Gary Sheffield Gets Punked

The headline on mlive.com had the message from Gary Sheffield in large font across the top:

Tigers' Sheffield: I won't be disrespected

If ever a picture was worth a thousand words it is the picture captured just below the headline:

 



WATCH THE MELEE UNFOLD (VIDEO)

What had occurred in the game to set things off? 

• Shin-Soo Choo puts the Tribe up 1-0 with an opposite field home run in the first (video)
• Miguel Cabrera would hit a 2-run home run to put Detroit up 2-1 in the fourth (video)
• Grady Sizemore would hit a solo home run in the sixth to tie the score at 2-2 (video)
• Miguel Cabrera would hit a mammoth 2-run homer to give the Tigers a 4-2 lead (video)

If you were to watch the video of either of Miguel Cabrera's home runs, you can see for yourself that he doesn't show Carmona up in any way nor does Carmona show an emotion toward Cabrera.  Two batters later Carmona would hit Sheffield.  Like a little girl he'd carry his bat with him down to first base while Victor played peace maker.  Carmona would throw over to first and Sheffield started to bark something back at Carmona.  A stunned Micheal Aubrey could only watch as Sheffield took off to absorb his beating.  Even Robin Ventura called to give Sheffield some tips for the next time he decided to charge a pitcher.

Aside from the fight, the game highlighted by four home runs already, once resumed would have an exciting finish.   The Tigers would add another run in the seventh on a leadoff triple by Ramon Santiago and a sacrifice fly by Dusty Ryan and take a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning.  Shin-Soo Choo would hit a game tying 3-run home in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game at 5-5 (video).

Rafael Bettancourt and Rafael Perez would retire the Tigers in order sending the game to the bottom of the ninth.  The Indians were looking for baserunners and Kelly Shoppach would capitalize on one of his best skills by taking a pitch delivered by reliever Freddi Dolsi (Kelly Shoppach did not charge the mound). Josh Barfield would pinch run for Shoppach and the Tigers would bring in Bobby Seay to face Travis Hafner.  Seay would strike Hafner out and would be replaced by Gary Glover.  Ryan Garko would pinch hit for Micheal Aubrey and line a single to right field and Josh Barfield would move to third.   Jamey Carroll would line a single over the head of Magglio Ordonez to drive in the winning run (video).

Some of the post-game quotes:

Sheffield on why he charged the mound:  "When he (Carmona) called me out, it took me there,"

Sheffield on Asdrubal Cabrera - "He's going to have to deal with me,"  "trust me."

Sheffield on if he landed any punches on Carmona - "I got the one hand in I wanted, and I guarantee you he felt it."

"You don't want to promote violence because of the kids watching," Sheffield said. "But I am not going to be disrespected on the field by this team again."

Sheffield suffering from fuzzy math?  He said Carmona had hit him with pitches twice previously this year and noted that it was "three strikes and out." Records show Carmona hit him one other time, April 17.
"If there's a fourth time," Sheffield said, "it gets more violent. Trust me."

Victor Martinez on the girlish behavior of Gary Sheffield:

"If you're going to do something, you charge right away," Martinez said. "After you're at first, what are you trying to do, get attention or what?
"You've got to protect your teammates. I'm not going to let anyone go at my pitcher like that."

Memorial Day Miracle: Tribe Rallies to Defeat Rays With 7 Run Ninth

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If you are a Tribe fan, Memorial Day 2009 is best referenced as the Memorial Day Miracle, if you are a fan of the Rays, it is best known as the Memorial Day Massacre.  The Rays held a 10-0 lead with David Price on the mound.  The Rays would hold a 10-4 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning only to watch the Cleveland Indians mount a 7 run uprising, finished off by a walk off 2-run single by Rays nemesis Victor Martinez, to win 11-10 (boxscore).

WATCH THE COMEBACK HERE (VIDEO)



MORE GAME DETAILS

Memorial Day marks the first benchmark of the baseball season.   The Rays and Indians would meet on Memorial Day 2009 to play the first game of a four game series.  The season had started out slow for the Rays following their surprising appearance in the World Series in 2008. The Rays record stood at 16-20 after a disappointing loss to the Cleveland Indians at Tropicana Field on May 14th.  The Rays, led by BJ Upton, would go onto win the next three games in a series that frustrated the Indians and culminated with a benches clearing brawl in the series finale (recap series video here).  The Rays seemed to right the ship over the next week or so as they came into Progressive Field winners of 7 of their last 10 to even their record at 23-23.  The Rays were now playing with the energy of a team ready to defend its American League Title and to make that push the Rays recalled left handed pitcher David Price from Durham to join their rotation.  

