The Cleveland Indians (26-25) won a thriller worth seeing against the Houston Astros (34-20) with 10:9 after 14 innings. The encounter had it all, from two long rallies to various lead changes and a Walk-Off Homun.
Officially, the game in the Cleveland/Ohio Progressive Field lasted 4:53 hours before Greg Allen sent the home fans home cheering. The outfielder beat the walk-off Homun to victory over Brad Peacock.
“I hope I don’t get too much out of the festivities,” Allen told reporters, laughing. “But I accept that now. It was definitely something special, something I will remember forever. “And at the end of the day, I’m just glad we made it.”
Previously, both teams fought an explosive back and forth. After two innings, the Indians were in the lead and the Astros equalled Jose Altuve’s RBI double to 2-2 in the sixth minute. Then Houston’s big hour came: in the eighth inning the champion got six runs. Altuve opened the scoring round with an RBI single, followed by Evan Gattis with a 3-Run-Homerun for the Astros 8-3.
The Indians, however, did not get off the ground and came back in the ninth inning. With as many as five RBI singles in a row, they evened out the match for 8:8. In the end it was Reliever Hector Rondon who got the blown save, but Closer Ken Giles (0 IP, 3 H, 3 ER) and Setup Man Will Harris (1/3 IP, 2 H, 2 ER) were responsible for the runs.
The key, however, was an epic at-bat by Indians-Third baseman Jose Ramirez, who required 17 pitches until his lead-off double Giles. “That was an incredible at-bat,” said Cleveland manager Terry Francona: “It changed the whole inning because they had to go deeper into the bulls just because of the pitch count.
Both sides then exchanged solo shots in the 13th inning before Allen finished in the 14th.
“What a rollercoaster ride of emotion, right?”, Indian starter Trevor Bauer asked with a smile after the game. The right-hander had opened the game and collected 13 strikeouts (4 UR) in 7 1/3 innings. His opponent, Gerrit Cole, made three runs (8 SO) in seven innings.
All results of the night you will find in our new MLB Scoreboard.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.