Josh Tomlin was his efficient self, not walking a batter and needing just 96 pitches to get through eight; he allowed five hits, four of which were doubles, but kept the ball in Safeco Field and allowed just one run. Through seven King Felix had been better and flashier, yielding Cleveland just two hits and a walk while fanning nine, but the eighth was a little more interesting. After striking out Shelley Duncan, three straight hits (two of the infield variety) loaded the bases. Felix than fanned Jason Kipnis and Shin-Soo Choo swinging.
But having made 126 pitches, the King departed for Brandon League, and two walks and a single set up Jack Hannahan’s go ahead single to left, with pinch-runner Aaron Cunningham scoring the go-ahead run. Chris Perez needed just ten pitches to set down Seattle’s 3-4-5 of Suzuki-Smoak-Seager (Saunders was batting sixth for good measure), and a great Hernandez start went for naught.
The Yankees pounded Brad Penny for eight runs over 4 1/3, with three-run homers from Mark Teixeira and Russell Martin (facing reliever Brad Thomas but scoring two of Penny’s runners) the big blows. Brayan Villarreal made his major league debut in the sixth, and the first batter he faced was A-Rod. He took him deep to center-left for homers #1/7 for Villarreal and #614/696 for Rodriguez.
That made it 10-3; Victor Martinez’ two-run shot in the eighth got Detroit closer, and in the ninth the Tigers had made it 10-6 with runners at the corners and two outs after a throwing error by Derek Jeter that should have ended the game. Mariano Rivera was summoned to face Miguel Cabrera, and got a three-pitch save: two fouls and a grounder to second on what must have been the most Jeterian of swings.
The Indians bombed Gavin Floyd for seven runs as he failed to record an out in the second, with Shin-Soo Choo’s grand slam as the big blow. Over seven innings the ChiSox bullpen allowed just two hits and two walks, but their offense only scored four runs so it was for naught. Random notes:
* Juan Pierre stole three bases
* Alexei Ramirez had three hits
* Omar Vizquel started at third for the White Sox
* Michael Brantly hit ninth for the Indians behind Luis Valbuena, Mark Grudzielanek (who was DHing), and Mike Redmond
Henry Blanco’s two homers and Adrian Gonzalez’ bases clearing double provided all the support Jake Peavy would need. Peavy struck out ten over 8 1/3, his complete game bid ended on Fred Lewis’ double in the ninth, with Heath Bell recording the last two outs for the save.
Grady Sizemore, en route to his best season, had an interesting day, with a double, triple, and hit by pitch twice. Fausto Carmona probably gave us all reason to believe he’d continue his 2007 form as he allowed one run over six innings with one walk, two strikeouts, and ten outs on groundballs. Spoiler: he would not continue his 2007 form.
Chris Young did not have his control, walking five Dodgers (including opposite number Randy Wolf twice) and coughing up five runs in just 2 1/3. Andre Ethier had a big day at the plate (three hits, a homer, four RBI), Wolf hit the minimum qualifications for a quality start, and Joe Beimel, Jonathan Broxton, and Takashi Saito combined to allow just one walk in three innings of relief.
But the most interesting aspects of the scoresheet come from Rafael Furcal’s trips to the plate. He started the game by reaching on catcher’s interference, and drew a walk in the eighth which was aided by an automatic third ball (indicated by the “a” preceding my normal “D” on the left side of the scorebox) called on Doug Brocail.
The Indians got to Felix Hernandez for five runs in 4 2/3, including homers by Ben Broussard and Ronnie Belliard. Unfortunately, Jason Johnson was pitching for Cleveland, and he allowed three runs in the fifth (including an Ichiro homer) and walked the bases loaded in the sixth before being bailed out by Rafael Betancourt. But in the seventh Betancourt walked namesake Yuniesky (not an easy thing to do) and surrendered the tying homer to Jose Lopez before Scott Sauerbeck and Guillermo Mota allowed two more runs across. Kenji Johjima’s two-run double in the ninth gave the Mariners nine, and their bullpen shut the Tribe out, including a six-out save by JJ Putz.
Carl Everett had a game after my heart, grounding out his first time up, followed by a double and then walks in his final three plate appearances.
