#389---LA @ CHN, 5/4/2021

Clayton Kershaw did not have it in the first half of this doubleheader, getting yanked after allowing four runs and making 39 pitches in the first inning. Kyle Hendricks went the distance for Chicago, ducking out of much trouble as he stranded eight and had just one clean inning. His shutout was spoiled by Keibert Ruiz’s pinch-hit homer in the ninth; after the following two batters reached, he induced a Justin Turner double play to end it. 

Despite the Cubs winning, Javier Baez had a terrible game in the field, booting Mookie Betts’ grounder on the first play of the game and then in the ninth booting a Corey Seager grounder and compounding the problem by making an error on a throw to second base. He was 0-2 with a walk at the plate, the walk coming after whiffing on the first two pitches he saw from Kershaw and fouling off two pitches. So it was an out of character game on both sides of the ball.

#388---Barney’s Bunch v. Tito’s Troops, 7/16/2020

 

“Spring Training 2.0” in 2020 didn’t feature much in the way of game play, so intrasquad games ended up as fodder for radio broadcasts and of course, suffering from four months of baseball withdrawal, I was there for it. The Indians split squads played six innings under the lights at Jacobs Field, with the manager’s squad prevailing over his lieutenant’s team 6-3 and scoring two in the bottom of the sixth despite the outcome already being determined. Beau Taylor, Bradley Zimmer, and Greg Allen all hit homers.

#387—KC @ CLE, 3/3/2019

Cleveland jumped out to a 7-0 lead on the strength of a two-run Trayce Thompson triple and homers from Leonys Martin and Carlos Santana, but Brooks Pounders was pounded in the sixth. Seven straight batters reached, punctuated by a grand slam and the inning only ended by pinch-runner Terrance Gore getting caught stealing. The Royals would add a five-run ninth to turn it into a laugher and force me to spill over the ninth inning into the eighth inning column on my scoresheet. While I always laugh at the way scorekeepers lose their heads over batting around, scratching out existing column headings and throwing their top and bottom of the inning columns out of alignment (although many people use two pages so this isn’t immediately apparent), I will allow that when a team bats around in your last column, it’s a pain to deal with.

#386---CLE @ CIN, 2/25/2018

Another edition of “early spring Indians/Reds tie”, with Greg Allen’s two-out ninth inning triple pulling it even. The Reds got a leadoff double in the bottom of the ninth, but could not break the deadlock with a strikeout and then were so eager to do so that the game ended on a double play on a line drive to right field.

#385---CLE @ ARI, 3/26/2017

 

The Indians got a two-run homer from Michael Brantley and a three-run homer from Chris Colabello in the first off Robbie Ray, then held on the rest of the way for a 6-5 victory. Ray was ejected after pitching four innings – unfortunately I neglected to note why but it appears he was unpleased at being rung up by Bill Miller in the bottom of the fourth.

#384---CLE @ CIN, 3/2/2016

Spring Training ties aren’t that exciting, unless I suppose the game is tied in the bottom of the ninth and the winning run stranded at third with nobody out. With runners at the corners, Ryan Merritt snagged a liner back to him, struck out Jake Cave looking, and coaxed a flyout to center to escape.

#383---STL @ CHN, 4/5/2015

 

The overall season opener was an inspired choice, as these two teams (plus the Pirates) would wage a fierce division race and then meet up in the NLDS. As would be the case for the regular season as a whole, the Cardinals got the upper hand as Adam Wainwright pitched six shutout innings and a trio of flamethrowers (Carlos Martinez, Jordan Walden, Trevor Rosenthal) finished it by allowing two walks but six strikeouts, with each adding one K to his predecessor’s total. In his one St. Louis season, Jason Heyward had a big opener with three hits as Jon Lester’s Chicago debut saw him not at his sharpest, allowing three runs over 4 1/3.

#382---PHI @ NYA, 3/1/2014

The Phillies were only retired in order twice, but in each of the other seven innings put a solitary runner on base en route to being shut out. The Yankees used three starters (CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kurdoa, Masahiro Tanaka, each of whom tossed two frames and struck out one more batter than his predecessor) which is interesting, even for the opening of the spring schedule.

#381---SD @ CLE, 3/2/2013

The Indians jumped Edinson Volquez for six runs in the first, capped by a three-run shot from Ryan Raburn, but the Padres would answer with a seven-run third (the first five charged to Ubaldo Jimenez) as their first seven batters reached and Logan Forsythe had two triples in the frame. Other big offensive days came from Asdrubal Cabrera (single, double, triple in three at bats) and Nick Swisher (two singles and a double in three at bats).

#380---CHN @ CLE, 3/25/2012

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.