Final
Sizemore, Indians thump Padres
Jun 14, 2008 - 6:31 AM By Todd Krepop PA SportsTicker Contributing WriterCLEVELAND (Ticker) -- Not even a rain delay of nearly three hours could cool off the red-hot Grady Sizemore
Sizemore hit two home runs and the Cleveland Indians defeated the San Diego Padres, 9-5, on Friday in the opener of a three-game interleague series.
Kelly Shoppach also homered for the Indians, who won for the first time in interleague play this year in a game that didn't end until well past 1 a.m. Saturday. But that wasn't enough to slow down Sizemore.
In his last 14 games, Sizemore has connected for eight home runs to catapult himself to a tie for second in the American League with 16 home runs.
"I'm not trying to hit home runs," Sizemore said. "But I have to admit that I am feeling pretty comfortable at the plate."
Sizemore led off the first with his fifth leadoff home run of the season. Sizemore blasted Josh Banks' 1-1 offering over the right field wall to give Cleveland an early lead. But two batters later, rain and thunderstorms moved in and forced the game to be delayed for two hours, 43 minutes.
With this being the only meeting of the season, both teams were forced to wait out the storms.
"If you have an opportunity to play, you are going to do whatever you can to play," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "You could see there would be clearing and we couldn't wait much longer."
Five hours after he hit his first home run, Sizemore connected off reliever Mike Adams in the seventh for a two-run homer. Sizemore sent Adams' 2-0 pitch 430 feet into the right field stands for his fourth career two-homer game - third this season - to extend Cleveland's lead 7-4.
"(Home runs) seem to come in bunches," said Sizemore, who is batting .357 during his hitting streak.
"He is a fantastic player," Wedge said. "He had a couple of big home runs for us."
Cleveland tacked on two more runs in the eighth on Jamey Carroll's RBI single and a sacrifice fly by Ben Francisco.
Rafael Betancourt (2-3) pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings to pick up the win and Masa Kobayashi worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings to pick up his third save.
Trailing, 4-3, Cleveland managed to put a rally together off of reliever Cla Meredith. Francisco and Ryan Garko hit consecutive one-out singles and Jhonny Peralta walked with two outs to load the bases.
Shin-Soo Choo swung at the first pitch he saw from Meredith (0-2) and rolled a grounder through the hole at second to score two runs.
"I think the one pitch he would want back is the one to Peralta," Padres manager Bud Black said. "He had him down 1-2 and walked him. He got the ground ball to Choo but it found a hole."
Adrian Gonzalez's two-run homer off of Jeremy Sowers in the fifth gave the Padres a 4-3 lead. Gonzalez now has 62 RBI, which lead the National League.
- ML
FINAL
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
- - - - - - - - - - - -
SAN DIEGO 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 1 0 5 14 0
CLEVELAND 1 0 2 0 0 2 2 2 x 9 12 0 (FINAL)
BATTERIES: SDG - JOSH BANKS, CLA MEREDITH (6TH), MIKE ADAMS (7TH), CARLOS
GUEVARA (8TH) AND MICHAEL BARRETT
CLE - JEREMY SOWERS, RAFAEL BETANCOURT (5TH), RAFAEL
PEREZ (7TH),
Jun 14 1:20 AM - ML
AT CLEVELAND - SCORING UPDATE
SACRIFICE FLY BY BEN FRANCISCO SCORED KELLY SHOPPACH.
SITUATION: 2 RUNS IN, J CARROLL ON FIRST, G SIZEMORE ON THIRD, 2 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: SAN DIEGO 5
CLEVELAND 9 BOTTOM, 8TH
DUE UP FOR CLEVELAND: R GARKO (.264, 2-FOR-4)
Padres 5, Guardians 9 Bot 8, 0 OutsJun 14 1:10 AM - ML
AT CLEVELAND - SCORING UPDATE
SINGLE BY JAMEY CARROLL SCORED SHIN-SOO CHOO.
SITUATION: 1 RUN IN, J CARROLL ON FIRST, G SIZEMORE ON SECOND, K
SHOPPACH ON THIRD, 1 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: SAN DIEGO 5
CLEVELAND 8 BOTTOM, 8TH
DUE UP FOR CLEVELAND: B FRANCISCO (.308, 1-FOR-4)
Padres 5, Guardians 8 Bot 8, 0 OutsJun 14 1:09 AM - ML
AT CLEVELAND - SCORING UPDATE
SOLO HOME RUN BY KEVIN KOUZMANOFF (9) TO LEFT WITH 1 OUT IN
THE 8TH OFF RAFAEL PEREZ.
