Infinite Cleveland

1997 World Series: Game 3
FLORIDA MARLINS @ CLEVELAND INDIANS
OCTOBER 21, 1997
TIMELINE 30
GAME LOG
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Florida Marlins 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 7 3
Cleveland Indians 3 0 0 2 0 1 3 2 X 11 16 1
Thome Three-Run Homer Sets Tone; Indians Win Game 3 Comfortably
Jim Thome settled it in the first inning. Bip Roberts had walked, David Justice had struck out, Sandy Alomar Jr had reached on the third baseman's error, and then Thome — on a 2-2 count, in one of those silences that descend on a ballpark when something important is about to happen — drove a fly ball 386 feet into the left-center gap, a line drive off the bat at 108 miles per hour that cleared the wall and kept climbing into the dark above the light standards. Three-nothing before Leiter had recorded his fifth out, and the game already had the feel of something decided, a verdict delivered before the arguments had been fully heard.

Moises Alou answered in the third with a solo home run of his own — 426 feet to right-center, 110 off the bat, a shot so prodigious it drew a murmur of genuine admiration even from the Cleveland crowd — but it was a gesture of individual brilliance against a tide of collective purpose, and the tide kept rising. Omar Vizquel singled home two in the fourth. Marquis Grissom scored on Vizquel's double in the sixth. And then the seventh arrived and the Indians simply took the game apart: Manny Ramirez doubled to score Thome, Tony Fernandez doubled to score Ramirez, and Matt Williams doubled on the first pitch to score Fernandez — three consecutive doubles into the gaps, the sound of each one echoing off the grandstand roof before the previous ball had stopped rolling, as though the hitters had rehearsed this sequence in some prior October that none of them could quite remember.

By the eighth, with the score 9-2 and the Florida fielders standing in the cold with their arms wrapped around themselves between pitches, it was a matter of arithmetic rather than drama — two more runs on sacrifice flies, the runners tagging and scoring with the mechanical ease of a team that has nowhere left to go but home. Cleveland 11, Florida 3, and Nagy's line read seven innings, three hits, one earned run. The Marlins scratched across single runs in the eighth and ninth, but by then the upper deck was half-empty and the sounds of the ballpark had gone thin, the way they do when a cold night has run past the point of suspense.
FLORIDA 1997 BATTING LINESCORE CLEVELAND 1997 BATTING LINESCORE
Player AB R H RBI BB K LOB AVG HR RBI
E. Renteria SS 5 0 1 1 0 0 1 .200 0 1
J. Eisenreich LF 5 1 0 0 0 0 2 .000 0 0
M. Alou DH 5 1 1 1 0 2 3 .200 1 1
G. Sheffield RF 3 0 1 1 1 0 0 .333 0 1
B. Bonilla 3B 4 0 1 0 0 1 2 .250 0 0
D. Daulton 1B 4 0 1 0 0 1 2 .250 0 0
C. Johnson C 3 1 1 0 1 1 0 .333 0 0
D. White CF 2 0 1 0 1 1 0 .500 0 0
a- K. Abbott PR 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0
C. Counsell 2B 4 0 0 0 0 1 6 .000 0 0
Totals 35 3 7 3 3 7 16
a - K. Abbott pinch ran for D. White in the 9th

BATTING
Doubles: D. White (1, 9th Inning off E. Plunk, 1 on, 0 outs)
Home Runs: M. Alou (1, 3rd Inning off C. Nagy, 0 on, 2 outs)
Total Bases: D. White 2 , G. Sheffield , E. Renteria , C. Johnson , D. Daulton , B. Bonilla , M. Alou 4
2-out RBI: M. Alou
Runners left in scoring position, 2 outs: E. Renteria , C. Counsell , M. Alou
Hit by Pitch: D. White
Team LOB: 6

BASERUNNING
SB: D. White (1)

