It Finally Ended

June 25, 2014
Indians
8
dbacks
9
WP: Collmenter, LP: Lowe
Indians HR: C.Santana (12)

After 5:32 of baseball, I feel like my brain has turned to mush. I apologize in advance for any mistakes that come with typing up a game recap after 4 AM.

For those of you that can’t think back to first pitch, Justin Masterson started for the Indians, walking the first hitter he faced. Masty was all over the place tonight, striking out six and walking four in just four innings pitched. Teamed with seven D’Backs hits in those first four frames, Masty was tagged for five runs before exiting early on. It wasn’t much better for Arizona starter Wade Miley, as he was also sent packing after four frames in which he allowed 8 Indians hits and five total runs (four earned). The Indians plated four runs in the second inning, but Masterson couldn’t hold the lead he was given early on.

The score was tied 5-5 after the starters hit the showers. Kyle Crockett was the first reliever used by Terry Francona as he allowed an Aaron Hill RBI single in the 6th. The first four Diamondbacks relievers pitched a combined four scoreless innings before Addison Reed came in to try and get the save in the 9th. With two outs, Yan Gomes hit an RBI single to center that allowed this game to go to extras.

Free baseball began with a scoreless 10th for each team. In the top of the 11th Carlos Santana blasted a 2-run homer to right that gave the Indians an 8-6 lead. Francona decided to leave in Brian Shaw to get the final six outs of the game, but he couldn’t get the job done. Shaw struggled, first allowing a solo shot to David Peralta and then hitting the showers with runners on the corners and just one out in the inning. Ender Inciarte tied the game with an RBI single off of Axford, but the Canadian buckled down to strike out Paul Goldschmidt and Miguel Montero and continue the marathon.

Between the end of the 11th inning and the middle of the 14th, a lot happened without a team scoring a run. For the Indians, Jason Kipnis hit a triple but was thrown out trying to turn it into an inside the park homer, Carlos Carrasco threw two scoreless innings, and Corey Kluber (tomorrow’s starter) entered the game as a pinch hitter. For Arizona, all of their bullpen options were exhausted that starting pitchers were warming up. Brandon McCarthy warmed up earlier in the game, but it was Josh Collmenter who got the call in the top of the 14th, keeping the game tied and allowing the home team to walk off in the bottom half of the inning.

Mark Lowe, the Indians’ final bullpen arm, entered the game in the bottom of the 14th inning. He got one out, but Lowe took the L tonight when Aaron Hill hit a walk-off single to deep centerfield. While Hill was showered and mobbed, Collmenter got the W. Lowe fell to 0-1 while Collmenter improved to 6-4.

Some facts about this game…the game time of 5:32 ties the longest in Chase Field history, tied with a game from last season…513 pitches were thrown between both teams…Fourteen (!!!) different players occupied the 9 hole in the AZ lineup and the 8 hole in the CLE lineup…Asdrubal Cabrera was the only player on either side to come up hitless with more than 3 at bats…Carlos Santana went 4-5 to raise his average from .202 to .214. He also overtook the team lead in home runs by hitting his 12th of the season in the 11th inning.

Here’s to hoping that tomorrow’s (tonight’s?) game doesn’t go as late as tonight’s contest.

3 Comments

  • Steve says:

    I love Francona, but his management of that game was really bad. He burned his challenge in the first inning on a play he had no business challenging, he left Masterson in for too long, and then he inexplicably had Shaw pitch the 11th after he had already thrown 20 pitches the inning before. Two thumbs down, this should have been a win.

  • The Doctor says:

    watching the seventeen million dollar man these last couple of starts is actually making me pine for the good old days of 4 IP, 6 K, 4 ER performances from salazar.

    i think it’s time to DFA axford. and cabrera remains, as always, completely inept at everything. lindor (or really anyone that’s not cabrera) can’t some soon enough.

  • Gvl Steve says:

    So much wasted payroll. You can literally line up the productive players on one side and the highly-paid players on the other, and there would be almost no overlap at all.