#216---SEA @ CLE, 8/5/2003

 

Two excellent lefties with very different styles matched up in this one – Jamie Moyer (7 IP, 1 W, 6 K) got the better of CC Sabathia (8 IP, 2 W, 4 K). Despite the velocity difference, Sabathia didn’t get his first K until he got Edgar Martinez leading off the sixth.

The most interesting play of the game was the first one. Ichiro tripled on a groundball down the right field line, and somehow when the ball was returned to the infield, Travis Hafner threw it away, allowing Ichiro to complete the little league homer. While Seattle would score just one more run, they had ten hits for the game (although their only other run came on a bases loaded walk drawn by John Olerud), while Cleveland would muster just three.

#215---MIN @ CLE, 7/12/2002

 

The Indians were the erstwhile AL Central power, and the Twins were en route to their first playoff appearance in eleven years. This reversal of fortunes was bound to cause some friction, and it evidenced itself in this one.

Minnesota led 4-2 with one out in the top of the fifth when Danys Baez plunked Torii Hunter. Hunter retrieved the pill and chucked it at Baez, leading to his ejection and a benches clearing fracas.

The video (***) is worth a watch, as Torii Hunter misremembers – he thought he had homered earlier in the game, but actually had bounced to third twice.

This game featured homers by two members of the 500 home run club, plus luminaries Dustin Mohr, Luis Rivas, Bill Selby, and Ben Broussard.

On a scoring note, apparently I missed the location/trajectory of Milton Bradley’s eighth inning single as it’s marked with a generic dash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6CoTcnb_0Y

#214---CLE @ SEA, 10/9/2001 (ALDS Game 1)

 

The Mariners set the all-time win record in 2001, but the Indians shut them out in the playoff opener behind eight shutout innings from Bartolo Colon, who struck out ten and walked two. The only time Seattle got a runner in scoring position with less than two outs came when Ichiro doubled in the eighth; Colon then fanned Mark McLemore and got Bret Boone to foul to catcher. Bob Wickman got a popout and two Ks to close it.

Cleveland’s big inning was the fourth, with the first six batters reaching off Freddy Garcia to plate three. Three consecutive infield hits would produce a run in the sixth, and Ellis Burks capped the scoring with a solo shot to leadoff the eighth. 

#213---CLE @ KC, 9/22/2000

 

Losing to the Royals in late September was sub-optimal for an Indians team desperately trying to win the wildcard. They jumped to the lead with two in the second, but wouldn’t score again, and Greg Zaun would hit a two-out homer off Steve Karsay in the eighth to spell doom.

There was a Manny being Manny baseruning moment – he lead off the third with a walk, but was doubled off on Thome’s fly to left. David Segui followed with a double. Sigh.

Note that after Rey Sanchez led off the bottom of the third with a single, there was a one hour 49 minute rain delay.

Why was my handwriting so bad in 2000? I have no idea. I also was copying copies to get scoresheets – I’ve cleaned up some of the random splotches but there’s too many to whitewash.

#212---ATL @ NYN, 7/4/1999

 

This game may have been played on Independence Day, but it was not a celebration of America – it was a celebration of ‘90s baseball, in the final year of the decade, in all its glory:

* Stars of the ‘80s, still hanging around and in one case having his last great season (Rickey Henderson, Orel Hershiser)

* First-class stars of the ‘90s all over the place (Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, John Olerud, Mike Piazza, Robin Ventura, John Smoltz)

* Memorable ‘90s names all over the place (Bret Boone, Randall Simon, Edgardo Alfonzo, Benny Agbayani, Rey Ordonez, Armando Benitez to name just a few)

* A player whose son would take his name and far outshine his fame (Pat Mahomes)

* The best NL rivalry of the later part of the decade playing out between the Braves and Mets

* It’s the ‘90s, so there were lots of runs despite a future Hall of Famer pitching (13), and lots of homers (5)

* And a very entertaining game to boot

#211---LA @ ATL, 8/23/1998

 

It seems like every time I stumble across a Greg Maddux scoresheet, it’s of a less-than-sterling outing. Since Maddux was one of my two pitching idols (along with Mike Mussina), this is unfortunate, but this was a fun slugfest. The Braves got a pair of two-run homers in the first from Andres Galarraga and Maddux’s personal catcher, Eddie Perez. (Inexplicably, I failed to note Andruw Jones scoring on the latter; confusingly, I also didn’t distinguish between the Joneses, assuming that the positions would make it obvious which was which. Later I would transition to putting a first initial in front of the player I deemed less worth, which would be a harder determination in the case of two stars such as the Joneses. Now I try to remember a first initial in front of a last name if two players with that surname have appeared on a roster at any point during a season, although I’m not fanatic about doing so when one is a hitter and the other a pitcher).

The Dodgers answered right back with solo homers to lead off the second from Gary Sheffield and Eric Karros, then loading the bases with nobody out before Maddux got two Ks and a sac fly to escape with the lead. Atlanta got one back in the second, with Maddux drawing a walk to chip in, but LA went up 6-5 when Raul Mondesi and Sheffield reached to start the third and Karros launched another homer. The Braves tied it when Andruw Jones singled, walked, and scored on a double play.

