#170---CHA @ BOS, 9/4/2010

Both Sox were trying to make the playoffs and would ultimately fall short. The two runs the ChiSox pushed across against John Lackey in the seventh made the difference. Note Manny Ramirez was back in Boston playing for the White Sox, a tenure I don’t really remember. We also see Chris Sale working in relief against his future team, but what really caught my eye was Daniel Bard, who worked through the eighth with three flyouts to center. The night before I wrote this, it was announced that Bard’s long exile from the majors had ended when he made the Rockies’ roster.

#169---PHI @ WAS, 4/13/2009

Scoring note: You can see a briefly-lived endeavor by me to track the number of strikes thrown by the starting pitcher each inning in addition to total pitches. I quickly decided that this space would be better used for a running total of pitches.

This was a wild home opener for the Nats against the defending champion Phillies. Each team got five of their runs on three homers, with the biggest the three-run shot from Ryan Howard in the seventh after the first two batters of the inning were plunked. The Nats tried to come back with a pair of two-run blasts from Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman, but Brad Lidge recovered from the latter with a pair of strikeouts and a grounder to first.

Some of the names on the Washington side are great: Lastings Milledge, Cristian Guzman, Elijah Dukes, Nick Johnson (this team would finish 59-103).

#168---NYA @ CLE, 4/27/2008

This was a good early-season duel between CC Sabathia and Chien-Ming Wang. Sabathia gave up a leadoff single to Johnny Damon and walked A-Rod later in the first, but then set down the Yankees through the fourth sans a Ryan Garko error. In the fifth, Robinson Cano beat out an infield single, but Sabathia picked him off before he even threw a pitch to Melky Cabrera. Good thing too, as Cabrera hit the next pitch out for a homer. That would be the game’s only run, as for the rest of the game the only blemish on the lines of Sabathia and reliever Masa Kobayashi were a Jeter double. On the other side, Wang retired the last four batters he faced, and then Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera closed it out with a pair of perfect innings.

#167---CLE @ LAA, 5/9/2007

The Indians got two in the first off of Jered Weaver, and Paul Byrd tried to make it hold up and it did for sixth. But in the seventh, Erick Aybar singled on a chopper to the mound and Kendry Morales followed with a two-run blast. In the eighth, Gary Matthews hit the first pitch from Fernando Cabrera to put the Angels up, and K-Rod got the save with a 1-2-3 ninth against the bottom of the Tribe order.

Travis Hafner was involved in a couple plays worth noting on the scoresheet. In the first he reached on catcher’s interference, and in the fifth his grounder was deflected by first baseman Casey Kotchman to Aybar, who threw back to Kotchman for the old 343, with my “d” prefix denoting that the position number that followed deflected the ball. I would now score this play “3-43”.

#166---CLE @ DET, 4/15/2006

Fausto Carmona (actually Roberto Hernandez) made his major league debut a success, allowing one run over six innings while walking two and fanning four. The Indians five run fourth off of Jeremy Bonderman removed all doubt; Bonderman was relieved by Jordan Tata, who I do not remember at all (eleven career appearances for Detroit over 2006-07).

#165---CLE @ SEA, 4/22/2005

The Indians jumped on Gil Meche for five runs in the first inning and coasted home from there behind seven strong innings from CC Sabathia (1 run, 5 K, 2 W). I’d mostly forgotten about Jose Hernandez’ turn as a Tribe third baseman, probably because in 84 games he hit .231/.277/.338. Casey Blake, who played right field in this game, would eventually take over third.

#164---CIN @ CHN, 4/16/2004

This game was wild, so wild that I’m not going to try to recap it all (there were 30 hits, 12 walks, and 21 runs) and instead hit the most wild elements:

* I had no recollection of three of the Reds pitchers. John Rielding made 70 appearances in 2004 and 229 for his career. Phil Norton made 69 appearances in 2004, but only 23 previous to that year and none after it. Brian Reith made 22, the last of 73 in his career.

