A Look Back At The Week Ahead; September 2 to September 8

September 2

This day has had some serious blowouts in our favor. There have been nine times they won by scoring double digits, including a 23-7 shellacking of the Baltimore Orioles in 1902, who would go on to become the New York Highlanders/Yankees. But the Tribe has never lost to the Athletics, beating the Oakland version twice, the Philly version thrice and the Kansas City version five times, including four straight from 1957 to 1960. That first win 1957 was 8-0 in the first game of a double header. In the bottom of the first, after gene Woodling doubled and Vic Wertz walked, Al Smith and Roger Maris both singled, driving in three total. Bobby Avila hit a three run home run in the second off Ned Garver and the score was 6-0. A pair of sacrifice flies in the third and fourth by Chico Carrasquel and Woodling, and Mike Garcia had his eight run cushion to work with. He was pretty dominant that day, only facing three above the minimum with only five hits, no walks and two strikeouts. Only one baserunner reached second and the Tribe turned three double plays as well.

September 3

Although the Tribe has only won twice in their last ten tries, this date has some really good numbers. They won their first eight games from 1901 to 1906. They are an incredible 19-7 on Mondays and 16-4 against the White Sox. In 1954, they beat them 3-2 in Chicago. It looked like the Indians would get to Virgil Trucks early, loading the bases, but only a Vic Wertz single netted them a run. The White Sox tied it in the third, on a pair of singles and a Bobby Avila error. Avila atoned in the fifth with a double and Larry Doby singled him in. Jim Rivera hit a solo shot of Bob Feller in the sixth to knot it up once again, but Doby responded with one of his own in the top of the seventh and the Indians led 3-2. Feller did not have his best stuff that day, as he only struck out one and allowed nine singles in addition to the homer. So in the seventh after a pair of singles, he gave way to don Mossi, who promptly hit Rivera, loading the bases, Mike Garcia was summoned to save the game, which he did retiring Matt Batts on a pop up and Johnny Groth on a grounder. He only allowed one single over his final seven batters to end the game.

September 4

The longest win streak on this date is seven, but if you include their two ties, the non-losing streak is ten games from 1929 to 1938. I believe this date has the most ties, three. The Indians are on a current five game winning streak that began in 2007, when they beat the Twins 7-5 in 11 innings. Travis Hafner opened the scoring with a solo shot in the first off Kevin Slowey. In the second, Kenny Lofton tripled and scored on a Luis Rodriguez error on a Franklin Gutierrez grounder. Jason Kubel doubled in one in the second and Justin Morneau cleared the bases with his double in the third off Aaron Laffey. Rodrigue got even, singling in Kubel in the fourth, and Laffey left, trailing 5-2. Lofton got one back in the sixth on a double, while reliever Tom Mastny was dodging danger. He allowed five of his eight hitters to reach base, but none scored due to a double play and Jensen Lewis shutting them down in the sixth. The Tribe still trailed 5-3 in the ninth when Asdrubal Cabrera hit a ground rule double with two out off of Joe Nathan. Hafner crushed a 2-0 pitch to deep center, tying the game. After loading the bases in the eleventh against Julio DePaula, Hafner hit a liner to deep center to core one and Victor Martinez doubled in another. After Lewis and Rafael Betancourt threw 4.2 innings of shutout ball, Joe Borowski closed out the Twins.

September 5

The most common opponent on this day is the White Sox, including eight of nine games from 1947 to 1954. There have been 24 double headers but only two extra-inning games, both wins. The second one was against the White Sox in 1950, 3-2 in 10 innings. Steve Gromek was rolling along in this matchup, retiring his first thirteen batters before Gus Zernial broke up the perfecto with a single. Meanwhile, other than a Ray Murray RBI double in the second, Billy Pierce was also cruising for the Sox. In the seventh, Joe Gordon smacked a solo shot to make it 2-0. Groemk walked his first two in the seventh and after a sacrifice, Zernial singled them both home. Gromek dodged a triple and two walks in the ninth. So in the tenth, after a single by Bob Kennedy, a Larry Doby forceout, a Lou Boudreau single and a Rosen fielder's choice (Doby out at home), Boudreau scored the winning run on a Chico Carrasqual error. Gromek finished off the complete game in the tenth, with only a Gordon Goldsbery pinch hit single.

September 6

The Tribe staff has thrown 11 shutouts on this date, including three straight from 1988 to 1990. The first one in that mini-streak was a 1-0 victory over the Yankees. Greg Swindell was facing Al Leiter in this one. After a leadoff double by Julio Franco, the Tribe threatened in the third, but didn't score until the fourth when Ron Kittle led off with a homer run. Swindell was perfect until the fourth when the Yanks loaded the bases on a Rickey Henderson walk, a Don Mattingly single and a Jack Clark walk. But Don Slaught flew out to end the threat. Leiter only pitched five innings with Neil Allen pitching the final four. The Yankees managed a double by Luis Aguayo in the fifth and a walk by Dave Winfield in the sixth, but Swindell retired the final ten batters, finishing with three hits, three walks and eight strikeouts.

September 7

The top timeframe on this date was from 1951 to 960 when they won 11 of 12. The only tie on this day was a wild 13-13 affair that was called after 10 innings in 1950 in Detroit. The Indians opened with a bang in the first against Art Houtteman: Ray Boone single, Bob Kennedy single, Larry Doby RBI single, Luke Easter RBI grounder, Al Rosen two run homer, Joe Gordon safe on a Jonny Lipon error, Al Clark foul out, Jim Hegan single and finally a three run homer by Bob Feller. Fred Hutchinson finally got the final out, but the Tribe led 7-0. After retiring the first batter, Feller allowed a single, double, single and triple when Lou Boudreau pulled him. Jesse Flores gave up an RBI grounder, but the inning ended at 7-4. Hoot Evers doubled in two off Flores in the third and the score was now 7-6, with Al Benton taking over. The Tigers tied it in the fifth on a Jerry Priddy homer. The Indians went back ahead in the sixth by three mainly on a Hutchinson error, but Benton gave two back in the bottom half. Bob Lemon pinch hit for Benton in the seventh, scoring one on a fly ball. But a hot Hoot Evers hit a two run shot in the witghth off Sam Zoldak to tie the game again. In the top of the tenth, Larry Doby hit his own two run shot off Hank Borowy to lead 13-11. But Marino Pieretti wasn't up to the task, giving up three hits and a walk to knot the game a final time before it was called. One of those hits was an Evers single, which gave him the cycle. He finished at 6-3-5-6 with a homer, two triples and a double.

September 8

The Tribe is currently on a six game losing streak here, with three of them where the opposition has scored double digits. While the overall record is only .427, The Pythag is much worse at .392. The last win was back in 2007, 6-1over the Angels in Anaheim. There wasn't much offense early in this game, a mere five baseunners between the two teams in the first four innings. The Indians finally broke through against Ervin Santana in the fifth when Jhonny Peralta scored after a throwing error by Jeff Mathis on the back end of a double steal with Franklin Gutierrez. In the sixth, after an Asdrubal walk and move over on a grounder by Hafner, Victor Martinez was intentionally walks to get to Ryan Garko. His flyball moved Droobs to third and after back to back hits by Peralta and Kenny Lofton, the Tribe was up 3-0. Hafner doubled in two more off Chris Bootcheck in the seventh while Grady Sizemore tripled home one in the eighth. CC Sabathia pitched a complete game, five hits, one walk, three strikeouts and one run in the eighth.