Photo courtesy of Joshua Rothhaas/Flickr.
If you’re a Cleveland fan than things are pretty bleak. The Browns are horrible, the Indians have seen better days, and don’t even get me started on the Cavaliers. Still, it’s important to find the silver linings in the losses.
LeBron James put up arguably the best performance in NBA finals history. And, there is another loss that had its lining. On June 17th, the Cleveland Indians lost 0 – 17 against the visiting Chicago Cubs. Yes, that is a humiliating loss at home, and the degree of defeat was so bad that it alone might have been a unique sight to behold, but that’s not the silver lining. For fans that stuck around the game featured a very rare pitching feat, where two outfield members of the Indians were called in to pitch.
For the first time since 1990 in a nine inning game, two different position players were brought in to help relieve a struggling pitching staff. Ryan Raburn was the first player to take the mound. Raburn had actually pitched in a similar situation the year before, but did not have the touch as he loaded the bases and then proceeded to hit a batter. So manager Terry Francona had to go even deeper into his squad, pulling David Murphy in to pitch.
Murphy managed to get the first batter he faced to pop up, but the ball was mishandled by rookie Francisco Lindor. Had the error not been made the top half of the ninth inning would have been over. Instead, the next batter, Kris Bryant, hit a grand slam. When coming to the plate in the bottom half of the inning, the crowd gave Murphy a standing ovation. At the end of the day if you lose by one it’s the same as losing by seventeen, but seeing some of these sports rarities makes going to the game that much more memorable win or lose.
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