The news of the day started ominously with Paul Byrd and HGH the talk of the day. My first thoughts were in conspiracy theory mode. Why wait until the morning of game 7 to bring these out? Did MLB prefer Boston the World Series (of course) and did someone want to distract the Indians? We'll probably never know, but the timing is certaily coincidental. It would be the same thing if David Ortiz was found to be using steroids and the media held onto that information until the most important game of the season.
Anyway, that ultimately had nothing to do with the Indians losing - distraction or not.
Game 7 of the ALCS ended when Joel Skinner stopped Kenny Lofton at third base. While replays clearly showed that Lofton would've scored easily, the brakes were put on not just Kenny, but any momentum the Indians would've gained.
Had Lofton scored, the game would've at least been tied at 3-3 and the Indians would've had the momentum from scoring the last 3 runs of the game. Who knows how the next half-inning would've went. Maybe the Red Sox still would've homered and taken a 2 run lead. I suspect the entire Indians team would've been energized though, and it really would've been a good game.
Instead, Lofton was stopped at third, Blake hit into an inning ending double play, I was really really really not happy, and the game was essentially over. The Indians were completely deflated. It really sucked. A lot.
You can argue that the terrible pitching of Sabathia and Carmona doomed the Indians, but I don't think so. I think a bad call by a usually aggressive third base coach doomed them last night. Granted, CC and Fausto sucked and sucked bad, but even after their horrible performances, the Indians still could've won.
Such is life as a fan of Cleveland sports. They will occasionally take you to the brink of something really spectacular before deciding to stab you in the eye.