First, the drive into Cleveland and back was definitely worth it. The Indians won 7-3 behind the strength of a 7-run 5th inning that saw 12 batters come to the plate. We got home to Buffalo at 3:40 AM after the game. Overall, a wonderful experience. There truly is nothing like October Baseball in sports.
Some of my thoughts about the game:
- On the way in, we heard an interview with Indians Pitcher Paul Byrd where he talks about his faith as a Christian and what it means to him in baseball. I was surprised to hear it on the radio and immediately liked him more for it. His intro music at the game was "Shine" by the Newsboys. Fun stuff.
- This was my 9-year-old Nephew’s first playoff game. He loved waving the rally towel and jawing with the Boston fans who were sitting behind us. They were up from Columbus for the game and seemed to enjoy the interchanges with my nephew.
- Boston 1B Kevin Youkilis and P Tim Wakefield had the plays of the game. Youkilis dropped a foul ball in the 5th off the bat of Asdrubal Cabrera which would have been the 2nd out of the inning. The next batter would strike out and end the inning if he makes this catch, limiting the Tribe’s damage to 2 runs at best instead of 7. On the next pitch, Asdrubal sent a shot back towards Wakefield who was able to get a glove on it and knock it down. Unfortunately for him, it was an easy double-play ball that would have gotten him out of the inning, again with only 1 or 2 runs scoring.
- Kenny Lofton, now 40 years young, stole 2nd Base in the 7 run 5th to give him the record of Stolen Bases in the Post-Season, passing Ricky Henderson. The crowd was chanting "Kenny, Kenny" while for the rest of the at-bat. The at-bat resulted in Casey Blake–who led off the inning with a home run–hitting a bloop single to score Lofton.
- Before heading to Cleveland, I finally picked up a nice spiral bound book for keeping score at games. I’ve been doing the score-keeping thing for several years now, and I’ve always wanted to get a book to keep them all in. This made a great first game in the book. You can see a scan of my scorecard by clicking here. Maybe I’ll get to add a World Series game next…
Now it’s on to Game 5 and then (hopefully) a date with the Colorado Rockies.
I love seeing the Indians and the game through your lens. Thanks for sharing it! Did you find the scorebook at Laux?
Yes I did. As you suggested, I walked to the counter and asked about it and he pulled it right out from under the counter. I liked some of the added features in the score book like the place to record balls/strikes for an at-bat. It’s supposed to just show the count, but I started using it for pitch count by including the pitch number for that AB.