Cliff Lee made a couple mistakes that turned out to be the be the difference in the game. He hung a change to Jerry Hairston in the first inning; that pitch ended up in the left field seats. In the fourth, he threw too good a pitch for an 0-2 count to Alex Gonzalez, who singled home the Reds' second run. Johnny Cueto went an inning longer than Lee, but otherwise had a similar outing.
Gonzalez, who would also drive in the third and fourth runs of the game, came into this series hitting .178/.227/.278. Obviously the rest of baseball knows something that the Indians don't.
The Indians tied the game in the seventh on a phantom interference call. Grady Sizemore tripled to drive in Luis Valbuena, and then tried to go home when the throw got by third baseman Adam Rosales. Grady was tagged out at home, but the third base umpire called Rosales for interefence. The replays I saw didn't show anything that I would deem interference. So the game continued, and eventually went into extra innings.
After four excellent innings from Matt Herges and Rafael Betancourt, making it ten straight scoreless innings by the bullpen, Luis Vizcaino, who had thrown two innings the night before, was called on to pitch the eleventh. Ramon Hernandez singled to lead off the inning. His pinch-runner was sacrificed to second, setting up Alex Gonzalez to double home the winning run. Gonzalez went 7-for-12 in the series; in his previous 90 at-bats, he had collected 16 hits.
Next Up: The Indians renew their contentious rivalry with Tampa Bay. Price vs. Carmona, 6:05 PM.
| Highest WPA | Lowest WPA | ||
| Rafael Betancourt | .286 | Luis Vizcaino | -.357 |
| Grady Sizemore | .207 | Victor Martinez | -.238 |
| Matt Herges | .200 | Asdrubal Cabrera | -.185 |