An Alexei Ramirez homer off Justin Masterson staked John Danks to a 1-0 lead through five, but he faced seven batters in the sixth and retired just one as the Indians batted around and put a four-spot. They kept scoring with two in the seventh and four in the eighth to make it a laugher. Austin Kearns (3-5, 1 W, 3 R, 2 RBI), Jhonny Peralta (4-5, 2 R, 4 RBI), and Luis Valbeuna (3-5, 1 RBI) were the offensive standouts for Cleveland, while the pen retired nine of ten batters and faced the minimum.
Albert Pujols won his third and final NL MVP award in 2009 hitting 47 homers and stealing 16 bases, collecting one of each in the Cardinals’ loss to the Indians. The wildness of the St. Louis bullpen in the seventh (four walks, two of which scored and one of which drove in a run) was decisive. Shin-Soo Choo was on based four times for the Tribe and drove in three runs.
Casey Blake drove in seven runs with two homers and a three run double, the latter putting the Tribe up 8-3. But Marlon Byrd’s grand slam in the fifth tied the game. The Indians took the lead back with a pair of two run homers from Ben Francisco and David Dellucci. The Rangers loaded the bases with one out in the eighth, but Rafael Perez struck out Milton Bradley and got David Murphy to ground out as the potential tying runs. Joe Borowski had a rare clean, no-stress outing in the ninth for a surprising denouement to this wild game, although it wasn’t a save situation.
Alfonso Soriano drove in three, including a two-run homer in the seventh as the Cubs bested the Indians. An interesting play came in the seventh when Carlos Santana made an errant throw into center field while attempting to pickoff the runner at second. Former Cub prospect Felix Pie then booted his attempt to back it up allowing the sixth Cub run to cross the plate. Otherwise, pretty standard late spring training stuff.
Through five innings, this was a normal game, with Detroit holding a 3-1 lead. In the sixth, Craig Monroe hit a two-run homer to make it 5-1, but the Tribe tied it in the bottom of the inning with a pair of two-run homers from Jhonny Peralta and Jason Michaels. Detroit struck right back with a four-spot of their own, fueled by three singles and three walks. Down 9-5, four straight Cleveland hits made it 9-7, with Tiger closer Todd Jones summoned to get the last out of the inning, but allowing two hits and making twelve pitches in the process.
But Fernando Cabrera was wild in the top of the ninth, walking three and allowing two singles to give the Tigers the two runs right back. They now led 11-7 with their closer on the mount. Grady Sizemore grounded out, but after Casey Blake and Travis Hafner reached, Victor Martinez launched his second homer of the game and it was 11-10. Johnny Peralta doubled, but Jones fanned Ryan Garko and was one out away. An intentional walk to Jason Michaels put the winning run aboard but gave Jones a right-on-right matchup with light-hitting Josh Barfield. Barfield singled to right to tie the game, took second on indifference, and scored the winning run when David Dellucci singled. Jones’ disastrous outing: 1 IP, 5 R, 7 H, 2 W, 1 K, and a whopping 46 pitches (34 in the ninth, albeit with four on the intentional walk).
This was a pitching matchup between Johnsons, with Jason for Cleveland and Randy for New York. The Yankees led 3-1 going into the bottom of the sixth and their three runs essentially put the game away but also provided the spark for fireworks to come when Jason Johnson plunked Jorge Posada. With one out in the seventh, Randy Johnson apparently retaliated by hitting Eduardo Perez, resulting in the ejection of both him and Joe Torre. This ended a strong start for the Big Unit: 6 1/3 IP, 1 R, 4 H, 0 W, 6 K, and just 77 pitches. Scott Proctor and Ron Villone closed it out with just a Grady Sizemore double.
There’s a lot going on in this one. The game was a back-and-forth, homer driven affair. The Indians jumped Eric Milton for two in the first, but the inning ended with Victor Martinez out trying to score from first on a double. Scott Elarton promptly yielded back-to-back homers to Ken Griffey (the 515th of his career) and Joe Randa to leadoff the second, but Jose Hernandez put Cleveland back on top with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the frame. The Reds came right back with a tally in the third, but Hernandez’ second leadoff homer in the fourth put the Tribe back in front.
From there, each team managed only a couple of baserunners until Griffey hit his second homer to tie it in the eighth of Scott Sauerbeck. Interestingly, fellow lefty Arthur Rhodes relieved Sauberbeck after the homer. In the ninth, Felipe Lopez drove home the winning run for Cincinnati with a double off Bob Howry. Edwin Encarnacion was 0-4 making his major league debut.
