Eventful

Such an awesome game today! And I'm not just saying that because Asdrubal peeked out of his slump in order to get a 2-run homer. Because before that he bashed himself in the knee with a foul ball and after that he left the field, unable to continue playing.

I'd almost forgotten that God Hates Cleveland Sports.

We'll put that nonsense behind us for now, and concentrate on how good tonight's  game was. Yay!

First off, ol' Nasty got himself a 5-run lead to work with. The Twitterverse thought this was a hoot. Five runs for Masterson! He did end up faltering after 5 innings but being the ace that he is, he didn't melt down he just kept going until Vinnie Pestano could come in to save him. Only 4 strikeouts in his 7 innings but 11 ground outs.

Chris Perez came in to the 9th with just a 1-run lead and got them out 1-2-3. Ballgame!

Royals pitcher Bruce Chen usually gets our goat, but not tonight. We totally broke through him with 5 runs!

Fukudome is still awesome. He's hitting about .320 since the start of August, when we got him. Tonight he had 3 hits and came around to score 2 runs. Almost as nice as having Kipnis in the 2-hole. In fact, if Asdrubal doesn't come out of it by the time Kipnis gets back I wouldn't mind seeing a test of Kipnis and Fukudome in the 2-3 spot. Or Kipnis-Fukudome-Cabrera. Interesting.

I'll mention it again that Asdrubal got a 2-run homer! First homer and first RBI(s) since 8/27. Ok that's only a week but it seems like a year, considering how he played for most of the rest of the season.

Did anyone see last week's Hot In Cleveland? The bartender looked like Asdrubal with an afro. Screenshot!

Asdrubal is on the right

Carlos Santana got his 28th double today, still 1 behind Asdrubal. But it was a good one - he got the first RBI, then came around to score on the next batter.

Jim Thome! He got himself a long single in the first to score Santana. Did you know we've been undefeated while Thome was in the lineup? That's pretty freaky. We've only played Oakland and KC since he's been here - two pretty awful teams - but the two games he sat, we lost.

I bet you didn't know this, but Jason Donald has an 8-game hitting streak. Today he knocked in his first home run of the year. Last year he had 4 in 88 games. Looking at stats...wow, he's only played 19 games this year? That makes his 8-game streak particularly nice! He also got his 4th double of the year today. Atta boy!

So tomorrow it's Huff versus Hochevar, and I think we'll give it to Huff. The Detroit/Chicago game looks evenly matched after tonight's Verlander whoopin. We did gain a game on Chicago!

Tomorrow at 8:05, so cancel all your plans. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Tigers now beating White Sox 5 nothing in the 5th. So that game's over. With Justin Verlander on the hill...thanks for coming, Chicago."
- Tom Hamilton

"How neat would it be to see Jim Thome and Grady Sizemore in the same Indians lineup?"
- Tom Hamilton

"Another ball that should have been in his hip pocket."
- Tom Hamilton on Zeke missing a fly ball in the 6th

"You're down 3 runs with one out, you're not trying for a sacrifice. He was bunting for a hit and he didn't get it."
- Tom Hamilton on the scoring of Escobar's at-bat in the 7th

"Fouls it back our way...and into our booth. And we no longer have an engineer."
- Tom Hamilton