You Do It To Yourself

Ooooh, Mitch Talbot. What are we going to do with you? You're no Carlos Carrasco, that's for sure!

Today everyone was saying how bad Talbot usually is in the 1st inning. Then he shocked everyone by having an un-eventful 1st, but sneaking a bad 2nd by us. Then he was just ducky in the 3rd, and then he gave up 3 more runs in the 4th and it was time to go.

Six runs is actually not too many runs for our Indians to overcome, especially in the "hitter's park" that is Great American, but it did prove to be too much for our skeleton crew today.

Josh "Judge" Judy (did you remember that one?) came in to relieve Talbot in the 5th and gave up a homer, but otherwise he did alright for himself. That was his only hit in 2 innings and he struck out one.

Durbin came in for the 7th and Smith finished off the 9th even though Perez was back. Wanna know what Joe Smith's ERA is now? It's .95.

Even though we got ourselves 5 runs, our lineup was sort of unimpressive. I won't mention what Asdrubal and Santana did today.

Hey do you remember when Asdrubal went 5 for 5 when they played the Reds in May? Josh Judy pitched in that game too. Good times!

Three guys who did take the helm today were guys who haven't been doing what we need lately.

Grady Sizemore went the other way with 2 outs in the 6th to score 2 on a single. That is not something we've been experiencing lately, huh?

Hafner, who has only gotten one hit as a pinch hitter so far, got his second pinch hit today AND it was for an RBI! He'll be back in the lineup tomorrow against the Yankees. Hopefully fully-charged and ready to do some Yankee killing!

The big gun for us today was Mr. Shelley Duncan! He impressed the hell out of me early in the season as a rock-solid pinch hitter. Then he cooled off and we sent him down for a bit, due to the upcoming pitching matchups. He had a really shitty June, that's for sure. BUT! Today he got THREE hits and one of them was a 2-run homer! He also scored another run, and didn't strike out once. Geez, did you know he struck out 4 times in San Francisco?

I hope this indicates some good things to come from Shelley, cuz I have a feeling we'll be seeing him a lot more with LaPorta and Choo gone.

Lonnie Chisenhall got a hit today and scored a run, hangin' in there with a .300 average. He also committed his first error in the majors. I wonder if they keep that ball?

Brantley got himself a hit today, scored a run and walked. He's still not at pre-slump levels of reliability but keeping that average above .250 at least.

So All-Star voting is over and the tally is done. And, even though he's currently rehabbing in the minors, Derek Jeter beat out Asdrubal for shortstop. Oh well. Asdrubal IS going and I betcha dollars to donuts he'll get to play and he will do something awesome. I just hope he gets out of his mini batting slump before then!

Chris Perez also made the All Stars! That's pretty cool and I actually am looking forward to watching the game. I'll be on vacation at the time, but I'll be on the west coast so I won't have to stay up too late to watch it. Of course I'll have to tune in ridiculously early but whatever. I'm guessing we won't see Asdrubal until the second half and of course no Perez until the end.

I wonder what a road trip with Asdrubal and Perez is like? Even though his name is Perez he doesn't seem like the sort of guy who knows a lot of Spanish. I haven't heard Asdrubal on too many interviews, I wonder how his English is. Oh, how I wish the Dugout Sports Show was tagging along!

I got a Chris Perez baseball card today, in a pack of 2011 Topps. It looks really nice, almost like a painting. A lot of the pitchers are captured mid-throw and look extremely awkward. Perez looks pretty awesome. And his beard isn't too out of control.

I don't know why getting Indians' cards in my packs excites me so, but it totally does. It also seems like half of the rest of the cards are ex-Indians. I wonder if baseball is half made up of ex-Indians?

So tomorrow starts our return home yay! And a 3-game series against the Yankees boo! But we're coming off a great few games so maybe we'll rock? Yay!

Game starts at 6:35 PM which means I will totally miss it unless my party guests take off early. Fat chance. I'm either going to listen to the game after the party, or catch it during work the next day. Hopefully, that is. If the game ends up anything like the 3 we just played in The Bronx, then I won't waste my time.

Let's go Tribe, beat those Stankees!

Radio Chatter:
"The bats have come alive since they left San Francisco!"
- Tom Hamilton

"There's no question that National League lineups in no way compare to the American League. Part of it is the DH but there's just not good hitting in the National League."
- Tom Hamilton