"Wouldn't you love to know what Travis Hafner shouted the second after his bat made contact with Luis Perez's fastball Friday night in the ninth inning?

He shouted, flipped the bat, clapped his hands, did a double-fist pump, and took a couple of sideways shuffle steps out of the box before pointing himself to first base and running into the waiting delirium. The dead-in-the-water Indians entered the ninth looking at a 4-0 deficit against Toronto. Hafner's slam gave them a 5-4 victory.

Reliever Chad Durbin, in a Tweet, called what came out of Hafner's mouth a combination growl and shout. Durbin, who pitched a scoreless seventh inning, was in the dugout to hear it.

Hafner, long after the noise had stopped and the ballpark was empty, told a reporter that he yelled because he correctly followed his internal instructions. With the Indians down, 3-0, in the seventh, he hit a ground ball to second base to start an inning-ending double play and was mad at himself.

"I had a pitch to hit that inning and I said, 'Come, on, swing the bat,' " said Hafner.

In the ninth, Perez gave Hafner a first-pitch fastball to hit. This time, he swung the bat well.

If that's what Hafner felt, fine, but perhaps there was more to it. The growl-shout, the bat flip, the clap, double-fist pump and shuffle, maybe they were Hafner's way of saying: "I'm still here. And what's more, I'm back."

Back from having his $13 million-a-year contract viewed as a millstone around the neck of the organization."