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).
