#324---CLE @ NYN, 6/17/2004

 

Jae Seo and Scott Elarton each pitched four shutout innings, but a nearly two-hour rain delay knocked them out with very similar lines:

Seo: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 W, 6 K, 52 pitches

Elarton: 4 IP, 1 H, 1 W, 4 K, 53 pitches

The Mets bullpen outpitched the Indians bullpen, with the Tribe’s allowing at least one run in each inning and the Mets tossing zeroes until the ninth.

A couple substitutes to note: Gonzalez pinch-hit for the pitcher’s spot leading off the Cleveland sixth. My first thought was that this was Andy Gonzalez, but I knew he had come along much later, so I had to look up that it was Raul Gonzalez, who appeared in seven games for the ‘04 Indians and had slipped my memory. It was his final big league stint; his most extended playing time had come with the ‘03 Mets. And the recently deceased Gerald Williams, serving as a defensive replacement for Cliff Floyd in the top of the ninth.

#323---CLE @ DET, 6/17/2003

 

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.

#322---CHA @ CLE, 6/1/2002

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.

#321---MIN @ CLE, 6/21/2001

 

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.

#320---CIN @ CLE, 6/9/2000

 

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.

#319---CLE @ PIT, 7/19/1999

 

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.

#318---NYA @ CLE, 6/20/1998

 

A pair of two-run innings in the fourth and fifth allowed the Yankees to take command of the game; they added a run in the ninth, while the Indians scored in three innings but all were just single tallies. David Bell’s third single of the game put the tying run on with two outs in the ninth, but Mariano Rivera induced a flyout from Kenny Lofton to end it.

#317---MIL @ CLE, 4/20/1997

 

Two player who had or would wear the opponent’s uniforms played prominent roles in this game. Working with a 1-0 lead, Orel Hershiser worked himself into trouble in the third with an error and two hit batters. A double play tied the game and might have gotten him out of the jam, but former Indian Jeromy Burnitz hit a two-run homer to make it 3-1. Cleveland took a 4-3 lead in the fifth with two runs coming home on a Burnitz error. Brian Banks (who I do not remember) singled to tie it in the top of the sixth, but Chad Curtis gave the Tribe the lead for good with a leadoff homer off future Indians closer Bob Wickman to lead off the sixth. The Indians needed three pitchers to strand the bases loaded in the seventh, added a run on Brian Giles’ sacrifice fly in the bottom of the frame, and Milwaukee did not mount much of a threat against Eric Plunk and Jose Mesa.

#316---UConn v. OSU, 2/20/2023

This game closed a four-game season opening series played in Florida, and the Buckeyes earned a split with their 10-5 victory. The Huskies jumped out early with two solo homers in the first, but OSU used five straight singles to take a 3-2 lead in the second. A leadoff error opened the door for UConn to tie it in the fourth, but Ohio’s five-run fifth proved the difference. The standout performer of the game was Buckeye grad transfer Jonah Jenkins, who in his debut did not allow a run over 4 2/3 innings. He walked the first man he faced, but proceeded to allow just one hit and one hit batter while fanning four. 

#315---TEX @ CLE, 3/21/2022

In 2021, Spring Training rules allowed pitchers to re-enter and innings to be terminated early when pitch counts got too high. The former rule remained for 2022 (and was utilized by Texas as Kohei Arihara was relieved in the third but returned to pitch the fourth. The latter rule was not, which was a good thing or else this game would not have reached the epic levels of ridiculousness that it did, a 25-12 shootout that saw Texas score in every inning except the first. 

This was the first game of the young Cactus League season in which Cleveland (playing their fourth game) deployed any major league pitchers, but they might have been better off sticking to the minor leaguers. Logan Allen started and after a scoreless first allowed four runs without recording an out in the second. Sam Hentges followed in the third and coughed up five runs while getting just a single out. The other big leaguers (albeit non-roster invitees) to pitch for the Guardians were Justin Garza (allowed two runs in the fourth) and Alex Young (allowed one run in the sixth). 

The Rangers sent fourteen men to the plate in the third, and when six men batted in the fourth this pushed the fourth inning into the fifth inning column as well. I find batting around to be a minor nuisance in most cases, certainly not a reason for having a scoresheet with space wasted on extra innings that you then cross out an re-number as some scorekeepers do. I can deal with a little overflow into the next column on occasion. In cases like this, were multiple innings are impacted, it does get much harder to read, but I still prefer to deal with that rather than waste a lot of space on starting each inning in a new column (which introduces its own readability problems, like offsetting the innings of the two clubs).