Indians Vs. Athletics Final: Tribe Scores Twice In 12th, Then Survives A's Rally To Win 4-3

This one was like a playoff game.

It had it all: missed opportunities, runners thrown out at the plate, clutch pitching, unsung heroes, and maybe an ulcer or two along the way.

The Indians scratched their way to two runs in the top of the 12th inning this afternoon, and Chris Perez made the lead stand up in an adventurous bottom of the frame to give the Tribe a 4-3 win over the Oakland A’s, to win their three-game series, two games to one.

For so long, it reminded me eerily of the seventh game of the 1997 World Series, where the Indians had a chance to put it away, but came up short, only to see the opponent immediately score to tie things and to send the game to extra innings.

But, unlike that horrible last game in 1997, The Good Guys prevailed this time.

I mentioned unsung heroes, and several stand out. First was Jeanmar Gomez, working his way through 5 1/3 tough innings and allowing only one run, giving the Tribe a chance — about all you can ask from a guy who was called up because of injuries.

And then there was (eventual winning pitcher) Chad Durbin, who wended his way through the 10th and the 11th, escaping a second-and-third jam in the tenth to keep the game alive. Durbin (2-1, 6.75 ERA) deserves props for this win that got the Indians to 21-9 and kept their lead at 4 1/2 games over the Royals.

Also there was Tony Sipp, who worked his way through an inning-and-a-third of perfect ball. And Rafael Perez and Joe Smith combined for an inning-and-two-thirds.

Finally there were Lou Marson, who went 3-for-5 and drove in a huge insurance run in the 12th, and Jack Hannahan, who gave Cleveland the lead in that same inning.

Oh and let us not forget Asdrubal Cabrera, who drove in two in the sixth to give the Tribe their first lead of the day -- and was cut down at the plate trying to score on a single from Travis Hafner to end the inning.

The Indians have run through three legs of their opposing-pitching gauntlet with two wins, but for so long today it seemed as if Cleveland was fated to lose their second straight.

Never was that feeling stronger than in the top of the eighth, when Marson was credited with a triple leading off on a long drive dropped on the warning track by David DeJesus — giving Cleveland a perfect chance to add to a one-run lead. But then Michael Brantley grounded out with a drawn-in infield; Asdrubal Cabrera struck out; and Shin-Soo Choo grounded out.

After that blown opportunity, the Athletics scored in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at 2-2 when Ryan Sweeney (5-for-6 on the day) doubled in Conor Jackson off of Vinnie Pestano.

Oakland had scored their first run of the day on a Daric Barton RBI single in the bottom of the fifth.

In the decisive top of the 12th, Hafner fanned leading off, but then Orlando Cabrera singled to center. Austin Kearns walked, putting runners at first and second. That was when Hannahan delivered the go-ahead single that ticked off of shortstop Cliff Pennington.

Kearns moved to second on the play, but was then thrown out trying to steal third, with Hannahan taking second. Marson then came through with a line-drive hit to left, plating Hannahan with what turned out to be the winning run.

In the bottom of the final frame, Chris Perez got the lead-off hitter, then walked Barton. Jackson moved the runner to second with a single, but Perez got Willingham for the second out. But then Sweeney collected his fifth hit -- an RBI single to center, moving Jackson to third and putting the tying run 90 feet away,

Finally -- mercifully for Tribe fans -- Perez got pinch-hitter Hideki Matsui to pop out to end this May version of a playoff game.

Craig Breslow (0-2, 5.06 ERA) takes the loss for Oakland, after Brett Anderson worked nine innings, allowing just two runs, Anderson was followed by a scoreless inning each from Michael Wuertz and Brian Fuentes.

The shaky save was Chris Perez's ninth of the season.

After this thriller this afternoon, the Indians now head down to Anaheim for a three-game set with the Los Angeles Angels, beginning tomorrow at 10:05 when Justin Masterson goes for win number six against the Angels’ Tyler Chatwood.