Jae Seo and Scott Elarton each pitched four shutout innings, but a nearly two-hour rain delay knocked them out with very similar lines:
Seo: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 W, 6 K, 52 pitches
Elarton: 4 IP, 1 H, 1 W, 4 K, 53 pitches
The Mets bullpen outpitched the Indians bullpen, with the Tribe’s allowing at least one run in each inning and the Mets tossing zeroes until the ninth.
A couple substitutes to note: Gonzalez pinch-hit for the pitcher’s spot leading off the Cleveland sixth. My first thought was that this was Andy Gonzalez, but I knew he had come along much later, so I had to look up that it was Raul Gonzalez, who appeared in seven games for the ‘04 Indians and had slipped my memory. It was his final big league stint; his most extended playing time had come with the ‘03 Mets. And the recently deceased Gerald Williams, serving as a defensive replacement for Cliff Floyd in the top of the ninth.
The Indians won this game with a fourth-inning homer barrage off Adam Bernero; Ben Broussard and Casey Blake going back-to-back, then Matt Lawton to knock him out of the game with five runs in and Cleveland up 6-2. The rest of the game played out with little drama to a 7-4 final.
Todd Ritchie was perfect through four and a third, staked two a 3-0 lead against Danys Baez that included a homer by long-time Indian Sandy Alomar. But the roof caved in during the fifth, and then the floor collapsed, and Ritchie was swallowed by the depths of the earth. The trouble started with Jose Valentin’s throwing error, but after Ricky Gutierrez doubled, Ritchie fanned Russel Branyan for the second out and was close to escaping with limited damage. Einar Diaz walked, Chris Magruder singled in a run, Matt Lawton walked to load the bases, Omar Vizquel drove in two with a single, another run came home when Ray Durham mishandled what would have been a force out at second, and then Jim Thome hit a three run homer. Ritchie coaxed a Travis Fryman flyout, but he had coughed up eight runs on 44 pitches in the frame.
Baez would wind up allowing four runs over six innings, walking three and striking out six, and the Indians bullpen finished up with three innings, with one hit and six strikeouts.
Juan Gonzalez launched a three-run shot off JC Romero in the first, but the Twins answered in the second with a two-run shot from Torii Hunter and a three-run blast from AJ Pierzynski. Cleveland tied it before Romero could even record an out on former Twin Marty Cordova’s two-run homer. Einar Diaz doubled, Kenny Lofton dropped down a bunt single, and then the it started raining. After a forty-one minute delay, Johan Santana was summoned in relief. Diaz scored on a Santana throwing error and Lofton on a Cristian Guzman error to make it 7-3. From that point, Santana pitched mostly to contact, allowing two runs while walking and fanning one over five innings. Steve Woodard replaced Jaret Wright on the mound for the Indians after the delay, and the run he allowed in the fifth closed out the scoring. With two outs in the top of the seventh, the game was delayed again, and this time was not restarted.
David Justice and Richie Sexson each hit two homers to power the Indians to a 7-4 win over the Reds. Homers from Dmitri Young and Pokey Reese had Cincinnati up 3-2 after an inning and a half, but as the game went on the Indians shut it down. Jim Brower, Justin Speier, and Steve Karsay combined to retire the final thirteen Reds with six strikeouts.
Wild late nineties baseball is the best baseball. The Pirates shelled Charlie Nagy to lead 7-2 after four, with two-run homers by Al Martin and Kevin Young leading the way. Tom Candiotti settled it down, bringing his knuckleball out of the bullpen for a three K, one walk inning. Then the Tribe jumped right back in it with four in the sixth; Scott Sauerbeck inherited two on with no out, and yielded consecutive homers to the two lefties he was brought in to face (Jim Thome and David Justice). But Young’s second homer was a three-run shot off Steve Reed to extend the lead to 10-6, and Pirate catcher Chris Tremie made it 11-6 with his first big league RBI on his only hit in 14 AB this season. The teams traded runs in the seventh, with Martin hitting his second homer of the game. Cleveland got three in the eighth, but stranded the tying runs at second and third, and the Pirates tacked on a run of their own in the eighth. The Indians mounted a two-out ninth inning rally, but for the second game in a row on this blog a Kenny Lofton flyout ended the game, but this time he represented the tying run.
