clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Indians set franchise record for consecutive wins in epic fashion, outlasting Toronto 2-1 in 19 Innings

Shouldn't the Indians have a 15-game win streak now?

By Ryan
It took 19 innings for the Indians to win their 14th game in a row.
It took 19 innings for the Indians to win their 14th game in a row.
Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images

Indians 2, Blue Jays 1 (19 Innings)

Box Score

Indians improve to 49-30 (14 in a row!)

--

I'm exhausted just from having watched this game, so I can only imagine what the two teams are feeling like right now. Fortunately the Indians feel quite a bit better, since they came out of this crucible a winner.

This game started six and a half hours ago, in front of a capacity crowd. Today is Canada Day, and the Toronto fans were in a festive mood. That mood turned sour just minutes into the game, though, as the hometown fans and players took exception to several strike calls by home plate umpire Vic Carapazza. Edwin Encarnacion objected to a called strike three in the first, and was quickly tossed by Carapazza. Manager John Gibbons tried to get out to home plate in time to keep his player in the game, but not only was he late, but he also soon joined Encarnacion in the clubhouse. Little did anyone know that those two would miss 18 innings of baseball, and given how well Encarnacion has been hitting, those 8 missed at-bats could have made the difference in the game, Carapazza's large strike zone helped keep the offense down, but as far as I could tell, it was consistent.

Josh Tomlin bobbed and weaved his way through six innings, allowing just one run, and that run came on what was supposed to be his last batter faced. Justin Smoak took Tomlin deep with two outs in the sixth inning to tie the game. That home run would be the last time either team scored until the 19th inning.

Both teams got into their bullpens in the seventh inning, and because the score was tied, both were liberal in using relievers. The Indians used three different relievers (Dan Otero, Tom Gorzelanny, Jeff Manship) to get out of the eighth inning, while the Jays  their three best relievers to get through the nine innings. Both clubs had opportunities to take the lead, or in Toronto's case, win the game, but somehow no one blinked.

There were many heroes today, but here are the ones particularly worthy of honor:

  • Tommy Hunter and Joba Chamberlain both pitched into and got out of pressure-packed jams in the "middle" innings. Hunter pitched the 12th and 13th innings and Chamberlain pitched the 14th; both pitchers had been sparingly used over the past couple weeks, never mind pitching in a high leverage  situation, but both came through. Chamberlain in particular made some great pitches, especially against Josh Donaldson to end the threat in the 14th.
  • Jose Ramirez set up the Indians to win two times in extra innings. Ramirez made a smart play to get into a rundown in the 18th to keep the Indians in line to push across the go-ahead run. Alas, both times the Indians couldn't take advantage of platinum opportunities.
  • Lonnie Chisenhall had five of the Indians' 15 hits, and along with Ramirez set the table in extra innings. He was certainly not the reason the Indians were held scoreless for 15 innings.
  • Chris Gimenez had some horrible at-bats after he got into the game, but he made some spectacular blocks behind the plate. He helped get Trevor Bauer through five high pressure innings.
  • Carlos Santana, for hitting the go-ahead home run in the 19th after so many run-scoring opportunities had gone by the boards.
  • And last but not least, Trevor Bauer. It's hard to overstate how difficult the situation was that he was placed in, and he had to be throwing max-effort from the get-go. And he did it mainly with just a fastball/change, as his breaking pitches weren't working for him.
The Jays were not prepared to start using starting pitchers, so in the 18th they brought in position player Ryan Goins. And somehow, the Indians couldn't push across a run. But finally, finally, finally, Carlos Santana jumped on Darwin Barney's BP fastball and gave the Indians the lead. Bauer was able to finish his fifth shutout inning to give the Indians the victory. It was a game that began with anticipation as the Indians attempted to break a 64-year-old record for consecutive wins, then changed into a nail-biter, then devolved into absurdity as both teams scrambled to find pitchers.

The Indians are going to have to find a starter for tomorrow afternoon's game, and the team's travel secretary will certainly earn his salary tonight getting whoever is tapped into Canada in time to toe the rubber in 18 hours. Toronto will, no matter who the Indians are able to bring in, have the advantage tomorrow, as they will be able to use their scheduled starter. But that's tomorrow. The Indians are winners today, and in the process have made history.