Mark Buehrle and Jake Westbrook each pitched eight fine innings on opening day, but the Sox scored the game’s only run in the seventh on a double by Paul Konerko and infield hit by Aaron Rowand. Westbrook allowed five hits and one walk with three strikeouts, while Buehrle was perfect through four, allowing just two hits and one walk with five strikeouts. Shingo Takatsu pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the save, and the game was over in snappy one hour, fifty-one minutes.
This was a wild early season game between division rivals, with the fifth through seventh innings producing thirteen of the eighteen runs scored in the games, Atlanta’s four-run sixth being decisive. The highlight of that inning is probably 45 year old Julio Franco’s bases loaded pinch-hit walk against 42 year old John Franco. A few offensive performances that stood out were Ty Wigginton (three hits, four RBI, one HR), Marcus Giles (four singles), and Johnny Estrada (three hits, four RBI).
The Royals scored three runs, with the go ahead run coming on a little league home run by Michael Tucker in the third, scoring on an Omar Vizquel throwing error after he’d tripled to center. Despite twelve hits (including three each from Brent Mayne and Carlos Febles at the bottom of the lineup), Kansas City managed just three runs, with two runners cut down at the plate.
The Indians battered Kyle Lohse for eight runs in 3 1/3 innings, punctuated by a two-run homer by Jim Thome and a three-run homer by Omar Vizquel. Bartolo Colon wasn’t particularly sharp, allowing 4 runs over 5 2/3 and striking out just two Twins. When the starters exited, the scoring was done; the pens combined for 8 1/3 scoreless innings.
One of those relievers, Jack Cressand, was tossed along with his manager Ron Gardenhire for intentionally hitting Ricky Gutierrez leading off the fifth. These division rivals did not have a friendly relationship in 2002 – see #215 for the entertaining culmination.
Cleveland jumped on Jeff Weaver with a six-run first, despite a sac bunt from Robbie Alomar; Russell Branyan’s three-run blast to left was the big blow. Rookie CC Sabathia retired the first ten Detroit batters before allowing a fourth inning rally cashed in by Deivi Cruz’ bases clearing double. Alomar drove in two in the sixth, but in the bottom of the frame, Sabathia was pulled after allowing a single to Bobby Higginson at 88 pitches, and Justin Speier coughed up his own bases clearing double to pinch-hitter Robert Fick. Ricardo Rincon came in to fan Roger Cedeno, and Steve Karsay tossed two perfect innings of relief.
Wil Cordero’s triple was followed by Brayan’s third hit and fourth RBI of the night to pad the Tribe lead to 9-7, but Bob Wickman ran into trouble into the ninth, allowing a leadoff homer to pinch-hitter Jose Macias and a single before Cedno helped out popping up a sacrifice attempt. After Wickman plunked Damion Easley, Paul Shuey was summoned, fanning Higginson and Tony Clark to earn the bailout save.
Opening Day for the Indians and Orioles saw Bartolo Colon and Mike Mussina hook up at Camden Yards. Baltimore struck first, taking advantage of four walks issued by Colon in the first two innings, but he steadied for three shutout innings, departing after five having fanned six and walked five. Mussina set down the first seven Indians before Travis Fryman’s homer (the third straight game posted here featuring a Fryman longball), then set down ten more before Kenny Lofton homered to give Cleveland the lead in the sixth. Mussina set down the next six (at this point he’d faced 25 batters over 7 2/3, allowing just the two homers with four Ks), but three straight singles chased Moose, and the Indians plated two in eighth. The Orioles were shut out by the Indians bullpen for four innings with Steve Karsay earning the save.
Blog favorite Dave Burba pitched a complete game for the Tribe, marred slightly by John Jaha’s two-run homer in the ninth, but it was still a comfortable 8-3 win. Burba fanned four and walked two, needing only 108 pitches to retire twenty seven A’s. Cleveland was powered by two-run shots by Jim Thome and Travis Fryman.
Homers from Johnny Damon and Sal Fasano helped staked the Royals to a 4-0 lead through seven, and Pat Rapp managed to shutout the Indians over the span on six hits and four walks with just three strikeouts. In the eighth, the Tribe put together a rally with Travis Fryman’s two-out, three-run homer cutting the deficit to one. In the ninth, Jeff Montgomery yielded a walk to Kenny Lofton and a single to Omar Vizquel. David Justice grounded into a fielder’s choice, then swiped second to give Cleveland runners at second and third with one out, but Jim Thome struck out and Manny Ramirez lined out to end the game.