Price would face a Cleveland Indians team that had mild expectations of competing for the AL Central  after finishing the last eight weeks of the 2008 campaign with the second best record in the American League at 35-21.  Over the offseason, the Indians added versatile Mark DeRosa in a New Years Eve trade and signed closer Kerry Wood as a free agent contract.  The season hadn't worked out as the Indians or their fans had hoped.  On Memorial Day, the Indians entered play at 17-28 and in last place in the AL Central. 

The Rays were entering their private house of horrors as they had a record of 12-34 at Progressive Field and had lost 13 straight games.  The last victory in Cleveland was a nightmare game for the Indians as the Tribe was trying to keep pace with the Chicago White Sox for the Division Crown and the staving off the Red Sox and Yankees for the AL Wild Card.  Seth McClung, "Big Red" would pitch the game of his life throwing 8 shutout innings before turning the game over to former Indian Danys Baez to save the 1-0 victory (boxscore) for the Rays.  The Indians would fall short of the playoffs in 2005, despite 93 wins, and many fans point to the Rays series (Rays won 2 of 3) as a big reason why they failed to advance to the playoffs.

Indians starter Fausto Carmona would work a perfect top of the first including two strikeouts.  The second inning would see Carmona lose home plate.  He would walk the first four hitters (Carlos Pena, Willy Aybar, Ben Zobrist, and Gabe Gross) to force in a run before striking out catcher Dioner Navarro.  Carmona would find the strike zone only to have Reid Brignac, BJ Upton, and Carl Crawford all deliver run scoring singles.  Crawford would steal second base and Evan Longoria would draw a walk, and Carmona's day was finished.  Jensen Lewis would relieve Carmona with the Indians trailing 5-0 and retire Carlos Pena and Willy Aybar to end the inning.   The Rays would add two more runs against Jensen Lewis thanks to a two-run home run by Gabe Gross in the top of the third to extend their lead to 7-0.

Manager Eric Wedge would try to extend Jensen Lewis for a third inning of work, but Lewis was unable to respond.  In the top of the fourth, Lewis would walk Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria before yielding a run scoring hit to Carlos Pena before being relieved by Rich Rundles who would make his only appearance of 2009.  Rundles would retire Willy Aybar for the first out before giving up a run scoring double to Evan Longoria, issuing a walk to Gabe Gross, and hitting Dioner Navarro with the bases loaded and forcing in a run.  Rundles would strike out Reid Brignac and get BJ Upton to ground out to end the inning.  The Rays would enter the bottom of the fourth with a 10-0 lead.

David Price, making his 2009 debut, had struggled with his control and inability to efficiently finish Indian hitters off through the first three innings of play.  Although Price enjoyed a 10-0 lead, Rays manager Joe Maddon would not allow Price to overextend himself past the 100 pitch count.  Price would give up a lead off single to Mark DeRosa and Ryan Garko would hit a two run homer to put the Indians on the board.  Price would then strikeout Indians rookie Matt LaPorta before issuing back to back walks to Ben Francisco and Jamey Carroll.  The last pitch to Jamey Carroll was David Price's 100th pitch of the game, and as expected Joe Maddon went and made the pitching change, summoning Lance Cormier to the mound.  Cormier would retire Grady Sizemore and Victor Martinez to end the Indians half of the fourth inning.

Thayer.  Thayer would give up consecutive singles to Shin-Soo Choo,  Mark DeRosa, and Ryan Garko before inducing a 5-4-3 double play off the bat of Matt LaPorta.  Ben Francisco would deliver a two out run scoring single to make the score 10-4.  Jamey Caroll would fly out to end the inning.

The Indians would enter the home half of the ninth inning trailing 10-4.  Rays manager Joe Maddon would allow Dale Thayer to finish the game and give the rest of his bullpen the night off.  Dale Thayer would do nothing to inspire confidence in his manager by walking Grady Sizemore to leadoff the inning.  Thayer would rebound by getting Victor Martinez out on an infield pop fly for the first out.   Johnny Peralta would line a single to put Indian runners at 1st and 2nd with one out and Joe Maddon would remove Dale Thayer from the game and bring in Randy Choate to face Shin-Soo Choo.  Choate would get a ground ball to short that would at least get the force out at second, but young shortstop Reid Brignac threw the ball wildly to second for the error which allowed Grady Sizemor to race around to score making the score 10-5.  Maddon would again head to the mount to replace Randy Choate with Grant Balfour.