A pair of two-run innings in the fourth and fifth allowed the Yankees to take command of the game; they added a run in the ninth, while the Indians scored in three innings but all were just single tallies. David Bell’s third single of the game put the tying run on with two outs in the ninth, but Mariano Rivera induced a flyout from Kenny Lofton to end it.
Two player who had or would wear the opponent’s uniforms played prominent roles in this game. Working with a 1-0 lead, Orel Hershiser worked himself into trouble in the third with an error and two hit batters. A double play tied the game and might have gotten him out of the jam, but former Indian Jeromy Burnitz hit a two-run homer to make it 3-1. Cleveland took a 4-3 lead in the fifth with two runs coming home on a Burnitz error. Brian Banks (who I do not remember) singled to tie it in the top of the sixth, but Chad Curtis gave the Tribe the lead for good with a leadoff homer off future Indians closer Bob Wickman to lead off the sixth. The Indians needed three pitchers to strand the bases loaded in the seventh, added a run on Brian Giles’ sacrifice fly in the bottom of the frame, and Milwaukee did not mount much of a threat against Eric Plunk and Jose Mesa.
This game closed a four-game season opening series played in Florida, and the Buckeyes earned a split with their 10-5 victory. The Huskies jumped out early with two solo homers in the first, but OSU used five straight singles to take a 3-2 lead in the second. A leadoff error opened the door for UConn to tie it in the fourth, but Ohio’s five-run fifth proved the difference. The standout performer of the game was Buckeye grad transfer Jonah Jenkins, who in his debut did not allow a run over 4 2/3 innings. He walked the first man he faced, but proceeded to allow just one hit and one hit batter while fanning four.
In 2021, Spring Training rules allowed pitchers to re-enter and innings to be terminated early when pitch counts got too high. The former rule remained for 2022 (and was utilized by Texas as Kohei Arihara was relieved in the third but returned to pitch the fourth. The latter rule was not, which was a good thing or else this game would not have reached the epic levels of ridiculousness that it did, a 25-12 shootout that saw Texas score in every inning except the first.
This was the first game of the young Cactus League season in which Cleveland (playing their fourth game) deployed any major league pitchers, but they might have been better off sticking to the minor leaguers. Logan Allen started and after a scoreless first allowed four runs without recording an out in the second. Sam Hentges followed in the third and coughed up five runs while getting just a single out. The other big leaguers (albeit non-roster invitees) to pitch for the Guardians were Justin Garza (allowed two runs in the fourth) and Alex Young (allowed one run in the sixth).
The Rangers sent fourteen men to the plate in the third, and when six men batted in the fourth this pushed the fourth inning into the fifth inning column as well. I find batting around to be a minor nuisance in most cases, certainly not a reason for having a scoresheet with space wasted on extra innings that you then cross out an re-number as some scorekeepers do. I can deal with a little overflow into the next column on occasion. In cases like this, were multiple innings are impacted, it does get much harder to read, but I still prefer to deal with that rather than waste a lot of space on starting each inning in a new column (which introduces its own readability problems, like offsetting the innings of the two clubs).
The third inning of this game saw five runs scored and only two outs recorded. Cal Quantrill started the third, faced three batters in the fourth, and got only two outs. Bobby Bradley hit a three-run blast en route to being passed over in favor of Jake Bauers for the first base job. Kind of sums up spring training 2021.
I did not look this up, but I believe this was the first half of the only nine-inning doubleheader played in the majors in 2020. By the time this is actually posted we will know whether it was the last ever played; as I write this in March 2021, they remain a casualty of the COVID rules.
Cleveland did all of their scoring early, getting four in the first three frames (aided by a Bradley Zimmer homer and Daniel Johnson’s first major league hit), then held on for dear life. Aaron Civale loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, but got the force at home on a Luis Robert comebacker. James Karinchak was first out of the bullpen and had a dominant/wild performance emblematic of his 2020 (walk, wild pitch, 3 Ks). Nick Wittgren loaded the bases with one out in the eighth, but a grounder to first led to another home plate forceout, and he worked out of it. Brad Hand allowed a double to Tim Anderson to leadoff the ninth, got two outs, surrendered a single to Yasmani Grandal, but then froze former teammate Edwin Encarnacion to end it.
