Infinite Cleveland

1997 World Series: Game 3
FLORIDA MARLINS @ CLEVELAND INDIANS
OCTOBER 21, 1997
TIMELINE 13
GAME LOG
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Florida Marlins 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 9 3
Cleveland Indians 0 0 3 0 0 4 2 0 X 9 10 1
Three Marlins Errors in Third Open the Door; Indians Win Game 3
There is a number that baseball has never quite trusted, and on this thirteenth turning of the October wheel the Marlins discovered why. They held a 3-0 lead through two and a half innings — Bobby Bonilla's two-run homer to right in the third had followed his first-inning double, and the rain-slicked night at Jacobs Field seemed to belong entirely to Florida. Then the bottom of the third arrived like a small, methodical catastrophe. Three errors by three different fielders — Charles Johnson's wild throw on a steal attempt, Craig Counsell on a grounder to second, Edgar Renteria fumbling an easy groundball at short — and suddenly three unearned runs had crossed the plate without Cleveland striking a single clean blow of consequence. The scoreboard read 3-3, and something in the Marlins' posture had changed, as if a black cat had crossed the baseline between pitches.

The curse, if that is what it was, took its time with them. Al Leiter kept pitching into the sixth, issuing walks like a man feeding coins into a machine he knows is broken, until Marquis Grissom lined a two-out single to drive in the go-ahead run and the floodgates opened: four runs in the inning, runners circling the bases with the inevitability of water finding its level. Leiter departed having walked four and allowed seven runs, five of them earned — though the distinction between earned and unearned seemed academic by then. The Marlins had left thirteen men on base by game's end, a number that belongs in a cautionary fable.

In the seventh, Manny Ramirez ended whatever remained of the suspense with a first-pitch, two-run home run that traveled 403 feet into the wet October darkness, and the final score of 9-3 had the feeling of something that had been decided long before — decided, perhaps, in that third inning when the leather betrayed Florida three consecutive times, when the ball found every gap in every glove as though guided by some malign intelligence that had chosen this particular night to remind everyone that fortune is not equally distributed across all tellings of the same story.
FLORIDA 1997 BATTING LINESCORE CLEVELAND 1997 BATTING LINESCORE
Player AB R H RBI BB K LOB AVG HR RBI
E. Renteria SS 4 0 2 0 1 0 0 .500 0 0
J. Eisenreich DH 5 1 1 0 0 3 7 .200 0 0
B. Bonilla 3B 5 2 2 2 0 0 3 .400 1 2
G. Sheffield RF 5 0 1 1 0 1 0 .200 0 1
D. Daulton 1B 3 0 1 0 2 1 1 .333 0 0
C. Johnson C 3 0 0 0 2 1 3 .000 0 0
D. White CF 5 0 0 0 0 1 2 .000 0 0
C. Counsell 2B 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 .000 0 0
C. Floyd LF 3 0 2 0 1 0 1 .667 0 0
Totals 35 3 9 3 7 8 17
BATTING
Doubles: B. Bonilla (1, 1st Inning off C. Nagy, 0 on, 2 outs)
Home Runs: B. Bonilla (1, 3rd Inning off C. Nagy, 1 on, 1 out)
Total Bases: G. Sheffield , E. Renteria 2 , C. Floyd 2 , J. Eisenreich , D. Daulton , B. Bonilla 6
2-out RBI: G. Sheffield
Runners left in scoring position, 2 outs: C. Johnson , J. Eisenreich 2 , B. Bonilla
Hit by Pitch: C. Counsell
Team LOB: 13

BASERUNNING
SB: D. White (1) , D. Daulton (1)
CS: D. White (1)

FIELDING
Errors: E. Renteria , C. Johnson , C. Counsell
Player AB R H RBI BB K LOB AVG HR RBI
O. Vizquel SS 4 2 2 0 1 0 1 .500 0 0
B. Roberts LF 5 0 1 2 0 1 3 .200 0 2
D. Justice DH 5 0 1 1 0 1 4 .200 0 1
S. Alomar Jr C 4 0 0 0 1 0 4 .000 0 0
J. Thome 1B 2 2 1 1 3 0 0 .500 0 1
M. Ramirez RF 4 1 1 2 1 0 6 .250 1 2
T. Fernandez 2B 4 2 1 0 0 0 2 .250 0 0
M. Williams 3B 4 0 1 0 0 2 3 .250 0 0
M. Grissom CF 4 2 2 2 0 0 1 .500 0 2
Totals 36 9 10 8 6 4 24
BATTING
Doubles: M. Williams (1, 4th Inning off A. Leiter, 0 on, 1 out) O. Vizquel (1, 8th Inning off D. Cook, 0 on, 0 outs)
Home Runs: M. Ramirez (1, 7th Inning off D. Cook, 1 on, 0 outs)
Total Bases: M. Williams 2 , O. Vizquel 3 , J. Thome , B. Roberts , M. Ramirez 4 , D. Justice , M. Grissom 2 , T. Fernandez
2-out RBI: J. Thome , B. Roberts , D. Justice , M. Grissom
Runners left in scoring position, 2 outs: , S. Alomar Jr 2 , O. Vizquel , M. Ramirez 2
Team LOB: 9

BASERUNNING
SB: T. Fernandez (1)

FIELDING
Errors: S. Alomar Jr
FLORIDA 1997 PITCHING LINESCORE CLEVELAND 1997 PITCHING LINESCORE
Player IP H R ER BB K HR PI PS ERA
A. Leiter L (0-1) 5.2 5 7 5 4 4 0 108 62 7.94
D. Cook 2.1 5 2 2 2 0 1 41 26 7.71
PITCHING
Game Score: A. Leiter 35
Batters Faced: A. Leiter 28, D. Cook 14
Ground Outs - Fly Outs: A. Leiter 9-4, D. Cook 2-5
Pitches - Strikes: A. Leiter 108-62, D. Cook 41-26
Inherited Runners - Scored: D. Cook 3-3
Player IP H R ER BB K HR PI PS ERA
C. Nagy W (1-0) 6.0 9 3 3 3 7 1 111 64 4.50
B. Anderson SV (1) 3.0 0 0 0 4 1 0 67 35 0.00
PITCHING
Game Score: C. Nagy 46
Batters Faced: C. Nagy 29, B. Anderson 14
Ground Outs - Fly Outs: C. Nagy 6-4, B. Anderson 1-7
Pitches - Strikes: C. Nagy 111-64, B. Anderson 67-35
Hit Batsmen: B. Anderson
GAME NOTES
Player of the Game: Jim Thome
Ballpark: Jacobs Field
Weather: Rainy (47 degrees F), 25 MPH wind (left to right)
Start Time: 8:24 PM EST
Time: 3:50
Attendance: 44,880