This was a wild early season game between division rivals, with the fifth through seventh innings producing thirteen of the eighteen runs scored in the games, Atlanta’s four-run sixth being decisive. The highlight of that inning is probably 45 year old Julio Franco’s bases loaded pinch-hit walk against 42 year old John Franco. A few offensive performances that stood out were Ty Wigginton (three hits, four RBI, one HR), Marcus Giles (four singles), and Johnny Estrada (three hits, four RBI).
The Royals scored three runs, with the go ahead run coming on a little league home run by Michael Tucker in the third, scoring on an Omar Vizquel throwing error after he’d tripled to center. Despite twelve hits (including three each from Brent Mayne and Carlos Febles at the bottom of the lineup), Kansas City managed just three runs, with two runners cut down at the plate.
The Indians battered Kyle Lohse for eight runs in 3 1/3 innings, punctuated by a two-run homer by Jim Thome and a three-run homer by Omar Vizquel. Bartolo Colon wasn’t particularly sharp, allowing 4 runs over 5 2/3 and striking out just two Twins. When the starters exited, the scoring was done; the pens combined for 8 1/3 scoreless innings.
One of those relievers, Jack Cressand, was tossed along with his manager Ron Gardenhire for intentionally hitting Ricky Gutierrez leading off the fifth. These division rivals did not have a friendly relationship in 2002 – see #215 for the entertaining culmination.
Cleveland jumped on Jeff Weaver with a six-run first, despite a sac bunt from Robbie Alomar; Russell Branyan’s three-run blast to left was the big blow. Rookie CC Sabathia retired the first ten Detroit batters before allowing a fourth inning rally cashed in by Deivi Cruz’ bases clearing double. Alomar drove in two in the sixth, but in the bottom of the frame, Sabathia was pulled after allowing a single to Bobby Higginson at 88 pitches, and Justin Speier coughed up his own bases clearing double to pinch-hitter Robert Fick. Ricardo Rincon came in to fan Roger Cedeno, and Steve Karsay tossed two perfect innings of relief.
Wil Cordero’s triple was followed by Brayan’s third hit and fourth RBI of the night to pad the Tribe lead to 9-7, but Bob Wickman ran into trouble into the ninth, allowing a leadoff homer to pinch-hitter Jose Macias and a single before Cedno helped out popping up a sacrifice attempt. After Wickman plunked Damion Easley, Paul Shuey was summoned, fanning Higginson and Tony Clark to earn the bailout save.
Opening Day for the Indians and Orioles saw Bartolo Colon and Mike Mussina hook up at Camden Yards. Baltimore struck first, taking advantage of four walks issued by Colon in the first two innings, but he steadied for three shutout innings, departing after five having fanned six and walked five. Mussina set down the first seven Indians before Travis Fryman’s homer (the third straight game posted here featuring a Fryman longball), then set down ten more before Kenny Lofton homered to give Cleveland the lead in the sixth. Mussina set down the next six (at this point he’d faced 25 batters over 7 2/3, allowing just the two homers with four Ks), but three straight singles chased Moose, and the Indians plated two in eighth. The Orioles were shut out by the Indians bullpen for four innings with Steve Karsay earning the save.
Blog favorite Dave Burba pitched a complete game for the Tribe, marred slightly by John Jaha’s two-run homer in the ninth, but it was still a comfortable 8-3 win. Burba fanned four and walked two, needing only 108 pitches to retire twenty seven A’s. Cleveland was powered by two-run shots by Jim Thome and Travis Fryman.
Homers from Johnny Damon and Sal Fasano helped staked the Royals to a 4-0 lead through seven, and Pat Rapp managed to shutout the Indians over the span on six hits and four walks with just three strikeouts. In the eighth, the Tribe put together a rally with Travis Fryman’s two-out, three-run homer cutting the deficit to one. In the ninth, Jeff Montgomery yielded a walk to Kenny Lofton and a single to Omar Vizquel. David Justice grounded into a fielder’s choice, then swiped second to give Cleveland runners at second and third with one out, but Jim Thome struck out and Manny Ramirez lined out to end the game.
I’m not sure why I kept score of this game on a copy of the What’s the Score scorebook I was using in 1997, and I really have no idea why I used my pencil to fill in the headers – was this game not entertaining enough? The Indians beat the Yankees 11-8 behind five hits from Marquis Grissom and a four-hit, two homer, 6 RBI game from Matt Williams. It would later have been quite satisfying that it was David Wells that the Tribe roughed up, but he hadn’t yet ascended to the status of public enemy #1.
Finally, nearly three weeks delayed, there was spring training baseball in 2022. OSU product Tanner Tully got the starting nod for the Indi...err Guardians, making him the answer to the not at all contrived trivia question “Who was the first player to perform an in-game baseball action wearing a Cleveland Guardians uniform?” Tully, who like the rest of the pitchers used in the game were minor leaguers who had been in camp for a few weeks before the lockout was lifted and the major leaguers arrived, acquitted himself well, allowing just a walk and fanning four over three innings of work. Fellow Buckeye Ronnie Dawson was a substitute for the Reds and drew a walk, stole a base, and lined out to left.
Two Reds errors were key in allowing the Guardians to win their first exhibition game. Ernie Clement scored the tying run in the fifth after Trey Amburgey booted a single he was fielding in right, and Bryan Rocchio reached on Matt McLain’s throwing error in the seventh and came around to score the winning tally.
I usually don't use the team nicknames on a scoresheet, but for this special occasion (and a few other lasts and firsts for the Indians/Guardians) I used the nickname for each team's lineup header while sticking with team name on the top line.
This was the first spring training game I got to score in 2021, and as is quickly apparent I used my modified version of LL Bean’s system. The note points out that the game was only scheduled for 7 1/2 innings, as variable game length was a major oddity of 2021 spring training. The ability of managers to call of an in-progress inning if it dragged too long forced me to introduce a new notation, “IT” as seen in Lavarnway’s scorebox for the Cleveland sixth. There were only two outs when Seattle pulled the plug on the inning. “IT” (“inning terminated”) is conceptually similar to the “IE” (“inning ended”) notation I use in the case where a batter’s plate appearance ends before completion due to the third out (or, less frequently, the winning run) occurring while the plate appearance is ongoing.