FIELDING
Errors: E. Renteria , C. Johnson , B. Bonilla
Double Plays: 3 (Counsell-Renteria-Daulton, Renteria-Counsell-Daulton, Renteria-Counsell-Daulton)
Player AB R H RBI BB K LOB AVG HR RBI
O. Vizquel SS 5 1 3 3 0 0 1 .600 0 3
B. Roberts LF 4 2 1 0 1 1 3 .250 0 0
D. Justice DH 4 0 2 0 1 2 2 .500 0 0
S. Alomar Jr C 4 1 0 1 0 1 6 .000 0 1
J. Thome 1B 4 2 3 4 0 0 2 .750 1 4
M. Ramirez RF 5 1 2 1 0 2 1 .400 0 1
T. Fernandez 2B 4 2 3 1 0 0 0 .750 0 1
M. Williams 3B 3 1 1 1 1 0 3 .333 0 1
M. Grissom CF 3 1 1 0 1 1 2 .333 0 0
Totals 36 11 16 11 4 7 20
BATTING
Doubles: M. Williams (1, 7th Inning off J. Powell, 1 on, 2 outs) O. Vizquel (1, 6th Inning off F. Heredia, 1 on, 2 outs) M. Ramirez (1, 7th Inning off J. Powell, 1 on, 2 outs) T. Fernandez (1, 7th Inning off J. Powell, 1 on, 2 outs)
Home Runs: J. Thome (1, 1st Inning off A. Leiter, 2 on, 2 outs)
Total Bases: M. Williams 2 , O. Vizquel 4 , J. Thome 6 , B. Roberts , M. Ramirez 3 , D. Justice 2 , M. Grissom , T. Fernandez 4
2-out RBI: M. Williams , O. Vizquel , J. Thome , M. Ramirez , T. Fernandez
Runners left in scoring position, 2 outs: S. Alomar Jr , M. Williams , O. Vizquel , J. Thome , B. Roberts , M. Grissom
GIDP: S. Alomar Jr 2 , B. Roberts
Sac Bunt: M. Williams
Sac Fly: S. Alomar Jr , J. Thome
Team LOB: 9

BASERUNNING
SB: B. Roberts (1)

FIELDING
Errors: O. Vizquel
FLORIDA 1997 PITCHING LINESCORE CLEVELAND 1997 PITCHING LINESCORE
Player IP H R ER BB K HR PI PS ERA
A. Leiter L (0-1) 4.0 5 5 2 3 5 1 76 42 4.50
F. Heredia 2.0 4 1 1 0 2 0 26 22 4.50
J. Powell 0.2 4 3 3 0 0 0 19 12 40.50
T. Saunders 1.1 3 2 2 1 0 0 23 16 13.50
PITCHING
Game Score: A. Leiter 40
Batters Faced: A. Leiter 21, F. Heredia 9, J. Powell 5, T. Saunders 9
Ground Outs - Fly Outs: A. Leiter 2-4, F. Heredia 1-2, J. Powell 1-0, T. Saunders 1-3
Pitches - Strikes: A. Leiter 76-42, F. Heredia 26-22, J. Powell 19-12, T. Saunders 23-16
Inherited Runners - Scored: F. Heredia 1-0 , J. Powell 1-0 , T. Saunders 1-0
WP: J. Powell
Player IP H R ER BB K HR PI PS ERA
C. Nagy W (1-0) 7.0 3 1 1 3 5 1 98 61 1.29
E. Plunk 2.0 4 2 1 0 2 0 39 27 4.50
PITCHING
Game Score: C. Nagy 69
Batters Faced: C. Nagy 28, E. Plunk 11
Ground Outs - Fly Outs: C. Nagy 9-7, E. Plunk 0-4
Pitches - Strikes: C. Nagy 98-61, E. Plunk 39-27
Hit Batsmen: C. Nagy
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: 3:23
Attendance: 44,880
Special Notes: CF Devon White was injured while running the bases.