The 50 Biggest Plays of the 2011 Cleveland Indians Season (With Video)
By Lewie Pollis
No. 10: Matt LaPorta’s walk-off home run, July 30 (.389 WPA): With two on and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, LaPorta hit a three-run homer off of Royals closer Joakim Soria to give the Indians a 5-2 walk-off win. (Full story)
No. 9: Orlando Cabrera’s home run, June 27 (.410 WPA): With two outs in the top of the ninth inning in Arizona, Cabrera’s pinch-hit home run off of Diamondbacks closer J.J. Putz broke a 4-4 tie and gave the Indians the lead. (Full story)
No. 8: Travis Hafner’s RBI double, July 25 (.418 WPA): With the tying run at second and one out in the bottom of the ninth, Hafner doubled off of Angels closer Jordan Walden to erase Los Angeles’ 2-1 lead and put the winning run in scoring position. (Full story)
No. 7: Travis Buck’s RBI double, July 9 (.446 WPA): With a runner at third and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Buck’s double off of Toronto closer Jon Rauch scored the tying run to erase the Blue Jays’ 4-3 lead and send the game into extra innings. (Full story)
No. 6: Travis Buck’s two-run home run, May 21 (.459 WPA): With one on and two outs, Buck took Reds starter Homer Bailey deep in the bottom of the seventh to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead. It was the biggest non-home run hit of the year for Cleveland. (Full story)
No. 5: Jack Hannahan’s home run, June 8 (.489 WPA): With two outs and the bases empty in the bottom of the ninth inning, Minnesota closer Matt Capps was two strikes away from preserving the Twins’ 2-1 victory. Hannahan’s home run tied the game, 2-2, and kept the Indians alive. (Full story)
No. 4: Austin Kearns‘ three-run home run, July 4 (.515 WPA): With runners at the corners and two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Kearns went yard against Yankees starter A.J. Burnett to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead. (Full story)
No. 3: Asdrubal Cabrera’s three-run home run, August 27 (.692 WPA): With two on and two out in the bottom of the eighth, Cabrera took Royals reliever Louis Coleman deep for a three-run homer that turned a 7-5 deficit into an 8-7 lead. (Full story)
No. 2: Travis Hafner’s walk-off grand slam, July 7 (.801 WPA): With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth of a 4-1 game, Hafner hit a moonshot off of Blue Jays reliever Luis Perez to give the Indians a 5-4 walk-off win. (Full story)
No. 1: Travis Hafner’s walk-off home run, May 13 (.839 WPA): With the tying run on third and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Hafner’s walk-off blast to dead-center field against Seattle closer Brandon League turned what looked like it would be a 4-3 loss into a 5-4 walk-off victory. (Full story)
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