I’m not sure why I kept score of this game on a copy of the What’s the Score scorebook I was using in 1997, and I really have no idea why I used my pencil to fill in the headers – was this game not entertaining enough? The Indians beat the Yankees 11-8 behind five hits from Marquis Grissom and a four-hit, two homer, 6 RBI game from Matt Williams. It would later have been quite satisfying that it was David Wells that the Tribe roughed up, but he hadn’t yet ascended to the status of public enemy #1.
Finally, nearly three weeks delayed, there was spring training baseball in 2022. OSU product Tanner Tully got the starting nod for the Indi...err Guardians, making him the answer to the not at all contrived trivia question “Who was the first player to perform an in-game baseball action wearing a Cleveland Guardians uniform?” Tully, who like the rest of the pitchers used in the game were minor leaguers who had been in camp for a few weeks before the lockout was lifted and the major leaguers arrived, acquitted himself well, allowing just a walk and fanning four over three innings of work. Fellow Buckeye Ronnie Dawson was a substitute for the Reds and drew a walk, stole a base, and lined out to left.
Two Reds errors were key in allowing the Guardians to win their first exhibition game. Ernie Clement scored the tying run in the fifth after Trey Amburgey booted a single he was fielding in right, and Bryan Rocchio reached on Matt McLain’s throwing error in the seventh and came around to score the winning tally.
I usually don't use the team nicknames on a scoresheet, but for this special occasion (and a few other lasts and firsts for the Indians/Guardians) I used the nickname for each team's lineup header while sticking with team name on the top line.
This was the first spring training game I got to score in 2021, and as is quickly apparent I used my modified version of LL Bean’s system. The note points out that the game was only scheduled for 7 1/2 innings, as variable game length was a major oddity of 2021 spring training. The ability of managers to call of an in-progress inning if it dragged too long forced me to introduce a new notation, “IT” as seen in Lavarnway’s scorebox for the Cleveland sixth. There were only two outs when Seattle pulled the plug on the inning. “IT” (“inning terminated”) is conceptually similar to the “IE” (“inning ended”) notation I use in the case where a batter’s plate appearance ends before completion due to the third out (or, less frequently, the winning run) occurring while the plate appearance is ongoing.
Combining the scourges of seven-inning doubleheaders and the runner at second in extra innings will hopefully just be one of those 2020 novelties. It served to mar the final score of what had been a 1-1 game, with Brad Miller’s error allowing Pittsburgh to scratch out three runs to St. Louis’ two. The Cards had their chance, with runners at the corners and one out, but Richard Rodriguez got two strikeouts on six pitches to end it.
Note the interesting baserunning that ended the St. Louis second – Tyler O’Neill thrown out at second trying to tag on a Molina foul pop to third.
This was the game that announced Shane Bieber’s arrival as a force to be reckoned with. Sure, it was only against Baltimore, but he was razor sharp needing just 107 pitches to record a five-hit, no walk, fifteen K shutout. Dwight Smith and Chris Davis each took the golden sombrero. Cleveland got offense up and down the lineup, with only Jake Bauers failing to reach base or record a run scored or RBI (even Mike Freeman who pinch-ran in the seventh drove in two in the eighth).
Nick Blackburn baffled Cleveland, allowing just three hits over seven innings (all in the first two) and retiring the last ten he faced. Trevor Bauer pitched well too, going 6 2/3 allowing two runs with eight strikeouts and one walk.
The Tribe jumped Shelby Miller for three runs in the first two innings, but he settled down while Josh Tomlin fell apart in the fourth and fifth. The D-Backs sent sixteen batters to the plate over those two frames, with seven of them scoring.
Nori Aoki’s two-out, two-run triple in the second gave Seattle all the offense they would need. Jose Ramirez seems a little out of place now leading off and playing left field; it’s easy to forget that at the time many viewed him as a utility player for whom speed was a primary tool (guilty). Rajai Davis would go on to be a hero for the Tribe this season, but he didn’t have his best day as he pinch-ran for Juan Uribe in the seventh and was picked off on the second pitch. The Indians retired the last 10 Mariners batters, but didn’t mount any serious threat to tie the game.
