Indians-Angels: Westbrook Goes Nine, Cleveland Wins

So, if I were Major League Baseball, and I was looking for a way to increase viewer-ship, especially on the East Coast at 1:00 in the morning, I would schedule the Indians and Angels to continuously play each other all season. 

HOLY MOLY. They play some down to the wire, entertaining games.  Monday?—Walk off Grand Slam by the Angels after a ninth inning comeback by the Tribe. 

Tuesday?—Comeback from a 2-1 deficit by the Angels only to be defeated in the Ninth by a Travis Hafner homer giving the Indians a 4-3 win. 

Wednesday?—Guess we’ll have to stay up YET AGAIN to find out. 

Justin Speier came on as the closer, since a day prior Francisco Rodriguez left with a sore ankle.  He was one out away from a save when he walked Asdrubal Cabrera, bringing Hafner to the plate.  Hafner drilled the first pitch over the right field fence for a two run home run, propelling the Tribe to victory.

The Indians wiped out a 163 game winning streak the Angels sported when leading in the ninth.  The two teams are tied at a game apiece now, with the rubber match Wednesday night. 

Jake Westbrook went the distance in this one, giving up seven hits and three runs while recording four strikeouts.  He took a 2-0 lead into the sixth before giving up a run.  The Angels strung together a pair of singles, scored one on a sac fly, then watched Vladimir Guerrero go yard, giving Anaheim a 3-2 lead. 

Prior to that, Cleveland scored two in the fifth.  Dellucci walked, Casey Blake singled, bringing up Carrol.  He laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt, moving the runners into scoring position at second and third.  Grady Sizemore popped up an inside pitch for out number two, leaving both runners standing pat.  Cabrera then singled to right, driving in both runs and opening up a 2-0 lead.

Cabrera started at short, and Carrol played second, giving Peralta the day off.  Hafner recovered from a sub-par offensive effort yesterday when his swing looked tentative.  Since Westbrook went the distance, Tribe fans did not have to sweat out the usual Joe Borowski close.  Westbrook did give up a single to Matthews Jr., but got Guerrero to ground into a double play, and Anderson to fly out to close out the game. 

Hafner led the offense, accounting for two hits and two RBI’s.  Cabrera had one hit, and two RBI.  Martinez, Garko, Delllucci, and Blake each had a hit, bringing the total hits to seven. 

The Angels registered seven hits amongst four players.  Two each for Guerrero, Figgins, and Aybar.  One hit for Gary Matthews Jr. 

Jake Westbrook is 1-1 with a 2.76 ERA.  Santana went six innings and gave up two runs on six hits, Yielding to Oliver, who got a hold and Speier took the loss and blew the save.