* Barry Larkin got two PA as a pinch-hitter in the sixth (led it off with a single and ended with a K)

* There were three multi-homer innings, including Sammy Sosa and Moises Alou on consecutive pitches from Danny Graves to walk it off in the ninth. It was the second time Alou was involved in back-to-back homers, as part of a monster day that included a single and a double as well.

* Both managers were ejected. Dave Miley of the Reds for arguing balls and strikes after Sean Casey was called out looking by CB Bucknor to end the fourth. Dusty Baker for…

* The Cubs batted out of order in the seventh in what was apparently a failed attempt at a double switch. Ramon Martinez replaced Alex Gonzalez at short but was supposed to bat ninth instead of Gonzalez’ eighth spot. He doubled to the wall in left to lead off the inning, but was called out when the Reds pointed it out, leading to Baker’s ejection.

#163---LA @ CLE, 6/15/2003

The more I looked at this scoresheet, the more little things I found that made it one of my favorites that I had posted. There was a lot of silly stuff going on this game, and some silly connections that one can make looking at the names:

* Dave Roberts leading off for his former team for the team he would later manage to two pennants

* Adrian Beltre batting seventh behind Mike Kinkade and Ron Coomer

* Both teams were running the bases with some reckless abandon. In the sixth, with one out and runners at the corners, the Dodgers tried a double steal that ended with Paul LoDuca getting thrown out 2-4. This is a place where the scoring leaves out a little detail – how did Brandon Phillips get involved? Was he covering third for some reason as LoDuca tried to go back, maybe in a rundown? Or something crazier?

The Indians trumped this failed play, though. The bases were loaded with one out in the bottom of the eighth with LA leading 4-2. Future Dodger Milton Bradley, facing former Indian Tom Martin, singled through former Indian Jolbert Cabrera at second. Jhonny Peralta scored, and Matt Lawton tried to, but was gunned out at the plate 6-5-2. For some reason Coco Crisp tried to get to third, and LoDuca threw back to Beltre at third to tag him out. Instead of ending up with a 4-3 game, bases loaded 1 out,  or with runners at first and second 2 out, the Indians ran into a double play to end the inning and take their chances in the ninth against Eric Gagne at the height of his dominance. After yielding a leadoff hit to Ben Broussard, and a one-out walk to Josh Bard, he fanned Brandon Phillips and pinch-hitter Shane Spencer to end it.

#162---CHA @ CLE, 7/15/2002

With this sheet, we have now reached a full season’s worth of games (excluding a handful of “special” editions, and offset by the embarrassing Home Run Derby "scoresheets"). Given the name of this blog, this should have taken a little over three calendar years but in fact took about 12.5. That’s ok; no one’s reading except my ego.

Confession: I do not remember Jason Phillips at all, which is a shame because this must have been the best game that he ever pitched, given that he only had 18 career starts (32 relief outings) with a ERA of 6.20. He shut out the White Sox through seven, scattering four hits and two walks (albeit with just two Ks) before Kenny Lofton hit a leadoff homer in the eighth (I like that; my heart sinks at seeing Kenny Lofton in the lineup of the White Sox of all teams). He was relieve with runners at first and second and two outs by Paul Shuey, who yielded an infield hit to Frank Thomas was batting sixth, behind Jose Valentin (read that carefully; this was the sad phase of the Big Hurt’s career). Shuey would fan future Indian Jeff Liefer to get out of the jam, then have a 1-2-3 ninth in which he retired two more future Indians (Tony Graffanino and Lofton).

The Indians led 4-0 through sixth, but really took control with a two-out, three-run blast by Ricky Gutierrez, one of his four on the season.

#161---HOU @ CLE, 3/24/2001

Protip: If you want to score a spring training game in person live, go to a game later in the spring when the substitutions have been reduced from a torrent to a babbling brook. This was a live from Winter Haven scoresheet. I don’t remember much of the game (it was spring training after all); I think Russell Branyan’s homer was titanic, although that could be false memory of his raw power filling in the details. My brother snagged a batting practice homer hit by an Astro – maybe off the bat of Daryle Ward?