Indians Go For Series Win Against Oakland Thursday Afternoon At 3:35

If the Indians are going to win this afternoon in Oakland, it would be helpful to score more than one run before the ninth inning.

On Tuesday it took a three-run ninth to win 4-1, and yesterday, there was no late rally, and the A’s evened this three-game series at one apiece with a 3-1 win that dropped Cleveland to 20-9 on the season and ended the Tribe’s seven-game winning streak.

Today Jeanmar Gomez is tasked with trying to get the Indians back on track before they head to Anaheim and continue running this gauntlet of imposing opponent pitchers.

The Tribe will be facing another such daunting starter today.

Oakland will send Brett Anderson (2-2, 2.95 ERA) against Cleveland today. That ERA is not a flash-in-the-pan, as Anderson went 7-6 with a 2.80 ERA in 19 starts for the Athletics last year.

In his last start, Anderson was roughed up by the Texas Rangers to the tune of nine hits and seven runs in just five innings, taking the loss in an 11-2 Texas win. But that poor outing was the exception rather than the norm in 2011 for Anderson, and once again, the Tribe needs to be ready for a potentially dominating starter.

In 39 2/3 innings, Anderson has allowed 40 hits, and has fanned 30 while giving up just 13 earned runs.

In his career, Anderson has faced the Indians twice. In those two starts, covering 12 innings, Anderson has gone 1-0 with a 0.75 ERA, allowing just one run and seven hits, and striking out 15.

For the Indians, Gomez (0-1, 6.23 ERA) needs to drastically cut down on the number of base-runners he allows. In only 13 innings covering three appearances — two of which have been starts — Gomez has allowed 22 hits and three walks, for an average of just about two runners per inning.

In his last appearance, Gomez got a no-decision against Detroit last Friday, surrendering 10 hits and three runs in just 5 2/3 innings, in a game that the Indians won in the bottom of the ninth on a Carlos Santana grand slam.

This will be Gomez’s first career appearance against Oakland.

Indians Vs. Athletics Final: Trevor Cahill Moves To 5-0; A's Hand Josh Tomlin First Loss, 3-1

All good things come to an end, and on Wednesday night, two good things ended in Oakland, as the Athletics broke the Indians’ seven-game win streak and Josh Tomlin’s unbeaten streak all in one night with a 3-1 win over The Good Guys.

Trevor Cahill and three relievers shut the Tribe down on seven hits. Cahill moved to 5-0 and lowered his ERA to 1.79 with seven innings of one-run ball. David Purcey and Brad Ziegler combined to pitch a scoreless eighth, and Grant Balfour closed it with a two-K ninth to earn his first save of the season.

All the offense that Oakland needed was provided by David DeJesus, who slugged his first two homers of the year off of Tomlin. DeJesus hit solo shots in the first and in the fourth — two of only three hits allowed by Tomlin, who once again deserved better.

But as Indians’ skipper Manny Acta said: "…they (Oakland) pitched very well, too".

Cleveland’s only run came in the third on an RBI single from Travis Hafner, back in the lineup at designated hitter.

The Indians did have chances, putting two aboard on singles in the second; leaving two on in the fourth after Hafner’s RBI; getting a runner to second with two outs in both the fifth and the sixth; and stranding two in the eighth. That timely two-out hit was pretty lacking, but…sometimes the other guys get the job done.

Michael Brantley and Hafner each collected two of the Indians’ seven hits, but the Tribe left 10 men on base in the contest as Cahill and the Oakland bullpen minimized any damage.

The Athletics added an unearned run in the eighth to make it a two-run game when Mark Ellis reached on an error by Tribe third-baseman Jack Hannahan. With two outs and two on, Tony Sipp relieved Tomlin (4-1, 2.43 ERA) and allowed an RBI single to former Indian Coco Crisp before Sipp closed out the inning.

