American League Division Series Game 4:October 18th, 2013
Cleveland Indians -
Seattle Mariners – @ SAFECO Field
CLE: SP
Josh Tomlin(R, 13-11 4.05)
2B
Kipnis - LF
Brantley – DH
Ramirez - 1B
Colvin – C
Santana – 3B
Chisenhall – RF
Choo - SS
Barmes - CF
Shafer
SEA: SP
Felix Hernandez(R, 1-0 3.60)
2B
Taylor – LF
Blash– 1B
Cooper – RF
Despaigne – 3B
Seager - CF
Hicks – SS
Miller – C
Zunino – DH
Peguero
Time for our ace to enter the picture…
Felix knew he had to win to keep this miracle season alive… but his stuff wasn`t sharp from the get-go as he needed 24 pitches to seal the first with
Tyler Colvin fouling off pitches like he gets a dime for every foul ball… but things remained scoreless…
Until we unleashed some quick 2-out terror on
Tomlin in the bottom 1st. It was
David Cooper once again who broke out his singles bat, and then
Alfredo Despaigne, who was heartbroken after his error and his game-ending strikeout yesterday… jumped on the first pitch, a hanging breaking ball… and banged it to left field… TRACK… WALL… GOOOOONE!!! 2-RUN HOMER!
We kept chipping away on
Tomlin with
Peguero and
Cooper driving in single runs to make it 4-0 and the Indians looked worried that our left-handed lineup would produce big today… while
King Felix kept them in check.
They had two hits through two, but once again, an error by our guys started them off in the third.
Seager threw one past the first baseman with two down to keep the inning going, and usually calm
King Felix, who had seen everything in the regular season, was a bit rattled.
Ramirez worked a long AB with three foul balls… and then grounded one under
Cooper`s glove into right that rolled all the way to the wall… RBI-double…
Our pitching coach walked out to give
Hernandez a pep talk… but the Indians showed why they were the second-best offense in baseball as their #4-#6 hitters batted around and scored two more runs before the frame was sealed on a
Choo flyout… one-run game. 4-3 SEA.
Traffic on the basepath was limited to a
Taylor single + stolen base(his 6th in the playoffs!), but that led to nothing…. Until superhero
Kyle Seager hit a decent little double with two down in the fifth… In a very unlikely turn of events, light-hitting center fielder
Aaron Hicks came, saw, and homered to DEAD CENTER FOR A TWO-RUN BLAST… rounding the bases while shaking his head… not knowing how he hit a 440ft home run.
We tried to get the sixth out of
Hernandez… and promptly got burned when
Choo hit a solo shot to make it 6-4… and that was the last frame by
Hernandez, leaving with a lead… and three innings of nifty bullpen work needed to stay alive for another game.
Trying to find a good lefty to pitch the seventh… we found none and decided to pitch
Furbush anyways… who actually delivered a good inning, and that set the stage for
Kahnle in the 8th and
Reed in the ninth… as easy as that right?
Wrong.
Tommy K. was as good as our junk bullpen was all year long and imploded in our face with rapid pace, walking
Ramirez, striking out
Colvin… but switch-hitter
Carlos Santana wasn`t fooled by him… and took him deep for a game-tying 2-run shot.
Choo then tattooed
Kahnle with his second solo shot of the night, and some lunatic tried to throw a vodka bottle at him, but only hit the top of the visitor`s dugout, showering the Indians in liquor. Sign of things to come?
To keep the madness going,
Papelbon got the bottom 8th and made things interesting by walking
Peguero and
Blash to get two on with two down… and very interesting by throwing a little breaking ball that did not break off the plate… high to right… too high to right… not deep enough… inning over.
We still called for
Reed to make sure it stayed a one-run game… which actually worked, and that got us into the bottom ninth.
Papelbon was still out there as
Perez was completely gassed and unavailable to pitch today… but he started off things with a K to
Despaigne… before
Seager once again gave us a little bit of hope with a line drive to center for a base hit.
Hicks watched at two strikes to start his AB… and that doomed it basically as he lobbed out softly to left…
Two down, Acta went for his drama decisions and called for 31-year old righty
Cristhian Martinez… who was 6-1 with 1SV and an ERA of 6!!! in the regular season… and that surely did light up a fire at SAFECO when those numbers flashed the big screen!
Given that the next batter was a lefty,
Martinez had no reason to be out there… and
Miller showed him that by turning on a heater and hitting it up the middle… BASE HIT!
Seager PAST SECOND TO THIRD… AND HE HOLDS ON A THROW… THAT BRINGS
MILLER TO SECOND!
TWO ON, TWO OUT! 7-6 CLEVELAND… THE TENSION!
And the Mariners call for a pinch hitter!
Anthony Gose comes to the plate, the left-handed hitter against the weak righty? Will he be the hero?
He struck out looking.
SP
Felix Hernandez 6IP 7H 4R 1ER 1BB 6K ND
2B
Chris Taylor 1-4 SB(6)
1B
David Cooper 3-5 R RBI DB
RF
Alfredo Despaigne 1-5 R 2RBI HR
3B
Kyle Seager 4-5 R DB
CF
Aaron Hicks 1-5 R 2RBI HR(1)
DH
Carlos Peguero 1-3 R RBI BB DB
HR SEA:
Alfredo Despaigne(1),
Aaron Hicks(1)
HR CLE:
Carlos Santana(1),
Shin-Soo Choo 2(2)
W:
Tony Sipp(1-0 0.00) L:
Tommy Kahnle(0-1 9.00) SV:
Cristhian Martinez(1 0.00)
CLE 7 SEA 6 CLE wins ALDS 3-1
Stinker...