We’ve seen plenty of things happen in baseball but nothing like what took place last night in Cleveland. Could you really blame gnats for why Yankee rookie setup man Joba Chamberlain had a sudden loss of control in the eighth tossing two wild pitches which allowed Grady Sizemore to score the tying run?

Sadly, it definitely affected the normally cool kid from Nebraska who had mosquitoes draped all over him and lost his focus. After coming on for a brilliant Andy Pettite to get the final two batters of the seventh, he walked Sizemore on four pitches and threw a wild pitch.

Despite a loss of control, he was a batter away from getting out of it. But with Sizemore on third, another wild pitch would stunningly allow the speedy Indians’ leadoff hitter to slide in ahead of Joba’s tag and tie the game.

The Yanks were four outs away from squaring the series. With the kid struggling, did Joe Torre give any thought to bringing in Mariano Rivera? This wasn’t a normal situation. It called for the Yankee skipper to go for the jugular. Mo has been through plenty and later wasn’t affected in pitching two scoreless and getting out of a bases loaded jam in the 10th to keep his team alive before Travis Hafner’s game-winning bases loaded two out hit off Luis Vizcaino in the 11th for a crushing Cleveland 2-1 win.

Maybe Torre should’ve given the ball to Rivera because the former 2006 first round pick was clearly rattled by the bugs. They also might have needed a different bug spray because it didn’t help at all.

In a short series, the Bronx Bombers badly needed a split. Instead, now they must win three in a row. Only seven teams have comeback from 2-0 down in the Division Series. The 2001 Yankees did it against Oakland.

Boston was the last team to get out of this predicament back in 2003 coming back to beat the Angels.

If ever there was a fitting pic which summed up a frustrating night in which the Yanks got only a Melky Cabrera solo home run and two other hits off the brilliant Fausto Carmona and winning Cleveland reliever Rafael Perez, then it’s got to be this shot of certain three-time league MVP Alex Rodriguez above who struckout three times in four hitless at bats.

It’s hard to blame the Yankee third baseman for the lack of offense in Friday’s defeat. The Bombers had 19 ground outs against Carmona and couldn’t do anything with Perez in two innings. Of course, with A-Rod continuing to struggle in October, everything is magnified.

The Yanks didn’t get many opportunities to score against the Cleveland starter. But they did manage to have Bobby Abreu in scoring position in the ninth as Rodriguez battled the 23 year-old Dominican to a full count fouling off a few pitches before fanning for the third time.

He later admitted he chased ball four. If only his teammates could’ve picked him up.

Pettite certainly did his part pitching into the seventh and getting out of numerous jams with the usual guts and savvy kind of work you’d expect from the veteran southpaw who’s been here so often. He deserved to win but instead took a tough no-decision striking out five while not allowing a run in six and a third despite giving up two walks and seven hits on 92 pitches.

So, can the Yankees comeback when the series shifts to the Bronx tomorrow night? They’ll need the 45 year-old Rocket to come up large. This is what they paid him all the big bucks for. The pressure’s squarely on Roger Clemens to deliver a great outing. How will his body respond after a layoff? They’ll need at least six solid innings.

The offense clearly needs to get going against ex-Yank Jake Westbrook. Four runs in two games is why they’re in this predicament. It’s not just Rodriguez. Hideki Matsui has done zilch. Maybe Torre should consider benching him in favor of Jason Giambi. Or how about moving Robinson Cano up in the order?

We’re not suggesting anything drastic here. But hitting the second baseman sixth behind Jorge Posada might be a better option than the slumping Matsui.

If the offense gets going and they certainly should be pleased to see Westbrook and Paul Byrd if they get to Monday, they are very capable of getting this series back to Cleveland for a deciding fifth game.

They can either toss in the towel like the Mets at Shea last week or show the kind of fight they displayed the last three months.

We’re going to find out plenty in less than 24 hours.