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Jays dreams dashed

UPDATED: 4:05 p.m.

Unheralded rookie Ryan Merritt, in only his second major league start, gave Cleveland the early pitching it needed and the Indians bullpen did the rest Wednesday, bundling the Toronto Blue Jays out of the playoffs with a 3-0 victory in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series.

Carlos Santana and Coco Crisp homered for Cleveland, which won the series 4-1.

The Indians head to the World Series, looking to erase memories of losses in 1954, 1995 and 1997. They won in 1920 and 1948. Only the Cubs (1908) have gone longer without winning the championship.

The Indians' injury-ravaged starting rotation meant that manager Terry Francona had to hand the ball to Merritt, whose major league career consisted of one start, four appearances and 11 innings.

You wouldn't have known it. The 24-year-old left-hander retired the first 10 Jays he faced before leaving with one out in the fifth after giving up just his second hit.

With Merritt looking cool on the mound in the 4 1/3 innings needed to get to Cleveland's excellent bullpen, the Indians picked up solo runs in the first, third and fourth to pull ahead before a sellout crowd of 48,800 under the Rogers Centre roof.

Each team managed six hits.

The game was like all the other Cleveland wins. The Indians pitching was slightly better, the Cleveland hitting came at the right times and the defence was rock-solid. The Jays managed zero, one, two, five and zero runs against the Indians, who never trailed in Games 1, 2, 3 and 5.

Toronto, which hit 10 homers in the wild-card game and ALDS, managed just two against Cleveland although it came close to adding to that total several times Wednesday. The Indians found the fence six times against the Jays.



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