#296---CLE @ TEX, 5/9/2003

 

Another Indians/Rangers game from May, this one played in Arlington, again featuring a big game from Omar Vizquel (three singles and a double) and a homer from Matt Lawton (he also tried for another triple, but was out stretching at third in the eighth). The bottom of the Tribe ordered also contributed heavily, with a double from John McDonald (who entered after Travis Hafner was pulled in the third), a two-run double from Tim Laker, two hits and a walk from Casey Blake, and two doubles from Brandon Phillips. Note RA Dickey’s 3 1/3 innings in long relief, allowing two inherited runners to score and surrendering Lawton’s homer, but fanning five. 

#295---TEX @ CLE, 5/5/2002

 

Omar Vizquel had a huge game out of the leadoff spot, rapping out five hits (first two singles, then three doubles) and CC Sabathia went 6 2/3 allowing two runs with six Ks and two walks to lead the Tribe to a 9-2 win over the Rangers and Kenny Rogers, who allowed six runs in four innings. Matt Lawton was also a notable standout with a triple and a homer.

#294---CLE @ TB, 5/4/2001

Cleveland led 8-2 after seven, powered by Ellis Burks’ three-run homer and a solid start from Bartolo Colon. In the eighth, the first three Devil Rays reached off Ricardo Rincon and Steve Reed, and Russ Johnson’s triple made it 8-6. Rich Rodriguez was summoned to fan Ben Grieve, and Paul Shuey did the same to Greg Vaughn. Fred McGriff led off the ninth with a single, but Aubrey Huff hit into a double play rather than seize the mantle of hero (he’d already singled, doubled, and homered) and Randy Winn  bounced out to end it.

The Tampa Bay pitchers were Albie Lopez, Brian Rose, Jeff Wallace, and Doug Creek, in case you like me were struggling to place any of those names. 

#293---DET @ CLE, 5/16/2000

Luis Polonia and Juan Gonzalez homered off Charlie Nagy in the first, but Cleveland came right back against Hideo Nomo with a three-run first. They knocked Nomo out after two innings and three batters with seven runs on the board, the coup de grace coming on Travis Fryman’s three-run homer. Detroit’s three-run fourth made it 7-5, and from that point on the teams mostly traded runs to an 11-9 finish, Steve Karsay retiring all four batters he faced to earn the save. Both teams tallied fourteen hits, so there were plenty of offensive standouts, including Juan Gonzalez’ two homers, Omar Vizquel’s two triples, and Travis Fryman’s three hits.

#292---TEX @ TB, 5/24/1999

 

I attended this game at Tropicana Field, which did not go well for the home team, battered 12-3 by the Rangers. Juan Gonzalez hit two-run and three-run homers, and Pudge went deep to add a pair in the ninth. Texas totaled four doubles, a triple, and three homers, while the Devil Rays had one and exactly one of each type of extra base hit. While Tampa was not good, they had a great collection of 90s baseball names, both literally (Quinton McCracken, Rolando Arrojo) and figuratively (Canseco, McGriff, Boggs, Paul Sorrento – playing left field which I can’t imagine was pretty, Kevin Stocker, Dave Martinez) and the Rangers lineups of this period are loaded with notable names, including the more forgotten like Rusty Greer and Tom Goodwin.

#291---SEA @ TOR, 5/17/1998

Seattle jumped out to a 3-0 lead on solo homers from Glenallen Hill (two) and Alex Rodriguez. Toronto took a while to get going, with Jose Canseco starting his huge day with their first hit off Jamie Moyer in the fourth. With one out in the sixth, Canseco doubled, which was followed by a Carlos Delgado double and a Tony Fernandez single to cut it to 3-2. In the seventh, Moyer got the first two Jays before walking Shannon Stewart and yielding a single to Shawn Green. Mike Timlin, famously acquired from Toronto along with Paul Spoljaric for Jose Cruz at the previous year’s trade deadline, walked Canseco to load the bases. Tony Fossas came on to face Delgado and walked him to tie it up.

