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.
