Todd Porter: Concern sets in for Cleveland fans

The soft July-like wind at Jacobs Field puffed up the huge American flag in center field most of Thursday night.

<p class="MsoNormal">A summer breeze in October wasn't quite enough to keep the ghosts and hexes of Cleveland's sporting past off the shores of Lake Erie.

<p class="MsoNormal">Instead, the eerily warm night invited them in and practically poured a glass of cider -- or dark lager, depending on your perspective -- as misery, and even concern, set in at Jacobs Field for the first time this baseball season.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Red Sox, a franchise that is 22-11 all time in games that could have eliminated them, extended the ALCS with a 7-1 win over the Tribe. Cleveland has to go into the heart of The Monster at Fenway Park to get to the peaks of the Rocky Mountains.

<p class="MsoNormal">As good as the Indians have been in their last three games, Boston's Josh Beckett was, oh, so much better in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series. A wave of momentum from the 44,588 greeted the Indians Thursday night. They came to see something special.

<p class="MsoNormal">They came to see their team, the home team, win a pennant of importance on the Northeast Ohio dirt for the first time since October ... of 1920.

<p class="MsoNormal">And Beckett did his job. He sent Cleveland hitters back to the dugout, and made it look easy. He sent the faithful home and made them squirm.

<p class="MsoNormal">Beckett was outstanding, the norm the entire postseason with his three wins, 1.17 ERA and one walk. Boston's ace outmatched Cleveland's ace, C.C. Sabathia for the second time in a week.

<p class="MsoNormal">"Beckett was sticking it to us pretty good," Manager Eric Wedge said.

<p class="MsoNormal">Beckett moved his fastball, which hit 101 at one point. He changed the speed of it. He threw a curve that was uglier than Curt Schilling.

<p class="MsoNormal">"Josh Beckett was awesome tonight," Kevin Youkilis said. "Our pitching will take us as far as we will go. Tonight we just went out and played one game. We didn't try to win three games in one night."

<p class="MsoNormal">Beckett allowed five hits, none of them hard enough to give the Tribe the feeling they were catching up to him.

<p class="MsoNormal">And Beckett pitched like this on a night when he had to watch his ex-girlfriend sing the national anthem. Danielle Peck, a country music star from Coshocton, came out again in the seventh to sing "God Bless America."

<p class="MsoNormal">If the Indians want to distract Beckett, bring the Fat Lady out to sing the next time.

<p class="MsoNormal">Beckett did what no Indians did Thursday: Stood up and was counted on when the biggest game of the season was on the line. Travis Hafner took another 0-for, and has whiffed seven times in the last two games. Jhonny Peralta, who still could win the series MVP, didn't come through.

<p class="MsoNormal">No one did.

<p class="MsoNormal">So it's no wonder, today, some of you peer outside the house and wonder what's around the corner. We've seen this so many times: Big build up, bigger heartbreak.

<p class="MsoNormal">There is a complete and utter meltdown so many expect, just waiting for the Boston Harbor to begin dumping Cleveland's Indians in it Saturday night.

<p class="MsoNormal">Tribe Manager Eric Wedge approached Game 5 -- the clinching game that hasn't been won here in 87 friggin' years. He wasn't nervous. He wasn't anxious.

<p class="MsoNormal">Wedge knows nothing is sure in baseball.

<p class="MsoNormal">"I just don't allow myself to even start down that road," Wedge said. "I just don't. Any time you start down that road, and you get going, it's a hell of a lot easier to keep going. I don't even enter that zone."

<p class="MsoNormal">Wedge approached Game 5 like he did the previous 171. One game, then it's over.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Indians have a tomorrow. The Red Sox played like they didn't.

<p class="MsoNormal">The problem with that is not every game is the same. There is one in every series that's more important. It's the closeout game.

<p class="MsoNormal">This wasn't just another game to the Red Sox. It was the end of their season. OK, for everybody but Manny Ramirez, whose oh-well approach to Thursday night seemed to be the one Cleveland took as well. A sense of urgency is just as important as a sense of mind.

<p class="MsoNormal">Wedge gave his team one, but not the other. The approach has worked all season.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Indians head to Boston for Games 6 and 7. Wedge is captaining the ship.

<p class="MsoNormal">They'll get there ... steady as she goes, though.

<p class="MsoNormal">Reach Repository sports writer Todd Porter at (330) 580-8340 or e-mail todd.porter@cantonrep.com

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