Ooops! There was no crowd.
That meant the Indians on Monday night had to make the most of the noise themselves, which they did by hammering baseballs off the furniture in many parts of mostly empty Tropicana Field, as the Tribe rolled to an 11-4 demolition of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
The Indians' win, their fifth in a row, and the Yankees' win over Toronto on Monday throws the wild-card race into a virtual three-way tie. Oakland is 68-55 (.553), New York 68-55 (.553) and Cleveland 69-56 (.552).
"There's a lot of baseball left, and there are good teams competing with us, but we feel we're a good team, too," said Tribe first baseman Ben Broussard.
Playing before a small gathering of family and friends that totaled 8,564 - some of whom probably just came indoors to get out of the rain, only to find a ball game going on - the Indians slugged five home runs, two in a bulldozing seven-run seventh inning.
Only four players in the Indians' starting lineup didn't hit a home run. The five who did were Coco Crisp, Grady Sizemore, Jhonny Peralta, Victor Martinez and Broussard.
Trailing, 3-1, after the second inning, the Indians ran roughshod over a wretched Tampa Bay pitching staff that ranks 13th in the American League in earned-run average and has now given up a league-high 151 home runs.
Kevin Millwood, who is accustomed to no - or almost no - run support, was in the right place at the right time this night. Millwood pitched six innings and gave up four runs. But it didn't matter, as the Indians' offense basically took batting practice for nine innings, pounding out 15 hits.
"It was a good night for a lot of guys on our team," said Broussard.
"Everyone contributed," said Manager Eric Wedge. "We really put some nice swings on the ball."
One of those swings produced the 20th home run of the season for Peralta, who is bearing down on the Indians' record for home runs by a shortstop, which is 23 by Woodie Held in 1961.
"Hitting 20 is a big accomplishment for me because it's the first time I've done it," said Peralta. "Maybe I can hit more. Twenty-five wouldn't be too bad."
The win snapped a six-game Indians losing streak to the Devil Rays. It's their first win against Tampa Bay since - go figure - May 16 of last year. The Indians were swept by the Rays in Cleveland at the start of the Tribe's last homestand, and they were swept in a three-game series in Tampa Bay in their last series here, in May of last year.
"Any time a team beats you like they did to us, it's nice to come back and beat them," said Broussard. "But they've got a good team. They swing the bat. You can't take them lightly."
Crisp belted a solo homer in the first inning off Rays starter Doug Waechter, but Millwood walked the first two batters in the Tampa Bay second, then served up a three-run home run to Travis Lee.
"The pitch to Lee was a terrible one, but the walks are what killed me," said Millwood.
Lee's homer was the last hurrah for the home team. In the Indians' third inning, Sizemore blasted a two-run home run, and one batter later, Peralta ripped a solo shot to left center to tie the score at three.
Jorge Cantu's solo homer in the third gave Tampa Bay a 4-3 lead, but it was all Indians from there.
In the seventh inning, the Indians sent 10 men to the plate, and seven of them scored as the Tribe broke it open.
"We just got blown out of there in the seventh," said Rays manager Lou Piniella.
"We've had those kinds of innings before, and it gets to be a domino effect," said Wedge. "Everybody wants to keep it going."
Everybody did.
Sizemore kick-started the rally by sprinting hard to first to beat out a routine grounder to second for an infield hit. Two batters later, Sizemore scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Travis Hafner, giving the Indians a 5-4 lead.
"That was a big RBI," said Wedge. "It wasn't a double in the gap, but it was a great at-bat. Travis did a great job of staying on the pitch, and punching it to left to give us a chance to score a run. He's just a good hitter."
Said Broussard: "Travis got the big RBI and that got our momentum going."
Victor Martinez followed that with two-run homer to left off loser Trever Miller (1-1), giving the Indians a 7-4 lead. Jesus Colome relieved Miller, and after walking Ron Belliard, Colome got co-lobbered: a first pitch, two-run homer by Broussard to make it 9-4.
Sizemore and Crisp added RBI singles later in the inning to finish off the big inning.
Millwood, whose lack of run support has been one of the ongoing sagas of this season, got some payback this time, as his record improved to 7-10.
"He had to battle," said Wedge. "Typical Kevin. He made some big pitches when he had to and kept us right there."
In front of a non-crowd.
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