Tigers 14, Indians 12 [13 innings] (box)
Cliff Lee pitching is typically a good thing. Cliff Lee pitching with an 8-1 lead is typically even better. ‘Twas not the case last night, as the Indians pitching staff allowed 22 hits to the Detroit Tigers – most of which came after the fourth inning. Lee took an 8-2 lead into the fifth and proceeded to allow four runs.
You may be saying, “well, we still left with the lead,” and you would be correct. But not to be outdone by Lee’s rough inning, the trio of Eddie Mujica (who had been amazing coming into this game), Masa Kobayashi and Juan Rincon allowed six earned runs in a combined four innings pitched.
If you’re wondering how there was not a blown save in this one, it was because Mujica came in when we were up four – thus not a save opportunity. Saved by the rule book. It’s similar to how Joe Borowski only had a handful of blown saves last season though toting an ERA north of five.
But while we can point the finger at the bad stuff, we can’t ignore the games at the plate by Asdrubal Cabrera, Ben Francisco and Kelly Shoppach. The three combined to go 13-for-20 with six RBI and seven runs scored. Shoppach alone recorded five hits – all for extra bases. Three doubles and two home runs later, and you have a back-up catcher that finished the month of July hitting .318/.384/.682 (OPS of 1.066). Pretty disgusting if you ask me. The five XB-hit game tied a major league record; and as Anthony Castrovince points out, the last AL player that achieved such was Lou Boudreau.
Cabrera’s 4-for-7 night has his batting average up to .199, which is sad and uplifting at the same time. If he could somehow finish the season over .250 it would be a minor miracle.
With that said, it looks like we’re not alone…
Author: Scott
Scott is a co-founder/editor of Waiting For Next Year who resides in Cleveland, Ohio. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or email him at scott@waitingfornextyear.com.Scott has written 1701 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
Scott the story of this game was having bases loaded twice in the extra frames and not getting the win. The Indians had bases loaded with NO OUTS in the 12th, and couldn’t get a run home. I knew the game was over then.
Very true. I didn’t want to replicate what they had over at MLB.com. The Tribe and Tigers stranded the same amount of baserunners – just so happened that ours stings a bit more given the timing.
So, the Tribe knows about this site? Perhaps that caused the spike in traffic.
Either that or Pluto has no regards for proper capitalization.
It’s all subliminal, MoBot
We’ve been told that we would be “surprised by who checks out the site”. I can’t even get my wife to read it though….
So I’m using the toothpicks to prop up my eyelids at 1:00 am last night, and late for work this morning. I just had hope that wouldn’t die for the win. Even though we left guys standing and pitchers getting beat up, I love the crack of the home run bats….. that’s my analysis of ‘why’ I stay up way late to watch the game finish. Good to see the notes from Terry Pluto, thanks for posting them..
In clutching at straws to find a “positive” the only thing I coud think of was this…
First pitch to Shoppach in the ninth, and Underwood says, “I figured he’d get plunked for his little bat-flip in his last at bat when he homered off of Todd Jones.” I bet Rodney/Leyland wish they’d plunked him instead.
As much as I hate to say it, I was disappointed in Shoppach when he came up with the bases loaded and nobody out – he was obviously trying to hit the ball 900ft, when all we really needed was contact.
Granted, the game would have been over if it wasn’t for him, but I just thought he was a little overcome with the idea of going 6-for-6, hitting 3HR in a game, and getting a walk-off grand slam.