The Cleveland Indians World Series bound is the call today, after a 3-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, the Tribe booked their tickets to the Fall Classic for the first time since 1997. Terry Francona's bullpen was simply superb in a series that lasted just five games.
Carlos Santana's bomb to right field in the third inning and Coco Crisp's solo shot in the fourth inning, coupled with yet another dominant performance by Cleveland's bullpen was enough to propel the Indians to victory in this year's American League Championship Series.
Cleveland will host the World Series opener on Tuesday against either the Chicago Cubs or Los Angeles Dodgers, whoever wins the National League Championship Series, which is currently knotted at two games apiece.
The Indians who will try to capture their first World Series title since 1948 can only hope that the bullpen continues to stay hot. Win or lose in the World Series, their performance in this year's ALCS will be talked about for years to come.
ALCS Most Valuable Player, Andrew Miller was simply lights out coming out of the pen. Combined with the Blue Jays being 1-24 with runners in scoring position, Miller used only 21 pitches to record eight outs in game five.
The Indian's bullpen logged 22 of 44 innings and only allowed four earned runs while posting a minuscule 1.63 earned run average.
The Indians got it done in front of a very vocal Toronto crowd tonight. In the baseball world, not many people gave them much of a chance to beat the heavily favored Boston Red Sox in the division series. With Jay's lineup being one of the most powerful in the American League they started this series the underdog as well.
"They answered the bell time after time after time," Indians Manager Terry Francona said. "And they're going to have to continue to do that."
Even if no one picks them in the next series, it won't change the fact that the Cleveland Indians are World Series bound.