There was only a half hour delay at the start, where fans listening in on WTAM got to listen to the a "sports" reporter from the News Herald who only likes Indians baseball when they win. Great representative of Cleveland sports right there. Thank god after all that we got to have our baseball!
Zach McAllister was brought up as our 26th man, a rule the Union came up with that if there's a make-up game then you can bring an extra guy up without having to send someone down. Very nice rule, keeps rotations from getting out of whack (because they no doubt got out of whack enough by having a rainout.)
McAllister came in 4 times last year, the first two times giving up 2 and then 8 runs in less than 8 innings of work. He came back in September and gave up 2 more but then shut out Detroit, ending his season with an ERA over 6 in the Majors but only 3.32 in the Minors. He already had 3 wins in the Minors this year so he was called upon to fill the gap and give us a quality start, preserving the bullpen.
Little dude did his job! He pitched 6 innings giving up only 2 runs and striking out 5! Unfortunately his pitch count was over 100 when he left so we were going to use the bullpen. Also he and Santana had errors and that accounted for 2 un-earned runs. But awesome job for a kid brought up in to a sort-of high pressure situation. He could have flaked right out and ruined the entire series for us. Great job, Zach!
Asencio hadn't worked in a while so he was called in to hopefully finish the game, with a 4-run lead. He rolled through the 7th and 8th but couldn't get anyone out in the 9th and gave up 2 runs before Nick Hagadone was brought in. Not sure why that guy's not being used more - I guess because of his age and green-ness. Because when we do use him he's been superb and had no problem finishing out the game with no more scoring!
Damon was silenced this afternoon. Ok. What is weird is that Kipnis was silenced too. Has he gotten himself on everyone's radar so that they know how to pitch to him now? He ended up going 0-4 with a walk and ending his hitting streak. I hope to see some awesome come the night game.
The rest of the order hit and thanks be to Og, Hafner AND Santana had multi-hit games!
Asdrubal went 1 for 3 with an RBI, keeping his average at .333. Unstoppable? We'll see!
Hafner went DEEP and it looked GOOD. He also had a triple, and my brother and I were speculating that since Hafner is not known for his speed, would his stand-up triple have been an in-the-park homer for, say, Brantley? But Hamilton and Rosenhaus (and Hafner himself) did note that he does have a "third gear" he can invoke when needed so his "chugging" turns in to "speeding" between second and third.
Santana had a double and a single and came around to score twice. Just what we need from him! We don't need him to be our homer-or-out guy.
Choo went 1 for 3 with one walk and he also came around to score both times, thanks to Michael Brantley! Brantley went 2 for 4 today with 3 of our 8 RBI! Still streaky, Michael but keep it up!
Also with 3 RBI today was...Kotchman! Dude is still hitting under .200 but whatever. He is AWESOME at first base. He was out on Saturday and Santana was at first and we dearly missed Kotchman there. So he can hit under .200 if he has to, just keep being awesome at first and keep having little sparks of goodness like this when you get 3 RBI or steal a base or something.
To round it out, Hannahan went 1 for 3 with a walk.
We only had 6 LOB today which is great for us, especially considering we had 10 hits and 4 walks. I guess we're 4 for 27 with bases loaded this year. That's crappy. Brantley was the one to bring us up to 4 today from 3 of 26.
Since we had our full good lineup this afternoon I wonder what's going to be going on in the second game. Marson and Duncan? Chicago is bringing up their version of McAllister in Eric Stults, a LHP, so we're sure to see Duncan at least. Our guy will be Tomlin and you know he's good for a W. I have a feeling it's gonna be another great game so see you there!
Radio Chatter:
"So much for struggling."
- Tom Hamilton after Hafner's bomb in the 2nd
"The lack of hitting with bases loaded has hit everyone on this team like a virus."
- Tom Hamilton
"This is Robin Ventura's worst nightmare. A day-night double header and your bullpen is in in the third inning."
- Tom Hamilton
"You're lucky I don't believe in Tweeting or else this picture would already be out there. [...] That's the difference between New Jersey and Wisconsin. When I was a kid we weren't allowed out of the house in just our underwear."
- Tom Hamilton lets the world know that Jim Rosenhaus is wearing an inapropriate, albeit comfy shirt
"While Travis Hafner is obviously no speed merchant, nobody hustles harder down the line."
- Tom Hamilton
"So much for struggling."
- Tom Hamilton after Hafner's bomb in the 2nd
"The lack of hitting with bases loaded has hit everyone on this team like a virus."
- Tom Hamilton
"This is Robin Ventura's worst nightmare. A day-night double header and your bullpen is in in the third inning."
- Tom Hamilton
"You're lucky I don't believe in Tweeting or else this picture would already be out there. [...] That's the difference between New Jersey and Wisconsin. When I was a kid we weren't allowed out of the house in just our underwear."
- Tom Hamilton lets the world know that Jim Rosenhaus is wearing an inapropriate, albeit comfy shirt
"While Travis Hafner is obviously no speed merchant, nobody hustles harder down the line."
- Tom Hamilton
Just stumbled on this blog. Love it! Appreciate the positivity!!
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