#136---BOS @ CLE, 4/29/2000

It’s a Red Sox game from 2000 and Martinez is pitching! Never mind, it’s just big brother Ramon. Martinez pitched okay, fanning three and walking one over five innings; he allowed three runs, all on sacrifice flies, one of which paved the way for the third run when it was dropped by Darren Lewis.

On the other side, Chuck Finley pitched well and deep into the game as he was doing with regularity at the start of his first season as an Indian, making 112 pitches in 7 2/3. He surrended a home run to Mike Stanley in the second, and Stanley hit what would have been a go-ahead homer to the warning track when Paul Shuey relieved Finley in the eighth.


The Indians lineup is, uh, interesting--Jacob Cruz leading off while Jim Thome hit sixth.

#135---CLE @ ATL, 4/3/1999

This was one of those exhibition games played in a MLB stadium just before the start of the season, that seem like they used to be more common (at least in cold weather cities--the Indians used to occasionally play these at home, but now they are almost always on the road. Of course, the start of the season has drifted earlier and earlier in the calendar over time as well). As such, there’s nothing particularly interesting about Atlanta’s 4-2 win.

What drew my attention to this scoresheet, though, was John Rocker working a 1-2-3 eighth inning with two strikeouts. As you can see, Rocker was pitching in the eighth and Mark Wohlers still had the ninth for Atlanta, although Rocker would quickly supplant Wohlers as the closer and record 38 saves this season after breaking out in the second half of 1998. Rocker would be traded to Cleveland in a bizarre move in 2001, after the infamous SI article and the associated fallout, completing a strange obsession that the Indians brass seemed to have with Rocker. Could this be the moment that it all started?

#134---CLE @ KC, 7/3/1998

Sometimes when I look at an old scoresheet, most of the time in fact, I have no recollection of the ballgame. This is fun; the scoresheet restores a personal connection back to a game you experienced at one point but no longer remember. But it’s even more fun when I find a nearly twenty-year old scoresheet and distinctly remember the game, then be reminded of details you’d never remember (like Shawon Dunston of all people DHing for the Indians) in your own handwriting.

I remember listening to this one on the radio at my grandmother’s house and in the car on the way home. The Royals took a 1-0 lead off Dwight Gooden on Johnny Damon’s third inning single, and Jose Rosado was pitching very well, at least in the pre-DIPS sense. He’s allowed three walks with 2 Ks and no hits until Manny Ramirez homered to left with two outs in the sixth. Gooden matched him fairly well, going seven with three Ks and no walks. Rosado walked Sandy Alomar in the seventh, but he was erased on a K/CS double play. Paul Shuey, in relief of Gooden, walked the first two batters he faced but fanned Shane Halter on a foul bunt before getting Jose Offerman to fly out and fanning Jeff King.

With one out in the ninth and the game still tied, Manny Ramirez hit another homer to left. Mike Jackson set down the Royals in order in the ninth and the Indians won 2-1 with their only two hits coming on Ramirez longballs. And while I didn’t sum up the pitch count here, Jose Rosado made 123 pitches according to Baseball-Reference; he wouldn’t turn 24 until after the season. Nineteen years can be a long time in baseball.

#133---ANA @ CLE, 4/13/1997

There wasn’t anything too remarkable about this mid-April game, with the Angels winning 8-3. Jack McDowell, the Indians big offseason signing to bolster the rotation, didn’t make it out of the fifth and coughed up six runs, which was representative of his Cleveland career. Baseball-Reference tells me this was Eddie Murray’s first homer of the season, the 502nd of his career and one of just three he would hit in his final major league season, in which he mustered an OPS of just 598.

#132--TEX @ CLE, 5/17/1996

When I look at games I scored as a fledgling scorekeeper, sometimes I regret that I wasted such a good game with such lousy scorekeeping. This is one of those occasions, as my scoresheet is so cluttered that it’s hard to really follow what happened in a game that could serve as a historical snapshot of mid-to-late 90s baseball, a slugfest between two of the most powerful lineups in the league (both teams would win their divisions).

