by What a thrilling finish tonight in front of 82,000 screaming fans at Cleveland Municipal Stadium that witnessed their beloved Cleveland Indians end a nearly 40-year postseason draught by defeating the New York Yankees 3-2, to head to the 1989 ALCS versus the Chicago White Sox. The ending coming on a Jake Taylor shocking bunt that saw Willie “Mayes” Hayes score from second base to send the Indians to the postseason for the first time since 1954 and give them a chance at the pennant.
The game had been tied 0-0 heading into the top of the seventh, when the Yankees finally got to the crafty veteran Eddie Harris. Cleveland manager Lou Brown chose to go with Harris over Ricky Vaughn to start the game, due to Harris having a little bit of a better record against the Yankees. However, Vaughn would come into play a little later. When quoted before the game, Brown stated he told Vaughn to stay ready because, “he was one of the guys who got us here”.
The Yankees broke up the scoreless tie on an Burton 2 run homer in the top half of the seventh. Harris had been playing with fire all night, and Burton finally burned him. The Yankees didn’t stay in front long however as in the bottom half of the frame, the Indians came charging back. After Roger Dorn laced a sharp single to left, Pedro Cerrano smashed a two-run homerun that landed in the next zip code to tie it up. The big man timed up a Jackson fastball just right, to send it flying, after failing to connect on back to back curveballs. Jackson has waived off a third straight curveball, and it came back to bite him.
The game remained tied heading into the top of the ninth when Harris ran into some trouble. Harris had pitched every piece of junk he could think of at the Yankees, but eventually the vagisil ball just wasn’t enough as after retiring the first two batters, a see and eye single accompanied by a Saslo double and a walk to Cheevers, put him in a jam. Harris felt he had enough for one more, but Brown wanted Vaughn.
It was then that Lou Brown called for, “The Wild Thing” Ricky Vaughn. Despite his poor record against Clue Haywood and the Yankees, Brown was quoted as saying, “ I had a hunch he was due”. The Wild Thing song blared over the loudspeakers as the crowd cheered and toxic Cleveland Indians owner Rachel Phelps jeered. Catcher Jake Taylor informed Vaughn that this was the out he was waiting his entire life for. Vaughn is just one year out of the California Penal league, fresh off of stealing a car.
Vaughn had been shelled in two outings against the Yankees, as Haywood had, “lit his ass up”. After a pep talk from third baseman Dorn, Vaughn was ready and went straight to the heat. After the first two pitches blew by Haywood at 97 and 99, Lou Brown called for the heater yet again and Vaughn delivered, hitting 101 on the gun, and striking Haywood out on 3 straight pitches. Haywood was the American League triple crown winner with a 341 average, 48 homers and 121 RBI as well as noise hair. He had homered the only two times he faced Vaughn heading into that at bat.
The game almost ended earlier in the bottom of the ninth when Tomilson drove one deep to right field until Warborg crashed into the wall, saving the homerun. Horton had seen enough out of Jackson and decided to go to the Duke. The Duke led the league in saves, strike outs per inning as well as hit batsmen. This guy threw at his son in a father son game.
The move by Horton to bring in the Duke proved to backfire however as Hayes got something going for the Tribe as he legged out a high chopper towards short, and beat it out for an infield single. This brought to the plate, the journeyman catcher Jake Taylor who swung and missed at the first pitch while Hayes stole second base by an eyelash.
Taylor had been 0 for 12 against the Duke lifetime heading into this at bat which may have been why he sent the crowd into an absolutely frenzy when he pointed to center field and called his shot. The only other person to pull that stunt was Babe Ruth in the 1932 World Series. The Duke was not pleased and launched the next pitch 2 inches from Taylors head as he dove out of the way.
Taylor refused to dust himself off as he got up and pointed again. It proved to be a decoy however, as Taylor laid down a swinging bunt and proceeded to leg it out while Hayes raced his way around third base to score, winning the game!
How the team will do against the White Sox in the ALCS is anyone’s guess. Another big question is if this will detail toxic owner Rachel Phelps from moving the team to Miami. For now, Cleveland is headed back to the playoffs!
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