#141---OAK @ SF, 5/22/2005

Moises Alou’s two run homer off Barry Zito in the sixth was the decisive blow of this Giant victory over their Bay Area rivals. San Francisco added an insurance run in the eighth thanks to bumbling by Oakland second baseman Keith Ginter. First he muffed a popup to leadoff the inning, then with two outs he booted a Lance Niekro grounder to allow the runner from second to score. To add insult to injury, his fly to right off Giant closer Tyler Walker was the last out of the game.

#140---CLE @ CHA, 8/6/2004

The Indians did their scoring early against Mark Buehrle, with Coco Crisp launching a three-run blast in the top of the second. After two more hits in that inning, ChiSox pitchers held Cleveland to just three hits the rest of the night. CC Sabathia pitched well for the Tribe, yielding single tallies in each of his last two innings before giving way to former White Sock Bobby Howry for the eighth and Bob Wickman for the ninth. Wickman walked Paul Konerko with one out in the ninth, and after Carl Everett flied out, pinch runner Willie Harris swiped second. On a 1-2 count, Joe Borchard grounded towards second, reaching safely, but Harris made for the plate and was cut down by Ronnie Belliard to end the ballgame. At this stage in the season, it was a moderately important game as both the Indians and the White Sox ended the night six back of the Twins in the divison and 5.5 back of the Rangers in the wildcard. Real contention for both clubs would wait until the next season.


The note indicates this was Roberto Alomar’s first game as a White Sox, appropriately against the Indians with whom he spent three outstanding seasons. I used to try to make note of such events as team debuts on my scoresheets, but gave it up a decade or so ago--uninteresting most cases and perilous to rely on broadcasters for accurate information. I now limit such notes to especially notable events and MLB debuts.

#139---LA @ SF, 4/13/2003

This is an example of a bad scoresheet design, with each box broken into a cross to allow for the runner’s progress around the bases to be tracked. My issue with it is that in so doing, it eats up any space in the box to record other details like pitches, and makes it awkward to write outs in which there never is a baserunner--which after all describes about two-thirds of MLB plate appearances. Because of the lack of space to track pitches, I only used this sheet when I had no intention of doing so, as was the case for this Sunday night game between NL West rivals.

On paper this should have been a great pitching matchup, with Jason Schmidt and Kevin Brown, but neither were on top of their game, each allowing four runs and fanning five (in six and five innings, respectively). The bullpens (including a Giant lefty named Troy Brohawn whose name is completely unfamiliar to me) kept things scoreless, including multi-inning outings from each team’s best relievers (Joe Nathan and Fernando Rodriguez for SF, Eric Gagne for LA). In the twelfth, the Giants finally broke through for a two-out rally against Andy Ashby, with Marquis Grissom doubling and Marvin Bernard winning it with a long single to right field.

Of particular interest in any Giant game of this era is Barry Bonds, and though he flew out twice, he did single, draw three walks (one intentional), and swipe one of his six bases for the season.

#138---CLE @ DET, 4/6/2002

This was a non-descript early season game between two teams going nowhere, although the Indians did not act as if they knew that yet. Bartolo Colon, who would be traded to Montreal later in the campaign, was just ok, yielding three runs in 6 2/3 innings while fanning four. This may have been one of Brady Anderson’s best (or even one of his few good) games during his Cleveland career, reaching safely four times, hitting a homer, and swiping a bag.

On the other side, despite his horrible 3.0 career K/9, Nate Cornejo actually had a better K rate than Colon on this day (four in 5 2/3), but he needed 121 pitches. I’ve noted on here before how pitch counts of this type are something that has disappeared from the game in just fifteen years. Also note former #1 pick Matt Anderson working the ninth for Detroit.

#137---KC @ CLE, 6/30/2001

The first thing that stands out about this game is how many home runs were hit. Five from the Royals, all from players you’d pick out now as the biggest names (apologies to Jermaine Dye)--two from Mike Sweeney, two from Carlos Beltran, one from Raul Ibanez. The Indians hit four of their own (two from Juan Gonzalez, Jim Thome, Kenny Lofton), but Kansas City’s five run fourth game them a 10-3 lead and they cruised home from there

The Wilson who started for KC was Kris, who I don’t remember at all.

#136---BOS @ CLE, 4/29/2000

It’s a Red Sox game from 2000 and Martinez is pitching! Never mind, it’s just big brother Ramon. Martinez pitched okay, fanning three and walking one over five innings; he allowed three runs, all on sacrifice flies, one of which paved the way for the third run when it was dropped by Darren Lewis.

