Designated hitter Eddie Murray walks the Indians off a winner in the bottom of the eleventh inning as Cleveland defeats the Atlanta Braves, 7-6, to win their first World Series game since 1948.
Down two games to none in their first World Series appearance since 1954, the Indians hosted their first championship game at their two-year-old new home, Jacobs Field, and gave the fans a game to remember.
The Tribe fell behind in the first when Fred McGriff singled home Chipper Jones with two outs against Indians starter Charles Nagy. But they took their first lead of the night in the bottom half of the frame on an RBI-triple from Omar Vizquel and an RBI-groundout from Carlos Baerga off of Atlanta’s John Smoltz. They padded that lead in the third on back-to-back RBI hits from Baerga and Albert Belle.
Atlanta would slowly chip away, as McGriff homered in the sixth and Ryan Klesko followed suit in the seventh off of Nagy to make it a 4-3 Indians lead. After Baerga padded the Indians lead with a key insurance run in the seventh on an RBI-single to short, the Braves took advantage of clutch hitting and a fielding miscue by Cleveland to plate three eighth inning runs to take a 6-5 lead. A double to lead off the inning was followed by a run-scoring single from Luis Polonia. A walk to Jones from reliever Paul Assenmacher and a flyout from McGriff put two runners in scoring position and an error at second on a shot from David Justice tied the game. New reliever Julian Tavarez could not stop the bleeding as Mike Devereaux drove home Jones with a single to left to give the Braves their first lead since the top of the first.
A one-out double from Sandy Alomar in the bottom of the inning off of Mark Wohlers tied the game back at six and set the stage for extra innings. After a leadoff double from Baerga off of Alejandro Pena and an intentional walk to Albert Belle, Murray delivered a liner to center to score pinch-runner Alvaro Espinoza with the winning run.
Murray was 0-for-5 entering the at bat with three strikeouts on the night.
