#145---COL @ LA, 10/3/2009

On the second-last day of the season, Colorado trailed Los Angeles by one game in the NL West race. Both teams were assured of a playoff berth, but the division was still in the balance. The pitching matchup was pretty good, a pair of lefties including some guy in his first full season named Kershaw.

Kershaw started brilliantly, perfect through 3 2/3 with five straight Ks to open the game and a total of nine of the first eleven. De La Rosa was perfect through three, but injured his groin, shelving him for the playoffs and leaving Jose Contreras in long relief. Contrereas kept the Dodgers off the board for three innings, although not nearly as cleanly (five baserunners). But Franklin Morales and Matt Belisle couldn’t answer in the seventh, getting largely dinked and dunked for a five spot, while the Dodgers got three perfect relief innings (one each) from their strong back end of Hong-Chi Kuo, George Sherrill, and Jonathon Broxton to wrap up the divisional flag.

Given the importance of this game in the race, I obviously joined the scorekeeping in progress or I would have been scoring pitch-by-pitch.

#144---CLE @ COL, 6/17/2008

This was a rough game for an Indians fan to watch. The notion of an Indians/Rockies series in 2008 was filled with regret to begin with, since that would have been the World Series matchup the prior season had the Tribe not blown a 3-1 lead to Boston in the ALCS. The fact that the Sox ran roughshod over the Rox made it even tougher to swallow. Then you tack on the fact that there were already some serious warning signs that 2008 wasn’t going as planned (Cleveland came into this game 33-37, five back in the Central), the scary notion of Paul Byrd pitching at Coors Field, and it wasn’t exactly a fun time.

Oh, and that was before the game started, and Jeff Baker hit a two-run inside the park home run that got through the massive gaps in the Coors outfield. It only got worse from there, with Colorado scoring in each of the third through the seventh, with all but the fifth featuring multiple tallies. I knew the “Bauer” on this scoresheet was much too old to be Trevor, but I had forgotten that Rick Bauer briefly toiled for the Tribe. The Indians pair of runs came as the result of leadoff triples and sacrifice flies because, you know, Coors Field.

#143---BOS @ TEX, 4/8/2007

Big Papi powered the BoSox to victory by driving in all three runs on homers in first two at bats off Vicente Padilla. Frank Catalanotto countered with his own homer in the bottom of the first, and Boston took a 3-1 lead deep into the game. Curt Schilling pitched seven strong innings, but Joel Pineiro ran into trouble in the bottom of the eighth, issuing two walks and a bunt single to Kenny Lofton. Javier Lopez got pinch-hitter Nelson Cruz to hit into a fielder’s choice, plating a run and leaving men at the corners. Then Jonathon Papelbon was summoned for a five out save which he delievered, striking out Michael Young looking, popping up Mark Teixeira, and setting down the Rangers (including Sammy Sosa!) in order in the ninth.

#142---CIN @ CLE, 6/25/2006

For some reason I was just keeping a play-by-play scoresheet for this game on a sheet with pre-drawn diamonds. Jeremy Sowers was making his major league debut for the Indians against the Reds, the team that had originally drafted him and then (if memory serves) negotiated in bad faith. Back into the draft he went where the Indians made him a first-round pick for the second time.

Sowers started well, yielding just one single through the first three frames. But in the fourth, Ken Griffey and Adam Dunn both hit two-run blasts (the 549th of Griffey’s career), and that was all the scoring they would get or need.