Yankees hope to continue era

? The Cleveland Indians could end a few eras tonight.

Roger Clemens could be taking the mound for the last time. Alex Rodriguez could be playing his final game in pinstripes. Joe Torre could be managing for his future with the New York Yankees.

Ahead 2-0 in their best-of-five AL division series after swarming the Yankees at the Jake, the youthful Tribe could be starting a run of their own: The Indians need just one win to advance to their first AL championship series since 1998 – and to send the Yankees home without a World Series title for the seventh straight season.

“We’re not going to relax at all,” Indians first baseman Ryan Garko said. “We just want to put this away.”

Cleveland made the playoffs six times in seven years from 1995-2001 and in 1997 was within two outs of its first World Series title since 1948 when Jose Mesa blew a ninth-inning lead in Game 7 against Florida. These Indians are just starting to fathom how far they can go and what it’s like to play in October.

“I think we could definitely put together a string of four or five years,” said Jake Westbrook, Cleveland’s Game 3 starter.

Yankees veterans, bugged by their deficit, like to say they’ve seen every situation – well, perhaps not the B-movie insect attack of Game 2. They cited their comeback from a 21-29 start this year and an 0-2 deficit against Oakland in 2001’s opening round.

“That is the first thing we looked to last night in the clubhouse,” Andy Pettitte said. “The first thing that goes through your mind is, you know, we’ve done this. We can do this. We can pull this off.”

They haven’t been swept in the playoffs since 1980, but they haven’t overcome much in the postseason since their epic collapse from a 3-0 lead against Boston in the 2004 AL championship series, losing 12 of their last 15 playoff games.

“Been there, done that” seems to apply especially for Alex Rodriguez, and not in a good way. He’s 0-for-October, hitless in his last 18 postseason at-bats and 4-for-50 with no RBIs in the playoffs since his Game 4 homer against Boston in 2004.

A $252 million man during the regular season, he hasn’t been worth $2.52 in the playoffs, striking out three times and hitting three infield popups against the Indians. A-Rod has become A-Wreck once again, and if he threatens to exercise that opt-out clause next month, Yankees fans may respond with a Dirty Harry answer: “Go ahead, make my day.”

“We’ve got to get back home, feed off the energy of the crowd and play Yankee baseball,” Rodriguez said after Game 2. “We’re better than that.”

Doug Mientkiewicz took time Saturday to keep A-Rod’s spirits up.

“I’ve been texting him back and forth this morning to keep his mind right,” Mientkiewicz said. “We just need him to be him and then let everybody else do our own thing.”