Marlins Heat Up When It Counts Florida Shakes Off Cold To Take 2-1 Series Lead Over Cleveland
It all began with a mad dash by Bobby Bonilla, Florida’s gimpy third baseman.
And by the time it was over, by the time seven Marlins had crossed the plate during a stunning ninth-inning rally Tuesday night, thousands of Cleveland Indians fans, supposedly among the most loyal in sports, had made a mad dash to the Jacobs Field exits.
And who could blame them? The Marlins were on their way to a 14-11 victory in Game 3 of the World Series, the wind-chill factor had dipped to 23 degrees, an unsightly game that included 17 walks and six errors had dragged on past midnight, and there was no need to prolong the misery.
“Both teams out-uglied each other,” Cleveland Manager Mike Hargrove said. “This was about as ugly a game as you’ll see.”
It didn’t get really ugly for the Indians until the top of the ninth, when they suffered their greatest collapse since their furry fuchsia mascot, Slider, fell off the outfield wall during the 1995 World Series and tore his anterior cruciate ligament.
The Marlins took advantage of four hits, three Indian errors and a wild pitch to score seven runs, turning a tense tie game into a 14-7 lead, a cushion large enough for Marlins closer Robb Nen to absorb a four-run clubbing in the bottom of the ninth, when the Indians almost made it interesting.
The teams combined for 25 runs, second-most in World Series history behind Toronto’s 15-14 victory over Philadelphia in Game 4 of the 1993 series, a marathon that Marlin first baseman Darren Daulton, who homered in the fourth inning Tuesday night, was also a part of.
Bonilla opened the ninth with a walk off reliever Eric Plunk and seemed to catch the Indians flatfooted when he took off for third on Daulton’s single to center.
Center fielder Marquis Grissom made a strong throw that arrived just as Bonilla slid, but the ball hit Bonilla in the back and caromed into a camera well, and Bonilla was allowed to limp home with the go-ahead run.
“Bobby is not real fast, but he’s a good baserunner,” Marlins manager Jim Leyland said. “He wasn’t sure if he was going to go, and then it looked like he had a flash, like he said, ‘Hey, this is the World Series,’ and he took off. That’s what you’re supposed to do.”
Moises Alou struck out and Cliff Floyd was intentionally walked, but first baseman Jim Thome dropped Plunk’s pickoff attempt, allowing Daulton to score. Charles Johnson singled, and second baseman Tony Fernandez booted Craig Counsell’s potential double-play grounder, allowing another run to score.
Edgar Renteria walked, and Gary Sheffield and Bonilla each followed with two-run singles off closer Jose Mesa, as the Marlins became the first team since the 1936 New York Yankees to score seven runs in the ninth inning of a World Series game.
RBI singles by Thome and Grissom and Roberts’ two-run double in the bottom of the ninth pulled the Indians to within 14-11, but Nen got Omar Vizquel to ground to second, ending the 4-hour, 12-minute game.
“I’ve been in some slugfests, but I’ve never been involved in a game like this,” said Sheffield, who went 3 for 5 with a home run and five RBIs and made a sparkling catch of Thome’s seventh-inning drive at the top of the right-field wall.
“The biggest thing was for us to win on the road, because this is the loudest crowd I’ve ever played before. I couldn’t hear myself think.”
He could by the ninth inning, when the Indians tied a World Series record with three errors, the first time since 1966, when the Dodgers fell apart in the fifth inning of Game 2 against the Baltimore Orioles, that a team committed three errors in an inning.
Marlins 14, Indians 11
Florida AB R H BI BB SO Avg. DWhite cf 5 0 1 0 1 1 .214 Renteria ss 4 2 2 1 2 0 .333 Sheffield rf 5 2 3 5 1 0 .444 Bonilla 3b 5 1 1 2 1 1 .250 Daulton 1b 4 3 2 1 2 0 .429 Conine 1b 0 0 0 0 0 0 .400 Alou lf 5 0 0 0 0 3 .250 Eisenreich dh 3 1 2 2 0 0 .500 a-Abbott ph-dh 1 0 0 0 0 1 .000 b-Floyd ph-dh 0 1 0 0 1 0 .000 CJohnson c 5 2 3 0 0 0 .364 Counsell 2b 5 2 2 1 0 2 .273 Totals 42 14 16 12 8 8 Cleveland AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Roberts lf 5 1 1 2 0 1 .333 Vizquel ss 4 0 0 1 2 1 .167 Ramirez rf 5 0 1 1 0 0 .154 Justice dh 3 2 0 0 2 0 .300 MaWilliams 3b 5 0 1 1 0 2 .286 SAlomar c 3 2 2 1 1 0 .417 c-Giles ph 0 1 0 0 1 0 1.000 Thome 1b 4 3 2 2 1 1 .308 TFernandez 2b 4 0 1 1 0 0 .500 Grissom cf 3 2 2 1 2 0 .700 Totals 36 11 10 10 9 5 Florida 101 102 207 - 14 Cleveland 200 320 004 - 11 a-struck out for Eisenreich in the 8th. b-was intentionally walked for Abbott in the 9th. c-walked for Alomar in the 9th.
E-Bonilla 2 (2), ALeiter (1), Thome (1), TFernandez (1), Grissom (1). LOB-Florida 9, Cleveland 9. 2B-Sheffield (1), Roberts (3). HR-Eisenreich (1) off Nagy; Thome (2) off ALeiter; Daulton (1) off Nagy; Sheffield (1) off Nagy. RBIs-Renteria (2), Sheffield 5 (5), Bonilla 2 (2), Daulton (1), Eisenreich 2 (2), Counsell (1), Roberts 2 (4), Vizquel (1), Ramirez (2), MaWilliams (1), SAlomar (3), Thome 2 (3), TFernandez (1), Grissom (2). S-Roberts. SF-TFernandez. GIDP-Sheffield, Bonilla, Grissom.
Runners left in scoring position-Florida 3 (Sheffield 2, Alou); Cleveland 5 (Vizquel, Ramirez, Justice, MaWilliams, Thome).
Runners moved up-DWhite, Bonilla, Vizquel, Justice, TFernandez.
DP-Florida 1 (Counsell, Renteria and Daulton); Cleveland 2 (Thome, Vizquel and Nagy), (Vizquel, TFernandez and Thome).
Florida IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA ALeiter 4-2/3 6 7 4 6 3 114 7.71 FHeredia 2-1/3 0 0 0 1 0 34 0.00 Cook W,1-0 1 1 0 0 0 1 17 0.00 Nen 1 3 4 4 2 1 43 18.00 Cleveland IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Nagy 6 6 5 5 4 5 96 7.50 BrAnderson 1/3 1 1 1 0 0 9 27.00 MJackson 2/3 2 1 1 1 0 12 4.50 Assenmacher 2/3 3 0 0 0 1 18 0.00 Plunk L,0-1 2/3 2 4 3 2 1 21 10.13 Morman 1/3 0 2 0 1 1 18 0.00 Mesa 1/3 2 1 1 0 0 12 6.75 Inherited runners-scored-FHeredia 1-0, MJackson 1-1, Plunk 3-0, Morman 2-1, Mesa 3-3. IBB-off Plunk (Floyd) 1, off MJackson (Daulton) 1. WP-Mesa. T-4:12. A-44,880.
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ON DECK Today: Florida (Saunders 4-6) at Cleveland (Wright 8-3), 5 p.m. TV: NBC. Radio: KTRW 970 AM.