This is an Indians blog, and so you're going to get a recap of the Tribe's final game of the season, a 5-4 loss in Detroit. But we're all baseball fans too, so I'd be amiss if I didn't talk about what was the most incredible finish to a season in baseball history. Four games, four teams fighting for two playoff positions, two extra-inning games, two bottom-of-the-ninth two-out game-tying hits, one incredible comeback, two devastating losses, and two walk-off victories. Even if the Indians ended their season by getting swept in Detroit, it was a great night to be a baseball fan and a great night for baseball.

The Indians and Tigers faced off at the same time three other much more important games started. The Red Sox, who had collapse in the month of September, were trying to salvage their season by winning in Baltimore, while the Rays were trying to keep their incredible comeback alive by beating the Yankees at home. Meanwhile, Atlanta was facing the Phillies at home. The four clubs needed a win to guarantee that at least they'd play another day. 

The Tigers also had something to play for, though the stakes were not nearly as high as with the four Wild Card teams. If Detroit won and the Texas Rangers lost in Anaheim, the Tigers would have home-field advantage for the Division Series. So the Detroit regulars were in the lineup, and Zach McAllister had his work cut out for him. The 23-year-old had made 25 starts in Columbus and pitched well, but he hadn't had any success in his short time with the Indians. But against perhaps the best lineup in baseball, he held his own for five innings, not allowing an earned run and striking out four.

The Indians scored the first three runs of the game. Ezequiel Carrera tripled home a run in the third, and the Indians tacked on two more in the fourth. But the Indians could have scored several more runs; after those two runs were in, they still had the bases loaded with one out, but failed to score any more runs. And that came back to bite them.

Manny Acta didn't stick around long, as he was ejected in the first inning after arguing balls and strikes. That meant bench coach Tim Tolman, who was in his last game as Indians bench coach (he is moving into another role with the club due to health reasons), was acting manager for most of the game. Acta denied that he tried to get tossed in order to have Tolman manage:

"I would never make a mockery out of a baseball game," Acta said. "If I wanted Tolman to manage a game, I didn't have to get thrown out of the game. I would've just handed the lineup card to him and let him manage the game. He didn't manage the game. I managed the game from the tunnel.

Tolman (through Acta) would go to the bullpen in the sixth inning, utilizing the relievers that had been successful all season long, but in this game, they let the game slip away. Joe Smith, who had almost always been in the strike zone this season, couldn't get ahead of hitters, and allowed two runs to score in the sixth inning. And Vinnie Pestano, who has been perhaps the best setup man in the majors, allowed the the go-ahead run in the form of LGFT Jhonny Peralta's home run.

It turned out that the Tigers wouldn't get home-field advantage in the ALDS, as the Rangers beat the Angels 3-1 later that evening, so they'll be travelling to New York instead of staying home to face a team that by all probability shouldn't still be playing. Not only were the Rays not even supposed to be in a position to make the playoffs tonight or even this week, but they were down 7-0 to the Yankees in the eighth inning. Coming back from that deficit at any time in a baseball game is considered a huge comeback no matter when that game is played, but to do it in the eighth inning of the 162nd game of the season while at the same time needing to win to force perhaps a play-in game defies the bounds of even fiction. But it happened. The Rays scored six in the eighth inning, three on an Evan Longoria home run, and with two outs in the ninth inning, journeyman Dan Johnson hooked a game-tying home run around the foul pole in right field to square the contest at 7.

Meanwhile it looked like the Red Sox would squeeze out a victory to at worst force a play-in game. Up 3-2 in the seventh, a rain delay forced them to wait around 45 minutes. Their bullpen, already heavily taxed, would need to be perfect, as some golden opportunities to add insurance runs fell by the board, including a first-and-third, nobody out scenario in the top of the ninth. But it looked like they would get away with it, as Jonathan Papelbon would retire the first two batters of the inning. But the Orioles wouldn't die; Chris Davis doubled, and Nolan Reimold lined another double into the gap to tie the contest. Then Robert Andino hit a line drive that Carl Crawford - who had, appropriately enough, jumped from the Rays via free agency last winter - trapped against the ground. He threw home, but it wasn't close. The Red Sox, who had collapsed to even get to this point, collapsed within the final game to set up the Rays to make the playoffs outright.