Even when Ubaldo Jimenez was good for the Tribe, as he was in the stretch drive of the 2013 season, it wasn’t pretty to watch. Jimenez went 5 2/3 of one of the worst no-hit bids possible, having walked five, hit a batter, and made 105 pitches; as soon as Josh Donaldson singled to break it up and plate Oakland’s first run, Jimenez was gone. Cleveland rolled 7-1 behind homers from Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn.
As soon as I saw what happened in the bottom of the first inning, I knew I had to post this scoresheet. With two outs and nobody on, Cole Hamels decided it was a safe time to play “Veteran Redass Cowboy” and plunk hotshot rookie Bryce Harper. Harper took third on Jayson Werth’s flyball single to left, then stole home. Unfortunately, the cosmic justice didn’t extend to the game’s outcome, although Harper would collect two hits (including what I assume was a hustle double on a fly to shallow left) and lay down a bunt fielded by Hamels, perhaps with an eye towards a possible collision.
But the Phillies broke open a 3-1 game with a six-run ninth, including Hunter Pence’s second two-run shot of the night. Hamels actually flied out to leadoff the ninth, apparently set to go for the complete game, but after the outburst John Mayberry pinch-hit for him his second time up.
This four hour, eight minute slugfest saw both Eric Wedge and Milton Bradley ejected, which somehow seems appropriate. Wedge was tossed arguing that Ben Francisco’s seventh inning double off the big left field wall in the Jake was actually a homer which would have drawn Cleveland to within 12-9. Bradley was run in the ninth after Dan Iassogna punched him out.
Surprisingly, there were only two homers in the game, both in the third. Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s grand slam trumped Grady Sizemore’s three-run homer.
I loved Herb Score as a broadcaster, but his scorecard is another story. “Herb Score Scorebooks” were sold during his last season behind the microphone (1997), and this is an example I used to score a spring training game a decade later (with some edits I made to remove superfluous lines like a place to write in the standings). I understand why broadcasters would want a scorecard with the field diagram, and I myself find them very helpful for spring training games when substitutes enter en masse and you need to write them somewhere before sorting out where they fall in the batting order. I’m a big fan of having both teams on the same side of a scoresheet, but forcing them to be side-by-side results in boxes that are taller than they are wide, which I find make it very difficult to record anywhere near the amount of information I want.
Last year I was at a Tribe game and a 90+ year old woman was featured on the scoreboard for her birthday. She was keeping score, as we were told she always does - in her Herb Score Scorebook.
Cleveland simply could not retire the late Ryan Freel, who singled three times, doubled twice, stole two bases, coaxed a balk and a throwing error, and scored two runs. This might be a quintessential distillation of his career and why Reds fans loved him. Freel actually was retired once, but on the bases, trying to advance to second on a would-be wild pitch in the third.
This wasn’t a masterpiece by Aaron Harang; he allowed seven hits and two walks, striking out six, but he got the shutout. I’d like to know why Aaron Boone decided it was a good idea to make the last out bunting. Of course getting on base is paramount in that situation, but post-knee injury Aaron Boone trying it doesn’t exactly fit my definition of “savage”.
This is one of those games where you just look at the names in the Yankee lineup and appreciate it: Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, Gary Sheffield, Alex Rodriguez, Hideki Matsui, Jason Giambi, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, Melky Cabrera. The Indians had a nice collection of talent too, and this was an entertaining game between two of the best teams in the AL. Grady Sizemore pulled the first pitch of the game for a homer, but the Yankees four-run fourth allowed them to carry a 5-3 lead into the ninth.
Enter Sandman, but the Indians put the tying runs on base. In an 0-2 hole, down to the Tribe’s last strike, erstwhile Yankee hero Aaron Boone dumped a single into right to put the tying run at third. Grady Sizemore rolled the next pitch to Tino Martinez who recorded New York’s twenty-seventh putout.
Mark Buehrle opposed a young Cliff Lee in this one. Lee went six allowing three runs, while Buehrle was touched up for three solo homers and trailed 5-4 headed into the eighth. He had made just 78 pitches to that point, then was pulled after Victor Martinez, Casey Blake, and Travis Hafner all singled to load the bases. Old friend Mike Jackson was summoned, and Lou Merloni was lifted for Ben Broussard to get the platoon advantage despite having homered his last time up. Broussard hit the first pitch out to right for a grand slam, and the Indians won it 9-5.
