C is for Cord

Hmm, could this be a trend? Cabrera, Cabrera, Choo, Carlos, Carrera, Chris, Carrasco and now Cord? Good thing I got my representative hat:

Sounds like all those fellas belong in Cleveland!

I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Father's day! I spent most of the day watching the game with my mom. But to be fair it was because I was cooking in honor of dad. Dad did not feel the need to watch the game - he prefers to get the Good News as filtered through me. Props to Dad for molding his wife into someone who at least lets you tune the TV to the game instead of something lame.

I was also impressed that when she saw STO was showing golf crap an hour before the game mom asked "Is there a rain delay?" noting that she has noticed over the years that if there is golf on the television it is most likely due to a rain delay.

Oh! Guess what! Goddamn Masterson shaved his goddamn beard. He didn't get the W but he had his 3rd 2-run game in a row and he didn't get the loss. He no longer looks like he pitches for the hipster bar league sponsored by PBR.

Besides that good news, he struck out 5 and went 5 innings.

Then the relievers came in and they were probably planned to go one inning each and close it out, except then it rained for 2 hours and then the game went in to extra innings. So there was Chris Perez in the 9th, after nice single-inning performances by Durbin, Raffy and Pestano. We go in to 10 and one thinks "well uhm, what comes after Chris Perez anyway?" sort of like "who works that extra hour at the 24-hour convenience store during the end of Daylight Savings Time?"

Well the answer is Joe Smith and then Tony Sipp, duh. After that would have been Hermann and then perhaps your mom (actually, it could have totally been Choo.) Glad we didn't have to find out!

Our middle of the lineup was kickin' it out today. Eight hits, two walks and HBP for 4-5-6-7!

Choo was totally ON IT today. He went 3 for 5 and stole a base (and eh, got caught stealing...) His hits looked great, too. He's batting .244 which is his highest since June 3.

If you're wondering how Choo felt about the firing of John Nunnally, quoth Nick Camino (@CaminoTribe):

Shin-Soo Choo told reporters: "We're still in first place. Why is he fired? I am very disappointed because he helped me a lot."

Also ON IT was Carlos Santana (who, if you noticed, was playing first just like we like it.) His 9th home run, his 13th double, two walks, two runs scored, one RBI, even saw the lights of the Goodyear Blimp and it read "Santana's a pimp."

What's up with Choo and Santana? Do you think having Hafner at #4 just keeps all pressure off them? Does he whisper some secrets about the opposing pitcher to them after he bats? Whatever it is that's into them right now...Like!

Aaaaaanyway...also getting a double and a homer tonight was the FNG Cord Phelps, who we will start comparing to Ezequiel Carrera but just for a minute, and maybe that was only me. Phelps has been struggling at the plate, no doubt. Even though he was hitting .295 I think when we plucked him out of the minors, this is still the big leagues. But he got his first double so that was cool.

Then he was up in the 11th and there were 2 men on. Santana had been walked to get to Phelps (followed by Marson - wouldn't you?) So there's a RISP in the form of Choo and we're running out of pitchers and it's been almost 5.5 hours since we started an it's muggy and hot and CAN'T WE JUST SWEEP THE PIRATES ALREADY?! Cuz I brought my broom, dammit!

If Tom Hamilton was calling today's game, which he wasn't, I don't know if he would have trotted out the old "Can the Indians re-create that same magic here at Progressive Field?" from the last few times we had a close-at-the-end situation. If you recall the Indians were all about wins at the last-at-bat and walkoff wins earlier in the season. Hammy has tried to evoke those sorts of wins lately but nothing comes of them. Would he have done it again, probably the third time in the past week or so?

It would have been epic to hear what might have happened between Hammy and Cord Phelp's bat tonight. But I will take the win and the sweep over the lack of epic radio call. I will concede to the television call.

Oh, yeah, this would have also been cool to hear Hammy call. Oh hai. I am in ur infieldz, vacuuming up ur baseballz wit mah bare hands. This may be the play of the year, I dunno. I don't know if it's better than his behind-the-back flip or what. I don't care. People will still call him "ass-dribble" and vote for Derek Jeter. Gah. But you know where it's at, right?

Wow, check out this awesome Asdrubal 2011 highlight reel that MLB just put up. It randomly showed up in my browser. I watched it twice.

I didn't really want to be a scoreboard watcher after we dipped down into 2nd place, but...the Tigers lost 2 our of 3 against the Rockies so now we're a whole game ahead of them, alone in first place. Now we get to play the Rockies.

Three more days of Hafner until we're in Other Timezone and Other League Hell, so be sure to tune in faithfully. Speaking of faithfully, I guess this weekend was our first 100,000+ fan weekend since September 2008! So, good job, Cleveland! I'm glad you're all done crying over basketball enough to come watch some awesome baseball.

I didn't catch any radio tonight but there was some good stuff on Twitter with regards to Phelps, Cabrera and even Perez, so I'll totally steal all that right now and present it to you. Enjoy!

Twitter Patter:
"The more Phelps does things like that, the more likely he gets a multiyear deal and my dream of an 'Extension Cord' headline comes true."
- @castrovince (Anthony Castrovince)

"Cord Phelps .. Absolutely awesome!!! Cbus fans know him well! Way to go buddy! #Indians #neveradoubt"
- @JLEWFifty (Jensen Lewis)

"Pestano, joking about Asdrubal's web gem: 'You know they don't give out gold hand awards. They're called Gold Gloves.'"
- @MLBastian (Jordan Bastian)

"Last Indian who’s first career homer was a walk-off was Ben Francisco on 6/29/2007 vs Tampa Bay"
- @tribeinsider (Cleveland Indians)

"Talk about a team effort and a guy finally getting rewarded for putting together great at bats all day, grats to Cord great moment for him"
- @VinnieP52 (Vinnie Pestano)

"Santana, on Asdrubal's gem: 'I wasn't surprised. For me, that's just normal for him.'"
- @MLBastian (Jordan Bastian)

"Masterson, on Asdrubal's play: 'Everyone was going crazy. We reminded him that he did have a glove. That's incredible.'"
- @MLBastian (Jordan Bastian)

"Smith also on mound for Asdrubal's barehand, behind-the-back flip in Chicago. Said Smith: 'He came in and said, 'I looove when you pitch.''"
- @MLBastian (Jordan Bastian)

"Indians manager Manny Acta, on Asdrubal's gem: 'Oh my God. Half of the dugout was yelling, 'Best play ever! [...] Some guys were like, 'Slow down. We've some other ones. Ozzie Smith and all that.' It was unbelievable.'"
- @MLBastian (Jordan Bastian)

"Any congratulatory tweets for Phelps let me know I will pass them on, and no he did not have choc milk in cinnamon toast crunch today."
- @VinnieP52 (Vinnie Pestano)

"In case you didn't know @ChrisPerez54 purposely loads the bases from time to time just so he can crush other teams souls. #LetTheRageBegin"
- @ClevStrikesBack (ClevelandStrikesBack)

"Wow. Nice catch. Plays were on 5/19 & 6/19. Smith on mound for both. RT @wellthatsdumb: Cant wait see what he'll do next month on the 19th"
- @MLBastian (Jordan Bastian)

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