A leadoff walk to Maddux in the fourth started a three-run Atlanta rally. Sheffield and Karros both led off the fifth with doubles, but Maddux escaped without further damage, his team up 9-7 and his day over (he did fan seven against two free passes). The Braves bullpen shut out the Dodgers for four innings, and Atlanta added three runs of their own, including a homer from Andruw. 12-7 final with some big offensive games:

Sheffield (2-3, 2 W, D, HR, 3 R, 1 RBI)

Karros (3-5, D, 2 HR, 2 R, 5 RBI)

Andruw Jones (4-5, HR, SB, 2 R, 2 RBI)

#210---MIL @ CLE, 4/18/1997

 

Jack McDowell was a huge disappointment as a free agent signing for the Indians in 1996, not pitching well and eventually getting injured in 1997. One of the simple but painful “what ifs” to ponder for the mid-90s Indians is “what if they had been able to sign David Cone as a free agent in 1996 rather than Jack McDowell?” McDowell left the Yankees for the Indians, while New York replaced him with Cone.

This was a bad 1997 McDowell start. He made it through the first two having yielded just a walk to Milwaukee, but in the third he gave up four singles, walked two, uncorked two wild pitches, and there was a passed ball. He walked two more in the fourth, and paid big time when Fernando Vina hit a grand slam. Four innings, four walks, seven runs.

Milwaukee meanwhile got a good start from Ben McDonald, who yielded just two hits and a walk over seven frames, setting down twelve Indians in a row between the first and fifth, and then the last seven he faced after that. The Tribe did muster two off Bryce Florie in the ninth, but that didn’t even offset the three runs that Paul Shuey had surrendered in relief of McDowell (the big blow being a two-run homer by Dave Nilsson).

#209---CLE @ DET, 5/25/1996

 

In 1996, the Indians had the best record in MLB, going 99-62. The Tigers had the worst, going 53-109. The Indians went 12-0 against the Tigers. Granted, one of the games went to extra innings, but this was the only one in which Cleveland triumphed by a single tally.

Carlos Baerga’s first inning homer off Felipe Lira put the Tribe up 1-0, but Detroit answered with four, the big blow a three-run shot by Curtis Pride. With two outs in the fourth, Kenny Lofton hit his own three-run homer to tie it up, but Mark Lewis came right back with a solo shot to tie it up.

In the sixth, the Indians loaded the bases with one out, but Richie Lewis was summoned to fan Julio Franco and get Baerga to groundout. In the seventh, Albert Belle walked and stole second (TIL Albert Belle was 11 for 11 on steals in 1996). With two outs Manny Ramirez walked, then Sandy Alomar drove in Belle with a single and pinch-hitter Jeromy Burnitz drove them both in with a double. Melvin Nieves homered in the eighth to make it a one-run game, but Detroit could only muster a one-out single off Jose Mesa in the ninth and fell short, 7-6.

The didactic play-by-play here is to compensate for how hard this scoresheet is to read.

#208---Brisbane @ Adelaide, 1/20/2021

 

I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across a random channel on my cable broadcasting a tape-delayed ABL game. It was the second game of a doubleheader so it was scheduled for seven innings, so when it went to the eighth the international extra innings rule which starts runners at first and second was in effect. The wonderfully-named Rixon Wingrove won it for Adelaide with a walk-off grand slam.

#207---LAA @ OAK, 7/24/2020

The last game scheduled for opening day in 2020 was the Angels against the A’s. The late innings were entertaining, as Los Angeles went up 2-1 in the seventh, Oakland countered with two in the bottom of the eighth (with Matt Chapman thrown out trying to add another on a would-be wild pitch). Liam Hendriks then gave up a homer to Jason Castro in the top of the ninth, and the A’s couldn’t advance Mark Canha after a leadoff single. So extra innings it was.

No other Opening Day games had gone to extra innings, so this was the first game ever played under the accelerated scoring rules. My technique to mark this was to write “A2” (for “automatically given 2nd base”) for the runner placed at second (Ohtani and Semien) in the corner of the scorebox where I would normally note a double or other advancement to second base. One thing that will get a little messy with this – if the game goes multiple extra innings, the slash I would normally use to note the end of the inning would bleed in to the automatic runner’s box. Also, a team batting around would create a mess.

The good news is that a) batting around would likely mean that the team that did so won the game, making further innings of no concern and b) since we’re just replacing innings with new labels anyway, you could just skip one. It’s unlikely there would be enough extra innings played that you would run out of space this way. As an aside, I have never understood why some scorekeepers freak out at batting around and start crossing off and re-numbering subsequent innings, etc. For organized baseball, you will almost certainly catch up eventually, so I just let the overflow go into the next inning and mark where it starts and ends with solid lines at the top of the uppermost overflow scorebox and the bottom of the lowest-most overflow scorebox.

As for the game, Ohtani became the first automatic runner to commit a TOOTBLAN, getting caught in between second and third on Walsh’s grounder to first. The A’s took advantage of wildness from Hansel Robles (a hit batter, wild pitch, and walk) to load the bases. Holby Milner was summoned to face Matt Olson, and the first pitch was a walk off grand slam to right.