On the other side, Chuck Finley pitched well and deep into the game as he was doing with regularity at the start of his first season as an Indian, making 112 pitches in 7 2/3. He surrended a home run to Mike Stanley in the second, and Stanley hit what would have been a go-ahead homer to the warning track when Paul Shuey relieved Finley in the eighth.


The Indians lineup is, uh, interesting--Jacob Cruz leading off while Jim Thome hit sixth.

#135---CLE @ ATL, 4/3/1999

This was one of those exhibition games played in a MLB stadium just before the start of the season, that seem like they used to be more common (at least in cold weather cities--the Indians used to occasionally play these at home, but now they are almost always on the road. Of course, the start of the season has drifted earlier and earlier in the calendar over time as well). As such, there’s nothing particularly interesting about Atlanta’s 4-2 win.

What drew my attention to this scoresheet, though, was John Rocker working a 1-2-3 eighth inning with two strikeouts. As you can see, Rocker was pitching in the eighth and Mark Wohlers still had the ninth for Atlanta, although Rocker would quickly supplant Wohlers as the closer and record 38 saves this season after breaking out in the second half of 1998. Rocker would be traded to Cleveland in a bizarre move in 2001, after the infamous SI article and the associated fallout, completing a strange obsession that the Indians brass seemed to have with Rocker. Could this be the moment that it all started?

#134---CLE @ KC, 7/3/1998

Sometimes when I look at an old scoresheet, most of the time in fact, I have no recollection of the ballgame. This is fun; the scoresheet restores a personal connection back to a game you experienced at one point but no longer remember. But it’s even more fun when I find a nearly twenty-year old scoresheet and distinctly remember the game, then be reminded of details you’d never remember (like Shawon Dunston of all people DHing for the Indians) in your own handwriting.

I remember listening to this one on the radio at my grandmother’s house and in the car on the way home. The Royals took a 1-0 lead off Dwight Gooden on Johnny Damon’s third inning single, and Jose Rosado was pitching very well, at least in the pre-DIPS sense. He’s allowed three walks with 2 Ks and no hits until Manny Ramirez homered to left with two outs in the sixth. Gooden matched him fairly well, going seven with three Ks and no walks. Rosado walked Sandy Alomar in the seventh, but he was erased on a K/CS double play. Paul Shuey, in relief of Gooden, walked the first two batters he faced but fanned Shane Halter on a foul bunt before getting Jose Offerman to fly out and fanning Jeff King.

With one out in the ninth and the game still tied, Manny Ramirez hit another homer to left. Mike Jackson set down the Royals in order in the ninth and the Indians won 2-1 with their only two hits coming on Ramirez longballs. And while I didn’t sum up the pitch count here, Jose Rosado made 123 pitches according to Baseball-Reference; he wouldn’t turn 24 until after the season. Nineteen years can be a long time in baseball.

#133---ANA @ CLE, 4/13/1997

There wasn’t anything too remarkable about this mid-April game, with the Angels winning 8-3. Jack McDowell, the Indians big offseason signing to bolster the rotation, didn’t make it out of the fifth and coughed up six runs, which was representative of his Cleveland career. Baseball-Reference tells me this was Eddie Murray’s first homer of the season, the 502nd of his career and one of just three he would hit in his final major league season, in which he mustered an OPS of just 598.

#132--TEX @ CLE, 5/17/1996

When I look at games I scored as a fledgling scorekeeper, sometimes I regret that I wasted such a good game with such lousy scorekeeping. This is one of those occasions, as my scoresheet is so cluttered that it’s hard to really follow what happened in a game that could serve as a historical snapshot of mid-to-late 90s baseball, a slugfest between two of the most powerful lineups in the league (both teams would win their divisions).

Trailing 2-1 (with their run coming on one of the whopping 24 homers Kevin Elster would hit in a season in which he recorded a 90 OPS+), Texas got six straight hits off Orel Hershiser to start the fourth inning, then added two more hits and two walks off long reliever Joe Roa, making his only appearance of the season (and second and last of his Cleveland career). Texas added two more in the fifth to make it 9-2, but the Indians matched that in the bottom of the frame.

Eddie Murray homered to lead off the Cleveland sixth, but Elster countered with another solo homer and it was 10-5 going into the bottom of the seventh. The Indians had Kenny Lofton at first with 2 outs and then all hell broke loose. Baerga, Belle, and Murray singled, and Thome walked to make it 10-7. Then Manny Ramirez (who’d pinch-hit for Jeremy Burnitz in the seventh) hit a grand slam and it was 11-10. Belle singled home Lofton in the eighth for the last run in a crazy 12-10 game that deserved to be scored by a better scorekeeper on a better scoresheet.