BOSTON – Raise your hand if you still believe the Indians are going to the World Series. A straw poll taken around Fenway Park in the third inning last night gave David Ortiz a better chance of winning next year’s Boston Marathon.
The Indians are gagging faster than a drunk guzzling a gallon of castor oil. Stealing a page from the Yankees’ 2004 playbook, they seem headed toward the longest winter of their professional lives.
With last night’s 12-2 Red Sox demolition of the Tribe in Game 6 of the AL Championship Series, it comes down to tonight’s winner-take-all.
Last night’s game was all but finished after a third inning in which the Red Sox sent 11 batters to the plate and scored six runs against Fausto Carmona and Rafael Perez, extending their lead to 10-1.
The game’s initial blow had occurred in the first inning, when the least popular man in town not named Eric Gagne – J.D. Drew – hit a grand slam against Carmona, who was dreadful for the second time in this series.
Given the kind of cushion any pitcher dreams about, Curt Schilling coasted through the Cleveland lineup, allowing two runs on six hits over seven innings with five strikeouts and no walks to atone for his lackluster start last Saturday, when the Red Sox ultimately lost 13-6 in 11 innings.
Now it comes down to Daisuke Matsuzaka against Cleveland’s Jake Westbrook for the pennant.
The well-rested Rockies, who cruised to the NL pennant, must be amused at such drama.
The Red Sox are the seventh team in LCS history to rally from a 3-1 deficit to force a seventh game. Of that group, the 1992 Braves won the seventh game after building a 3-1 series lead, so momentum does seem like a factor.
Eight members of the Red Sox remain from the 2004 team that overcame a 3-0 deficit against the Yankees to win the ALCS.
“As far as [Game 7] goes, the momentum will be with both starting pitchers,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “What happened tonight won’t dictate at all.”
Carmona loaded the bases last night before recording an out, but was in decent shape after striking out Manny Ramirez and getting Mike Lowell to fly out without a run scoring. But Drew, deemed a $70 million bust for most of this season, worked the count to 3-1 before drilling a Carmona fastball into the center-field bleacher area, and Fenway was off and rocking.
The Indians sliced the lead to 4-1 on Victor Martinez’s homer in the second, but the game became a runaway in the third inning.
Ramirez and Lowell walked in succession to begin the inning before Drew’s RBI single extended the lead. Jacoby Ellsbury, making his first start of the series, added an RBI single against Perez before struggling Julio Lugo banged a two-run double. Dustin Pedroia walked and Kevin Youkilis smashed an RBI single off the Green Monster. But when Youkilis got caught in a rundown between first and second, Asdrubal Cabrera made a throwing error, allowing Pedroia to score the inning’s sixth run.
The Red Sox piled on, adding two runs in the eighth to extend a 10-2 lead. Ramirez hit a sacrifice fly for a run before Lowell added an RBI single. “It’s going to come down to Game 7 with two teams that won more baseball games than anybody in the regular season,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said. “That’s the way it should be.”
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J.D. Drew’s first-inning grand slam put him and his brother, Stephen of the Diamondbacks, into the record book as the third set of brothers to homer in the same postseason. Clete Boyer (Yankees) and his brother, Ken (Cardinals), homered as opponents in the 1964 World Series and Roberto Alomar (Orioles) and his brother, Sandy Jr. (Indians), homered as opponents in the 1997 ALCS. Stephen Drew hit two homers against the Rockies in the ALDS.
mpuma@nypost.com