Balfour entered the game with a comfortable 5 run lead and runners at 2nd and 3rd with one out.  Balfour would get Mark DeRosa to line out for the second out in the inning before Ryan Garko would hit a three run homer to tighten the game up 10-8.  With nobody on and 2-out the chances for an Indian rally were still slim.  Balfour increased the odds by walking pinch hitter Asdrubal Cabrera bringing the tying run to the plate.  Again, Joe Maddon would go to the mound and make a pitching change, this time bringing in Jason Insringhausen. 

The recently activated Isringhausen was making only his fourth appearance on the year and was unscored on upon in his previous three appearances.  Isringhausen would walk the first three batters he faced., Ben Francisco, Jamey Carroll, and Grady Sizemore, to force in a run and make it a 10-9 game.  The Indians had the bases loaded, only trailed by a run, and had Rays nemesis Victor Martinez at the plate.  Martinez would line the 2-2 pitch right back up the middle, scoring two runs and give the Indians the walk off 11-10 victory in one of the most improbable comebacks in Indians history.  The Indians would score their 7 runs on only 3 hits.  The Rays pitching staff would issue 5 walks and Reid Brignac would commit an error which allowed the Indians to piece together the ninth inning comeback.

The Indians would extend the Rays losing streak in Cleveland to 17 straight games by defeating the Rays in each of the next three games.  The Rays would lose their 18th straight game in Cleveland on July 23, 2010 before finally winning a 6-3 game, won by David Price, on July 24, 2010 (boxscore).

Memorable Game: A-Rod Blasts a 3-Run Walk-off Home Run

Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.  ~Michel de Montaigne

Fans of any of the Cleveland sports teams have been given plenty of memories that fit perfectly into Montaigne's quote.  The Browns contributions include Red Right 88, The Drive, and the Fumble.  The Cavaliers added The Shot and through no fault of their own The Decision.  The Indians finally got into the act by blowing a 1-run 9th inning lead in Game Seven of the 1997 WS before Edgar Renteria delivered the game winning hit in the bottom of the 11th inning.  

We all also have the individual games that for one reason or another seem to stick in our memories more so than others.  Some of these games brought us euphoria and some of them brought us despair.  Usually, there is a side story that accompanies these games such as a family outing, a first date, or some other human interest event that coincides with the sporting event. 

For me, THAT game was played between the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees on April 19, 2007.  For months I had been studying for an 8-hour long Professional Engineer exam which was to be taken on Friday, April 20th at the Orlando Convention Center.   At the time, I lived about an hour and a half from the testing facility, so I decided to drive out the day before the exam and get a hotel for the evening.  The Indians and Yankees were playing a day game that afternoon and I was looking forward to listenting the game on my XM as I drove to Orlando.  What better a distraction to take my mind off the equations floating in my head for a few hours than a Indians and Yankees baseball game?  Things wouldn't work out the way I, or the Indians had hoped, as Alex Rodriguez would spoil the day with a walk-off three run home run to defeat the Indians 8-6. 

Watch the Improbable Comeback (Video)

The Indians were coming off a 78-84 finish in 2006 despite scoring 870 runs while allowing only 782 runs to score (a pythagorean record of 89-73).  The 2006 season had started with great promise as the Indians won 7 of their first 8 games.  By July 19th, the Indians had stumbled ot a record of 42-52 and found themselves 21 games out of first place, so on July 20th, the Indians sent their closer, Bob Wickman, to the Atlanta Braves.  The Indians would go on to finish the year with a 36-32 record, but were unable to find a reliable back end bullpen combination or a closer.

Most painful to watch in the 9th inning that year was Fausto Carmona, whose whole tenure as closer is best described by Montaigne's quote.  After the 2006 season, the Indians front office invested heavily to shore up the back of their bullpen.  Keith Foulke was signed to a 1-year, 5 million dollar deal and Joe Borowski was signed to a 1-year, 4.25 million dollar deal which included a 2nd year club option worth 4 million dollars.  The additional depth provided by the Foulke signing woudl be short lived, as on the day before pitchers and catchers were to report for spring training, Foulke would retire citing pain in his elbow that offseason.  With Foulke's retirement, the plan was to have Joe Borowski fill the closer role for the Indians in 2007.

