Quite a Welcome for Alex White

I bet you thought I was going to have a clever joke in the title about Albuquerque.  You were wrong. Actually I wanted to have some sort of awesome quote from A Clockwork Orange but that didn't work out welly-well. I went with vanilla title.

Alex White gave up 2 homers today, in the 4th. Scott Cabrera is not surprised. Alex White also takes the field to Billy Squire's "The Stroke". He is TOTALLY going to fit in here! But, seriously, he did great in his first major league start - especially with his whole family AND the entire Tarheel Baseball staff in attendance. Two runs but only on six hits, four strikeouts and only four walks. Fits right in, for real.

Our bullpen got the full stretch tonight, first with the "planned" Smith and Pestano in the 7th and 8th, and Chris Perez capping off the 9th. Only, our lineup didn't catch fire tonight so we had to figure out what was on the other side of the door and the answer is Rafael Perez (still gave up no runs) in the 10th and 11th, and Sipp in the 12th and 13th. Not bad to have 5 guys come out and give up no runs!

Hannahan was impressive at third today, picking up a sa-weet out from a bare-handed grab. He tried to make such a grab last night and almost did it (this was while coming across the middle of the diamond, tho) and tonight he actually almost bobbled it, but instead he looked like a great third baseman and got Miguel Cabrera out at first. Hammy and Hegan threw out the term "Gold Glove" after that one but...rly? Being from Cleveland I don't quite know what a Gold Glove third baseman looks like, so maybe I just don't get it. But, Gold Glove level or not, he's top quality for Cleveland PLUS he bats so we'll keep him!

Santana was looking like a first baseman today too AND he got his 5th home run, tying Asdrubal to lead the team. Santana was at first because both Grady and Hafner were out today. Hafner is still nursing the sore ankle but Acta said he was available to pinch hit, and will probably be back Monday.

Grady had off today because he is supposed to have a break after every 3rd game, and he had actually gone 4 games. So there was no choice but to let him sit.

But it's cool, because there wasn't much going on in the outfield and we've got Michael Brantley to fill Grady's other important role as lead-off man.

Brantley did his duty by getting 3 hits in the game (.297!) including a hit to lead off the 13th, and then drew a wild throw to first putting him on second. This of course gave our Bunter Of The Year Asdrubal Cabrera a chance to bunt him to 3rd, which is what happened. Choo, who is getting scarier (to other teams) every day got intentionally walked and guess what? So did Santana who is super scary to the Tigers right now.


Now you've got the bases loaded and really, if you look at the rest of our lineup, you have not done yourself any favors. Any of those guys can get a hit at any time. ESPECIALLY Orlando Cabrera. He's a veteran, he's gotten some key hits for us today. ESTE ES UNO DE DOS CABRERAS! 

And well, if you managed to get out Orlando Cabrera, Jack Hannahan would have figured it out.

So, another walk-off win for the Tribe. Really fun baseball these last two nights, even though it was sort of low-scoring and/or intermittent scoring. I had a great time, how about you?! Playing for that 18th April win and to gain a whole game over a team in the standings, all that stuff really adds to the excitement.

Speaking of excitement, you MUST check out this Facebook page, Tom Hamilton has the Best Home Run call in all of Baseball. Dude caps all of Hammy's home run calls and puts them on Facebook. It's the best audio clip Facebook page ever in the history of audio clip Facebook pages (do others exist?) I watched the video of Santana's walk off grand slam about 5 times on MLB.com last night but then today I watched Hamilton's version another 5 times. Goosebumps!

Speaking of MLB.com, you might think that I work for MLB.com or shill for them or get some sort of kickback for mentioning them but I actually don't. I guess maybe I am just a fan of Web sites that deliver fresh content and stuff. I don't know...I like it. I don't get money from them but if I did, you bet I'd be talking about them three times as much! Will blog for free swag!

Did anyone check out the John Adams (patron saint of The Positive Tribe) stuff at the game today? The Defend Cleveland Show reported that there were indeed drum lines present and he threw out the first pitch. Here's a picture of the only mention of it on Twitter. I would like to know more, tho. Tried to get someone to go to the game with me today...actually tried two someones...and failed. Did you know that John Adams has only missed 37 games (Wikipedia says 34..?) since 1973? I am pretty happy that so many people came out to see the game (25k plus) on John Adams day because seriously people, if he can come EVERY DAY then we can come out more often. We can even take turns.

Radio Chatter:
"There isn't a prettier ballpark than this one when it fills up like it did tonight. There's a new energy at the corner of Carnagie and Ontario."
- Tom Hamilton

"Looking at his jersey, he's got letters starting at his waist, going up and ending again at his waist."
- Tom Hamilton, commenting on Al Alburquerque

"He only weighs about a hundred pounds. [...] If his name was Saltalamacchia it would go all the way around his number. He only needs a few more letters."
- Mike Hegan's take on Alburquerque's name

"You're saying 'Why not go to Everett?' and it's because Jack Hannahan, against left handed pitching this year, is hitting .529."
- Tom Hamilton

"Jim Leyland, who normally has a cigarette going, has smoke coming out of his ears."
- Tom Hamilton on Brennan Boesch's first-pitch popup with a man at second in the 13th inning.

"...Unfortunately, April is over."
- Tom Hamilton