Yankees find no shelter from the swarm

CLEVELAND -- This was craftier than blowing air toward the plate with the visiting team at bat, nastier than flashing stolen signs through a hole in the scoreboard. This might go down as the most effective trick in postseason lore.

Alas, it was not a trick. The Cleveland Indians did not signal an anonymous assistant to push a big red button that read, “RELEASE BUGS NOW.” The Indians do not keep swarms of insects trapped beneath Jacobs Field, waiting to be unleashed on an unsuspecting opponent at the most critical of times.

But the most devious of schemes could not have worked as well as this: Bugs invade the ballpark, so rattling the precocious rookie pitcher that he loses his ability to throw a strike. He loses the lead, his team loses the game and could get swept out of the playoffs, and the moral of the story is this: The $200-million New York Yankees were no match for a brigade of Canadian soldiers.

That is one name for the tiny bugs that invaded Jacobs Field during the eighth inning Friday, so powerfully that the Indians ought to include them in the parade if they win the World Series. The plague so distracted Joba Chamberlain, the Yankees’ wondrous rookie, that he threw two wild pitches in the eighth inning, one that put the tying run into scoring position and another that allowed the run to score.

“Just when you think you’ve seen it all,” Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter said. “I guess that’s home-field advantage for them: Let the bugs out in the eighth inning.”

Travis Hafner singled home the winning run with two out in the 11th inning, capping a dramatic 2-1 comeback victory for Cleveland. The Indians lead the best-of-five American League division series two games to none, with Game 3 Sunday at Yankee Stadium.

If Chamberlain had done his job, the Yankees would have handed the ball to Mariano Rivera three outs from victory, three outs from tying the series. Instead, they are one loss from elimination.

If the Yankees lose this series, Chamberlain will not be the only one at fault. The Yankees had five hits in the first game, three Friday.

“Three hits in 11 innings is not acceptable for us,” Alex Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez, the Yankees’ playoff-beleaguered third baseman, went hitless in four at-bats, striking out three times. He has not gotten the ball out of the infield in six at-bats in the series, and he extended his postseason hitless streak to 18 at-bats and his postseason homerless streak to 50 at-bats.

In his last three playoff series, he is hitting .086, with no runs batted in. He all but said he was pressing.

“I have to stop swinging at bad pitches and go to first base,” he said.

The Yankees had no business being in this game, let alone being in position to win it, but the Indians went two for 18 with runners in scoring position, including 16 consecutive outs in that situation. Fausto Carmona, their brilliant starting pitcher, scattered three hits over nine innings, striking out Rodriguez on a 96-mph fastball on his 113th and final pitch.

Chamberlain rescued Yankees starter Andy Pettitte in the seventh inning, getting two outs on five pitches, all strikes.

As the Yankees took the field for the eighth inning, with a 1-0 lead, bugs swarmed from every direction, an unusual but not unprecedented sight on warm, humid evenings at Jacobs Field.

“Just a little irritation,” said Bruce Froemming, the umpires’ crew chief.

Tell it to the Yankees.

“It was like blankets of stuff out there,” Manager Joe Torre said.

The Yankees infielders swatted the bugs with hands and gloves. Batboys and trainers hustled from the dugout, armed with insect repellent to spray players and umpires. At one point, Torre checked on Chamberlain, not because of an injury but because so many bugs buzzed on and around his face.

“There were a million of ‘em,” Chamberlain said.

“He was having trouble seeing out there,” Torre said.

He certainly lost sight of the strike zone. In 24 innings this season, Chamberlain had given up one earned run, thrown one wild pitch and walked six. In this one inning, however, he walked Grady Sizemore on four pitches. Sizemore took second on a wild pitch, third on a sacrifice bunt and scored the tying run on another wild pitch.

“BUG OFF YANKEES,” read the video board.

Chamberlain hit the next batter and walked the one after that before finally escaping the inning, and the bugs.

“I’ll never make an excuse,” Chamberlain said. “They bugged me. You’ve got to deal with it.”

Carmona did, after all. But Indians first baseman Ryan Garko said he had played winter ball with Carmona in his native Dominican Republic.

“There were bugs 10 times that size flying around the field there,” Garko said. “Those bugs scared me.”

These bugs should not scar Chamberlain as he begins a promising career, Jeter said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, “as long as they don’t unleash bugs somewhere else on purpose.”

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bill.shaikin@latimes.com