ALDS Game 2: Plagued!

The Count of Monte Kenny continued his campaign of revenge against the Bronx Bombers, scoring the winning run in extra innings to bring the team to the brink of elimination. He got a ton of help from Fausto Carmona, who tamed the Yanks' bats through nine innings, himself, in turn, with help from a swarm of gnats.

The gnats--a palpable cloud of whitish mosquito-type bugs--also contributed to defusing the Yanks' secret weapon Joba Chamberlain, against whom the Tribe scored in the eighth. Brother Kenny, who I saw performing after the game was over, was livid that the umps didn't interrupt the game when the players' visibility was compromised. Me, I'm wondering if they have hives of these things hiding in tunnels under Jacob's Field, ready to be unleashed if the team's in trouble. Certainly, Cleveland's players looked a lot less bothered than the Yanks did.

Still, October's about performance, not excuses. The Yankees are down 0-2 because they haven't gotten on track, offensively. And time's running out. They've been in holes like this before--against Oakland in 2001, most notably--and they've let 2-0 DS leads slip away (in 1995). It's possible to come back, but this team hasn't shown that they have what it takes. For all the good stuff they did down the stretch, the team still has a whiff of the team that stunk up the joint in May to them.

I'll be there tomorrow, hoping the Bombers can force a Game 4.