CLEVELAND — Everything was going just swimmingly for the Indians in their ALCS rematch with the Boston Red Sox on Monday night until Joe Borowski came in and drowned them.
Leading by a run in the ninth inning, Cleveland’s hit-or-miss closer crumbled with the game on the line once again, opening the gate for a Boston comeback that led to a 6-4 defeat in front of 21,802 bitterly cold fans at Progressive Field.
With the Indians in front 4-3 and one out, Borowski allowed the game-tying run on a one-out sacrifice fly to Dustin Pedroia before former Cleveland slugger Manny Ramirez put the Red Sox in front to stay with a no-doubt, two-run home run.
It was the second blown save in four opportunities for Borowski, who failed to make it out of the ninth inning. His record fell to 0-2 and his ERA climbed to 18.00 in five appearances.
Borowski toted a hefty ERA through the majority of last season, but still led the league with 45 saves. This season, his velocity has been lower and his command worse, with the right-hander looking as though he might be battling a physical ailment.
“I’m going to talk to him and see how he feels,” said downtrodden Cleveland manager Eric Wedge, who did not deny Borowski could be injured. “The ball just doesn’t seem like it’s coming out of his hand the same.”
Borowski said he was going to be examined by trainers after the game, but that he didn’t think the problem was physical.
“Some days it feels fantastic. Some days it feels like I’m throwing through water,” Borowski said. “I’m grabbing at straws, trying to pinpoint it. I’m stuck in one gear.”
Thanks in large part to starting pitcher Jake Westbrook, it appeared the Indians were en route to extracting a minute measure of revenge from Boston, which overcame a 3-1 deficit to beat them in last year’s ALCS and advance to the World Series.
Westbrook, the Game 7 loser at Fenway Park in October, was much better this time around, continuing his sizzling start to the season by allowing just one earned run on six hits through 6 1/3 innings.
The right-hander surrendered a run in the first on an RBI double from Kevin Youkilis, but shut the door from there, holding the vaunted Boston lineup scoreless over the next five innings before the Red Sox pushed an unearned run across the plate to cut the deficit to 4-2 in the seventh.
Westbrook, who endured an injury-plagued and largely ineffective 2007, owns a 1-1 record and a 2.38 ERA through his first three starts in ’08.
“Jake has been outstanding,” Wedge said. “He was great today. He got us deep into the game.”
Despite Westbrook’s sparkling performance, Boston was still within striking distance for the duration of the game.
Red Sox starter Jon Lester didn’t allow a hit through the first three innings, with just a leadoff walk to Grady Sizemore in the opening inning keeping him from being perfect.
The Indians finally caught up to the right-hander in the fourth and fifth innings, scoring four times, the last two on a two-run single from Travis Hafner in the fifth that put Cleveland in front 4-1. It was a productive night for Cleveland’s third and fourth hitters, with Hafner and Victor Martinez combining for five of their team’s seven hits and four of six RBIs.
Boston crept within a run in the eighth inning on a leadoff homer from Youkilis off Rafael Betancourt before Ramirez and Co. went to work against Borowski in the ninth.
Julio Lugo brought immediate ominous overtones when he started the decisive inning by snapping an 0-for-16 skid with a double down the left-field line. Coco Crisp bunted Lugo to third before Pedroia tied the game with a sacrifice fly to the warning track in left.
With just an out to go to at least keep the tie intact, David Ortiz dropped a single in front of left fielder David Dellucci, with Ramirez following by crushing the first offering from Borowski an estimated 412 feet to left.  
“It seemed like a fastball,” said Ramirez, who has tortured his former team since leaving Cleveland, entering the season with a .357 batting average, 15 homers and 44 RBIs in 49 regular-season games against the Indians. “It was 80 (mph), maybe it was a change-up. It was right there.”
The Indians have other closer options in Betancourt, one of the majors’ top setup men last year; Masa Kobayashi, who saved over 200 games in Japan; and former Orioles closer Jorge Julio.
But Wedge said he was not considering a change at the moment.
“I’m going to talk to (Borowski) and see how he feels before I go down that road,” he said.  
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.

TONIGHT

WHO: Cleveland vs. Boston
TIME: 7:05
WHERE: Progressive Field
PITCHERS: Byrd (0-2, 11.05 ERA) vs. Wakefield (1-0, 3.27)
TV/RADIO: SportsTime Ohio; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

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