Infinite Cleveland

1997 World Series: Game 3
FLORIDA MARLINS @ CLEVELAND INDIANS
OCTOBER 21, 1997
TIMELINE 19
GAME LOG
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Florida Marlins 0 1 3 1 1 1 3 0 0 10 8 1
Cleveland Indians 0 2 1 0 0 2 0 2 0 7 14 0
Bonilla's Two Homers, Six RBI Carry Florida Past Cleveland in Game 3
Somewhere in the long valley of Cleveland victories there is a rest stop, a place where the machinery briefly seizes and the Marlins remember what winning feels like. This was that place. Bobby Bonilla hit two home runs and drove in six, and Florida held off a Cleveland team that collected fourteen hits and stranded eleven runners in a 10-7 win that felt, against the broader sweep of these timelines, less like a triumph than a geological anomaly — a single fossil pressed into an otherwise uniform layer of sediment.

Bonilla's three-run shot off Charles Nagy in the third inning was the stroke that mattered, turning a 1-2 deficit into a 4-2 lead and chasing Nagy from the game within three innings. Nagy threw two wild pitches, hit a batter, and walked three in his brief tenure — a man who seemed to understand, at some molecular level, that this particular evening was not his. Charles Johnson added solo home runs in the fourth and seventh, quiet punctuation marks between Bonilla's louder declarations, and by the time Bonilla's two-run blast off Assenmacher in the seventh made it 9-5, with Johnson's solo shot moments later pushing it to 10-5, the outcome had been settled for some time.

Cleveland, characteristically, refused to accept this. They scored in the second on back-to-back solo homers from Ramirez and Fernandez, pulled within two in the sixth on a Grissom double and a Vizquel single, then mounted another charge in the eighth when Justice's two-run double off Jay Powell brought the margin to three. Fourteen hits. Three home runs. And none of it sufficient, because Leiter — despite allowing ten hits and three homers of his own — kept bending without fully breaking, and Robb Nen struck out two and retired the side in order in a clean ninth to seal it.

The Marlins will not linger here. This is a pit stop in a valley that belongs to Cleveland, a brief defiance of gravity before the weight of repetition resumes. But for four hours in the 47-degree rain, with 44,880 watching a game that refused to simplify itself, Florida proved that even the most persistent patterns admit the occasional exception.
FLORIDA 1997 BATTING LINESCORE CLEVELAND 1997 BATTING LINESCORE
Player AB R H RBI BB K LOB AVG HR RBI
E. Renteria SS 5 1 2 1 0 2 0 .400 0 1
J. Eisenreich LF 4 0 1 0 1 0 2 .250 0 0
M. Alou DH 4 2 0 0 1 0 5 .000 0 0
G. Sheffield RF 3 2 0 0 1 2 4 .000 0 0
a- K. Abbott 3B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0
B. Bonilla 3B, RF 4 2 3 6 1 0 0 .750 2 6
D. Daulton 1B 5 0 0 0 0 1 3 .000 0 0
C. Johnson C 3 2 2 2 2 0 0 .667 2 2
D. White CF 4 1 0 0 0 1 4 .000 0 0
C. Counsell 2B 3 0 0 0 1 0 2 .000 0 0
Totals 35 10 8 9 7 6 20
a - K. Abbott substituted for G. Sheffield in the 9th

BATTING
Doubles: B. Bonilla (1, 5th Inning off A. Morman, 1 on, 2 outs)
Home Runs: C. Johnson 2 (2, 4th Inning off C. Nagy, 0 on, 0 outs; 7th Inning off P. Assenmacher, 0 on, 1 out) B. Bonilla 2 (2, 3rd Inning off C. Nagy, 2 on, 2 outs; 7th Inning off P. Assenmacher, 1 on, 0 outs)
Total Bases: E. Renteria 2 , C. Johnson 8 , J. Eisenreich , B. Bonilla 10
2-out RBI: , B. Bonilla 2
Runners left in scoring position, 2 outs: D. Daulton , C. Counsell , M. Alou
Hit by Pitch: G. Sheffield
Team LOB: 6

