Chris James has a day for the ages as he drives in nine runs in a 20-6 rout by the Cleveland Indians over the Oakland Athletics.
James, who entered the day with five RBI on the season, wasted no time driving in runs. Against Oakland’s Kirk Dressendorfer in the first with two outs, he cleared the left-center field fence with a three-run homer, scoring Mark Lewis and Beau Allred. One inning later, he again stepped in with two on and two outs and drove both Lewis and Allred in again with his second homer in as many innings. He made it three straight ABs with an RBI as his two-out single off of Curt Young in the fourth scored Lewis to make it a 10-1 Indians lead. He was retired in the sixth on a groundout, but came up with Allred on third and Albert Belle on first in the eighth and drove the pair home with a single to left off of Eric Show to make it a 14-5 game.
James was lifted to start the bottom of the eighth and would have been the third man to bat in the ninth. His replacement, Jeff Manto, walked and later scored the 20th and final run of the game.
His club-record nine RBI were matched by Lonnie Chisenhall in 2014.