Trailing 2-1 (with their run coming on one of the whopping 24 homers Kevin Elster would hit in a season in which he recorded a 90 OPS+), Texas got six straight hits off Orel Hershiser to start the fourth inning, then added two more hits and two walks off long reliever Joe Roa, making his only appearance of the season (and second and last of his Cleveland career). Texas added two more in the fifth to make it 9-2, but the Indians matched that in the bottom of the frame.

Eddie Murray homered to lead off the Cleveland sixth, but Elster countered with another solo homer and it was 10-5 going into the bottom of the seventh. The Indians had Kenny Lofton at first with 2 outs and then all hell broke loose. Baerga, Belle, and Murray singled, and Thome walked to make it 10-7. Then Manny Ramirez (who’d pinch-hit for Jeremy Burnitz in the seventh) hit a grand slam and it was 11-10. Belle singled home Lofton in the eighth for the last run in a crazy 12-10 game that deserved to be scored by a better scorekeeper on a better scoresheet.

#131---BAL @ NYA, 3/2/2017

When I’m not scoring a spring training game pitch-by-pitch, using my scoresheet with field diagram is a great way to avoid the need for scrap paper to track defensive substitutes, allowing them to be penciled-in in a visually-pleasing manner. This early spring night game in Tampa featured a 1-2-3, 2 K inning from Aroldis Chapman in his return to the Yankees and a prodigious longball clubbed by Greg Bird (returning from missing all of 2016 with injury) in the fourth. Other than Caleb Joesph’s leadoff third inning homer off Adam Warren, Baltimore did not manage until Aderlin Rodriguez blooped a single to center with two outs in the ninth. New York would go on to notch a spring no-no against Detroit on St. Patrick’s Day.

#130---CIN @ CLE, 2/25/2017

This was the first spring training game I had the opportunity to watch in 2017, and a rare February scoresheet with the early start due to the World Baseball Classic. The first weekend of spring training is always a fun time to score, jumping back into the deep end of the pool by having to keep track of myriad substitutions. This task has been greatly eased with the availability of Gameday for spring training contests, but beware defensive substitutes - Gameday often does not correctly place them in the batting order. I usually keep a list of defensive substitutes on scrap paper, then write them in to the batting order as they actually come to the plate (and sort out anyone who hasn’t batted at the end).

The game featured lots of offense, but Cleveland did a much better job of converting it to runs, particularly in the seventh when Nellie Rodriguez and Guillermo Quiroz singled leading to Bradley Zimmer’s three-run homer. With Quiroz coming up to bat in the eighth, the sprinklers came on for about twenty seconds, leading to a humorous seen as Reds pitcher Ariel Hernandez hopped off the mound to avoid getting an early shower. He proceeded to walk the next two hitters and get one anyway.

#129---MIA @ CLE, 9/2/2016

Usually I keep score on a single-sided sheet; as long as I devote the whole page to scoreboxes and not stat summaries, I have plenty of room to keep score, and I like seeing the whole game without having to flip back and forth. However, sometimes it’s nice to give yourself a lot of room, and use both sides of the page. When I do so I keep the same basic design, except as a landscape to take advantage of the extra spance, and including room for pitcher’s statistics (Since pitchers face many batters and span multiple innings, while batters might only have 3-5 PA, I find it’s easy to see how a batter performed with a click glance of his row, so if I’m going to devote space to statistics, it makes a lot more sense to give it to pitchers).

The Indians jumped on Andrew Cashner early, scoring three in the first thanks largely to three walks. Abraham Almonte’s two-run double in the fifth made it 6-0. That was more than enough for Carlos Carrasco as he pitched 7.1, scattering six hits and a walk but fanning eleven. JT Realmuto’s homer off Jeff Manship made it 6-2, but Cody Allen got the Marlins 1-2-3 in the ninth to finish it off.

#128—TB @ CLE, 6/19/2015

Many people only keep score when they attend games in person. I keep score of any game I plan to watch from start to finish, but of course that includes games I attend. To remind myself, I have the “LIVE” notation in the box at the top of the sheet.

This game was unremarkable, as the Indians mustered only one run in the bottom of the first, aided by two wild pitches. The highlight of attending this game as a fan was it was just the fifth game of top prospect Francisco Lindor’s career. Lindor had two infield singles (including the bunt back to the pitcher that contributed to the first inning tally). Carlos Carrasco didn’t pitch poorly, but he would still get revenge on Tampa Bay within the span of a month.