The good news on Wednesday was that Kansas City also lost, so the Indians’ lead over the Royals remains at 4 1/2 games.

The series will wrap up on Thursday at 3:35 when Jeanmar Gomez faces Oakland’s Brett Anderson.

Indians Go For Second 8-Game Winning Streak Of The Season On Wednesday Night

As expected, the first game of the Indians' road-trip turned out to be a pitchers' battle, won by the Tribe with three in the ninth inning, 4-1 Their seventh straight win moved Cleveland to 20-8 and allowed the Indians to maintain their 4 1/2 game lead over the Royals, who are putting together a streak of their own, having won four straight.

Tonight in Oakland it is a battle of the unbeatens as Cleveland's Josh Tomlin (4-0, 2.45 ERA) takes on the Athletics' Trevor Cahill (4-0, 1.88 ERA), in a something's-gotta-give kind of matchup -- assuming, that is, that the decisions on both sides do not go to the bullpens.

Tomlin could, by all rights, be 5-0 at this time, as his only non-decision of the season was a game the Tribe led going to the ninth, but lost, in Kansas City. Tomlin led in that one 2-0 when he was pulled in the eighth, and ended up allowing one earned run, before the bullpen let the game slip away in the ninth.

In his last start, last Thursday against the Royals in Cleveland, Tomlin got the win, going six innings and allowing two runs on only five hits, with one walk and three strikeouts. In his 33 innings pitched this year, Tomlin has allowed only 30 base-runners.

Any time you can hold your opponents to less than one runner per inning, you are going to win a lot of games.

But that two-runs-in-six-innings effort of Tomlin's last week might not be enough this time, as the Athletics' Cahill has been equally as tough, and gives up half a run less per game than does Tomlin.

Cahill will be making his seventh start of the season tonight. He has given up more than one run only once, and in 38 1/3 innings has 33 strikeouts, so Cahill knows how to get a K when needed.

In his last three starts -- covering 21 innings -- Cahill has given up a mere two runs. That translates to an 0.86 ERA over the span, so any and all runs scored by the Tribe will be a bonus and Tomlin will have to be at his best.

Cahill has faced the Indians only twice in his career -- both times in Cleveland -- and is 1-1 with a 4.22 ERA against the Tribe, allowing nine runs -- five earned -- in 10 2/3 innings, walking six and fanning four. Cahill has a career mark of 32-21 after going 18-8 last year with a stellar ERA of 2.97.

Tomlin will be making his first career appearance against Oakland.

Should Cleveland win tonight, it will mark their second eight-game winning streak of the season. After losing their first two games of the season, the Tribe ran off eight in a row between April 3-11. The two long streaks are obviously the reason that the Indians have the best record in the major leagues, but -- more importantly -- they are the reason that Cleveland only has Kansas City in the rear-view mirror at present in the Central Division. After the Royals at 4 1/2 back, next is Detroit, eight games behind, with Minnesota 10 back and the White Sox (no-hit by Minnesota's Francisco Liriano last night) 10 1/2 games in arrears.

This series will conclude with an afternoon game tomorrow at 3:35. It would be beyond nice if we could be previewing a possible nine-game winning streak tomorrow.

Go Tribe!

Indians Vs. Athletics Result: Fausto Carmona Solid As Indians Take First Of Three Against Oakland

The Cleveland Indians are winning no matter where they play.  After losing nine of their last 10 in Oakland, the Indians scored three runs in the ninth inning to break a 1-1 tie to capture a 4-1 win over the Oakland A's.  It was the seventh straight win for the Tribe, who improved to 20-8, the best record in baseball.

The Indians once again got solid starting pitching as Fausto Carmona allowed just one run in 8 strong innings.  Carmona threw 96 pitches while allowing 5 hits and striking out 5 to improve to 3-3 on the season.  For six innings, Carmona was being over-shadowed by A's starter Tyson Ross, who shut down the Indians on 5 hits until the Tribe finally got to him in the seventh.  

