Two Indians players seem unaffected by the team's disappointing season. Both are having career years. One is pitcher Cliff Lee. The other is center fielder Grady Sizemore, who wrote his name in the Indians' record books Monday night.
Sizemore became just the second player in Indians history to hit 30 home runs with 30 stolen bases in a season. He hit two homers Monday, giving him 31 for the season to go with his 34 stolen bases. One of Sizemore's homers came leading off the game, the seventh time he's done that this year, extending his own club record and tying him with Kenny Lofton for the team record with 18 career leadoff homers.
Manager Eric Wedge says Sizemore's value to the team is incalculable, not just because of Sizemore's production out of the leadoff spot in the order, but because of the way he plays the game and the example he sets for the rest of the team.
Nobody in the league plays the game harder or with more energy day to day than the Indians' center fielder. His motor never stops, and despite the disappointment of this season for the Indians as a team, you'd never know it by watching the play of Sizemore, who plays the same whether the Indians are winning 10-1 or losing 10-1.
INDIANS 4, TIGERS 3: OF Franklin Gutierrez's solo home run in the 10th inning was the difference as the Indians won their eighth game in a row. OF Grady Sizemore belted home runs in his first two at-bats, giving him 31 to go with his 34 stolen bases, making him the second player in Indians history to have a 30/30 season. Joe Carter in 1987 is the other.
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