Great Performances by Tribe Players...Which ones d

[friskysman]

ah, that was the game in which charlie pinch hit branyan for vizquel in the 10th with lofton on first and one out. brayan lined one to the oppposite field but right at the LF. a lot of people were crying about that one for a long time.

at any rate, here's ESPN's coverage of that game:

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Travis Fryman and the Cleveland Indians tried to stay optimistic Thursday night after yet another heartbreaking loss dimmed their chances of winning the AL wild card race.



Corey Koskie broke his bat and grounded into an out in the 10th inning, but drove home the winning run.

Fryman's dramatic ninth-inning home run gave Cleveland a reprieve, but the Indians stumbled again, losing to the Minnesota Twins 4-3 in 10 innings.

"We're not dejected, but kind of somber," Fryman said. "We have to be thankful Oakland and Seattle both lost and we didn't lose ground."

Cleveland, which wasted a 2-0 lead and split the four-game series against the last-place Twins, remained 1? games back in the wild-card race, failing to take advantage of Oakland's 6-3, 14-inning loss to Anaheim or Seattle's 13-6 loss to Texas.

The Indians (87-72) close the regular season at home with a three-game series against Toronto starting Friday.

Oakland (88-70), a half-game behind AL West-leading Seattle (89-70), has three games at home against Texas, then a makeup game Monday night at Tampa Bay, if necessary.

"This was a real tease," Indians shortstop Omar Vizquel said. "We played one of the most exciting games of the year with the chance to gain a game."

Sandy Alomar, who flied out to the warning track in center with one out in the ninth as a pinch-hitter, was more upset.

"I feel like somebody died, my stomach hurts so much," Alomar said. "I was so pumped up. I hit the ball 400 feet and made an out. Then they win like that."

Corey Koskie drove in the go-ahead run with a broken-bat, bases-loaded, fielder's-choice grounder off Bob Wickman (1-3).

"It was a special feeling for us," Twins manager Tom Kelly said. "What a ballgame. Very exciting."

Minnesota, which won the season series 8-5, loaded the bases on two infield hits and an intentional walk. Koskie then grounded a ball past Wickman that second baseman Roberto Alomar stopped with a dive behind the bag. He threw to shortstop Omar Vizquel for a forceout as Luis Rivas scored from third.

Wickman was hit in the right hand by part of the broken bat on the play and replaced by Steve Karsay, who got the final out.

"It's OK, we've got three games left and I'm ready to pitch," Wickman said. "The loss hurts a lot more than the hand."

Eddie Guardado (7-3) got three outs in the ninth and LaTroy Hawkins pitched the 10th for his 14th save in 14 chances. Kenny Lofton singled with one out, pinch-hitter Russell Branyan lined out to left, and Roberto Alomar singled Lofton to third.

With the sellout crowd chanting "Man-ny! Man-ny!" Manny Ramirez hit a sharp grounder to second that forced Alomar for the final out.

"They had their best batter up there," Hawkins said. "I just tried to throw strikes."

Fryman had hit the first pitch from reliever Bob Wells in the bottom of the ninth for his 22nd homer, tying the score 3-all. The ball landed just above the yellow line atop the left-field wall and originally was ruled a double. With Cleveland manager Charlie Manuel and several Indians players on the field protesting, the umpires got together to discuss the call and signaled home run.

"That gave us life," Manuel said. "We put everything we had into this game, but just got beat. It is tough to take."

The homer deprived Twins starter Eric Milton of what would have been his 14th win. He allowed two runs and six hits in eight innings, struck out nine and walked two.

Cleveland's Bartolo Colon, who has won six straight decisions since July 26, left with the Indians behind 3-2. Jim Thome's two-run homer put Cleveland ahead in the second, and fans cheered in the fourth when Oakland's loss was posted on the scoreboard, but seconds later the crowd fell silent as Torii Hunter hit a two-run double -- Minnesota's first hit -- then scored on Jacque Jones' single.


Game notes
Alomar extended his hitting streak to 15 games. He has hit .439 (29-for-66) during the streak. ... Twins second baseman Jay Canizaro sustained a concussion when he was hit in the head with a pitch during batting practice. He was examined at a hospital, then returned to the clubhouse in the second inning. ... Hunter hit .391 (9-for-23) with six RBI against Cleveland in 2000. ... Colon struck out 10 -- his sixth game of double-digit strikeouts this season.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/2000/20000928/recap/mincle.html

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[Alex]

The Jolbert play must have happened in the first loss of the Minnesota series.

We won the final three games of the year against Toronto, but so did Seattle and Oakland.

The Angels were pathetic against the A's that final weekend.

I remember how excited the Angels announcers were because some of their ballplayers were reaching milestones in home runs during the series....meanwhile, the only way they scored was via the homer, a pathetic performance if ever I saw one as they lost all three games to Oakland.

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Alex

[This message has been edited by Alex (edited December 10, 2001).]

[UK Tribe]

It's obvious but the most inspired individual performance I ever witnessed was Bart in Game 1 against the Mariners.

Everyone should remember this when they start to knock him next year.

He could still become a GREAT pitcher. Need to get talking on an extention.

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