They say that a tie is like kissing your sister. I would not know about that, but the term has been in use for a long time, at least back to the days when the NFL frequently had games ending in deadlocks.
Switching sports, the Indians have now had two ties within a week. Last time it was due, as much as anything, to exhaustion of the Cleveland and White Sox staffs. This time it was a matter of “ten innings, time to take our bats and go home”.
To their credit, the Tribe battled back over and over again after falling into an early 2-0 hole. The order of the day was creep closer, fall further behind, creep closer, etc. And the end result was another tie, as the Indians and the Mariners ended the day deadlocked at 5-5. Cleveland finally caught Seattle in the bottom of the eighth and two scoreless innings later, the Indians remained 4-8 and Seattle remained 7-4.
Asdrubal Cabrera belted his first homer of the spring to spearhead the Tribe’s 14-hit attack. Four Indians collected two hits apiece, while four drove in a run.
On the pitching side, Mitch Talbot went a shaky three innings, giving up three runs and five hits. After that, six Indians’ hurlers pitched seven innings of one-run ball, and gave the Tribe a chance to avoid another loss.
Tomorrow Cleveland faces the Los Angeles Angels. And three weeks from today — weather permitting — is Opening Day, when ties will no longer be likely.
Won’t that be nice?