Hafner ties season grand slam record
CLEVELAND – As a youngster, Travis Hafner was a Don Mattingly fan. Now, he’s matched his grand slam record.
Hafner hit his sixth grand slam in Cleveland’s 11-run first inning to tie Mattingly’s single-season record and the Indians routed the Kansas City Royals 13-0 Sunday.
“It’s pretty cool to tie a major league record,” Hafner said. “Mattingly was one of the best hitters in the game. I liked to watch him on TV when I was young.”
Hafner put Cleveland ahead 11-0 with his 35th homer of the season and tied Mattingly’s mark set with the New York Yankees in 1987.
The Indians got the historic baseball back from a fan and gave it to Hafner, who has 45 games remaining with a chance to break the record.
“I’ll have to see if there is a next one,” Hafner said. He is 8 for 13 with six homers and 29 RBIs this season with the bases loaded. It was his eighth career grand slam.
The first 10 Indians to bat all reached base and scored against Luke Hudson.
It was the largest first inning by the Indians since opening with 11 runs against the Baltimore Orioles on July 6, 1954. The team record is a 14-run first inning against the Philadelphia Athletics on June 18, 1950.
“Every day you see something different,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said. “It was crazy. I’ve never seen a first inning like that.”
Rookie Jeremy Sowers (4-3) gave up five hits over six innings. He struck out two and walked one to help Cleveland complete a four-game series sweep and match a season-high six-game winning streak set April 4-11. The left-hander is 3-0 over his last five starts, allowing five earned runs in 36 innings to lower his ERA from 7.94 to 3.53.
“There’s nothing wrong with my teammates getting hits and scoring runs,” Sowers said. “When they finally make that third out 45 minutes later, you go out and try to pitch your game.
Andrew Brown made his major league debut for Cleveland after being called up from Triple-A Buffalo and pitched two scoreless innings.
The Royals have been outscored 74-31 in losing 11 in a row at Jacobs Field since July 20, 2005.
“We definitely need to get out of here for a while,” Royals manager Buddy Bell said.
Hudson gave up 10 earned runs and eight hits with three walks in one-third of an inning, falling to 5-1 since being recalled from Triple-A Omaha on June 30.
“I had one of those days, to say the least,” Hudson said. “I never expected one this bad. It just goes to show that you can’t get too high after a few wins and I shouldn’t be too low after a loss like this.”