#113---CLE @ LAA, 7/23/2008

This game was a slugfest, with the teams trading multi-run innings until Los Angeles’ five in the fifth gave them a 10-6 cushion, and pairs in the sixth and seventh allowed them to take a 14-7 lead. Down 14-10 going into the ninth, David Dellucci’s two-out RBI double off Jose Arredondo made it a save situation, which allowed Francisco Rodriguez to record the 42nd of his record 62 saves.


While any 14-11 game is bound to have plenty of offensive standouts, what makes this one interesting is how many of the big hitters were very marginal players. Ryan Garko drove in four of Cleveland’s runs, while Casey Kotchman went 5-5. But both pale in comparison to Jeff Mathis going 4-5 with a grand slam and a two-run double.

#112---CHN @ CIN, 4/4/2007

There’s not a whole lot that stands out looking at this scoresheet. Bronson Arroyo dropped down a bunt hit, Edwin Encarnacion reached on catcher’s interference, and Jared Burton made his major league debut, walking the only three batters he faced and throwing a wild pitch for good measure.

#111---SEA @ CLE, 4/21/2016

Sometimes I find myself somewhere with a ballgame on the radio and really want to keep score, but I didn’t expect to have that opportunity and don’t have a scoresheet handy. Or I’m not sure if I’ll be able to take in the whole game and don’t want to “waste” a pre-printed sheet on the game (because that $0.09 printing cost is inhibitive). In such cases, improvisation is an option if there is paper available.

This is one such example. I simply took a standard 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper and folded it in half (vertically), using one side for the visitors innings and the other side for home. Unfortunately, this sheet really reveals why I’m an analyst/writer and not an artist, as I found that I was using way too much space for each inning and had to shrink down. I also shouldn’t have used diamonds, which inherently involve more art than my usual approach.


I decided during the game that I would make a simple pre-printed form to avoid any such future problems…and then ended up being able to test it right away as the game went to extra innings. Seattle had a built a lead off shaky pitching from Cody Anderson and Trevor Bauer, but Cleveland chipped away, with the big blows a three run homer from Rajai Davis to open the scoring and a two out, two run pinch hit homer to tie it in the eighth from Mike Napoli. But in the tenth, Robinson Cano hit a three run blast off Cody Allen and Seattle won 10-7. Note that I tracked the running tally for each team by writing the number of the run inside each diamond; usually when I use diamonds, I just use a dot for a run scored, but knew I wouldn’t have a lot of space for summary stats on this scoresheet.

#110---CLE @ DET, 4/14/2006

This was a fairly uneventful early season game, with Kenny Rogers shutting down the Indians backed by two homers from Brandon Inge. Within a month or so it would become apparent that the AL Central might not play out as expected, with defending World Series winner Chicago and late-charging Cleveland looking up at Detroit. The Tigers would lead the division much of the summer before settling for the wildcard at the hands of Minnesota. I suppose this game was an early season, small sample warning that things were not what they appeared.