Indians win a Wild One : 13-8 over the Orioles

The opening game of the Indians – Orioles could not have been any stranger had both teams wore throwback uniforms and it was a full-moon Friday the Thirteenth with a ladder set up over home plate and black cats crossing underneath.

The Indians opened up a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first, uncorking the strange plays immediately.

After Grady Sizemore walked, David Dellucci triple, scoring Sizemore.  Ben Francisco singled Dellucci home.  Jhonny Peralta singled, moving Francisco to second, and the unusual baseball antics began.  Shin-Soo Choo hit a made-to-order double play ball back to the pitcher.  He flipped it to shortstop Alex Cintron.  Cintron missed the outside of the bag with the first foot, hopped and landed his back foot behind the bag prior to throwing to first.  Choo beat out the throw, and both runners were called safe.  Typically speaking, if a fielder’s foot is within, oh like a mile of the bag, the runner is called out.  In this case, the ump made the right call, and the manager argument ensued to no avail. 

Ryan Garko sac-flied in Francisco and Sal Fasano singled, scoring Peralta. 

In the bottom of the second, the Indians went up 5-0, this time on an Asdrubal Cabrera (3) home-run.

Baltimore drove in their first two runs of the game with some small ball and a missed double play by the Tribe.  Ramon Hernandez walked, Jay Payton singled.  Cintron grounded to first, and Payton was out at second for the first out of the inning.  Brian Roberts grounded to Asdrubal Cabrera.  He tried to tag Cintron on his way to second, missed, but Cintron was well out of the base path.  Cabrera threw to first for what appeared to be an inning ending double play, but Cintron was safe on the missed tag.  That scored Hernandez.  Nick Markakis doubled, scoring Cintron and making it 5-2.  In reality, Carmona should still have been pitching a shut-out.

In the top of the fourth, Aubrey Huff hit his 23^rd home run of the season, narrowing the gap to 5-3.

 In the bottom of the fifth, the Indians scored a pair as Peralta and Francisco led off the inning with walks.  That brought out Alex Castillo from the Baltimore bullpen.  He plunked Choo with a pitch, loading the bases.  Garko singled to left, scoring Peralta and reloading the bases.  Sal Fasano was the second Indian of the inning hit by a pitch and the fourth free pass of the inning, and Francisco scored.  With the Baltimore pitching having absolutely no control, Andy Marte inexplicably swung at three pitches in a row, two of them low, and recorded the first out of the inning.  Cabrera hit a weak popup for the second out, and Sizemore flied out, leaving the bases loaded.

Trailing 7-3. the Baltimore Orioles came all the way back in the top of the seventh, even taking an 8-7 lead!  After Carmona registered the first out of the inning, and Indians announcers made the comment that with one more out, Carmona would have the longest outing since returning from the DL, Fausto lost all control, walking Hernandez and Payton.  Cintron singled, giving the Orioles bases loaded with one out.  Roberts singled, moving all runners up one station and scoring Hernandez.  That was it for Carmona, at least in terms of pitches thrown.  He’d get tagged for three more runs one batter later when Edwardo Mujica allowed a bases clearing triple to Markakis.  That ended Carmona’s bid for the win since the game was tied at seven-up.  In the next strange occurrence of the game, Melvin Mora hit a sac-fly to right fielder Ben Francisco.  Francisco fired home, but the ball short hopped right through Fasano’s legs and Markakis, who looked like he’d be out, came in safely.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Indians retook the lead.  Rocky Cherry came on to pitch for Baltimore, and immediately gave up a double to Choo.  Garko singled Choo over to third, and the weirdness continued.  Shappach came on as a pinch hitter for Fasano.  He hit one to third, and Choo was caught in a run-down.  Orioles catcher Hernandez ran Choo all the way back to third, never getting rid of the ball, and Choo made it back safely.  Hernandez ran right through Choo, shoving him off the bag, and Choo was ruled safe on the push-off.  Choo scored on a sac-fly by pinch hitter Jamey Carroll, Carroll’s first pinch-hit RBI of the season.  Walkerrelieved Cherry and dished up a double to Cabrera, scoring Gonzalez, a pinch runner for Garko.  Sizemore then grounded out but scored Shoppach in another unusual play.  The groundout went to Baltimore’s first baseman, and the delay while he stepped on first was the half-step Shoppach needed for the slide home under the tag. 

In the eighth, the Indians tacked on another three.  Francisco solo homered on a 2-0 count with a no-doubter into the home-run porch.  Peralta followed that up with a double, and after a Choo pop-out, Andy Gonzalez homered, his first as an Indian, making it 13-8. 

Brendan Donelly came on in the top of the eighth, allowing one hit and no runs in his debut as an Indians big leaguer.  Donelly hadn’t pitched in the Bigs since June 10^th, 2007, while he was with Boston.

Jensen Lewis pitched a one-hit ninth, closing it out for the Tribe. 

The Indians ended the game with 13 runs on 13 hits.  Baltimore finished with eight runs on nine hits.  Francisco, Peralta, Garko, and Cabrera each had two hits for the Indians.  Markakis led the way for Baltimore with three hits and four RBI’s.

Tuesday is the second of four.  Garrett Olson(8-6, 6.06 ERA) goes for the Orioles against Jeremy Sowers(1-6, 5.70 ERA).

Minnesota took over first place in the AL Central with a win and a White Sox loss.