CURRENT SCORE: SAN DIEGO 5, CLEVELAND 7
DUE UP FOR SAN DIEGO: K GREENE (.219, 1-FOR-3, RBI)
Padres 5, Guardians 7 Top 8, 0 OutsJun 14 12:42 AM - ML
AT CLEVELAND - SCORING UPDATE
TWO-RUN HOME RUN BY GRADY SIZEMORE (16) TO RIGHT WITH 0 OUT
IN THE 7TH OFF MIKE ADAMS SCORED KELLY SHOPPACH.
CURRENT SCORE: SAN DIEGO 4, CLEVELAND 7
DUE UP FOR CLEVELAND: J CARROLL (.274, 1-FOR-3)
Padres 4, Guardians 7 Bot 7, 0 OutsJun 14 12:23 AM - ML
AT CLEVELAND - SCORING UPDATE
SINGLE BY SHIN-SOO CHOO SCORED BEN FRANCISCO AND RYAN
GARKO.
SITUATION: 2 RUNS IN, S CHOO ON FIRST, J PERALTA ON THIRD, 2 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: SAN DIEGO 4
CLEVELAND 5 BOTTOM, 6TH
DUE UP FOR CLEVELAND: C BLAKE (.261, 1-FOR-2)
Padres 4, Guardians 5 Bot 6, 0 OutsJun 14 12:04 AM - ML
AT CLEVELAND - SCORING UPDATE
TWO-RUN HOME RUN BY ADRIAN GONZALEZ (19) TO RIGHT WITH 1
OUT IN THE 5TH OFF JEREMY SOWERS SCORED BRIAN GILES.
CURRENT SCORE: SAN DIEGO 4, CLEVELAND 3
DUE UP FOR SAN DIEGO: T CLARK (.268, 2-FOR-2)
Padres 4, Guardians 3 Top 5, 0 OutsJun 13 11:22 PM - ML
AT CLEVELAND - SCORING UPDATE
GROUND OUT BY KHALIL GREENE SCORED TONY CLARK.
SITUATION: 2 RUNS IN, K KOUZMANOFF ON SECOND, 1 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: SAN DIEGO 2
CLEVELAND 3 TOP, 4TH
DUE UP FOR SAN DIEGO: M BARRETT (.189, 0-FOR-1)
Padres 2, Guardians 3 Top 4, 0 OutsJun 13 11:00 PM - ML
AT CLEVELAND - SCORING UPDATE
DOUBLE BY KEVIN KOUZMANOFF SCORED ADRIAN GONZALEZ.
SITUATION: 1 RUN IN, K KOUZMANOFF ON SECOND, T CLARK ON THIRD, 0 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: SAN DIEGO 1
CLEVELAND 3 TOP, 4TH
DUE UP FOR SAN DIEGO: K GREENE (.217, 0-FOR-1)
Padres 1, Guardians 3 Top 4, 0 OutsJun 13 10:59 PM - ML
AT CLEVELAND - SCORING UPDATE
TWO-RUN HOME RUN BY KELLY SHOPPACH (4) TO RIGHT WITH 0 OUT
IN THE 3RD OFF JOSH BANKS SCORED CASEY BLAKE.
CURRENT SCORE: SAN DIEGO 0, CLEVELAND 3
DUE UP FOR CLEVELAND: G SIZEMORE (.270, 1-FOR-1, HR, RBI)
Padres 0, Guardians 3 Bot 3, 0 OutsJun 13 10:40 PM - ML
AT CLEVELAND - SCORING UPDATE
SOLO HOME RUN BY GRADY SIZEMORE (15) TO RIGHT WITH 0 OUT IN
THE 1ST OFF JOSH BANKS.
CURRENT SCORE: SAN DIEGO 0, CLEVELAND 1
DUE UP FOR CLEVELAND: J CARROLL (.273, 0 HR, 9 RBI)
Padres 0, Guardians 1 Bot 1, 0 OutsJun 13 7:13 PM
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