There was not a lot of optimism surrounding the 2007 Indians, but a slight bit of hope had surfaced after the Tribe started the year off with a 6-3 record as they headed into New York to play the Yankees.  The Yankees would win the first two games of the series dropping the Indians to 6-5 and the team would turn to Fausto Carmona to try and salvage at least one game  

Carmona was coming off a nightmare season which saw him post a record of 1-10 with an ERA of 5.42.  A year that included a seven day period where he would be charged with 4 losses (3 blown saves) and post an ERA of 37.13.  Carmona would end 2006 starting and begin the 2007 season in Clevelands rotation due to an oblique injury to Cliff Lee sufferred in Spring Training.  Carmona would lose his first game in 2007 to the Chicago White Sox giving up 6 ER in 4.1 innings.  Entering his second start on April 19th, Carmona hadn't won a big league game in over a year (April 15, 2006).  Carmona would pitch effectively against the Yankees that day and would leave after 6 innings trailing 2-1.

It would seem as if luck was going ot be on Carmona's side this day.  In the top of the seventh, the Indians would score 4 runs, capped by a Victor Martinez 3 run homer to put the Indians on top 5-2 and put Carmon in line for that long sought after victory.  The Indians would carry that lead into the ninth inning, and would add a run in the top of the ninth thanks to an Alex Rodriguez throwing error to lead 6-2. 

Even though the game was no longer a save situation, Indians manager Eric Wedge had Borowski warmed up and he hadn't pitched in 3 full days.  Borowski on the year had done what the Indians had asked for him by converting 5 out of 5 save opportunities on the young season.    Borowski would retire the first two batters, Robinson Cano on a fly out and Melkyl Cabrera to ground out, with relative ease.  The Indians would avoid the sweep and Carmona's long wait for a victory would most certainly be over.

Josh Phelps would hit what would seem to be a meaningless solo home run to prolong the game.  What followed is a string of at bats that I have yet to get out of my mind concluding with a befuddling managers decision that I have to this day never been able to understoand.   Jorge Posada would single on a 2-2 pitch, Johnny Damon would run the count full before drawing a walk, Derek Jeter would hit a RBI single to left to make it a 6-4 game, Bobby Abreu would hit a RBI single on a 1-2 pitch to pull the Yankees to within 2 runs at 6-5.    The Yankees were down to their final strike three times and three times they found a way to prolong the inning, setting the stage for Alex Rodriguez.

A-Rod had been off to a blistering start in 2007.  In his first 13 games, A-Rod hit for an average of .365 with an on base percentage (OBP) of .435 and an obscene slugging percentage of .981.  He had already hit 9 home runs and driven in 23.  He was the hottest hitter in  baseball and stood in that day with runners on first and second, and his team down only a run.  Borowski's first pitch was a wild pitch putting runners at 2nd and 3rd with 2-out.  Certainly Eric Wedge would now walk Alex Rodriguez (I understand the not wanting the walk the winnng run into scoring position) and face Jason Giambi, right?  No, Borowski's next pitch was drilled to straight away centerfield and all Grady Sizemore could do as a jubilant A-Rod rounded the basepaths as the Yankees waited to congratulate him at home plate. 

Eric Wedge stated after the game that he chose to face Alex Rodriguez rather than walk him because he liked the righty-righty matchup and didn't want Borowski to have to pitch to a very selective hitter (Giambi) with the bases loaded.  Additionally, Wedge noted that A-Rod had struck out twice that day and Giambi had already hit a home run.  Lifetime, A-Rod was 2-5 against Borowski and Giambi was 3-5 with 2 home runs.  I have never understood, for whatever the logic, allowing the hottest hitter in the game to beat you, but Wedge did.  A-Rod became the quickest player in major league history to reach 10 home runs with the walk off blast, I don't know who could've been a hotter hitter?

Borowski said after the game, "Fastballs, breaking balls, up, down, they just hit everything."  Borowski would make a habit of torturing Indians fans with 9th inning tightrope acts for the remainder of the season, a year which he would lead the AL with 45 saves.  But, it was quite a statistical difference between save situations and non-save situations.  In non-save situations, Borowski would have a record of 2-4 with an ERA of 9.60 and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3.58.  In save situations, he'd have a 2-1 record with an ERA of 3.73 and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.50.

Both Carmona and Borowski would exact some bit of revenge on the Yankees in the 2007 ALDS.  Carmona would hold the Yankees to just 1 run in 9 innings and the Indians would win in the 11th inning on a walk off single by Travis Hafner to give the Indians a 2-0 game lead in the ALDS.  The game would best be remembered as "the Midges" game.  Joe Borowski would enter another game with the Tribe with the Indians up 6-3 in the 9th.  Borowski would again give up a solo home run to make it a little tighter at 6-4, but would not allow another hit as the Indians eliminated the Yankees from the 2007 post-season.