Cleveland had at least one hit off Johan Santana in each of the first five innings, and stranded the bases loaded in the fourth. They finally broke through with two outs in the fifth, with a triple by Coco Crisp followed by a Casey Blake homer. The roof then fell in on Jason Davis, who yielded four in the sixth including a three run homer from Matt LeCroy. Another Twin tally in the seventh and three in the eighth off David Cortes turned it into a laugher. After Blake’s homer, Santana retired everyone until Blake singled. Santana got the last two outs for an eight inning, two run, one walk, 10 K outing on just 99 pitches. Grant Balfour had a 1-2-3 ninth to close it out.
It’s rare that all of the relievers from an old game are instantly memorable while one of the starters is lost to my memory, but that is the case here as ChiSox starter Dan Wright left no imprint. All the other pitchers, including of course Indians starter CC Sabathia, are memorable; I can even picture their deliveries, or at least a false memory of them.
Magglio Ordonez and Ellis Burks were the offensive heroes for each side; Ordonez hit a two-run homer in the first. In between, Burks’ two-run double in the third and two-run homer in the fifth gave Cleveland the lead. The White Sox tied it with two in the sixth, an inning in which Ordonez grounded out with the bases loaded to draw to a close, but he would lead off the ninth with a go-ahead homer off Bob Wickman.
The teams combined for three sacrifice bunts, which is two more than the White Sox would lay down in the “entire” 2020 season.
This was a matchup of two of my favorite pitchers, Mike Mussina and Kevin Appier. Appier pitched seven innings, surrendering two runs while walking two and fanning five; Mussina went 7 2/3, allowing one run while striking out four with no walks. The scoring came in the early innings, with Bernie Williams leading off the second with a homer and the Yankees adding another with a two-out rally helped along by a Rey Ordonez error. The Mets only run came on Robin Ventura’s homer in the fourth. In the ninth, the Mets put together a two-out rally against Mariano Rivera, but Rivera jumped ahead 0-2 on pinch-hitter Mark Johnson and got a comebacker for the last out.
The Indians beat the Orioles 5-2, but the highlight of this game is the second inning triple play turned by Baltimore. Travis Fryman and Wil Cordero both singled and were on second and first respectively as Sandy Alomar came to the plate against Sidney Ponson. Alomar hit a groundball to Melvin Mora, and from there I’m not exactly sure what happened. My note says that Cleveland skipper Charlie Manuel was ejected for arguing. Apparently Fryman was ruled out for leaving the baseline, but the Indians contended (and I, still pretty loyal, must have agreed) that second base was touched first, eliminating the force on Fryman. In any event, it went in the (my) book as a TP643.
Most of the scoring came in the first inning, with Manny Ramirez’ two-out, two-run homer off Eric Milton countered by Jacque Jones' leadoff blast off of Jaret Wright. The Indians tacked on a single tally in the fifth, while Wright fanned five and walked three without allowing additional runs through sixth. Paul Assenmacher and Paul Shuey each allowed a single baserunner in shutout innings, turning it over to Mike Jackson. Brent Gates tripled with one out to bring the tying run to the plate, but Jackson froze pinch-hitters Javier Valentin and Corey Koskie to end it.
The Indians started quick, with the first three batters against Tim Wakefield scoring after David Justice’s homer. Jim Thome followed with a double and then Wakefield retired sixteen in a row as Boston knocked Dave Burba out with two down in the fifth, now trailing 5-3. Darren Bragg’s two-run homer in the sixth allowed Boston to cruise to a 7-5 win, although the Indians did have the tying run at the plate in the ninth when Nomar Garciparra made a good play to retire pinch-hitter Sandy Alomar for the last out.
One thing that really strikes me about this game though is the three pitchers who worked for Boston and their lofty career totals. There can’t be that many games in history in which a team used only three pitchers (Wakefield, Derek Lowe, and Tom Gordon) who had combined career totals as lofty as 514 wins (200, 176, 138 respectively) and 266 saves (22, 86, 158).
