ALDS Game 2

Not Jinxed, Hexed

There's a spell in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons appropriately called 'Creeping Doom'. A Druid can cast this spell where a swarm of insects appear and inflict some ungodly amount of hit points damage to the foe.

While not quite delivering 1000 hit points, but somebody cast 'Creeping Doom' against the Yanks' relief corps.

CLEVELAND, Oct. 5 — It is natural to be drawn to Joba Chamberlain, to the irresistible story of the rookie fireballer from Nebraska who saved the Yankees’ season. But nobody expected the bugs from Lake Erie to care.

Yet they were attracted to Chamberlain as much as the most rabid Yankees fan, and a sudden swarm in the eighth inning helped derail the Yankees in Game 2 of their American League division series against the Indians. Swatting at the air with his glove, wiping his face with his sleeves and covered in bug spray, Chamberlain came unglued and the Yankees now stand at the brink of elimination.

Chamberlain lost Andy Pettitte’s lead in the eighth, Luis Vizcaíno lost the game on Travis Hafner’s bases-loaded single in the 11th and Cleveland stole away with a 2-1 victory at Jacobs Field. The Yankees trail in the series, two games to none, and face elimination in Game 3 Sunday at Yankee Stadium, where presumably the bugs will stay away.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Pettitte said. “It’s crazy. It’s a shame that had to happen in such a pressure-packed situation like that. Their guy had to deal with it, and he was still lights-out in the ninth inning. But that’s a shame.”

Alex Rodriguez went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts and has only four hits in his last 50 postseason at-bats, but he is not alone in offensive misery. The Yankees have scored one run — a Melky Cabrera homer — on four hits in their last 15 innings, and they were stifled for nine innings by Fausto Carmona on Friday.

Chamberlain came in with two on and one out in the seventh and bailed out Pettitte, who worked six and a third steely innings, escaping trouble all night. But the top of the eighth ended ominously, with the Yankees’ Doug Mientkiewicz repeatedly stepping out of the box and slashing the air with his hands before grounding out.

It was 81 degrees and humid at game time, and when a breeze died down in the eighth inning, Mientkiewicz said, the bugs came out in force.

“During my at-bat, I had them in my nose,” he said. “I chased a foul ball after that and I ate about four of them on my way down. It was very strange. Joba had them all over his back and all over his neck and all over everywhere.”

Chamberlain was immediately distracted during warm-ups, twitching and shaking his head, trying in vain to scare off the pests. He walked two, threw two wild pitches and hit a batter in the fateful eighth, yet he tried not to make an excuse.

“They were in front of my face, but I wasn’t the only one that had to deal with it,” he said. “Everybody had to deal with the same thing. They were bad, but they just didn’t show up for me. You can look at it a million ways, but when it comes down to it, we were in the loss column because I didn’t do my job.”

Chamberlain walked the leadoff batter, Grady Sizemore, for his first four-pitch walk since his major league debut Aug. 7. He could not find a rhythm, stepping off the rubber, flailing with his glove and looking to the dugout for help.

The trainer, Gene Monahan, all but bathed Chamberlain and others in bug spray, but it was no use. As Rodriguez and Derek Jeter waved their hats above their heads and flinched in the field, Chamberlain’s first pitch to Asdrúbal Cabrera was a wild slider, moving Sizemore into scoring position. A bunt moved Sizemore to third.

In the end the Yanks lost 2-1 in th 11th.
I don't know what to make of this. They've now lost a match where Wang got smacked around, and now they lost an 11 inning game where they only scored 1 run. They're playing like shit.