Just minutes after the final score was posted on the Tampa Bay scoreboard, Evan Longoria ended the game in dramatic fashion, lining a walk-off home run just over the left field wall. The ball flew over a section that's lower than the rest of the wall, called the - wait for it - Crawford corner. In the span of minutes, Boston's hopes went from almost realized to dashed.

The Braves would lose in extra innings after blowing a ninth inning lead, and with the Cardinals' blowout of Houston, that meant there would be no 163rd game. But the excitement and drama that those four games had was enough for the whole month of October.

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The drive for .500 has run into the buzzsaw known as the Detroit offense. Jeanmar Gomez was its latest victim, giving up eight runs in 4.2 innings. Gomez gave up two runs in the first, and would give up runs in four of the five innings in which he pitched.

Unlike Monday's game, though, there were some good things that happened. The Indians scored some runs of their own, limiting Max Scherzer to 5.2 innings by scoring four runs on seven hits off him. Shelley Duncan started the scoring with a fourth inning RBI double; he's ending the season on fire, hitting .280/.353/.640 in the month of September. The Indians scored another run in the fifth on a Max Scherzer, then knocked out the Tigers' starter in the sixth on Jason Donald's two-run single.

Jim Thome hit his 444th career double in the seventh, driving in Carlos Santana. Later in the inning, Lonnie Chisenhall drove in the Tribe's sixth run with a single off a Phil Coke breaking ball. Chisenhall has looked better at the plate in these last few weeks. He's actually hit left-handed pitchers better than right-handers; five of his seven home runs have come off of left-handed pitchers. He still needs to get better at pitch selection, but you can see improvement on an almost daily basis.

There were also some good performances on the pitching side of the ledger. Nick Hagadone tossed 1.2 innings of scoreless baseball, including two strikeouts. Zach Putnam also threw a scoreless inning, striking out Brandon Inge in the process.

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Oof.

In another matchup of trade deadline acquisitions, Doug Fister again beat Ubaldo JImenez, but in this game the disparity was about as far apart as it got. Fister was in complete control of the plate, going eight shutout innings, striking out nine, and not walking a batter. He had no-hit stuff. Conversely, Jimenez ended his season on a disastrous note, getting rocked for six runs on nine hits. He couldn't find the corners of the strike zone; either he was missing the plate or missing on it. Jimenez was facing perhaps the most potent offense in the majors, but he has the stuff to tame any lineup. If he can't turn things around next season, the Indians are in deep trouble.

The Indians went with a couple of AAA callups after Jimenez left, and they fared no better. Corey Kluber ran into trouble in his third inning of relief, and by the time the inning ended, the Tigers had sent eleven men to the plate, scoring eight runs in the process (four off Kluber, and four off Josh Judy). Not many of the eight hits in the inning were cheap.

The Tigers are playing for home-field advantage in the first round (and, perhaps more importantly, a matchup against the Wild Card winner), so we'll be seeing a similar lineup tomorrow. I guess we'll see exactly how good Jeanmar Gomez is.

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The Indians had a chance to clinch both second place and a .500 record, in addition to finishing the season with a nine-game winning streak against the Minnesota Twins, but two tenth-inning runs spoiled all those potential marks.

Shelley Duncan continued his torrid September, hitting a two-run homer to put the Indians up 4-2 in the third, but Fausto Carmona couldn't hold the lead, He gave up single tallies in the fifth and sixth innings, with both runs coming either directly or indirectly via an extra-base. A Denard Span triple set up the run in the fifth, and a two-out Trevor Plouffe in the sixth tied the game.

The Tribe bullpen threw 2.2 innings of scoreless baseball to get the game into extra innings, but once regulation ended, so did to the scoreless streak. Tony Sipp gave up a home run to Rene Tosoni (.194/.267/.306) to open the inning, and an additional run on a Chris Parmalee RBI single.

