Teetering

Ubaldo Jimenez. What do you think? Dude always seems to be teetering on the brink of blowing up. His previous awesomeness is not making him get guys out but it is keeping him from giving up tons of runs, I guess. We all just have to nail-bite our way through his 5 innings.

Oh, and he only goes 5 innings (ok 6 tonight).

Sipp was scary in the 7th. He used to be my dude. Why is he not so good this year? Do not want.

Smith and Pestano are still good, tho. They both had scoreless innings and their ERAs are under 3. Doesn't look good for Sipp, when Asdrubal comes back and someone has to go back to Columbus...

Chris Perez got his 5th save. He's on pace for uhm...80? That'd be funny. Looks like he's coming in, striking a dude out, maybe giving up a walk, then getting a couple of pop-outs. That's fine. All the guys we have platooned in the outfield in the 9th inning can catch pop-ups. They can't all be Kenny Powers-like and striking guys out with his majestically powerful fastball all the time. But he can still have cool hair and ride a jet ski.

Man, Chris Perez is from Florida. You know he has a jet ski!

Brantley got a double and a walk today. No spark in that tho. Where's my spark? He misses Asdrubal. He had a couple of fly-outs instead.

Kipnis still can't hit worth shit, but he was kind enough to get hit by a pitch, steal second and then sacrifice his body sliding in to home. He seems to get his ass on base every game somehow, even though that average is in the dumps. So good on you, Katniss.

Choo quietly got 2 hits tonight and won out on some aggressive baserunning. But then he got too confident and was thrown out at the plate trying to be aggressive again. This is SORT OF turning in to a pattern for him but I think either someone will reel him in or he will actually become as fast as he thinks he is.

How is Santana's average not higher? He's got 11 hits and 9 walks in the last 11 games. /me does math. Oh, well he's also got 39 at-bats so somehow it only works out to .262. Sad for him but he's got 9 RBI so it's good for the rest of us! Santana has been on base in every game this year.

Fact: Duncan, Santana and Choo are in the league's top 10 for drawing walks, the team leads the league with 66. NO Indians are in the top 10 for striking out! We're 11/14 in striking out.

Speaking of getting on base, Travis Hafner has gotten on base the last 7 times he's been at bat (thanks to Tribe Tweeter and super-fan Jobu for that tidbit). Dude is hitting .333 and that average is not going down. Today he got another SINGLE and then he walked 3 times. He went 1 for 1 and scored a run!

Shelley Duncan straightened out a bit today, going 1 for 3 with a walk and a run. He did not have a chance to be a hero today but Aaron Cunningham pinch ran for him in the 8th (he didn't replace Hafner, cuz Hafner's so hot I guess) and then he was up in the 9th with the bases loaded. And he grounded out. So, Shelley could have been up in this crucial moment but 1) he wasn't and 2) it wasn't crucial, as it turns out. Now we don't have to go to bed being disappointed in Shelley Duncan! Hooray! I have no trouble sleeping being disappointed in Aaron Cunningham.


One guy we can never ever be disappointed in anymore is Jack Hannahan. Once again o'dude got those clutch hits and ended up with 3 RBI, including the game winner. He's batting .324 and I don't want him anywhere else in the lineup but 8th!! He is doing SO much good there, unfuckingbelieveable. He hasn't had an error for a while, either. Heyoo!

Jason Donald didn't get a hit but he made this Asdrubal-worthy play so I won't make fun of his greasy hair or goofy smile tonight.

Tonight was a nice rounded game, except for the tedium that was Ubaldo. It's so great that our hitting has come alive! Obviously we couldn't be 6-1 on this road trip so far without it.

Guess who's in second place? It's the Indians, silly! We're 1.5 behind Detroit who has 3 games against the unstoppable Rangers this weekend (rained out today, double tomorrow). I know, I know, it's too early to be counting these chickens but it's ALWAYS nice to be in first. Especially since you didn't hear anyone predicting us to be anywhere.

Tomorrow's game starts graciously at 9:05, presumably so you can listen to the game and still have time to get your party on afterwards. Right? Jeanmar Gomez versus some dude named McCarthy. I feel good about it. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"In other words, if Jiminez has trouble tonight...that is a giant red flag."
- Tom Hamilton after explaining how bad the A's offense is

"He had the easiest job of any Rebel football player ever. He was the backup quarterback to Eli Manning."
- Tom Hamilton on A's outfielder Seth Smith

"If you didn't know better Rosie you'd think it was about 35 degrees out."
- Tom Hamilton on the weird pitching

"It has not been riveting, and the pitching we have seen tonight has set the game back a few years."
- Tom Hamilton

"The question is why? Or how?"
- Tom Hamilton wants to know how is it they might send Hagadone back to Columbus

"Perez probably feels like he struck Cespedes out twice."
- Tom Hamilton