Joba!, Joba!, Joba!

I'm having a hard time deciding on my headline tonight.

The one I chose is not journalistically sound because it doesn't really tell the real story. But it does tell part of it.

And, I guess I chose it because all I've heard about in New York since August is how Joba Chamberlain will be the difference-maker in the playoffs.

And so today, it took thousands of soldiers to fell the feared Joba. Canadian Soldiers. Fleas. Or more accurately flies. And not of the sacrafice variety.

Here are some other headlines I considered:

Here's the buzz from Jacobs Field, Tribe wins 2-1.

Yankees flea Cleveland down 2-0.

Lacking a sacrafice fly, a living breathing one does the trick for the Tribe.

That last one I thought was pretty good, if a bit esoteric.

The Tribe tonight put 8 of their 11 leadoff runners on base. One time that leadoff hitter hit a triple. Another time a double. They left 14 men on base, including the bases loaded in the tenth.

Until Travis Hafner's bases-loaded, two-out, 3-2, walkoff single in the bottom of the 11th, the only way the Tribe could score was on a wild pitch, thrown by a flustered Joba Chamberlain who was so distracated by the bugs that infested Jacobs Field in the eigth inning that he forgot he had a job to do.

The Tribe scored the game-tying run in the eighth with a walk, a sacrafice bunt and two Chamberlain wild pitches.

That set the stage for an 11-inning, four-hour-and-twenty-three-minute hair-pulling victory.

For every hit with runners in scoring position in Game 1, it seemed the Tribe had at least two misses in Game 2.

And the real shame of it - a truly amazing performance by Fausto Carmona will be overshadowed on all the news shows by the flies that bugged Joba Chamberlain into surrendering the lead.

Carmona made one (real big) mistake, relying on his third-best pitch (a slider) with two strikes on Melky Cabrera, who yanked it deep down the right field line in the third inning for the Yankees' only run.

Fausto went a full nine, allowing just three hits and two walks against the most explosive offense in baseball. He threw 113 pitches - 77 for strikes.

After Cabrera's homer with one out in the second, Carmona allowed a single to Derek Jeter to lead off the fourth. He didn't allow another hit until Bobby Abreu's infield single with one out in the ninth - which was actually a bounce out that Jhonny Peralta half-assed into a hit.

The Tribe had some bad luck. Peralta's shot to center which hit the big wall in center instead of clearing the small wall a mere foot or two away comes to mind. Posada got a fairly lucky bounce on the run-scoring wild pitch, but Grady Sizemore just beat the tag on the flip to the plate by Posada. Then there was Haffner's lightning bolt right at a drawn-in Doug Mientkiewicz with Grady on third.

Despite the failure to get the big hit, and a bit of bad luck, the Tribe - especially its pitchers - sucked it up, made pitches, made plays in the field and came out on top.

And so, for the Tribe, its on to Yankee Stadium with two games in their pocket.

A famous man from New York once said it aint over 'til it's over. But after tonight, at least we have a fair amount of breathing room.

And it's a good thing too. One more game like tonight and I may not be alive for the rest of the post season.

(photo credits: The Associated Press)