The Indians got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the inning when Travis Hafner hit with Carlos Santana on first base and two outs, but Hafner grounded out to the first baseman to end the game and the home schedule. The Indians finished the season 44-37 at Progressive Field. 

Jim Thome pinch-hit in the eighth inning, and in what may have been his last plate appearance in an Indians home uniform, worked a walk. (Edit: In the top of the ninth, he went out onto the field, and for one pitch, played third base. After the pitch, he was replaced and left the field to a standing ovation.)

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The Indians went a long way to accomplishing two of their late-season goals by sweeping this day-night doubleheader:

1. Finish in second place. Now 3 games ahead of Chicago with four games to play.

2. Finish at or above .500. Now 2 games above .500 with four games to play.

It's hard to think of accomplishing these goals as anything special given that at the beginning of the month, the Indians still had a shot of winning the division and making the playoffs. But if you compare this season over last season, accomplishing these goals would be a major sign of progress. The Indians finished 2010 at 69-93, and in fourth place. If the Tribe finishes at .500, that's a 13-game improvement, and would be one of the biggest improvements in baseball.

In game one, David Huff looked much better, striking out seven in 5.2 innings of work. It must be said that this improvement came against one of the worst offenses in the league, but his location did look much better than in his previous two outings. Given where he started the season, he's had a successful year, though those two consecutive implosions did a lot of damage for his prospects for next season.

The Indians won going away thanks to a six run sixth inning. Eight Indians would reach base; the inning start with the bases loaded without a base hit (two walks and a hit batter), and the Indians made the Twins pay by collecting five hits after the bases were full. Jason Kipnis' two-run single sealed the win.

In game two, the Indians had one of their biggest comeback of the year, winning the game after trailing 6-0 going into the bottom of the sixth. The Indians scored five runs in the sixth, then took the lead in the seventh with Shelley Duncan's two-run double. Mitch Talbot, who was back on the 40-man roster, blew his second chance by giving up 6 runs to a AAA Twins lineup. In addition to the nine hits he gave up, he walked four more. The Indians are thin in starting pitching, but I don't think Talbot will last the winter on the 40-man roster. The Indians have options remaining with Huff, Gomez, and McAllister, but Talbot is out of options, and at this point probably is below the other three of the team's depth chart.

Game One:

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Game Two:

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It was Jim Thome's night in Cleveland, both before and during the game. The Indians held a pre-game ceremony celebrating both his 600th home run as well as his career with the Indians. A steady rain couldn't dampen the mood of the ceremony; Thome, surrounded by family and former teammates, was presented with a plaque, and in a surprise to everyone in the stadium, a preview of a Heritage Park statue depicting his famous batting stance. The Indians' playoff hopes were dashed weeks ago, but Thome's return to Cleveland has made these last weeks of the season as memorable as any this year.

Watching the video montage of his career highlights, I was struck at how Thome playing with this group of Indians represents a rare juxtaposition of Indians generations. When he started his career in 1991, his teammates were Carlos Baerga, Albert Belle, Greg Swindell, and Charles Nagy. Now he's playing with Jason Kipnis, Carlos Santana, Justin Masterson, and Asdrubal Cabrera. It's been 21 seasons since he first appeared in an Indians uniform, and now he's back playing with a new group of Indians that weren't yet in kindergarten when he hit his first home run.

After a brief rain delay, the game started, and it would be just as memorable as what took place before it.

The Twins jumped on Justin Masterson early, taking a 2-0 lead thanks mostly to wildness. Justin couldn't throw strikes all game, and had already thrown over 100 pitches when he was pulled in the fifth inning. He would be scheduled to pitch the last day of the season in Detroit, but it might be prudent to just shut him down; he's now thrown 216 innings, 30 more than last season.

