this club had been there before when three ALCS’s ago they became the first and still only team to comeback down 3 games to none.

Francona turned to big game postseason pitcher Beckett to start Game 5 and with a little help for that night’s National Anthem singer he produced this stat line: IP 8 H 5 R 1 ER 1 BB 1 SO 11 HR 0 on only 109 pitches. [10] [11] Again, facing elimination in Game 6, arguably the greatest postseason pitcher of all time Curt Schilling took the mound going seven strong innings letting the Red Sox live another day. On Sunday, October 21, 2007, the Boston Red come out swinging hard against Jake Westbrook and the Indians resulting in a 11-2 route to claim the pennant. Just five days ago the Indians needed one victory for at the time first World Series Appearance in fifty-nine years but one bad hitting display against Beckett snowballed into playing sloppy baseball for the final two games of the series. The problem was that there was a scheduled off day between games four and five which helped the Red Sox and most defiantly hurt the Indians. If the teams play on Wednesday, October 17, 2007, Cleveland wins the pennant and 103rd Fall Classic over the Roctober Colorado Rockies. But we need to remember that hindsight is 20/20 and we’ll never know how the series would have played out without a day off in Cleveland.

Unfortunately, this team could not live up to their potential in 2008 or ever again (The 2016 Indians won the AL Pennant and lost in Game 7 of these 2016 World Series) because of injuries, trades, and the Curse of Rocky Colavito. With the Indians below the .500 mark during the late stages of the first half of the 2008 season, Mark Shapiro dealt CC Sabathia to the Milwaukee Brewers for a player to be named later, Rob Bryson (minors), Matt LaPorta and Zach Jackson. On Friday, October 3, 2008 the Indians received Michael Brantley to complete the trade. Sabathia went on to have one of the greatest pitching stretches in MLB history by putting up these numbers to send the Brewers to the playoffs: 11-2 .864 1.65 ERA GS 17 CG 7 SHO 3 IP 130.2 BB 25 SO 128 ERA+ 255 FIP 2.44 WHIP 1.003 AVG .222. [12] [13] That became a domino effect as Casey Blake got traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Cliff Lee to the Philadelphia Phillies, Victor Martínez to the Boston Red Sox, Jake Westbrook to the St. Louis Cardinals and Jhonny Peralta signed with Detroit Tigers while injury problems to Grady Sizemore and Fausto Carmona’s legal problems and issues on the mound derailed both of their careers. Even though this team only was together for only one year in 2007, it was a crazy season that brought Clevelanders back to the ballpark reminiscing about the 455 sellout days at Jacobs Field and boy were the rally pies fun!

Notes: ERA stands for earned run average. WHIP is walks and hits per innings pitched. ERA+ for earned run average plus. FIP is fielding independent pitching. CP for complete game. SHO for shutout. IP for innings pitched. G for Games. BB for base on balls. SO for strikeouts and AVG is batting average against.

Endnotes

[1] MLB. (2014, November 4). Indians clinch 2007 AL Central [Video].YouTube. Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://youtu.be/bUcX_KLsT5U [2] Baseball Reference. (2020). Grady Sizemore Transactions [Data file]. Retrieved July 19, 2020, from https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sizemgr01.shtml [3] Baseball Reference. (2020). Cleveland Indians Team History & Encyclopedia [Data file]. Retrieved July 19, 2020, from https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CLE/ [4] Cansino, Jorge I. (2016, February 25). YANKES INDIOS JUEGO 2 SDLA 2007 [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://youtu.be/pJ-j5IQZksc [5] Baseball Reference. (2020). Fausto Carmona (Roberto Hernández) Statistics [Data file]. Retrieved July 19, 2020, from https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/carmofa01.shtml [6] Baseball Reference. (2020). 2007 American League Division Series (ALDS) Game 1, Indians at Yankees, October 4 Box Score [Data file]. Retrieved July 19, 2020, from https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE200710040.shtml [7] Baseball Reference. (2020). 2007 American League Division Series (ALDS) Game 2 The “Bug Game,” Yankees at Indians, October 5 Box Score [Data file]. Retrieved July 19, 2020, from https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE200710040.shtml [8] Baseball Reference. (2020). Fausto Carmona Postseason Pitching Game Logs [Data file]. Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=carmofa01&t=p&post=1 [9] MLB. (2017, September 25). 2007 ALCS Gm3: Kenny Lofton homers to give Tribe lead [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://youtu.be/cQMqpF5m7Zs [10] Baseball Reference. (2020). 2007 American League Championship Series (ALCS) Game 5, Red Sox at Indians, October 18 Box Score [Data file]. Retrieved July 20, 2020, from https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE200710180.shtml [11] MLB. (2013, November 28). ALCS Gm5: Beckett fans 11 over eight frames [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://youtu.be/m3ODTM3D6RI [12] Baseball Reference. (2020). CC Sabathia Statistics [Data file]. Retrieved July 20, 2020, from https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sabatc.01.shtml [13] MLB. (2016, September 22). CHI@MIL: Sabathia goes distance, helps Brewers clinch [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved on July 21, 2020, from https://youtu.be/OLuiEPzr2z0