The Cleveland Indians, baseball's hottest and most surprising team, has made thrilling, improbable victories the norm at Progressive Field during this magical season. On Monday night, the Indians did it again as they scored twice in the bottom of the 8th to rally past the Red Sox.
Trailing 2-1, the momentum began to shift toward the Indians in the top of the 8th. Following a blatantly missed call at 1st base, Tribe manager Manny Acta vehemently argued his case and was promptly ejected. However, Acta's dismissal seemed to ignite the Indians because Justin Masterson (7 2/3 IP, 2 ER) and the bullpen worked around the bad call.
Boston's 2nd baseman, Dustin Pedroia, was also injured running the bases in that half-inning, and that would loom large in the latter portion of the frame. Pedroia's replacement, Drew Sutton, failed to flag down Jack Hannahan's grounder, a grounder that the sure-handed Pedroia might have reached. Instead, Hannahan collected the lead-off single, and Adam Everett entered the game as a pinch-runner. Austin Kearns' slow groundout advanced Everett into scoring position, but Carlos Santana popped out. Sox reliever Dan Bard was now on the verge of escaping the sticky situation. The Indians, though, were not about to concede defeat that quickly. Michael Brantley shot a RBI single into right field, and the red-hot Asdrubal Cabrera, who launched a solo homer in the 4th, banged out his 8th hit in his last 9 at-bats, a RBI double off the left field wall.
In the 9th, Chris Perez almost allowed the Red Sox to make a comeback of their own. A pair of singles put runners on the corners with only 1 out, but the speedy Carl Crawford bounced into a game-ending 4-6-3 double play.
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