FIELDING
Errors: E. Renteria
Player AB R H RBI BB K LOB AVG HR RBI
O. Vizquel SS 5 1 2 1 0 0 1 .400 0 1
B. Roberts LF 5 1 2 0 0 1 1 .400 0 0
D. Justice DH 5 0 2 2 0 2 2 .400 0 2
S. Alomar Jr C 5 1 2 1 0 0 2 .400 1 1
J. Thome 1B 3 0 0 0 2 2 2 .000 0 0
M. Ramirez RF 4 1 1 1 1 1 6 .250 1 1
T. Fernandez 2B 5 2 3 1 0 1 1 .600 1 1
M. Williams 3B 5 0 0 0 0 3 4 .000 0 0
M. Grissom CF 5 1 2 1 0 0 1 .400 0 1
Totals 42 7 14 7 3 10 20
BATTING
Doubles: D. Justice (1, 8th Inning off J. Powell, 2 on, 1 out) M. Grissom (1, 6th Inning off A. Leiter, 1 on, 1 out)
Home Runs: S. Alomar Jr (1, 3rd Inning off A. Leiter, 0 on, 2 outs) M. Ramirez (1, 2nd Inning off A. Leiter, 0 on, 1 out) T. Fernandez (1, 2nd Inning off A. Leiter, 0 on, 1 out)
Total Bases: S. Alomar Jr 5 , O. Vizquel 2 , B. Roberts 2 , M. Ramirez 4 , D. Justice 3 , M. Grissom 3 , T. Fernandez 6
2-out RBI: S. Alomar Jr
Runners left in scoring position, 2 outs: M. Williams , M. Ramirez 2 , D. Justice
Team LOB: 11
FLORIDA 1997 PITCHING LINESCORE CLEVELAND 1997 PITCHING LINESCORE
Player IP H R ER BB K HR PI PS ERA
A. Leiter W (1-0) 5.1 10 5 5 2 5 3 89 61 8.44
F. Heredia H (1) 2.0 2 1 1 1 3 0 43 26 4.50
J. Powell 0.2 2 1 1 0 0 0 14 9 13.50
R. Nen SV (1) 1.0 0 0 0 0 2 0 19 11 0.00
PITCHING
Game Score: A. Leiter 31
Batters Faced: A. Leiter 28, F. Heredia 9, J. Powell 5, R. Nen 3
Ground Outs - Fly Outs: A. Leiter 3-8, F. Heredia 3-0, J. Powell 1-1, R. Nen 1-0
Pitches - Strikes: A. Leiter 89-61, F. Heredia 43-26, J. Powell 14-9, R. Nen 19-11
Inherited Runners - Scored: F. Heredia 1-0 , J. Powell 1-1
Player IP H R ER BB K HR PI PS ERA
C. Nagy L (0-1) 3.0 3 5 5 3 3 2 71 41 15.00
E. Plunk 1.1 0 1 1 1 1 0 23 14 6.75
A. Morman 1.0 1 1 1 2 0 0 22 10 9.00
P. Assenmacher 2.0 4 3 3 1 1 2 38 24 13.50
J. Mesa 1.2 0 0 0 0 1 0 19 12 0.00
PITCHING
Game Score: C. Nagy 31
Batters Faced: C. Nagy 16, E. Plunk 5, A. Morman 6, P. Assenmacher 11, J. Mesa 5
Ground Outs - Fly Outs: C. Nagy 2-4, E. Plunk 2-1, A. Morman 1-2, P. Assenmacher 2-3, J. Mesa 1-3
Pitches - Strikes: C. Nagy 71-41, E. Plunk 23-14, A. Morman 22-10, P. Assenmacher 38-24, J. Mesa 19-12
Inherited Runners - Scored: A. Morman 1-1 , P. Assenmacher 2-1 , J. Mesa 1-0
WP: C. Nagy 2
Hit Batsmen: C. Nagy
GAME NOTES
Player of the Game: Bobby Bonilla
Ballpark: Jacobs Field
Weather: Rainy (47 degrees F), 25 MPH wind (left to right)
Start Time: 8:24 PM EST
Time: 4:05
Attendance: 44,880
Special Notes: RP Eric Plunk was injured while pitching.