Ross allowed three singles in the seventh, including Matt LaPorta's game-tying single.  The game remained tied until the ninth when the Indians beat up A's closer Brian Fuentes.  LaPorta and Jack Hannahan hit back-to-back one-out singles off Fuentes (1-3) in the ninth before Cabrera came through against his former club. Asdrubal Cabrera then provided a two-run single as insurance.

The Indians were playing with the distraction caused by the arrest of outfielder Shin Soo Choo on suspicion of drunken driving.  Choo apologized to each of his teammates individually before the game, then pulled the Indians into a tight huddle outside the dugout before pre-game warm-ups.  Choo started the game in right field, batted third, and was 0-4 with a walk.

"I think we do a great job as a ballclub once we get between the lines, it's baseball, it's business," LaPorta said. "We've done a great job at that this year."

The Indians are now 16-2 when they score 4 or more runs.

A Week Of Tough Opposing Pitching Starts Tonight In Oakland

One thing that should become clear in the next six days is how the Indians would look in a playoff series. For it is in a playoff that a team sees the best pitching an opponent has to offer, and whoever cannot get the job down from the mound generally does not see much -- if any -- action when every game is crucial.

Cleveland goes to the West Coast for six games against some of the best early-season pitching in the American League, beginning tonight at 10:05, when Fausto Carmona (2-3, 5.15 ERA) takes on the Athletics' Tyson Ross (1-2, 2.76 ERA).

The Tribe has won only two of their last eight games away from Progressive Field, but is fortunate, because of their home success, to have built a 4 1/2 game lead over the Kansas City Royals, with Detroit in third but now eight games back. So if the Indians encounter trouble on this trip, they should still be okay. But it will be psychologically important to show that they can beat a quality starter or two on this journey to the Western time-zone.

Carmona is coming off of a victory over the Royals in which he went seven innings and allowed just two runs in an 8-2 Tribe victory last Thursday. But Carmona has had very limited success against Oakland in his career.

In ten appearances, nine of which have been starts, Carmona has a career ERA of 5.54 versus the A's to go with a 3-5 record, and has allowed 89 baserunners in only 52 innings pitched. That is the kind of stat that can get you into trouble, even in the Athletics' spacious park.

Ross will be making only his second career appearance against Cleveland, after pitching two scoreless innings against the Tribe in April, 2010. Ross will be making only the fifth start of his career tonight, but is coming off of a splendid performance against the Angels last Wednesday in which he worked seven innings and allowed no runs on only four hits in a 2-1 Oakland win.

For his career, in 31 games, Ross is 2-6 with a 4.69 ERA, but -- again -- he showed he has what it takes to be a starter in his last appearance, and the Tribe needs to come out ready to hit.

Oakland is hitting .242 as a team in 2011. Ex-Indian Coco Crisp leads among hitters with at least 50 at-bats with a .292 mark. Josh Willingham leads the Athletics with five homers and 16 RBI, with Hideki Matsui checking in with 15 runs driven in.

It is in pitching where the A's have truly excelled, and it is pitching which has their record at 15-14, for third place in the West but only a game behind Texas and Los Angeles.

Oakland is first in the majors with a team ERA of 2.66. That, folks, is an astonishing number in the hitter-friendly American League. Needless to say, with unbeaten Trevor Cahill going tomorrow, it would be nice to get a win behind Carmona and for 19-8 Cleveland to get this trip off on the right foot.

The Indians come in with a team ERA of 3.48, good for tenth in the majors, and a team batting average of .272, tied for third in the bigs.

This series continues through Thursday, before the Indians move down the coast and make their second appearance of the year in Anaheim...where Jered Weaver (6-1) and Dan Haren (4-1) await. And of course, we all know that Haren has already one-hit the Tribe in 2011.

The moral of the story is -- let's bear down and put on the hitting shoes, because we will need them this week.