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.
