#244---CLE @ CHA, 6/24/2004

 

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.

#243---MIN @ CLE, 8/19/2003

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. 

#242---CHA @ CLE, 7/16/2002

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.

#241---NYA @ NYN, 6/16/2001

 

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.