http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/sports/baseball/cleveland-indians-red-sox-alds.html 2016-10-11 05:38:07 Indians Are Rewriting a Hard-Luck Tale Despite being rejected by one All-Star and missing a few others, Cleveland took another step toward its first World Series title in 68 years by dominating its divisional series against Boston. === BOSTON — Let’s face it: The Before they swiftly ousted the They did it without an All-Star outfielder, Michael Brantley, who barely played this season. They did it without an All-Star catcher, Jonathan Lucroy, who rejected a trade to them in July. They did it without an All-Star starter, Danny Salazar, who went down to injury — just like another starter, Carlos Carrasco. Yet there were the Indians on Monday night, bouncing around the Fenway Park grass, just as they did at the old Yankee Stadium the last time they won a playoff series, in 2007. That was the final postseason game at the ballpark that housed Yankees from Ruth to Jeter. It was the last game Joe Torre ever managed in pinstripes. In Game 3 of this A.L. division series, the Indians dropped the curtain on the Big Papi Show, the longest-running, most successful New England baseball act in about a century. The Red Sox smoked blistering liners as they tried to surge ahead in the eighth, but the Indians snagged just enough to survive. The Indians gained a measure of revenge on the Red Sox, who beat them in the 2007 A.L.C.S. after Cleveland won three of the first four games. This version of the Indians seemed unlikely to pull it off, but the Indians’ depleted rotation managed just fine. Trevor Bauer wobbled a bit in Game 1, but Corey Kluber overwhelmed the Red Sox in Game 2, and Josh Tomlin allowed just four hits and two runs in five innings on Monday. Boston’s Rick Porcello and David Price, who combined to earn $50 million this season, lost their starts in this series. Kluber — an ordinary Class AA prospect when he arrived six years ago in a trade for Jake Westbrook — won his, as did Tomlin, a former 19th-round draft pick with a 4.58 career E.R.A. “If you spend 10 minutes around Josh Tomlin, you can’t help but pull for him,” Indians General Manager Chris Antonetti said in July, after Tomlin started the season 9-1. “The way he goes about the craft of pitching, he’s not that overpowering guy but really understands how to attack hitters. He does all of the little things well — really difficult to run on, fields his position well — and he’s a phenomenal teammate. You talk to anybody in that clubhouse, and he’s universally respected. He’s been willing to do anything to help the team.” So has Andrew Miller, the former Yankee, who reported to spring training and immediately stifled any controversy about ceding the closer spot to Aroldis Chapman. Miller said his job was to get outs whenever the manager asked — a credo he carried with him to Cleveland when the Yankees traded him to the Indians in July. Unburdened by strict bullpen roles, Indians Manager Terry Francona has used Miller as something of an old-time pitching fireman, snuffing rallies before they get out of control. He called for him in the fifth inning of Game 1, and Miller held the lead into the seventh. After three days of rest — an easy Game 2 win, a day off and a rainout — Miller was bound to make an impact on Monday. “He’s a tremendous weapon when you’ve got flexibility to use him at any point in the game,” Red Sox Manager John Farrell said before Game 3. “Hopefully, the game doesn’t present itself where he’s on the mound.” It did — with no outs in the sixth inning, with the Indians up by three runs and Dustin Pedroia on first. Miller allowed that run to score but permitted none of his own over two innings. So the Red Sox leave the stage, just like the Texas Rangers, both victims of three-game sweeps. This can happen easily in baseball, a sport in which even the worst team wins about 60 games in a season. But a quick dismissal is still jarring, and Boston has felt it before. Somewhat incredibly, this was the seventh time in eight seasons that the Red Sox did not win a postseason game. They were swept in this round by the Los Angeles Angels in 2009 but won the World Series in 2013. Their front-office leadership has changed twice in that time, from Theo Epstein to Ben Cherington to Dave Dombrowski. They have also changed managers twice, from Francona to Bobby Valentine to Farrell, whose job status could come under scrutiny in a town that does not tolerate losing. Cleveland loses more often, of course, but the Indians have been competitive enough, with a sound enough process, to remain something of an industry model. Several teams have hired Cleveland executives to lead their baseball operations, including the Pittsburgh Pirates (Neal Huntington), the Minnesota Twins (Derek Falvey) and the Blue Jays, whose president, Mark Shapiro, and general manager, Ross Atkins, both came from the Indians. John Hart, the Cleveland general manager in the 1990s, is now rebuilding the Atlanta Braves. Hart presided over the Indians’ last A.L. championship teams, in 1995 and 1997, when deep World Series runs ended in Atlanta and Miami. Eight other teams have represented the A.L. since the last Indians’ pennant, including five with multiple World Series appearances: the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Rangers, the Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Royals. With the Blue Jays (last pennant: 1993) and the Indians meeting in this A.L.C.S., one long World Series drought will end.