Tribe Dominates Yankees 22-4

 CLEVELAND 22 NEW YORK 4

April 18, 2009

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2009/04/cleveland_indians_slam_yankees.html

WATCH THE GAME RECAP (VIDEO)

Sign has been updated to reflect 2009 WS Championship!

The Cleveland Indians may not be able to construct a billboard outside of their spring training home detailing their World Championships and AL Pennants as the Yankees have on Dale Mabry Highway outside of Legends Field in Tampa, but the Tribe can at least look back at memorable defeats of the New York Yankees and have a wry smile cross their faces.  A small consolation prize, but one which I plan on taking advantage of during a slow winter in WahooLand.

The Indians seem to enjoy lopsided victories against the Yankees. The Indians beat the Yankees 24-6 on July 29, 1929.  The Indians would hand the Yankees a 22-0 defeat on August 31, 2004.  The Indians would crush the Yankees 19-1 on the Boss' birthday, July 4, 2006.   To be fair to my Yankee friends, the Yankees did enjoy a few thrashing of the Indians, including a 21-1 game on July 24, 1999 and a pair of 18 run victories  21-3 on July 14, 1904 (boxscore not available) and 18-0 on July 10, 1936.  

The Yankees had lost the opening game in the New Yankee Stadium 10-1 to the Cleveland Indians (recap here) and the Yankees had come back and hit five solo home runs in winning their first game at New Yankee Stadium 6-5 (recap video here).  The first Saturday afternoon game would see the Yankees send Chien- Ming Wang versus Fausto Carmona. 

After missing the second half of the 2008 season, Wang was having trouble finding his groove in 2009.  Going into the game Wang was 0-2 with an ERA of 28.93 after a 3.2 inning start where he gave up 7 runs to Baltimore and a 1 inning start where he gave up 8 runs to the Tampa Bay Rays.  The Indians were countering with Fausto Carmona who was looking to rebound after a very disappointing 2008 campaign which saw him go 8-7 with a 5.44 ERA.  Coming into the Saturday afternoon game Carmona had also struggled going 0-2 with an ERA of 9.00.   Wang would retire the first three Indians he faced that afternoon and Carmona would  walk Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira would give the Yankees a 2-0 lead with a Home Run.  The Yankee lead would be short lived as the Indians would put up 14 runs in the second inning.

The second ining would see the Yankees give up more runs and hits in any inning in their history.  The Indians would see Choo hit a 3 run hom run and Asdrubal Cabrera hit his first career grand slam.  The inning would last 37 minutes and allow Indians manager Eric Wedge to coast to his 500th career victory.  The Indians would hit a club record 6 home runs and rack up a club tying 50 total bases.

A few quotes from the game:

"Our guys did a good job fighting through at-bats," said manager Eric Wedge

"I can't imagine much of anything being worse," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.

"He's making it real tough on our bullpen right now," designated hitter Johnny Damon said (About Wang)

"I want it!" he said with a big smile. "Come on! Everybody wants it!" said Fausto Carmona about the run support.