Jhonny Peralta had 3 hits, scored 3 times, homered and drove in 4 runs, and Grady Sizemore and Victor Martinez had 3 hits apiece as the Indians rallied to tie the Red Sox, fight through 2 innings from Jonathan Papelbon, and erupt for 7 runs in the top of the 11th inning to stun Boston, 13-6. Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell each hit home runs and drove in 3 for the Red Sox. Series is tied 1-1.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
W: T. Mastny (W, 1-0); L: E. Gagne (L, 0-1) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
HR: CLE: J. Peralta (1), F. Gutierrez (1), G. Sizemore (1). BOS: M. Ramirez (1), M. Lowell (1). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Game Notes
- Manny Ramirez hit his 23rd career postseason home run in the 5th inning, a 2-run homer to tie the game at 5-5…The home run moved Ramirez past Bernie Williams into sole possession of 1st place for most career postseason home runs
- Though the game didn’t set a record for longest time of game for an extra inning contest (5:49 – New York at Boston, Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS), when 9 innings concluded, the time of game was at 4:23 minutes, which would have set a record for a 9-inning contest (4:20 – New York at Boston, Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS).
- Fausto Carmona pitched just 4.0 innings plus 1 batter, his shortest start since June 27 against Oakland, when he lasted just 1.0 inning…It was only the 3rd time in 34 starts (regular and postseason) that Carmona failed to pitch 5.0 innings
Recapping the Game in Quotes
Q. Eric, you were talking about the bullpen. Mastny working the heart of the order really made that possible.
ERIC WEDGE: Well, it did. That's where you really have to work to extend the ballgame. In particular, again, I can't stress enough when you're in extra innings on the road it's twice as tough. Mastny was able to get in there last night for the first time in a couple weeks. Threw a couple innings. I think that really helped him in regard to how he pitched tonight. Same thing with Borowski, we got him in there last night. Betancourt, well beyond the call of duty tonight with the way he pitched. You work hard to pitch the ballgame so you can give a player like Trot Nixon a chance to ultimately give you the lead, and then you've got your closer down there, which we ultimately did. We were able to take it a little bit further than that, but great effort and people stepped up, and it was great to see.
Q. Trot, could you talk about that at-bat?
TROT NIXON: Well, I mean, it was a situation where obviously Lopez is -- not a very comfortable at-bat for left-handers, dropping down submarine. I felt good. I was excited to finally get in there at 1:30 in the morning (laughter). It was gratifying to me, but the fact that I've struggled at times against left-handers. But I felt good, I felt like the first pitch I saw, I saw real well. You know, for just some reason I just felt a calmness out there in the batter's box. I think if you can keep your emotions in check in those situations like that, you've probably got a little bit better chance, and I was fortunate. I didn't hit it hard but I hit it where I needed to and I was able to get Grady in there.
Q. Obviously you weren't around for the decisive part of it later on, but can you describe what the team feels like coming off a loss like that? Is that a difficult one to rebound from?
CURT SCHILLING: It's not difficult to rebound from, not given the makeup of this team. You know, as far as how anybody feels, there's no one that should feel bad in the clubhouse but me. Everything about this one falls on me. The way he was throwing early in the game and the way we were hitting and our at-bats, you knew we were going to grind it out on him or we were going to run him out of the game early. We put together a great inning, take a lead, and up to the Peralta at-bat I still had it in and I let it get away. Next thing, unfortunately our bullpen in those situation, it's bordering on minimal. Fifth inning you're asking your bullpen to come in and throw zeroes against that team for however long it was going to take, and that's just not fair to them. This was all about me coming up small in a big game.
Notes and quotes courtesy of MLB