Corey Kluber allowed three straight singles to open the game, but still breezed through the first three frames on just 29 pitches, with Roberto Perez’ third-inning solo shot tying the score. He got two quick outs in the fourth, then yielded three straight hits to go down 3-1. Things got worse in the fifth when his forearm was fractured by a Brian Anderson line drive. It would be his last pitch as an Indian.
Caleb Smith and Drew Steckenrider held the Cleveland offense in check until Carlos Santana hit a ninth inning homer off Sergio Romo, but it ended 4-2 in a very bad day for the Tribe
Corey Kluber got an early hook after allowing five runs in the first three innings, spoiling a showdown with Justin Verlander. Verlander worked seven, allowing two runs with five strikeouts and four walks.
Corey Kluber struck out the side in the first and allowed only a walk in the second, but in the third the roof caved in, the first six Astros reaching base before back-to-back comebackers on which he tagged the batter-runner out. A walk and a single followed and Kluber was gone after 2 2/3 and having allowed five runs. The Indians didn’t do much against Mike Fiers and Houston’s bullpen, resulting in a 7-1 final.
In the previous night’s game, Corey Kluber had fanned 18 Cardinals in eight innings (unfortunately, of all the Indians games I have scored over the years I do not have the best pitching performance of that time). Trevor Bauer followed him up by pitching well, and led 1-0 heading into the eighth backed by a Michael Brantley solo homer. Cleveland also had missed opportunities with two runners thrown out at home.
Bauer walked Peter Bourjos and left after making 110 pitches over 7 1/3, walking three and fanning ten. Former Cardinal Mark Rzepczynski was summoned and surrendered a two-run shot to Matt Carpenter that gave St. Louis a 2-1 victory.
The Cubs scored 17 runs, so they naturally had a number of big offensive performances:
* Emilio Bonifacio 4-5 with a walk and five runs scored
* Junior Lake 3-5 with two doubles, a homer, and five RBI
* Starlin Castro 3-5 with a double and a triple
* Mike Olt 2-5 with a homer
This was one of just eight MLB appearances for Cardinal reliever Eric Fornataro, and Daniel Descalso had to be summoned to get the last out after Randy Choate had allowed six runs in the ninth. But the most interesting thing might be Yadier Molina stealing third with two outs in the fifth on a 1-2 pitch with his team trailing 9-5. Travis Wood must have never seen it coming.
This game lasted only 2:26 as Kris Medlen and Dan Haren both pitched efficiently and effectively. Washington got three runs in the first two frames, with Denard Span as their offensive catalyst, leading off the game and scoring after a double, then driving in the two second inning runs with a two-out double. He’d later add a walk and a single. Haren held the Braves hitless until the fourth and was really cruising (less than ten pitches per inning) until Dan Uggla took him deep in the seventh and the Braves made him make 21 pitches in the eighth. Although he was only at ninety through eight, Rafael Soriano came in and got the save.
In June 2010, the Indians held the #5 pick in the draft and were widely expected to take one of the top college lefties. They did, choosing Drew Pomeranz. Eight picks later the White Sox snapped up Chris Sale.
In July 2011, the Indians deluded themselves into thinking they were contenders, and traded Pomeranz and Alex White to the Rockies for Ubaldo Jimenez.
In May 2012, Chris Sale held the Indians to three hits and one run over six innings, while Ubaldo Jimenez made 20+ pitches in four consecutive innings and coughed up 7 runs to the White Sox in 4 2/3. This was not a fun time to be a Tribe fan.
In the second, Cleveland had trouble catching popups. Alejandro de Aza got a double on a pop up that dropped between Jason Donald and Asdrubal Cabrera, and later in the inning AJ Pierzynski’s pop dropped uncaught on or near the pitcher’s mound. The bases were loaded with one out, though, so the infield fly rule was in effect (“IF” indicates that it was an uncaught infield fly – I don’t note that the umpire called an infield fly if the catch is completed – with putout credited to Cabrera).
The top five spots in the Cleveland batting order combined to go 0-20 reaching base. The bottom four went 9-16.
It’s easy to forget that Bartolo Colon pitched for the Yankees, but here is fanning seven without a walk over seven innings. He allowed three runs, two coming on solo homers from Alex Avila. On the other side, Justin Verlander allowed three runs over six innings, needing 127 pitches to strike out eight.
It was tied entering the top of the ninth when Curtis Granderson worked a twelve-pitch walk from Jose Valverde. He was caught stealing when he overslid the bag, but Mark Teixeira worked a walk, A-Rod an infield single, and Nick Swisher the go-ahead single. A two-out passed ball allowed a second run to come up, and Mariano Rivera needed just nine pitches to retired the Tigers in order.