Masterson gave up four runs in 4.2 innings on 5 hits and 6 walks, but he left the game with a 4-4 score thanks in large to Jim Thome. #25 doubled down the left field line to plate the Tribe's first run of the game, and homered in almost exactly the same spot where his statue will be placed in the third to tied the game at 4. The Indians took a brief 5-4 lead on Matt LaPorta's single, only to lose it a half-inning later when Rafael Perez gave up a run-scoring Rene Tosoni double. Joe Smith would get out of the subsequent jam, and Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez would toss scoreless innings to preserve the tie until the ninth inning.

In the bottom of the ninth, Manny Acta sent Carlos Santana to the plate for Lou Marson, and on the first pitch, Santana hit one into the seats beyond the left field wall to end to add one more memory to an already memorable evening.

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Before the game, Jim Thome and Omar Vizquel were sent to home plate to exchange lineup cards. It was a nice touch by the managers, as this might have been the final time the two appear in uniform in Cleveland. There's still a couple players from that era still around (Bartolo Colon, for instance), but Vizquel and Thome are the last two left who were around for all of the division titles ('95, '96, '97, '98, '99, '01).

The Indians started with a bang, leading off the bottom of the first with back-to-back home runs. It was the first time the Indians did that at home in over 40 years (Graig Nettles and Vada Pinson last did it in 1971). Kosuke Fukudome and Jason Kipnis were the batters this time; Fukudome hit his over the right field fence, while Kipnis hit his to almost straight away center field. After the two homers, though, Chicago starter Phillip Humber settled down, retiring the next 14 hitters he faced.

Jeanmar Gomez got the start for the Indians, and he again pitched well, going six innings and allowing two runs on four hits. He's set himself apart from the pack of the AAA call-ups (Huff, McAllister) to win a spot in the rotation if there's only one spot to win.*

The White Sox tied the game on Juan Pierre's two-run single in the fifth. Pierre's contract is up after the season, so perhaps all this late-season success against the Indians will convince the Chicago management to keep him as their left fielder. One can only hope.

The Indians came right back in the bottom of the fifth, pushing the lead back to two on a Fukudome two-run single. On the previous play, Ezequiel Carrera served a ball down the left field line that bounced high off the jutting wall along the line, and initially Jack Hannahan was allowed to score because the third base umpire didn't see that the ball touched fan. But after conferring among themselves, the play was ruled a ground-rule double, and Hannhan had to return to third. So Fukudome's two-out single not only allowed Hannahan to score again, but plated Carrera as well.

History was made in the seventh. When Asdrubal Cabrera broke the game open with a three-run homer on a low Addison Reed fastball, he broke the franchise single-season record for a shortstop (Jhonny Peralta, 2005). Cabrera's comeback season looks like it's ending with a flourish. Travis Hafner, the next batter, collected his 1000th hit with a double to the right field gap.

*This of course assumes that Josh Tomlin's elbow is all right and Fausto Carmona's option is picked up.

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It was looking really good until the seventh. Ubaldo Jimenez was looking good, and the Indians had just taken the lead on Travis Hafner's two-run homer.

Old nemesis Mark Buerhle was on the hill for Chicago. This was his 46th start versus the Indians, and usually he's either really good or really bad. Tonight he was very good, allowing four hits in six innings, but two of the hits were key. With one out in the sixth, Jason Kipnis doubled down the left field line, and two batters later, Travis Hafner hit a towering fly ball that just cleared the right field fence for his 13th home run of the year. The blast gave the Indians a 2-1 lead.

Meanwhile, Jimenez was having one of his better starts of the season. Going into the seventh inning, he had allowed one run on four hits and no walks, and struck our seven along the way. But two walks and two hits later, the White Sox took back the lead 4-2. The key hit of the inning was an Alejandro De Aza two-run single with two outs. Previously in the at-bat, Jimenez uncorked a wild pitch to send the two runners on base two second and third.

Chad Durbin came in to pitch the eighth, and removed all doubt by giving up three home runs in the inning. Durbin had been pitching better in the second half of the season (3.07 ERA), but he's given up runs in each of his last four appearances.

The Indians, who had been toying with having Josh Tomlin pitch on Saturday, wised up and shut him down for the remainder of the season. Instead, Mitch Talbot will be brought back to make the start.

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