This game was played on a Friday before the weekend that was supposed to mark the start of major league exhibition play, but with the lockout I was forced to settle for college baseball. I typically don’t watch a lot of lower level baseball (minors, college, etc.) not because I don’t enjoy lower level baseball (although I will say baseball is a game that needs to be played at a certain level of skill to be an enjoyable spectator sport – high school baseball can be tough to watch), but because there are rarely opportunities to do so that don’t conflict with opportunities to watch big league ball. So outside of choosing to watch my alma mater when I can, I don’t see much college ball.
Being a Big Ten guy, I have never really paid attention to the fact that I get the Longhorn Network on my cable package, but it came in handy to view this early season series between the Crimson Tide and Longhorns played in chilly conditions in Austin. It was an entertaining, crisply played affair with Alabama squandering multiple scoring chances, and Texas scoring the game’s only run on a passed ball and wild pitch on consecutive pitches with one out in the seventh.
This was a very memorable game for me; a friend called late in the
afternoon with the news that his dad had two extra tickets. And this wasn’t
just any game; it was Albert Belle’s first game back in
I remember taking my scorebook with me, but ended up keeping score in a
free program garnered outside the ballpark. With the Tribe selling out every
game and in a pre-smartphone era, there was apparently enough advertising
dollars to support a market in such things. The score is impossible to follow
here, but it was 9-5, White Sox. Dave Martinez (single, double, 2 homers),
Frank Thomas (single, double, homer), and the Belle of the ball himself (2
doubles, homer) carried
The game was almost secondary to the sideshow of Belle’s return. I would like to think that even then I had a mature attitude towards “betrayal” by former hometown heroes who departed in free agency; unfortunately, I did not yet have sufficient resolve to avoid being swept up with the crowd. Soon I was chanting “Joey, Joey” and laughing at the monopoly money being dropped from the home run porch in left field as Belle stood in the outfield. What a shame when there was such a valid target for opprobrium standing on the field – Ozzie Guillen.
I believe that with this post I have exhausted my supply of horrible
1997 Excel scoresheets (don’t worry, I have plenty of even worse 1997 Word
scoresheets from the playoffs still sitting around).
The Indians jumped to a 4-0 lead on back-to-back first inning homers from
David Justice and Manny Ramirez, but
This was the second ABL game I had the opportunity to watch in the winter of
2021, but I actually saw/scored it after #208 which was played on
Unsworth, meanwhile, was sent out to try for the complete game (seven-inning
doubleheader), but removed with run out and a runner at third after Dutton took
two bases on a groundout. He struck out seven without a walk over 6 1/3, but
former big leaguer Zac Reininger allowed the game tying hit. In the eighth, a
double play resulted in
If I have to use a scoresheet with diamonds (and don’t worry, no one forced me), this is an example of what I prefer:
1) a very small diamond, since the space inside the diamond is wasted
2) “cheater” dots rather than a more complete outline of the diamond, so that if the batter does not reach base they leave as little clutter and superfluous ink as possible
Unfortunately, this approach takes the level of artistic talent needed from “trace a line” to “draw a line between two points”, and even that tiny increase in difficulty can result in some unfortunately-shaped lines when I am the one holding the pencil.
This was the first game of a doubleheader, so in 2020 that meant it was scheduled for seven innings. The Phillies used big innings in the fourth and sixth to take command, but the bullpen troubles that vexed them for the “whole” season reared their head in the seventh, eventually forcing nominal closer Hector Neris into the game with the tying run on deck. He got Miguel Andujar to fly to deep right-center on the first pitch.
One change to my scoring that is visible here is that I ceased circling the numbers of the lineup position that caused baserunners to advance (if it resulted in a runner scoring, it is still boxed). This reduces clutter on the scoresheet, although for the first week I needed to keep my eraser handy as it took some re-programming after 22 seasons of circling. The original idea behind circling was that it would distinguish the use of, say, “4” for the cleanup hitter from the use of “4” for the second baseman. However, it finally dawned on me after all this time that I would never have cause to refer just to “4” to describe what happened to a runner. A plain “4” could be a popup to second for the batter, but if a runner was putout at second by the second baseman, there would always have to be some kind of modifier, like “FC4” or “DP4” – the notation under my system would never just be “4”. So the use of the circle was unnecessary, although when I first started using this system in 1998 I did have some unmodified outs; I just saw an example where I used “74” for a batter-runner thrown out at second trying for a double. I would now mark that as “OS74”.
