Diamond days are back

Indians look to move on after loss to Boston

Pitching was the key to Cleveland’s success last year — and will likely be again this season.

CLEVELAND (AP) — As Travis Hafner plowed through a plate full of chicken and rice, Casey Blake and a few teammates tackled a crossword puzzle a few feet away. Nearby, C.C. Sabathia iced the AL’s most precious left arm.

During a lunchtime break at spring training in Florida last month, all were oblivious to the TV across the room, the one flashing an image from last fall that they’d like to forget.

As a commercial showed the Boston Red Sox celebrating last season’s World Series title, the Indians quietly went about their business.

They have moved on. They have no choice.

“It’s not something you ever forget because there was a lot of heartache,” Indians pitcher Paul Byrd said, reflecting on Cleveland’s bittersweet 2007 season which ended with a loss at Fenway Park in Game 7 of the ALCS. “But you can’t dwell on it and keep thinking about it.”

Last season, the Indians won the AL Central, beat the New York Yankees in the playoffs and held a 3-1 lead over Boston before crumbling. They lost three straight games, falling one win shy of the Series. Now, the Indians are drawing on last year’s experience as they embark on a season they hope can end the franchise’s 60-year championship dry spell.

October, at least its painful finish, has been forgotten.

“It’s over and done with,” first baseman Ryan Garko said. “We’re trained to move on. You strike out, you move on to the next at-bat and focus on that. You make an error, you concentrate on the next ball hit to you. We’re focused and concentrating on this season. That’s all that matters.”

Everything fell into place for them last season, right up until they crumbled in the Green Monster’s unforgiving shadow.

Hafner, who batted just .148 and struck out 12 times in the series against the Red Sox, has turned the page.

“When we say our focus is entirely on this season we say it because that is just the way it has to be,” the Indians’ imposing designated hitter said. “It’s like making an out. The next time up, you focus on getting a hit, not on failing the last time. “This team came back from the disappointment in 2005 [a 93-win, non-playoff season] to grow and get better.

“We look at this as being similar, taking another step toward our goal.”

Getting back to where they were won’t be easy. It never is in the AL Central, and it will be even tougher after Detroit decided to throw money around this winter like never before, adding Miguel Cabrera, Dontrelle Willis, Edgardo Renteria and Jacque Jones to an already potent squad.

But the Indians, who went 96-66 last season, have a day-to-day lineup that can swing with about any the Tigers trot out.

With center fielder Grady Sizemore in the leadoff spot, catcher Victor Martinez in the No. 3 hole, Hafner batting cleanup and shortstop Jhonny Peralta (21 homers, 72 RBIs) batting as deep as sixth, the Indians can score runs in bunches.

By his standards, Hafner had a sub-par ’07 season. His .267 average, 24 home runs and 100 RBIs were his lowest totals since 2003, his first year with Cleveland. The man they call “Pronk,” the guy who wears T-shirts with sayings like, “I’m not smart, but I can lift heavy things,” never carried the Indians’ offense.

“It was a tough year,” Hafner said.

“The whole year felt like, ‘OK I’m close and a couple good games I’m over the hump.’ But it didn’t happen. I just never got to the point where I was comfortable and I was able to get up there and hit like I wanted to.”

Hafner’s return to form is essential for the Indians, whose .268 team average was only good enough to match Tampa Bay’s seventh best in the AL.

However, the thing that separated Cleveland from the rest of the pack, and will have to again for the Indians to return to the postseason, is its pitching.

And Sabathia is the club’s ace in the hole — for now.

The 27-year-old went 19-7 with a 3.21 ERA, led the majors with 241 innings and became the first Indians pitcher to win a Cy Young Award since Gaylord Perry in 1972. However, two losses to Cy Young runner-up Josh Beckett in the ALCS, tainted an otherwise spectacular season for Sabathia, who could be entering his final season with Cleveland.

He’s eligible for free agency after the ’08 Series, and Sabathia’s rejection of a $90 million, five-year contract extension this winter has supersensitive Cleveland fans fearing he’ll be pitching elsewhere, and heaven’s forbid, pitching in Yankee pinstripes next year.

With his agents unable to reach a deal, Sabathia suspended talks until the end of the season in order to avoid any distraction. Still, the issue of his future will be raised every time he takes the mound. Sabathia’s preference would be to stay in Cleveland, but that’s the same line Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez uttered before leaving town for more money.

Sabathia’s immediate concern, though, is helping the Indians get back to where they were last October.

“This team knows it’s good, and so does everyone else,” he said. “We can’t sneak up on anyone anymore, and that’s OK. When I look around this clubhouse and see what we’ve got, I like our chances against anybody.”

Those chances are enhanced by a starting staff as good as any in the league.

Fausto Carmona came out of nowhere to win 19 games last season, one year after he went 1-10 and combusted in a failed tryout as a closer. The right-hander with the filthy sinker gives the Indians a dynamite 1-2 punch with Jake Westbrook, Cliff Lee and Byrd rounding out the rotation.

Joe Borowski led the AL with 45 saves in his first season as Cleveland’s closer, and although few of them were beauties, the bottom line can’t be argued. The Indians bolstered their bullpen by signing Japanese right-hander Masa Kobayashi, who will hand the ball to Rafael Betancourt, one of the game’s pre-eminent setup men.

Detroit’s offseason shopping spree has some thinking the Tigers are a lock to surpass the Indians and win the division.

Not everyone feels that way.

“Without question, Cleveland’s the team to beat,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “A year ago, we were coming off the World Series and we were the team. Cleveland beat us. It was no fluke. They’re a tremendous ballclub.”

There’s a swagger to these Indians. They’ve experienced every possible high and low the past few years while building toward a season they hope ends with a pile of jubilation in October. Only one team wins its final game, and it just might be Cleveland’s turn.

“It’s a new season,” Westbrook said. “We’ve got to try to go out and do it again.”