Cleveland Sports Forum

Game on!
And Dollar Dogs just dropped to 50 cents!

They played one inning, 20 minutes, and they are covering the field again!

Now they are resuming ALREADY, even though it is still raining!

They had a 13 minute rain delay, played for 3 minutes, and are in another delay now!

Still raining and they STILL haven't called the game!

I can't believe they are actually going to play!

Barnes getting shelled. Rays lead 5-0 in the top of the 3rd.

So the game continued AFTER midnight.....you would think they would just call it after 4 hours...or midnight, or something.

There used to be laws in most cities that an inning couldn't start after a certain hour.
I listened in bed until about 1:30, when we were losing, 5-2.

Tampa Bay Rays defeat Cleveland Indians, 9-2, in game that ends at 2:53 a.m.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Indians figured to have caught a break when rain delays Friday night forced the Tampa Bay Rays to shelve lefty Matt Moore after one inning. Moore entered at 8-0 with a 2.21 ERA.

The Indians failed to capitalize, though, because they brought virtually nothing to the plate against the Rays bullpen. Three Tampa Bay relievers combined with Moore on a one-hitter in a 9-2 victory at Progressive Field.

Nick Swisher grounded to third at 2:53 a.m. for the final out. Bad weather accounted for three delays totaling 4 hours, 49 minutes.

The Tribe (29-25) had won two in a row.

James Loney hit two homers as the Rays (30-24) improved to 3-1 against the Tribe.

"It's just another game and you move on,'' Indians third baseman Mark Reynolds said. "It's weird, but it's part of baseball. I'd rather play tonight than have a doubleheader sometime later in the year. The worst thing about it is, we need to play in about nine hours.''

The middle game of the series is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. today. Weather could be a factor again; it is why both clubs and the umpires went to extraordinary lengths to finish the opener.

Indians manager Terry Francona said he was not sure how close the umpires came to calling for a postponement.

"I thought they handled it very well,'' Francona said. "There was a ton of cooperation on their part trying to ensure that, if we played, we played nine, which I think is good. They took a lot of things into consideration.''

After a 2-hour, 39-minute delay, the game resumed at the start of the bottom of the second inning. There was no score.

The Tribe went quietly in the second against former Indian Jamey Wright, who had replaced Moore. Wright delivered his first pitch to Swisher at 12:13.

The Rays made plenty of noise in the third against lefty Scott Barnes, who had replaced Indians starter Corey Kluber. They scored five runs -- all with two outs. Matt Joyce hammered a two-run homer to right-center at 12:26, Kelly Johnson walked, Evan Longoria had an RBI double to left-center and Loney hit a two-run homer to right.

Tribe fans remaining in the stands let Barnes know of their displeasure, booing lustily. They had not stuck around to watch the home nine get routed.

Joyce, Johnson and Loney are left-handed batters. Lefties entered at 1-for-12 with one homer against Barnes.

"I felt fine,'' Barnes said. "I tried to be aggressive and stay in the zone, but, unfortunately, I left a few balls up and paid for it.''

Barnes struck out Luke Scott to end the half-inning. Matt Albers replaced him to begin the fourth. Barnes allowed the five runs on four hits, walked one and struck out two.

"The inning was set up nice, with all the lefties,'' Francona said. "We were hoping for some length with him, to get us to the middle of the game where we could keep the bullpen in order. It didn't work that way. Tough night.''

Francona, as politely as possible, pinned some of his club's offensive struggles on Tampa Bay's outburst.

"After a long layoff, all of a sudden we're down five,'' he said. "The inning kind of took the starch out of us.''

Francona said "we need to go in and visit a little bit'' about available arms for today. Translation: A roster move is almost certain. Barnes seemingly would be on the move.

The combination of Moore and Wright, a non-roster invitee to spring training, was perfect through four innings. Wright needed a total of 17 pitches to get through the second and third.

The Tribe finally solved Wright in the fifth. Swisher led off with a five-pitch walk and advanced to second when Rays third baseman Longoria failed to handle Reynolds' grounder. The tough chance for Longoria was scored an error.

Josh Lueke relieved Wright. After Carlos Santana flied out, the runners moved up on Lueke's wild pitch. Yan Gomes delivered a sacrifice fly.

Ryan Raburn notched the Tribe's first hit, an RBI double to right. He struck the ball well but got a break when right fielder Joyce misjudged the trajectory as he headed to the wall.

Raburn, who has been bothered by leg cramps, hobbled into second. Head trainer Lonnie Soloff checked on him. Raburn remained in the game. Drew Stubbs grounded out.

Wright's line fit the occasion: three innings, zero hits, two runs, zero earned runs, one walk, four strikeouts.

Michael Bourn led off the Tribe sixth with a four-pitch walk. On a full-count pitch to Mike Aviles, Bourn took off. Aviles swung and missed and the Rays caught Bourn in a rundown.

Bourn proved elusive and thought he had avoided the tag on the way back to first. Multiple umpires disagreed. Bourn and Francona argued at 1:45. The umpires huddled, then upheld the call. Replays, not applicable in this case, appeared to support Bourn.

Loney homered off Brian Shaw in the eighth. The Rays scored three off Rich Hill in the ninth.

Indians batters finished zero singles, three walks and eight strikeouts. Wright earned the victory and Cesar Ramos the save.

"(Tampa Bay relievers) were good,'' Reynolds said, "but I think we swung at a lot of their pitches instead of waiting them out. We needed to do a better job of putting good at-bats together.''

Rain delayed first pitch by almost two hours. Kluber threw a strike to Ben Zobrist at 9:02. Kluber worked a 1-2-3 first that included two strikeouts.

Rain returned by the end of the inning. Kluber retired the first two in the second before play was halted at 9:18.

Play resumed at 9:31, but the rain kept coming. Kluber struggled with his grip as he walked Scott, then got Desmond Jennings to line to second. The umpires called for the tarp again at 9:34. Yes, it's true: The teams competed for three minutes.

"I had all my pitches working and felt comfortable,'' Kluber said, "You try your best to stay loose, but the delay just got too long.''

Dollar-dog-fueled fans were able to counter boredom by watching the Tigers-Orioles game from Baltimore on the scoreboard big screen. The Tigers squandered a two-run lead in the ninth inning and lost, 7-5. Cheers followed Chris Dickerson's game-winning homer, which dropped Detroit into a first-place tie with Cleveland at 29-24 for the time being.

As of 11:00, fans could purchase two hot dogs for $1 while supplies lasted.

At 11:25, in an interesting snapshot, Francona, Rays manager Joe Maddon, two umpires and Indians General Manager Chris Antonetti chatted in left field for five minutes. They were checking field conditions.

No surprise that ballpark operations postponed the postgame fireworks show.

Kluber entered at 3-3 with a 4.57 ERA. He was coming off a terrific performance in Boston last Sunday, when he allowed one run on three hits in 6 2/3 innings and struck out 10 in a no-decision. The Red Sox rallied in the ninth inning to win, 6-5.

btw, they are playing again now. No score in the 2nd.

As soon as I typed that, JOE'S favorite player, Giambi hit one WAY out! 2-0 now.

Jason has not hit a single since May 9. He had two singles in the month of May. I'll take the homers and RBI instead.

Giambi breaks his streak, RBI single makes it 3-0 in the 3rd. UJ has thrown 39 pitches in his 3 innings.

Santana hitting now, batting 178 over last 21 games.

btw, as I was listening to last night's game in the wee hours of the morning, John Adam's drum could easily be heard. What a trooper he is!