Indians Rally for 5-4 Extra Inning Victory over Twins

The Indians keep chugging along with their back-and-forth play this season. With game one of the Cavaliers second round series against the Celtics going on at the exact same time, you really didn’t expect much fan support for the Tribe last night.  Playing the first-place Twins on game two of a week-long home stand, it seemed unlikely as well that it could be a double victory night in downtown Cleveland.

Justin Masterson started slow and it certainly looked that way early. Minnesota jumped out to an early 3-0 lead before most fans had even finished their Dollar Dogs, and it looked like a typical blowout for this season. For once though, the Indians did their very best to upstage their neighbors from across the street, showing their dramatic side in a heroic comeback. Led by timely hitting from the top of the batting order and some re-energized pitching, the Indians rallied for a 5-4 win in 11 innings last night.

Down by three runs after just the top of the second, it was a slow and progressive climb for the mercurial Cleveland offense. Jhonny Peralta continued his decent streak of hitting with a solo shot in the bottom of the second. Mark Grudzielanek scored on a double play in the third to make it a one-run game. And then Masterson made his final mistake of the night, giving up a home run to Justin Mourneau in the eighth.

Now down two runs, it was time for a Cleveland comeback one more time. With two outs already in the bottom of the eighth, the top of the order in Cabrera-Sizemore-Choo stepped to the plate. A single, double, single combination tied up the score at 4 a piece and moved the game into extra innings. Neither team seemed to be able to do anything constructive after that, despite each stranding the bases loaded over the next two frames.

Finally, in the bottom of the eleventh, with the Cavs game going down into the final six minutes of the fourth quarter, the Indians took over one last time. Travis Hafner walked, Peralta doubled and Russell Branyan drew an intentional walk to load the bases with one out. Minnesota was able to put away both Grudzlienak and Marson at the bottom of the order, but Cabrera would not be denied as his walk-off single gave the Tribe the dramatic victory.

Here is the rest of my analysis from last night’s game in bullet point form:

• The Indians moved into sole possession of third place in the AL Central with the victory last night. Now 10-13, the team is four games back of Detroit for second place despite actually scoring the second least number of runs (82) in the major leagues.
• Masterson really cooled down after that second inning home run to Denard Span. While he did spray around a few hits and walks every now and then, it seemed like he was essentially in cruise control until that Mourneau homer. The 117 pitches and outing of 7.2 innings were both season highs.
• Give a ton of credit to Aaron Laffey for making a ridiculous catch in the tenth inning.  Span singled to start the frame, giving way to a perfect bunt opportunity for Orlando Hudson. The O-Dog blooped it up just a little too much, leaving room for a diving catch by Laffey and a timely throw to first for the double play. No telling what could have happened in that inning at all.
• Under-rated Indians stat of the day: Lou Marson is batting exactly .200 (9-45) with zero RBI’s on the season so far. This means that he is batting a spectacular .118 (2-17) with a .236 OPS with runners on base. On the flip side, he is then batting .250 (7-28) with the bases empty and an even better .417/.500/.583 clip in 12 lead off attempts this season.
• Without Joe Mauer, that Minnesota lineup is really not too fearsome in the least bit. Of the 11 hitters who appeared last night, only three players had an OPS greater than .800: Justin Mourneau, Michael Cuddyer and Jim Thome. Isolate those three hitters, as Cleveland did in limiting them to 6-for-13 with five singles and two wlaks, and their offense has a tendency to be simply average from time-to-time.
• Finishing up the recap, I have to give props to Austin Kearns. Last night was the first time I ever saw him in person. Although he did go just 1-for-5 overall and 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position, I came away incredibly impressed with his batting discipline. He led all players with seeing 29 pitches on the night, and had an epic battle with Matt Guerrier in the eighth.

(Photo above via Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer)