Baltimore Orioles @ Cleveland Indians (1)

Although my flight wasn't until lunchtime, I had to leave plenty of time to get to the airport, as you clear US immigration and customs at Toronto airport, rather than when you arrive in the USA. It cost me less than $3 to get back to the airport, as I went on the subway and transferred to the Airport Rocket bus. This took barely longer than the $70 limo had taken to do the trip the other way, but was not quite as comfortable. Once I had gone through all the sections to the special terminal for departures to the USA, I decided to have a decent lunch in case of delays on the flight. In contrast with my flight into Canada, the flight out again was very good. Since all 7 of us were on time, we just left 10 minutes early and arrived quite a bit early in Cleveland. I was the only passenger with baggage in the back - but despite standing there next to it on the tarmac, I had to allow them to send it through the baggage system and claim it at the terminal. In the end, it's such a long walk to the baggage claim, that it got there before I did and I hadn't had to drag it.

I took the subway to Tower City and walked past the baseball stadium to the hotel, which is only the next block along. I have a great view of the stadium from my window. My room has a fridge and a microwave in it, so I put my two complimentary bottles of water in the fridge for later. So after unpacking some things, I went along the short walk to the stadium and found my section was almost straight inside the gate. I was sitting in section 154 in row H - which is actually the third row, right behind the action, next to the TV cameraman behind the play.

I was sitting next to one of the youngest fans in the stadium who, at just 2 months old, didn't seem to actually understand much of what was going on, but she was at least quiet throughout the game. The guys in the two rows in front were comparing notes about how many MLB stadia they haven't each yet visited - I beat them just, as my list only has 5 stadia on it, and given another week or so, that'll reduce to just 3: Dodgers & Angels in Los Angeles, and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Fewer than 10,000 fans turned up for this game between two teams that are contending for the play-offs - it's quite amazing. Just like the two games that I saw in Toronto, this AL match-up was also played at a decent speed, finishing in just under 3 hours. The Indians steadily built their lead over the first 7 innings with a couple of sacrifices and tacking on another 2 to lead 4-0 ... which disappeared in a hurry with a 3-run HR in the 8th inning. Chris Tillman, pitching for the Orioles looked OK, and didn't really do a lot wrong, whilst Ubaldo Jimenez went well for the Indians, shutting them down in 7 strong innings before the bullpen gave up the runs that made it far closer than it ought to have been.