#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.