Every Yankee reached base, but the Tigers got 0-4s out of their 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7 slots and 0-3 from #9. Ramon Santiago was 3-4 in #2, Cabrera 3-4 in #4, and Avila 2-4 in #8 with those two longballs.
This was too interesting of a game to be kept on a lame scoresheet. This sheet maximized space by only allowing six plate appearances for each lineup slot and not dividing by innings, in the Project Scoresheet style, but using traditional scoring. The Yankees scored six in the fourth to take a 8-3 lead, and the teams traded single tallies in the fifth. The Indians scored one in the sixth to cut it to 9-5, and then put up a seven run-seventh, lighting up David Robertson for three runs and Joba Chamberlain for four.
This game is a great example of why I prefer a 9x9 grid, despite all the wasted space. It is hard to follow innings in writing a story of the game without columns to make them stand out. Some notable items:
* Alex Rodriguez literally knocked David Huff out of the game with a line drove double off him in the third
* Shin-Soo Choo was 0-6, without his first four at bats consisting of two pitches or less
* Despite twenty-four total runs, the only homer was delivered by Russell Branyan in the eighth
* Lou Marson drove in three runs on three doubles
Out of the many Indians games I’ve scored, I do not have one of Armando Galarraga’s should have been perfect game in 2010. I do have this one, in which the Indians scored four runs off Galarraga in the second and knocked him out after five innings with a 5-0 lead. Carl Pavano didn’t allow Detroit a hit until the fourth, and the Indians tacked on a run in the seventh.
It’s fortunate they did, because after Pavano allowed two doubles in the eighth, Jensen Lewis came on to allow two hits and serve up a three-run bomb to Miguel Cabrera. Rafael Betancourt was summoned, and he set down all four Tigers he faced to pick up the save.
Gil Meche allowed just four singles, striking out four over seven innings, and the Royals bullpen tossed two perfect innings (which combined with Meche’s efforts meant the final twelve were retired in order) to beat the Indians 2-0. Aaron Laffey pitched his own gem, taking a no-hitter into the fifth, with his only run allowed coming on a two-out throwing error by Casey Blake in that frame. In the ninth, Rafael Perez got the first two outs before Rafael Betancourt was summoned and taken deep by Miguel Olivo for the second and final run.
Two years later, the two initialed starting pitchers would anchor the Yankees rotation to a world title. This game started very poorly for CC Sabathia as he surrendered first inning solo shots to Alex Rios, Troy Glaus, and Aaron Hill. But he settled in to allow just one single over his final five frames, earning a quality start at the minimum standard and fanning nine without issuing a walk.
The Indians would turn it into a rout with five extra-base hits accounting for all of the runs. In the fourth, Travis Hafner’s two-run homer and Jhonny Peralta’s two-run double gave them the lead off AJ Burnett. Jhonny Peralta’s three-run homer in the fifth, Victor Martinez’ two-run double in the sixth, and Trot Nixon’s three-run homer in the eighth made it a 12-4 final.
With two outs in the first, Ben Broussard booted a grounder to first, and Magglio Ordonez made the Tribe pay by homering on an 0-2 pitch from Paul Byrd. That was all Justin Verlander would need. He went seven, striking out five, and though Cleveland had a baserunner in every inning, they only scored on Grady Sizemore’s leadoff homer in the fourth. Aaron Boone’s leadoff double in the eighth gave them a golden opportunity to tie it, but after he moved up to third on a deep fly by Sizemore, Fernando Rodney fanned Casey Blake looking and got Jhonny Peralta to ground out.
After Curtis Granderson and Placido Polanco combined to give the Tigers a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the frame, Travis Hafner led off the ninth against Todd Jones with a hit, but Victor Martinez bounced into a double play on the first pitch he saw. Fun to note that Paul Byrd matched Verlander with five strikeouts in seven innings.
This game was marred by May showers, with a twenty-seven minute delay between the top and bottom of the first. In the second, both teams scored a pair, Orlando Hudson and Ben Broussard each driving in both runs for their respective nines. The rains came again in the bottom of the third, this time lasting for almost two hours and knocking both starters out of the game.
