I just happened to flip on the Yankees-Indians game last night in the 6th inning. Indians starter Jeremy Sowers missed badly with a pair of pitches and walked Mark Teixeira to load the bases with nobody out (his third straight walk to start the inning). Manager Eric Wedge pulled his struggling starter and brought in journeyman reliever Greg Aquino.

What followed was eye-popping. Alex Rodriguez, he of 17 career grand slams, strode to the plate. Aquino started Alex off with a fastball strike about a half-inch inside. A-Rod then swung over a nasty slider that dove into the dirt. Rodriguez then fouled off another slider that was a couple of inches outside; then came another slider that started up around A-Rod's chest and landed above the belt for a called strike three - about as high a strike as you will see called in the majors. A-Rod never really had a chance.

Aquino's next pitch, a slider to Jorge Posada, was tapped back to the mound; he got the out at home but they couldn't turn the double play. His sixth, and last, pitch of the inning was a bit of a mistake to Robinson Cano, left up but off the plate. Cano hit it hard to the opposite field but lined out. Aquino pumped his fist, and deserved to for a heck of an inning.

I went on to something else after that; an hour later I checked the box score, and saw Aquino's final line:

Apparently, Aquino came out to pitch the top of the 7th, walked four batters and gave up a bases-loaded double. That brilliant inning that he threw a few minutes earlier... well, baseball's a cruel mistress, I guess. (Cleveland pitchers walked 11 batters en route to a 5-2 defeat. Meanwhile, Grady Sizemore might need surgery...)

Still, that inning is one of those little things that you treasure as a fan, even if it's pretty much lost to recorded history. Given that I only invested about 10 minutes in watching baseball last night, I'm lucky to have seen it.