#127---CLE @ CHA, 4/11/2014

I must have started watching this game in progress and so used a scoresheet from the back of an OSU roster card (I collected a number of these at games, as the scoresheet was printed on the back of the free roster card and naturally I used my own scoresheet to score the game). But they made for useful throwaway scorecards when not wanting to use one of my standard sheets for a pitch-by-pitch account. I believe the design is from baseballscorecard.com.

Chicago took advantage of Cleveland wildness in the fifth, drawing two walks off starter Carlos Carrasco and two off of reliever Mark Rzepczynski (keeping score of many Indians games made spelling his name as natural as spelling “Smith”). The Indians did manage three runs in five innings against Chris Sale, but it wasn’t nearly enough

#126---CLE @ DET, 6/7/2013

One of the most frustrating aspects of being an Indians fan in the last decade was the matter of Ubaldo Jimenez. Acquired at a steep prospect price in a deadline deal to prop up a team that pretty evidently was going nowhere, he was hard enough to watch given his tendency to, well Ubaldo. Consider the price and it was impossible not to be infuriated just by seeing him on the rubber.

So it certainly felt appropriate to include a typical Ubaldo game. Three walks in the third, including one to Miguel Cabrera with the bases loaded. Failing to record an out in the fourth inning, requiring lengthy work from the bullpen and needing 85 pitches to get nine outs. Wasting a decent offensive showing considering that Justin Verlander was his opposite number.

Note Rich Hill working in relief, surrendering a single to Francisco Pena but then picking him off. I’m not sure I’ve discussed my notation for this play previously--"CP” indicates a caught stealing/pickoff (e.g. one with the runner making a noticeable movement towards the next base before being picked off). I find the use of this notation (and “PC”, for a similar play in which I judge the pickoff portion to be more important than the CS, such as maybe just a twitch by the runner rather than a step in the direction of the next base) to provide more color by supplementing the standard “CS” and “PO” codes I use.

This was one of just thirteen major league appearances for Matt Langwell, all coming this season between Cleveland and Arizona. I’d completely forgotten his existence in less than four years until I picked up this scoresheet.

#125---NYA @ BOS, 9/11/2012

2012 was a lost year for the Red Sox, but the Yankees were just a game ahead of Baltimore in the AL East race when they came to Fenway to open a three-game mid-week series with a matchup of excellent starters in Hiroki Kuroda and Jon Lester. New York opened the scoring with an unholy combination of a Derek Jeter walk and a Nick Swisher double, followed by a Robinson Cano groundout. Boston would answer with two in the third, but Jeter chased Lester with a two-run ground rule double that skipped into the stands down the right field line in the sixth. Pedroia tied it with a homer over the Monster in the bottom of the frame.

In the seventh, Boston loaded the bases on an infield single, a Russell Martin muff of a sac bunt attempt, and another infield single (from Jacoby Ellsbury) off reliever Boone Logan. Joba Chamberlain was summoned into this one out mess and pinch-hitter Daniel Nava hit into a fielder’s choice at the plate and Pedroia popped out. There were no real threats until the bottom of the ninth, where Pedro Ciriaco singled with one out, Mike Aviles got an infield hit, and Jacoby Ellsbury lined one through the right side to give Boston a 4-3 walkoff win.

#124---Venezuela v. Puerto Rico, 3/16/2009 (World Baseball Classic)

This was the winner’s bracket game in the second round of the tournament, the winner punching their ticket to the semifinals with the loser having to get through the United States. Venezuela had one of their aces, Felix Hernandez, on the mound while Puerto Rico countered with Ian Snell. Snell stranded six runners, allowing a single tally in the third while fanning five. King Felix also ducked out of some trouble, leaving the game with runners at the corners, two outs and Carlos Delgado at the dish.

The score stayed 1-0 until the seventh, when Ramon Hernandez’ homer was awarded by replay. Francisco Rodriguez was summed to close with two outs, runners at first and second and a 2-1 count in the eighth, striking out Jose Lopez to end the threat. He then set down Puerto Rico 1-2-3 to clinch Venezuela’s first (and through 2017, only) berth in the WBC Final Four.

