I Scored

1999 April 24

In a preview of the 1999 ALDS, the Indians were in town in this game. That Indians team would go on to score over 1000 runs that year. In this game, they picked up four of them. Let’s check out the action.

Speaking of Indians runs, lets see who they scored them off. Looks like Bret Saberhagen had the start that day, and gave up one of the runs. Oddly, he left after only four innings. I can’t see any decent reason for him to be removed. Must have been an injury. Or, Jimy Williams simply made a “manager’s decision.” Tim Harikkala came into the game, and didn’t provide much relief. He gave up the other three runs the Indians scored. Guthrie, Cormier and Lowe combined to pitch three shutout innings. Overall, a good job to hold that line-up to four runs. How about the Red Sox line-up? They did a bit better.

Right off the bat, the Sox got some breathing room with three quick ones. Five straight batters reached base with four singles and a walk. Pretty impressive to score three runs with two outs without getting an extra-base hit. The Sox broke it open with three more runs in the seventh. That was a bit more of a conventional rally with a homer and double mixed in to score the runs.

Looking at the rest of the line-up begs one question, though. Is O’Leary-Buford-Lewis a better outfield than Nava-Byrd-Sweeney?

The hero of the game? I’m going to give it to Mike Stanley. He went 2-3 on the day, driving in two runs and scoring two. The goat of the game? Has to be Jason Varitek. The future captain went 0-5 with only one ball getting to the outfield. Pretty pathetic.

But, it didn’t matter. The Sox took the game by out-slugging the Indians. On a day that their bullpen had to pitch most of the game, the offense was able to pick up the slack. It was a big win against a very good team.

And the scorecard shows how it happened.