I don’t care who you are or where you live — unless you’re a Cleveland fan, you’ve got to give it up to the Red Sox for an amazing effort in the ALCS.  The Indians faithful are probably filling up the message boards right now with complaints about the call on Manny’s throw to Pedroia @ second to tag out Kenny Lofton in the top of the 5th.  In the replays, it looks like Lofton got his hand on the bag before the tag connected with his arm, and that would have been a big run for the Tribe.

But that’s really not the defining moment of the game, on either offense or defense.  There’s plenty of competition for that honor, including:

• Lofton being held up at 3rd on Gutierrez’s monster single in the 7th.  That was a sure thing, and nobody to blame but the Indians 3B coach for keeping Lofton from reaching home plate.
• The double play immediately following that hammered two quick nails into Cleveland’s seventh inning coffin, sending the Sox to the plate with Lofton stranded on 3rd and no runs scored for the Indians.
• Papelbon’s coming in to relieve Okajima with two men on and no outs in the 8th — and immediately striking out Hafner with 3 decisive fastballs, then pitching out of the inning with no runs scored.

And although the Red Sox trailed the series 3-1 coming into the 5th game, let’s not forget that the 2nd game was 6-6 until the 11th inning, and Boston wasn’t exactly blown out of the water in the 3rd either (losing 4-2).  The whole Red Sox Nation can feel rightfully proud of the Sox for hanging tough, playing hard, and coming up big when it counted!

Even a Yankees fan would have to admit that the team really got it done against their biggest post-season threat.  Remember, the Indians really picked it up at the end of the regular season, ending with the same 96-66 record as the BoSox.  (And of course the Yankees went down to Cleveland 3-1 in the divisional playoffs, so a Yankees might remember that too.)