Indians-Orioles: Baltimore Scores Eight in the Eighth

Pop Quiz: What do you get when an Indians starter goes five innings and you have to rely on the bullpen to hold the opposition while you catch up.

A) A loss

B) Something else 

Answer?

11-6 Baltimore win.


Zach Jackson went five innings, giving up eight hits, three runs, one walk, and a strikeout on 97 pitches in his first outing as a Cleveland Indian. Not bad, but not great. He did his job by keeping the game close; when he left, the Indians trailed 3-2. Most teams would take that kind of effort from a guy just called up.

Problem is, five innings can't cut it for an Indians' starter because the bullpen is such a train wreck. Sometimes eight innings aren't even enough.

The Indians relievers did hold the game until the eighth. Enter Rafael...Perez?

Perez, the brightest light in the Indians' bullpen, couldn’t register an out and gave up four runs while taking the loss.

Now what? Einy, meenie, miney, Mujica...four more runs score before the eighth ends...11-3 Baltimore. That is one tough inning.

The Indians scored three in the bottom of the ninth, just enough to make the average fan stay up an extra half hour for nothing. The Indians did end up staying out of the cellar after Kansas City lost as well. Woohooo!!

Both teams scored two in the first. Baltimore’s pair came on three hits: a single by Brian Roberts, a double by Melvin Mora, combined with an Asdrubal Cabrera error, and a single by Hernandez. 2-0 Baltimore.

The Indians pair came on three hits as well. Grady Sizemore singled, Ben Francisco singled, and then Shin-Soo Choo doubled in both Sizemore and Francisco, knotting the contest a two-all.

In the top of the fifth, back-to-back doubles by Hernandez and Millar gave the Orioles the 3-2 lead.

Juan Rincon took over in the sixth for the Tribe, putting up two innings of zeros, exactly what Cleveland needed in this tight one, and handed the game to Perez with the game all tied up at 3-3.

That's when the wheels fell off. Millar singled. Payton was safe on a Gonzalez error.  Montanez doubled. Castro singled, and by now three runs crossed the plate with nary an out.

Mujica came on for this result: Roberts groundout...Hoo ha! One out!! Intentional walk to Cleveland slayer Markakis. Mora double. Intentional walk to Huff. Unintentional walk to Hernandez. Millar, first batter of the inning way back when, single. Payton foul out...two outs!! Montanez single. Castro pop-out. In case you lost count of the outs between all the hits and walks, that would be three. Runs across the plate? Eight.

I can hear Eddie Murphy as the nutty professor singing, “Thursday night score eight...It’ll be so great.” The same week as 08-08-08...Score the runs in the eighth...  

Sheesh!!  Well at least it wasn’t news on Brett Favre.

In the ninth, the Indians put three up just for the fun of it. Franklin Gutierrez homered. Did this prompt me to sit closer to the edge of the couch? No, not really. After a pair of outs, Choo doubled. Shoppach singled Choo home. Garko doubled, scoring Shoppach.

Yes, I admit it, I was moving a little closer to the edge of the couch. Gonzalez walked.  Oh yea...groundout Cabrera, game over.

Let’s go to the big board and see what the prize is for an eighth-inning implosion, Bob!! Oh, a three-game series against the Angels—the leaders of all of baseball in wins!!

Cliff Lee (16-2, 2.45 ERA) will be gunning for his 17th win of the year against Jered Weaver (10-9,4.51 ERA). Game time is 7:05.


Factoid of the day: Cliff Lee’s full name is Clifton Phifer Lee.