Game 26: Indians 9, Blue Jays 7 (12 Innings)

by Ryan on May 5, 2009 12:40 AM EDT in Game Threads

Fangraphs normally don't look like this. Oh sure, the Indians have given up leads before; that's nothing new. It's that the Indians, for as bad as they looked early in the game, got back into the game not once, not twice, but three times. And despite their best attempts to blow a third save, won one of the wackiest games you'll see all year.

The wackiness was there from the beginning. Former Tribe pitcher Brian Tallet, who had been forced into the rotation because of injury, held his former team hitless through six innings. Tallet's last start was a disaster (4 IP, 10 ER), but tonight the Indians couldn't hit his changeups, or anything else for that matter, until the seventh. Ryan Garko broke up the no-hit bid with a sharp single, bringing up the still hitless Matt LaPorta. Matt got his first hit in style, tying the game with a two-run homer. The Indians would later plate the go-ahead run in the inning, only to have starter Fausto Carmona give back the lead in the bottom of the inning.

At this point, the game was a pretty generic Indians game, no different than three or four similar scripts used by the club in 2009. But with two outs in the top of the ninth, Asdrubal Cabrera flipped the plot and drove in the tying run with a single. The Indians drove in two more runs for good measure, and surely that would be enough for Kerry Wood. Right?

Wrong. Because of various pinch-hitting and pinch-running moves, Josh Barfield was now playing left field, and given how baseball invariably works, his defensive play brought about extra innings. To be fair, the "no-doubles" defensive alignment played a big part in allowing the Jays to force the game into extra innings. Alex Rios blooped a singe that Grady Sizemore would have normally caught in almost any other alignment. It was Rios that would be the tying run, scoring on another fly ball that fell, this time in front of Josh Barfield.

But it was Barfield, who hadn't had a major-league at-bat all season, who would eventually provide the biggest hit of the game. It was his run-scoring single that drove in the go-ahead run in the twelfth. Given that the Indians still had to pitch the bottom of the inning, insurance runs were needed, and provided by a Grady Sizemore double. Despite the three-run cushion, Rafael Perez couldn't finish the 12th, leaving Jensen Lewis to try to close it out. He inexplicably did so, striking out Aaron Hill, and the Indians won a game they had by all rights lost at least twice.

The Indians, after being held hitless through six innings, collected 15 hits and scored 9 runs in the final 6 innings of the game. And most of those runs came off of one of the better bullpens in baseball.

Next Up: Anthony Reyes vs. Brett Cecil, 12:37 PM.

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
Asdrubal Cabrera	.406	Kerry Wood	-.403
Josh Barfield	.357	Jhonny Peralta	-.369
Rafael Betancourt	.286	Fausto Carmona	-.359

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Comments

Wow. What a game to miss.

by Voltaire on May 5, 2009 12:50 AM EDT reply actions

I’m still in shock over David Dellucci. At no time in his Indian career has he looked like this. Even his outs are well-hit balls. It’s obviously not going to last forever .. but it sure would be nice for it to last the rest of May.

Be our Marty Cordova, Looch.

by Toxicadam on May 5, 2009 12:56 AM EDT reply actions

Yeah, I was about to post this. There’s really no reason to think that DD can’t have a good (.850ish OPS) year. It’s not like he’s ancient and before coming to Cleveland he could really hit when used properly.

by afh4 on May 5, 2009 8:41 AM EDT up reply actions

The pulling of LaPorta seems eerily familiar. Can anyone help me out?

by Roger Dorn on May 5, 2009 1:07 AM EDT reply actions

Mario…?

Ben Francisco: An Outfielder only on baseball cards and roster sheets.

by westbrook on May 5, 2009 1:14 AM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, I’d rather have seen him hit there, especially coming off the homer. But League is a hard-throwing righty with a platoon split, and though others were overmatched against Verlander Sunday, LaPorta was really overmatched. Guess you can say I was just disappointed by it, and not upset by the move.

by TribeJay on May 5, 2009 1:28 AM EDT up reply actions

He inexplicably did so

Perfect.

I become an expert simply by doing something.

by Brad D on May 5, 2009 1:45 AM EDT reply actions

Great recap, as always. But it makes it sound like the blown save was not at all Wood’s fault. I’m curious how he looked.

"Lotta heart in Cleveland." - Ian Hunter

by Denver Tribe Fan on May 5, 2009 2:03 AM EDT reply actions

Looked like he was getting squeezed a bit.

Waiting for Rondon.

by Gradyforpresident on May 5, 2009 5:36 AM EDT up reply actions

He definitely got squeezed on the 4th pitch of this AB (Bautista’s RBI single in the 9th). That should have been strike 3 IMO.

by mrich on May 5, 2009 10:24 AM EDT up reply actions

That looks pretty clearly out of the zone to me.

by Voltaire on May 5, 2009 11:30 AM EDT up reply actions

It looks on the edge – clearly touching the line. I don’t know if the line represents in or out of the zone. In a situation with 2 strikes, either #3 or #4 are close enough (if not actually strikes-depending on the border) to rung up by many umpires.

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge..." C. Darwin

by Spidey on May 5, 2009 11:55 AM EDT up reply actions

People have posted in postgame threads Gameday screenshots of pitches like this that were called strikes and complaining about how the Indians batters were shafted.

by Voltaire on May 5, 2009 12:08 PM EDT up reply actions

True enough, one side or the other is going to be unhappy with this call every time. But as westbrook points out below, it sure looked to me and I guess to Wood like he threw two pitches that both got the outside corner and would have ended the game, neither of which were called. I can see the ump not giving him the 3rd pitch, but the 4th looked to me at the time like it actually got more of the plate than the above graphic showed, and I really thought it was a strike. I think in a situation like that, if the batter is taking and the pitcher has clearly shown he has the control to put the ball on the corner — exactly on the corner — two pitches in a row, you have to ring up that batter on the 2nd one.

by mrich on May 5, 2009 12:24 PM EDT up reply actions

i have no idea how, with 2 strikes, rios didn’t swing at #4

by DontCallMeJoey on May 5, 2009 1:01 PM EDT up reply actions

From listening to Hammy, I can tell you that Wood walked off the mound twice thinking he had strike 3.

