A long night's journey reached a stunning climax shortly before 2 o'clock Wednesday morning at Progressive Field.
In the bottom of the 14th inning, with the game deadlocked at 2, the Indians produced a golden scoring opportunity. Following David Pauley's strikeout of Jason Kipnis, Asdrubal Cabrera walked, Travis Hafner singled, and Carlos Santana was intentionally walked to load the bases for Kosuke Fukudome. Pauley desperately needed a strikeout or a double play, but the Detroit hurler would not be so fortunate. Pauley's 1-2 delivery drilled the arm of Fukudome, forcing home the winning run. And, as suddenly as that, a marathon that featured 439 pitches, 93 at-bats, and a 2-hour rain delay was over. The dejected Tigers walked off the field, while the elated Indians poured out of their dugout to swarm Fukudome.
Fukudome's walk-off hit-by-pitch snapped an incredible duel between the 2 bullpens. That aforementioned delay halted the outings of the 2 starting pitchers, Detroit's Doug Fister and Cleveland's Justin Masterson, after only 2 frames. The relievers then grabbed the spotlight and pitched a combined 11 consecutive scoreless innings. The Tribe pen worked 12 such innings as Chad Durbin (3 IP), Rafael Perez (1 IP), Tony Sipp (1 2/3 IP), Vinnie Pestano (1 1/3 IP), Chris Perez (1 IP), Joe Smith (2 IP), and Frank Herrmann (2 IP) tossed shoutout baseball from the top of the 3rd through the end of the 14th.
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| Fukudome took 1 for the team and pulled the Tribe to within 3 games of Detroit |
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