Indians, one step forward. Yankees, one step back.

by Suckatsports

Here's a newsflash to the New York media: The Indians won the ALDS. I know it's hard to believe that the $200 million payroll didn't automatically give you the championship banner, but crazy things like that happen. The only thing I have to say in condolences is the fact that you were beaten by a better team.

Tried and true formula for winning in the post season for the last 100+ years has been pitching and timely hitting. These are the two things the Yankees failed to do, seeing as how they had two two-out RBIs to the Indians' 15. But most importantly, all the Yankees fans, and media, and specifically TBS should at least admit that the Yankees weren't whiffing their bat for no reason. It's not as if they came up there, limping to get into the post season, with questions about their offense. They came in on a roll, specifically offensively after a turbo charged second half of a season.

As hard as it is to admit and comprehend, there was actually another team across from dugout, and the Yankees didn't beat themselves - they got beat. Indians starting pitching was, for the most part, very good. If we just talk about Carmona and Carston Charles, it was indeed incredible. Of all the praise Andy Pettite got for Friday night's shutout through 7 innings (well deserved), it wasn't until two nights later that Carmona got given any credit for his three-hit 1-run 9-inning performance. Although, he was down 1-0 to Petite most of the night, he also allowed only 1 meaningful hit, while Pettite had base runners and trouble all night long. Yes, there is a reason those big bats whiffed, and popped up and out - it was because of the guy toeing the rubber.

Of all the slack Wedge got for starting Byrd, everything turned out okay. I'm in the camp that it was still the wrong decision, even if it turned out in our favor. We should all give credit to Byrd however, to go out there while everyone was ragging on him and pitch what for him would be called a "gem". That was an incredibly gutsy performance, even if it seemed like he was on the edge of giving up a 5 run inning every time. He had plenty of base runners, and created plenty of momentum for the other team, but in the end, he went 6 innings, allowing only 2 runs - more than we ever expected from his outing.

It's liberating, and we can all exhale now that we've won, and at the same time may have been the straw that broke the back of the $200 million camel. And maybe, after the actual win, this is a close second in satisfaction.

This post is cross-published from We Suck at Sports.