Ben Francisco: An Outfielder only on baseball cards and roster sheets.

by westbrook on May 5, 2009 12:01 PM EDT up reply actions

It was pretty clearly a strike in the watching. Both Wood and Victor thought it was strike three.

I become an expert simply by doing something.

by Brad D on May 5, 2009 1:23 PM EDT up reply actions

Two of the hits were bloop jobs that would have been caught if the outfielders were playing at normal depth. Wood certainly deserves some of the blame, but not all of it.

by Ryan on May 5, 2009 10:34 AM EDT up reply actions

Just went back through game thread 2 just to read the LaPorta reactions. Excellent work. Probably as good as watching the replay!

"Lotta heart in Cleveland." - Ian Hunter

by Denver Tribe Fan on May 5, 2009 2:10 AM EDT reply actions

The second half of that thread, for me, was the funniest part of the evening. Primitive hoodoo vs. logical inevitability. The fact that both sides ultimately lost made it even funnier afterward. Good times.

--
Force quit and move to trash.

by vbc3 on May 5, 2009 2:36 AM EDT up reply actions

As was mentioned at the end of the last thread – over 2,700 posts for the game. I’d like to see where it stacks up against other regular season games (and other SN boards). How many different people posted?

Sweet cut by LaPorta. He has a quick stroke – almost like chopping at the ball.

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge..." C. Darwin

by Spidey on May 5, 2009 9:43 AM EDT reply actions

Just a sampling of two of Keith Law’s Facebook status updates from yesterday. I debated posting these, but it’s Facebook. You don’t put anything there that isn’t meant for the public to see.

Steel Nick

by nickjs21 on May 5, 2009 9:56 AM EDT reply actions 2 recs

This is so good

I'm *always* in the driver's seat, cugino -- Chuck

by Turkmenbashi on May 5, 2009 12:10 PM EDT up reply actions

I can’t recall ever seeing a Fangraph where the three lowest WPA added up to -1.131and the team still won. This has to be an extremely rare event and despite the bullpen’s worst efforts we simply could not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

by ShawnK on May 5, 2009 10:35 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs

odds of a CG today from reyes? did we DL someone and pull rundles back up?

by emil minty on May 5, 2009 10:55 AM EDT reply actions

That’s a good question. Is Rundles available now that Joe Smith went on the DL, even though a position player was called up originally?

by JK in CBus on May 5, 2009 11:01 AM EDT up reply actions

No, Rundles is in AAA.

by Toxicadam on May 5, 2009 11:07 AM EDT up reply actions

That’s not really what I was asking. When a pitcher or a position player is sent down they have to stay there for ten days before they are they can be recalled. The only way around that is to make the case that the person optioned is the replacement for someone else heading to the DL. The question is whether the Tribe can make the argument that they need a replacement for Smith and recall someone who is still in that ten day window. The only person who would qualify would be Rundles. I’d think it would now be a challenge with the original call-up

by JK in CBus on May 5, 2009 11:31 AM EDT up reply actions

No problem with different positions.

by dgcambridge on May 5, 2009 11:36 AM EDT up reply actions

I have failed. Thanks for trying to help.

I was just thinking about who would be available to bring up for the bullpen. Rundles isn’t for about a week if he cannot get a special exemption.

The ’pen is a little fried right now.

by JK in CBus on May 5, 2009 12:19 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, it doesn’t have to match-up (position player/pitcher) as far as the injured player.

by dgcambridge on May 5, 2009 11:30 AM EDT up reply actions

How much rope does Reyes have? I think we have to consider him getting close to dfa territory. His xFIP is 7.04 with a higher walk rate than k rate.

by ClarkM on May 5, 2009 11:04 AM EDT reply actions

He may be bumped from the rotation when Scott Lewis comes back.

With our less than stellar bull pen, could Reyes used in long relief instead of sent to Columbus?

Lewis just threw a session in extended spring training the other day, Indians Web site says he is expected back mid-may

by AllenSmith on May 5, 2009 11:28 AM EDT up reply actions

can’t be sent to columbus without clearing waivers, in any event. no options.

by emil minty on May 5, 2009 11:44 AM EDT up reply actions

I don’t see that at all. He’s pitched 4 games – three that were OK to mediocre, and one where he got smoked. I agree that the periph’s don’t look good, and we’d rather have someone better, but I don’t think we are in a position to jettison an arm. On the other hand, if he is having trouble getting any kind of life on his fastball, I could see a DL stint.

by dgcambridge on May 5, 2009 11:34 AM EDT up reply actions

I want to see what he does today – was the last start an aberration or start of a trend? The start against the Royals was OK, and the one against the Yankees was in that abomination of a ballpark.

Laffey’s walk and K rates are worse. Sowers (22 K, 5 BB in 24 IP) has been pitching well in Columbus, but do people really want to see him again?

by FredOx on May 5, 2009 11:41 AM EDT up reply actions

I just noticed that the Clippers have/had 8 players with OPS above .975, or 7 if you don’t count George Lombard (which you shouldn’t). That’s a lot of offense.

by FredOx on May 5, 2009 11:47 AM EDT reply actions