#257---CLE @ ARI, 4/7/2017

The Tribe jumped Shelby Miller for three runs in the first two innings, but he settled down while Josh Tomlin fell apart in the fourth and fifth. The D-Backs sent sixteen batters to the plate over those two frames, with seven of them scoring. 

#256---SEA @ CLE, 4/20/2016

 

Nori Aoki’s two-out, two-run triple in the second gave Seattle all the offense they would need. Jose Ramirez seems a little out of place now leading off and playing left field; it’s easy to forget that at the time many viewed him as a utility player for whom speed was a primary tool (guilty). Rajai Davis would go on to be a hero for the Tribe this season, but he didn’t have his best day as he pinch-ran for Juan Uribe in the seventh and was picked off on the second pitch. The Indians retired the last 10 Mariners batters, but didn’t mount any serious threat to tie the game.

#255---TOR @ NYA, 3/17/2015

 A run-of-the-mill mid-spring training game, probably at about the point where the novelty of having baseball back has worn off and you’ve started counting down the days to Opening Day. 

#254---PIT @ PHI, 3/16/2014

Not much to say about this spring training game, but it is interesting to see a game with such a lopsided substitution pattern (particularly when it's the road team doing more substituting, as they often leave much of their roster behind) and a full platoon change. The Phillies played their starters for most of the game, only replacing the stars and Darin Ruf, while the Pirates did a full line change in the seventh.

#253---CLE @ OAK, 8/17/2013

Even when Ubaldo Jimenez was good for the Tribe, as he was in the stretch drive of the 2013 season, it wasn’t pretty to watch. Jimenez went 5 2/3 of one of the worst no-hit bids possible, having walked five, hit a batter, and made 105 pitches; as soon as Josh Donaldson singled to break it up and plate Oakland’s first run, Jimenez was gone. Cleveland rolled 7-1 behind homers from Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn. 

#252---PHI @ WAS, 5/6/2012

 

As soon as I saw what happened in the bottom of the first inning, I knew I had to post this scoresheet. With two outs and nobody on, Cole Hamels decided it was a safe time to play “Veteran Redass Cowboy” and plunk hotshot rookie Bryce Harper. Harper took third on Jayson Werth’s flyball single to left, then stole home. Unfortunately, the cosmic justice didn’t extend to the game’s outcome, although Harper would collect two hits (including what I assume was a hustle double on a fly to shallow left) and lay down a bunt fielded by Hamels, perhaps with an eye towards a possible collision. 

But the Phillies broke open a 3-1 game with a six-run ninth, including Hunter Pence’s second two-run shot of the night. Hamels actually flied out to leadoff the ninth, apparently set to go for the complete game, but after the outburst John Mayberry pinch-hit for him his second time up.

#251---CHA @ CLE, 3/5/2011

 I usually don’t have a ton to say about spring training games, but I like posting them anyway, especially when I’m doing my scanning/writing in January or February as I am now, and spring training games look awfully enticing. Maybe the most notable thing here is that Chicago third basemen combined for three throwing errors?

#250---WAS @ CLE, 6/13/2010

The box that I use to mark special notes says “LIVE”, which means I attended this one in person. And for good reason--it Stephen Strasburg’s second big league start, following up on his domination of Pittsburgh. Travis Hafner pulled a homer off him, but otherwise he allowed just one hit. In the sixth, a pair of walks drove him from the game after going 5 1/3, walking four in total, and fanning eight on 95 pitches. Washington’s two-out rally in the sixth netted four runs; Cleveland mounted a ninth-inning rally, it was much too little.

#249---SF @ CLE, 2/25/2009

 As the note says, this was the first game played at the Indians’ new spring training facility in Goodyear, AZ, which would later become home to the Reds as well. Each team hit three homers, but the pair of two-run shots launched off Edward Mujica by the Giants in the sixth were decisive. 

#248---TEX @ CLE, 5/23/2008

This four hour, eight minute slugfest saw both Eric Wedge and Milton Bradley ejected, which somehow seems appropriate. Wedge was tossed arguing that Ben Francisco’s seventh inning double off the big left field wall in the Jake was actually a homer which would have drawn Cleveland to within 12-9. Bradley was run in the ninth after Dan Iassogna punched him out.

Surprisingly, there were only two homers in the game, both in the third. Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s grand slam trumped Grady Sizemore’s three-run homer.