#123---Mexico v. Australia, 3/11/2009 (World Baseball Classic)

Just three days after the game in #122, Mexico and Australia were playing again, this time in a must-win game that would advance the winner to the second round and eliminate the loser. This time Mexico would return the favor and mercy Australia, first stringing together five hits for four runs in the third, then collecting another five hits including a two-run blast by Scott Hairston for seven runs in the fourth. After that, Karim Garcia made it his personal mission to end the game early, hitting a solo homer in the sixth and a three-run homer in the seventh to cap a 4-4 day with 4 runs scored and 4 RBI. Australia never really threatened offensively other than putting men at second & third with one out in the second and Rosenberg’s solo homer in the fourth, but by that point it was already 11-0.

#122---Australia v. Mexico, 3/8/2009 (World Baseball Classic)

This was the opening game of the WBC for each country, with the game being played in Mexico City. The result was fairly surprising, as Australia is on the lower end of the WBC spectrum (albeit boasting a handful of current/future major leaguers including Trent Oetljen, Chris Snelling, Damian Moss, Liam Hendriks, Justin Huber on their roster) while Mexico has more talent by any measure (the Hairston and Gonzalez brothers make up 4/9 of the starting lineup).

But they also had their ace, Oliver Perez on the mound, and to the surprise and dismay of Mets fans everywhere, that didn’t go so well. Perez surrendered back-to-back homers in the first, gave up another run in the second leaving the bases loaded, and walk and hit the first two batters in the third before being reliever. But Mexico countered with a five-run first capped by Jorge Vazquez grand slam.

Mexico led 6-4 heading to the fifth and then the wheels fell off as Australia scored 3, 3, 4, and 3 in the remaining innings before it ended on the mercy rule, touching up a handful of major league hurlers in the process and getting a second homer from Chris Snelling.

A note on the scoresheet: this is my “mini” scoresheet, which actually provides space to score two games laid out landscape style on a single 8.5x11 sheet of paper. I cut this image down to just show the one game, but it is a sheet I use sometimes when I don’t want to record pitch-by-pitch detail and thus can make due with small scoreboxes.

#121---China v. Korea, 3/8/2009 (World Baseball Classic)

The previous scoresheet showed Taiwan’s opening game loss to Korea in the 2009 WBC, but they followed that up with an 4-1 upset loss to China that knocked them out of the tournament. Korea fell 14-2 to Japan, setting up this game that would advance the winner to the second round of the WBC. As expected, Korea won, and did so in mercy rule fashion. The mercy rule and the extra inning rule are elements of international play that you don’t usually see in a scoresheet--I don’t yet have an example of the latter, but have several of the former. China never threatened with only two baserunners over seven frames on a single and a double.

#120---Taiwan v. Korea, 3/6/2009 (World Baseball Classic)

Korea had no trouble with Taiwan in the WBC opener, rolling them 9-0. Note the solid but very brief start from Hyun-jin Ryu, 3 1/3 innings, one hit, two walks, three Ks, 43 pitches and done. A grand slam to cap a six-run first had already taken most of the drama out of the Tokyo Dome.

#119---China v. Japan, 3/5/2009 (World Baseball Classic)

This opening round WBC game saw China play credibly against Japan. The Chinese didn’t manage much in the way of offense, with just five hits (all singles) and a walk, failing to advance a runner to second in the entire game. But they managed to hold Japan down better than they did in 2006 when they were trounced 18-2. This included holding Ichiro 0-5.


Of course there are a number of recognizable names on the Japanese side, but the most interesting is Masahiro Tanaka working in middle relief in the seventh, coming in with two outs and no one on, surrendering a single and then getting a fielder’s choice to get out of it. At this point, Tanaka was just twenty with two fairly average seasons under his belt (albeit as a teenager); he would take a big step forward in this coming season, going 15-6 with a 2.33 ERA, before going beast mode on the Pacific League 2011-2013 (ERA under 2.00 all three seasons with a 43-9 record).

