Cleveland Finishes Off Seattle in 11 Innings, 3-2

The Cleveland Indians took a 1-0 lead into the ninth inning, gave up a run, went behind a run in the tenth, tied the game in the bottom of the tenth, and finally won it the eleventh inning in a nail-biting 3-2 over Seattle.

The Tribe took two out of three in the series with the win.

Paul Byrd went seven and two-thirds innings for the Indians, giving up four hits, striking out four and walking one while not allowing a run.  He left with a 1-0 lead. 

Rafael Perez came on and Bloomquist was caught stealing from first, getting the Indians out of the eighth and ending the night for Perez.  That set the stage for Rafael Betancourt to close out the game. 

Unfortunately, Betancourt has been leaving the door open for a Joe Borowski back-to-closer return. He has been less than stellar as the fill-in closer.

He gave up a lead-off single to Ichiro Suzuki, then threw a wild pitch after the first out, allowing Suzuki to move into scoring position.  Adding insult to injury, Suzuki stole third and then scored on a Casey Blake throwing error.  Talk about manufacturing a run.

You really can’t put too much fault on Betancourt for this run, but he still has not been the dominant closer you’d think he could be while subbing for Borowski.  Beltre made the rest of the inning interesting by singling and stealing second, making it look like the Tribe was going to blow it.

But the Indians did end up getting out of the inning though with no more damage.

The Indians could do nothing in their half of the ninth, and the game went to extra frames.  Masa Kobayashi relieved Betancourt and immediately gave up a home run to Richie Sexson.  He buckled down with a strikeout and two liners to end the tenth, but with the way Cleveland’s offense has been performing, it looked like this one was over.

But the Indians offense responded. Ryan Garko singled with one out, and Jamey Carroll came in as a pinch runner. Franklin Gutierrez singled Carroll to second.

Asdrubal Cabrera walked, loading the bases for Grady Sizemore.  He drew the free pass as well, walking the tying run home.  But the next two batters struck out, leaving the bases loaded, and the game headed to the 11th inning.

Seattle threatened against Kobayashi, stringing together a pair of singles with one out.  But Adrian Beltre grounded into an inning ending double play to close out the top of the eleventh. 

In the bottom half of the innings, the Indians loaded the bases, a repeat of the 10th inning.  Peralta walked, Hafner doubled Peralta over to third, and Carroll was hit by a pitch after being down in the count 0-2 early on.

That brought up Gutierrez with one out.  He whiffed, making it bases loaded and two outs for Cabrera.  Cabrera came through with a clutch single to right center, ending the game.  You could see his excitement in the Sammy-Sosa-like hop step right after he made contact.

The game was over, and in a marathon, the Indians won.

Kansas City rolls into town on Friday for a three-game set to close out this Indians home stand.  The pitching match-up will be KC’s right-hander Luke Hochevar versus Lefty C.C. Sabathia.