By popular demand, today's roll call:

Roll Call Info
Total comments 1,786
Total commenters 90
Commenter list 9James, APV, AmbienTribe8, Andrew Kinsman, AngG, Benedict Arnold, Brian Hemminger, Brick., BuenosAires_Dawg, CU Adam, CheddarFetter, Chris Perez's Dog, Crashington, Daniel Van Meter, Danieldelamaiz, Dawn, Deep South Ken, Denver Tribe Fan, Don O'Fleer, Edfonzo Algardo, Ezweav, Flickie, HighlandH, JLK14, JZellers, Jobu's_Rum, JulioBernazard, JustinHiggins, KTriskett, Korrupt, LosIndios, Marquess of Rockingham, Matt Schlichting, Matt Y., MikeCP, MooneysRebellion, Mr. Bad Example, NatiTribeFan, NoMeatNoPudding, OscarDog, PaulHoynes'Mustache, Phil Kehres, PyroKinesis, ROXXFOXXSPORTS, RabbiHick, RadStan, Ryan, Schneau, SirFatNuts, SpecialBrownie, T.O. Tribe, The Bottom!, Tribe2013, TribeGuy1997, VaCleveFan, Vachos, Warren Oates, YoDaddyWags, Zaza Braggins, ZeCarioca, ahowie, apocrylle, barsham, bschwartz, cheech99, drerikbrady, emd2k3, emily522, isavage, jhon, jpftribe, madherb, mainstreetfan, new zealand tribe fan, no1ever, old gregs place, palcal, phatcat, playdoh, prsancho, realmccoy, rolub, stuart dean, supermarioelia, tgriffith1992, theta1831, thetireswings, tribelover, westbrook, xrickx
Story URLs
# Commenter # Comments
1 TribeGuy1997 142
2 westbrook 135
3 Phil Kehres 128
4 YoDaddyWags 105
5 PyroKinesis 101
6 SirFatNuts 88
7 realmccoy 88
8 SpecialBrownie 65
9 apocrylle 64
10 jpftribe 55
11 madherb 51
12 Brian Hemminger 43
13 Danieldelamaiz 42
14 PaulHoynes'Mustache 35
15 palcal 34
16 Ryan 33
17 thetireswings 30
18 Vachos 30
19 Matt Y. 25
20 AngG 24
21 BuenosAires_Dawg 23
22 JulioBernazard 22
23 Flickie 21
24 APV 21
25 ZeCarioca 18
26 Tribe2013 18
27 Zaza Braggins 18
28 NatiTribeFan 17
29 MooneysRebellion 16
30 Crashington 16
31 Warren Oates 15
32 MikeCP 13
33 prsancho 13
34 emd2k3 13
35 Deep South Ken 12
36 JustinHiggins 12
37 Denver Tribe Fan 12
38 Schneau 11
39 theta1831 11
40 tgriffith1992 10
41 Brick. 10
42 Marquess of Rockingham 10
43 Jobu's_Rum 9
44 LosIndios 9
45 Korrupt 7
46 Andrew Kinsman 7
47 cheech99 6
48 tribelover 6
49 emily522 5
50 new zealand tribe fan 5
51 jhon 5
52 ahowie 4
53 NoMeatNoPudding 4
54 CU Adam 4
55 supermarioelia 4
56 Don O'Fleer 4
57 VaCleveFan 3
58 AmbienTribe8 3
59 rolub 3
60 HighlandH 3
61 Edfonzo Algardo 3
62 mainstreetfan 2
63 The Bottom! 2
64 Matt Schlichting 2
65 old gregs place 2
66 JLK14 2
67 bschwartz 2
68 RadStan 2
69 9James 2
70 Mr. Bad Example 2
71 T.O. Tribe 2
72 Ezweav 2
73 xrickx 2
74 Chris Perez's Dog 2
75 no1ever 1
76 drerikbrady 1
77 CheddarFetter 1
78 ROXXFOXXSPORTS 1
79 JZellers 1
80 phatcat 1
81 RabbiHick 1
82 Daniel Van Meter 1
83 Benedict Arnold 1
84 KTriskett 1
85 playdoh 1
86 stuart dean 1
87 OscarDog 1
88 Dawn 1
89 isavage 1
90 barsham 1

More From Covering the Corner