#118---US @ NYA, 3/3/3009 (World Baseball Classic Exhibition)

Remember that time Derek Jeter played against the Yankees, for the yanks? Here it is, an exhibition played between the 2009 US WBC team and the eventual world champion 2009 Yankees in Tampa. Jeter hit into a very Jeterian double play on a grounder to second in the first, but drove in two runs on a single up the middle in the third, reached and scored on a Jeterian infield hit to second in the sixth, walked in the seventh, and struck out in the ninth.

Most of the action came in the sixth, with the US extending a 2-1 lead by plating four in the top of the inning, and the Yankees countering with three in the bottom to reach the final score of 6-4. The US rally was a station-to-station affair against a New York hurler I have no recollection of, Hacker (Apparently Eric Hacker, a righty would make his MLB debut that year with Pittsburgh and go on to have brief appearances with Minnesota in 2011 and San Francisco in 2012. So at least he got a ring out of the deal despite only making nine major league appearances). The Yankee rally was punctuated by a two-run double by Nick Swisher.

#117—Panama v. Brazil, 11/19/2012 (WBC Qualifier)

With the fourth (and hopefully not last) installment of the World Baseball Classic fast approaching, the next several scoresheets will be from the WBC. I start with this qualifier, played between favored Panama and Brazil in Panama City, with the winner qualifying for the 2013 WBC field. Panama had participated in the first two WBCs without having to qualify, but had failed to win a game (0-5). Brazil was seeking its first appearance.

It turned out to be a well-played, quick-paced, exciting game. The first scoring threat came suddenly in the top of the third; with two outs an a man at first, a muffed catch by Brazil’s second baseman allowed the runner to get to third, but he was thrown out in a rundown between third and home trying to score. In the bottom of the inning, Brazil used four straight singles to station-to-station home a run. In the thick of it were the two recognizable names on the Brazilian team, Paulo Orlando and Yan Gomes. Panama wouldn’t threaten again until the ninth, when they got national hero Carlos Lee to the plate with one out and runners on the corners. But Lee and former megaprospect Ruben Rivera struck out, and Brazil qualified for the WBC where they would go 0-3 against China, Cuba, and Japan.

#116---CLE @ SEA, 4/10/2011

The Indians were playing well at the start of the 2011 season under first-year manager Manny Acta. After losing their first two contests to the White Sox, the Indians had won six in a row heading into this Sunday series finale at Safeco Field. They jumped all over Erik Bedard, plating six in his four innings of work, including homers from Asdrubal Cabrera and Jack Hannahan. After Bedard got the hook, David Pauley, Jamey Wright, and Brandon League combined to toss five nearly perfect relief innings, an eighth inning single by Orlando Cabrera the only blemish.

Josh Tomlin held Seattle to just one run over six frames, but things got dicey in the seventh when Ryan Langerhans clubbed a two-run homer and Michael Saunders greeted reliever Chad Durbin with a solo shot. After Durbin surrendered a single to once-and-future-and-future Indian Chris Gimenez, Rafael Perez, Tony Sipp, and Chris Perez combined to retire the last seven Mariner batters and give the Tribe a seven game winning streak.

#115---MIN @ TOR, 5/18/2010

Apparently I had nothing better to do on a Tuesday afternoon in May then to watch an afternoon tilt between the Twins and Blue Jays. It turned out to be about as exciting of a game as the description would suggest. Toronto hit Carl Pavano hard, scoring six in the first four frames, while Shawn Marcum held Minnesota to just one run in seven innings. Of note here is Jose Bautista, about to have a breakout season (but 0-3 with a hit batter in this game) and Edwin Encarnacion (two run homer) batting seventh and eighth in the Jays lineup.

#114---SF @ PHI, 9/3/2009

This was Pedro Martinez’ fifth-to-last career regular season start, and it was a gem. He gave up a leadoff homer to Eugenio Velez, of all people, but then proceeded to go seven while scattering just four more hits, no walks, and striking out nine on 87 pitches. A Jayson Werth homer and a Ryan Howard double (after one of those oft-overlooked Chase Utley hit batters) provided all the offense Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge would need to close it out. But Tim Lincecum, when he was reminding people of Pedro, was great as well, allowing just those two runs on four hits, one walk, and eleven strikeouts on 96 pitches over 7 innings.


And look at the time of game: 2:07.