The Mariners offense went quiet from the sixth on, with only singles by Joey Cora and ARod. In the ninth, Alex Gonzalez coaxed a leadoff walk from Heathcliff Slocumb, moving up to third with two outs on a pair of groundouts to David Segui. Then the hero of the game singled to left (marked here incorrectly as a double) to win it. Canseco drew two walks, hit two singles and a double

#290---MIL @ CLE, 4/19/1997

John Jaha hit two homers for Milwaukee, but the Indians rapped out seventeen hits including solo homers from David Justice, Manny Ramirez (those were back-to-back) and Brian Giles and slugged out an 11-6 win. Ramirez was Cleveland’s offensive star, as in addition to the homer he had two doubles and a single. 

#289---UConn v. OSU, 2/17/2023

This was the first game I had the opportunity to score in calendar year 2023. Despite this game being a “home” game for the Buckeyes in Florida, UConn offered a surprisingly high-quality internet stream of the game. Unlike some major league radio broadcasts I could name, almost all pitches were reported as they happened, enabling me to keep score pitch-by-pitch with details on strike types. 

This was the opening day of the college baseball season and thus marked the debut of Bill Mosiello as OSU head coach. The Buckeyes got a run in the first inning on a RBI from Miami grad transfer Cole Andrews, and would tack on the game’s only two other runs on a two-out double off the fence that just missed getting out from true freshman shortstop Henry Kaczmar. Isaiah Coupet had a tremendous start for the Scarlet and Gray, going 5 1/3 hitless innings. His final line was 6 innings, no runs, one hit, one walk, and nine strikeouts. The bullpen allowed a few baserunners, but no runs as true freshman Landon Beidelschies earned the two-inning save.

#288---CLE @ CHA, 3/19/2022

The Guardians sent fourteen men to the plate in the fourth, tallying nine runs on six singles, two doubles, two walks, and a hit batter. Since the system I was using to track hit locations used a dot, I replaced my standard dot for an out with an “x”, but I think it makes the scoresheet looked too cluttered. The next time I used this system, I think I will use an open circle (which is my usual RBI symbol) for an out. 

I’ve described those hit symbols before, but I think looking at the at bats for Cleveland’s #3 hitters should give you enough to decipher it: line drive single to center in the fourth, ground ball single to left in the second at bat in the fourth, line drive double to left in the seventh, flyball triple to left in the eighth. Anderson reached on an infield single to third base in the third.

2023 Bonus Game---CLE @ CIN, 2/25/2023

This was the spring opener for both the Reds and Guardians and the first game played under the pitch clock that I had the opportunity to score, so I’m including it here as an example of how I handle pitch clock violations. Namely, I put an “a” prefix in front of the normal letter used to designate the pitch, or in the case of a violation for ball four or strike three, in front of the “W” for walk or “K” for strikeout. There weren’t any of these terminal violations in this game, but they would be “aW” or “aK” (actually, it would be a backwards K as it’s pretty obviously a called strike and not a swinging strike, but that’s not easy to render in text).

In this game there were three examples of violations:

* Bottom of the 2nd: First pitch from Cal Quantrill to Jose Barrero is an automatic strike

* Top of the 3rd: First “pitch” from Daniel Norris to Mike Zunino is an automatic ball

* Bottom of the 5th: Seventh “pitch” from Xzavion Curry to Jason Vosler is an automatic ball (watching Curry pitch in the fourth I declared that if he was allowed to pitch much more, he would commit a violation)

As for the game, Cleveland’s regulars led off the game with three straight singles against Brandon Williamson to get a run, and later unlikely sources David Fry and (especially) Roman Quinn hit solo homers. Quantrill allowed a run in the first and another in the second and had to be relieved with one out, but from that point Cleveland pitchers retired sixteen in a row before Cincinnati tied it in the eighth and won it on Matt McLain’s one-out solo homer in the ninth.