Indians Show Some Flash of Their Own

The raging Red Sox controversy was supposed to be about the little-known pitcher who started the game, not the record-breaking pitcher who ended it.

But fate finds funny ways to torment this team, and break the hearts of this populace.

Saturday evening in Game 4, the Red Sox got a remarkable performance out of much-maligned starter Pete Schourek, and found themselves only six outs away from extending this division series with Cleveland Indians to a fifth game.

But when Manager Jimy Williams, guarding a 1-0 lead, tried to squeeze two full innings from star closer Tom Gordon, the Indians rallied to win, 2-1, before 33,537 at Fenway Park.

Gordon had not blown a save chance since April 14. Now Boston won’t play again until next April.

“We had our chances--a few of them,” said Boston first baseman Mo Vaughn. “Everybody was talking about Pete Schourek, but he did what he had to do. We just didn’t cash in on our opportunities.

“But we’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. We battled. We didn’t give it away. We kept it close, but it just didn’t work out. To keep going, you need some luck. You need some breaks. And we didn’t get any.”

Cleveland, the defending American League champion, won the final three games of the best-of-five series and moves on to play the New York Yankees beginning Tuesday in the AL championship series.

It’s also the fifth consecutive postseason series defeat for Boston, dating to the 1986 World Series. The Red Sox, by the way, haven’t won a World Series since 1918.

No justice? There was plenty of it--Indian left fielder David Justice threw out John Valentin at the plate in the sixth, and his two-run double in the eighth against Gordon was the series’ crushing blow.

“He did everything you can ask him to do,” Indian Manager Mike Hargrove said of Justice, who hit a home run in Game 2. “He made the throw at home plate to throw out Valentin and prevent a two-run lead. Then he came back two innings later and hit the two-run double to give us the lead.

“He showed you why David Justice is David Justice.”

In the sixth, with Boston already ahead after a Nomar Garciaparra solo home run (his third of the series), Justice cleanly fielded a Mike Stanley single and threw a one-hopper to catcher Sandy Alomar, beating Valentin by several steps for the second out of the inning.

“To me, it was the right call,” Williams said of third-base coach Wendell Kim’s decision to send Valentin. “Any time you get a chance to score in a game like that . . . He got a good break on the ball, Valentin did, so you tip your cap. Justice made a perfect throw.”

In the top of the eighth, Justice faced Gordon, not Schourek, who was replaced after pitching 5 1/3 scoreless innings, or Derek Lowe, who retired all five batters he faced in the sixth and seventh innings.

Why did Williams bring in Gordon so early, when the closer had never started the eighth during the regular season and when Lowe was pitching so strongly?

“Right man,” Williams said. “Right spot. . . . He was a fresh arm. Lowe had done his job. [Gordon]’s certainly gotten five outs before. It certainly wasn’t a situation to me that was unusual with the type of game that was going on out there.”

Gordon, who finished the regular season having converted a record 43 consecutive saves, started the inning by getting pinch-hitter Joey Cora to fly out. But then Gordon gave up back-to-back broken-bat singles to Kenny Lofton and Omar Vizquel, setting up the situation with Justice.

“Pete and Derek did a great job,” Gordon said. “But I just didn’t hold it for them. That’s all I can say.

“Baseball is a tough game, especially when you’re pitching to a very good team. Cleveland is one of the best aggressive hitting teams in the league.

“I just stuck with my game, which is high fastballs, and I broke two bats but they fought them off for hits. I wouldn’t take those pitches back.”

Then Gordon left a fastball out over the plate at Justice’s belt buckle, and he promptly blasted the ball over center fielder Darren Lewis’ head to the deepest part of the park, easily scoring Lofton and Vizquel and suddenly giving Cleveland the lead.

Gordon said he accepted responsibility for the runs, and that there was no reason for Williams not to try to have him get the final six outs.

“I was ready to pitch,” Gordon said. “If he called me in the seventh, I could’ve pitched. I don’t think that I’m only going to pitch in the ninth. I was ready to pitch at any time tonight.”

Said Vaughn: “It’s baseball--it’s a crazy game. I’ll take Flash in that situation, any time. He’s one of the reasons we got here.”

Justice said he understood why Boston would want Gordon in the game at that point.

“I felt like Jimy was trying to win the ballgame and put his best guy out there,” said Justice, who ranks among the top 10 in career postseason runs batted in. “Gordon is definitely a great pitcher. . . .

“When I am in that situation, I just tell myself not to be scared. I am never afraid of that situation because I can handle the negative side of it. As long as I know that when I walk in there, if I can be focused and confident, I can handle whatever happens.”

The Red Sox had two more at-bats to at least tie the score, but the bottom half of the batting order, which had done almost nothing in the previous three games of the series, did even less Saturday, and Cleveland closer Mike Jackson retired the side in the bottom of the ninth.

In the series, the Nos. 5 through 9 hitters had only one run batted in and scored only one run; on Saturday, they were a combined one for 16.

“I’m not sitting here saying, ‘What if this,’ or ‘What if that,’ ” Vaughn said. “It just didn’t work out. You’ve just got to let it go and hopefully come back and do it better next time you’re here.”