The bullpens proceeded to hurl zeros at each other, with five Cleveland relievers combining to allow just two hits and one walk over six innings. Toronto’s pen allowed just two hits and two walks, but one of the hits was Jhonny Peralta’s homer off Jason Frasor to lead off the seventh, and that was the difference in the game.
Victor Martinez’ third inning at bat features the fun notation “FC96” as Casey Blake was thrown out at second on what would have been a flyball single to right.
Continuing the theme of early May games featuring Texas, this game was interesting as it matched noted knuckleballers Tim Wakefield and RA Dickey (although of course Dickey was still a conventional hurler at this point). Knuckler or no, he pitched a terrific game, departing after 8 2/3 having not yet allowed a run, with five strikeouts and four walks. The final walk pushed his pitch count to 128, as he made 22 in the ninth struggling for the finish line.
He was replaced by Francisco Cordero, who promptly walked Mark Bellhorn and Jason Varitek to push in Boston’s first tally and bring the go-ahead run to the plate in the form of Cesar Crespo (the only Crespo I remembered was Felipe), who flied to center to end it.
On the other side, Wakefield pitched well too, allowing two runs over seven innings with no walks and four Ks. Alan Embree gave up a Michael Young triple and Alfonso Soriano dinger in the eighth that built the lead to 4-0.
Another Indians/Rangers game from May, this one played in Arlington, again featuring a big game from Omar Vizquel (three singles and a double) and a homer from Matt Lawton (he also tried for another triple, but was out stretching at third in the eighth). The bottom of the Tribe ordered also contributed heavily, with a double from John McDonald (who entered after Travis Hafner was pulled in the third), a two-run double from Tim Laker, two hits and a walk from Casey Blake, and two doubles from Brandon Phillips. Note RA Dickey’s 3 1/3 innings in long relief, allowing two inherited runners to score and surrendering Lawton’s homer, but fanning five.
Omar Vizquel had a huge game out of the leadoff spot, rapping out five hits (first two singles, then three doubles) and CC Sabathia went 6 2/3 allowing two runs with six Ks and two walks to lead the Tribe to a 9-2 win over the Rangers and Kenny Rogers, who allowed six runs in four innings. Matt Lawton was also a notable standout with a triple and a homer.
Cleveland led 8-2 after seven, powered by Ellis Burks’ three-run homer and a solid start from Bartolo Colon. In the eighth, the first three Devil Rays reached off Ricardo Rincon and Steve Reed, and Russ Johnson’s triple made it 8-6. Rich Rodriguez was summoned to fan Ben Grieve, and Paul Shuey did the same to Greg Vaughn. Fred McGriff led off the ninth with a single, but Aubrey Huff hit into a double play rather than seize the mantle of hero (he’d already singled, doubled, and homered) and Randy Winn bounced out to end it.
The Tampa Bay pitchers were Albie Lopez, Brian Rose, Jeff Wallace, and Doug Creek, in case you like me were struggling to place any of those names.
Luis Polonia and Juan Gonzalez homered off Charlie Nagy in the first, but Cleveland came right back against Hideo Nomo with a three-run first. They knocked Nomo out after two innings and three batters with seven runs on the board, the coup de grace coming on Travis Fryman’s three-run homer. Detroit’s three-run fourth made it 7-5, and from that point on the teams mostly traded runs to an 11-9 finish, Steve Karsay retiring all four batters he faced to earn the save. Both teams tallied fourteen hits, so there were plenty of offensive standouts, including Juan Gonzalez’ two homers, Omar Vizquel’s two triples, and Travis Fryman’s three hits.
I attended this game at Tropicana Field, which did not go well for the home team, battered 12-3 by the Rangers. Juan Gonzalez hit two-run and three-run homers, and Pudge went deep to add a pair in the ninth. Texas totaled four doubles, a triple, and three homers, while the Devil Rays had one and exactly one of each type of extra base hit. While Tampa was not good, they had a great collection of 90s baseball names, both literally (Quinton McCracken, Rolando Arrojo) and figuratively (Canseco, McGriff, Boggs, Paul Sorrento – playing left field which I can’t imagine was pretty, Kevin Stocker, Dave Martinez) and the Rangers lineups of this period are loaded with notable names, including the more forgotten like Rusty Greer and Tom Goodwin.
