If I had been able to watch yesterday’s Spring Training contest between the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox, I would probably say it was the strangest game I’d ever seen. Having tuned in for Tom Hamilton’s radio broadcast, though, I can declare it was the weirdest game I’d ever heard.
The Tribe and Pale Hose (playing as a split squad) combined for 32 runs on 39 hits while allowing 10 walks and committing five errors. The game consisted of 106 plate appearances—more than double the minimum required for a nine-inning game (52).
A strong wind was blowing towards left field in the dry desert air. That was good news for the hitters who got to play home run derby, but, as Cleveland starter Mitch Talbot discovered, it was a bad day to be a breaking-ball pitcher.
The Indians jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first thanks to consecutive singles by Ezequiel Carrera, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Travis Hafner to start the game and Nick Weglarz’ two-run homer. The White Sox responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning, but the Tribe made it 6-2 with Luis Valbuena’s two-run shot and Matt LaPorta’s RBI single in the second.
Things got out of hand in the bottom of the second, when Chicago got 12 at-bats against Talbot and Jess Todd and scored seven runs, all of which were charged to Talbot. It was a bad day for the 27-year-old righty, who gave up nine earned runs with six hits, two walks, and a pair of homers in 1.2 innings.
After three innings—which took nearly three hours—the Indians had put two more runs up the scoreboard, but by the end of the fourth the White Sox were up, 13-8.
Heading into the eighth inning, the score was 14-10. After a Delvi Cid RBI single and a Luis Valbuena three-run bomb in the top half of the frame, the game was briefly tied, 14-14, but the White Sox promptly answered with two more runs.
The Tribe came back in the top of the ninth, with Cord Phelps’ single and Juan Apodaca’s double knotting the score at 16-16, and when the White Sox failed to respond in the bottom of the inning, the game was declared a tie—much to the chagrin of Hamilton.
Valbuena was the clear MVP for Cleveland, going 2-for-5 with two homers, a walk, three runs scored, and five RBI. Weglarz and Carerra also had big games; the former hit 2-for-4 with a double, a homer, and three RBI, while the latter went 3-for-5 with a pair of walks.
There wasn’t much to like pitching-wise for the Indians, but Doug Mathis and Vinnie Pestano deserve some credit for being the only pitchers to keep the White Sox from scoring over a combined three innings of work.
