Boredom and frustration lead to exhiliaration and excitement in 5-4 win thanks to Hafner Grand Slam

The Cleveland Indians 47-39 in dramatic fashion walked off with the most incredible win so far in 2011. Coming into the game, the emotion of beating the Yankees was fresh. My wife and I went to batting practice. The player with the best swings was Matt LaPorta. He launched a ball during batting practice that looked similar to Joey Bautista's 9th inning homerun that made the score 4-0. I thought Matt was going to launch a homerun tonight.

Offensively, the game was frustrating and boring. Every inning the Indians would get runners on and not bring them home. Until the 9th. I was still upset about the umpiring last night. Meanwhile, a single up the middle by Buck and a double by LaPorta put the crowd into a frenzy. Walking Hannahan to load the bases then seeing Brantley strike out had me thinking the Indians were trying too hard to hit the homerun. I tweeted that the team should just try to get on base and forget the homerun. Asdrubal Cabrera did this when he hit a single to left field knocking in Travis Buck.

Hafner was next with the bases loaded. I thought that Travis could just get on base and perhaps cut it to 4-3. Instead this happened.

 

It was simply amazing and better if you were there live.

Indians Lonnie Chisenhall was injured when it looked like it hit him from where I was sitting in the helmet. It was a bruised cheek however. I truly hope he was okay and I know the pitcher felt bad when it happened.

Also, the Indians Zach McAllister pitched his debut. He got into trouble and was okay but still needs AAA work and was sent back to AAA Columbus after the game. He wasn't terrible but I was glad to see the bullpen help McAllister.

Thanks to Travis Hafner, he did not lose his debut.