Seattle jumped out to a 3-0 lead on solo homers from Glenallen Hill (two) and Alex Rodriguez. Toronto took a while to get going, with Jose Canseco starting his huge day with their first hit off Jamie Moyer in the fourth. With one out in the sixth, Canseco doubled, which was followed by a Carlos Delgado double and a Tony Fernandez single to cut it to 3-2. In the seventh, Moyer got the first two Jays before walking Shannon Stewart and yielding a single to Shawn Green. Mike Timlin, famously acquired from Toronto along with Paul Spoljaric for Jose Cruz at the previous year’s trade deadline, walked Canseco to load the bases. Tony Fossas came on to face Delgado and walked him to tie it up.
The Mariners offense went quiet from the sixth on, with only singles by Joey Cora and ARod. In the ninth, Alex Gonzalez coaxed a leadoff walk from Heathcliff Slocumb, moving up to third with two outs on a pair of groundouts to David Segui. Then the hero of the game singled to left (marked here incorrectly as a double) to win it. Canseco drew two walks, hit two singles and a double
John Jaha hit two homers for Milwaukee, but the Indians rapped out seventeen hits including solo homers from David Justice, Manny Ramirez (those were back-to-back) and Brian Giles and slugged out an 11-6 win. Ramirez was Cleveland’s offensive star, as in addition to the homer he had two doubles and a single.
This was the first game I had the opportunity to score in calendar year 2023. Despite this game being a “home” game for the Buckeyes in Florida, UConn offered a surprisingly high-quality internet stream of the game. Unlike some major league radio broadcasts I could name, almost all pitches were reported as they happened, enabling me to keep score pitch-by-pitch with details on strike types.
This was the opening day of the college baseball season and thus marked the debut of Bill Mosiello as OSU head coach. The Buckeyes got a run in the first inning on a RBI from Miami grad transfer Cole Andrews, and would tack on the game’s only two other runs on a two-out double off the fence that just missed getting out from true freshman shortstop Henry Kaczmar. Isaiah Coupet had a tremendous start for the Scarlet and Gray, going 5 1/3 hitless innings. His final line was 6 innings, no runs, one hit, one walk, and nine strikeouts. The bullpen allowed a few baserunners, but no runs as true freshman Landon Beidelschies earned the two-inning save.
I’ve described those hit symbols before, but I think looking at the at bats for Cleveland’s #3 hitters should give you enough to decipher it: line drive single to center in the fourth, ground ball single to left in the second at bat in the fourth, line drive double to left in the seventh, flyball triple to left in the eighth. Anderson reached on an infield single to third base in the third.
This was the spring opener for both the Reds and Guardians and the first game played under the pitch clock that I had the opportunity to score, so I’m including it here as an example of how I handle pitch clock violations. Namely, I put an “a” prefix in front of the normal letter used to designate the pitch, or in the case of a violation for ball four or strike three, in front of the “W” for walk or “K” for strikeout. There weren’t any of these terminal violations in this game, but they would be “aW” or “aK” (actually, it would be a backwards K as it’s pretty obviously a called strike and not a swinging strike, but that’s not easy to render in text).
In this game there were three examples of violations:
* Bottom of the 2nd: First pitch from Cal Quantrill to Jose Barrero is an automatic strike
* Top of the 3rd: First “pitch” from Daniel Norris to Mike Zunino is an automatic ball
* Bottom of the 5th: Seventh “pitch” from Xzavion Curry to Jason Vosler is an automatic ball (watching Curry pitch in the fourth I declared that if he was allowed to pitch much more, he would commit a violation)
As for the game, Cleveland’s regulars led off the game with three straight singles against Brandon Williamson to get a run, and later unlikely sources David Fry and (especially) Roman Quinn hit solo homers. Quantrill allowed a run in the first and another in the second and had to be relieved with one out, but from that point Cleveland pitchers retired sixteen in a row before Cincinnati tied it in the eighth and won it on Matt McLain’s one-out solo homer in the ninth.
2021 Spring Training games offer the opportunity for all manner of oddities. I already had an example of a schedule game of less than nine innings and the notation “IT” for “inning terminated” in #261, and this game features those examples as well. What it adds is Taylor Widener making two separate stints on the mound for Arizona without moving to another position in-between. I decided that the best way to handle this was to give him two separate pitching lines and note that the second stint was a “re-entry”. As for the game, the Indians committed four errors including two by former Gold Glover Roberto Perez in the third (“[CE2]” indicating a muffed foul pop that extended Leyba’s at bat). One of the highlights was listening to Tom Hamilton not even bother to try pronouncing “Querecuto”.
