The Indians on display Wednesday afternoon in Anaheim were not the same Indians who recently reeled off 8 consecutive victories. Those Indians played good, fundamental baseball, but that was not the case in this extra-innings heartbreaker. The Tribe committed a costly defensive miscue, stranded numerous base runners, and, ultimately, lost because of it.
The game's conclusion was definitely a major disappointment, but its beginning was very encouraging. Shin-Soo Choo's 1st inning sacrifice fly scored Asdrubal Cabrera after the Cleveland shortstop blasted a triple to the gap in left-center field.
The Indians began to reveal some chinks in the armor in the bottom of the 4th. Howie Kendrick hit a lead-off double and scored when the cut-off man, Cabrera, made an errant throw to 2nd base that wound up in the Tribe dugout. 2 batters later, Torii Hunter launched a 2-run homer over the wall in left.
Single tallies in the 5th (Michael Brantley RBI double) and 8th (Choo RBI groundout) enabled Cleveland to even the score at 3. However, the damage would have been worse had the Indians not failed to drive in a runner from from 3rd with less than 2 outs on 3 separate occasions.
Following the 8th, the contest settled into a nail-biting pitcher's duel. Neither club yielded a run until Chad Durbin continued his poor season in the 12th. Durbin allowed a base-hit, issued a pair of walks, uncorked a wild pitch, and surrendered a walk-off sac fly to Jeff Mathis.
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| Vernon Wells scores the winning run in the last of the 12th |
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