Aw, Naw...

A heartbreaker tonight. Scratched and clawed our way back from a 4-0 deficit only to lose it later on. From home runs. By the worst home-run-hitting team in the AL. Sigh.

Was it me or did it seem like the Twins had pretty awesome defense tonight? It felt like there was a lot of "robbing" going on. Of course I refer to Ben Revere but even before that there were some gems. On our side, too. Listening to the game made me think "ooh, wish I'd seen that on TV..." a lot.

I didn't see it on TV, even though it was on FOX. It's cool tho, I was at Brasa stuffing myself with meats then at the Ohio Theater to see the All-City Musical put on by the best of the best from Cleveland schools. Footloose. It was a crummy, crummy musical written from a crummy movie, but the kids were great. I mean really, they had so much fun and were very talented, so A+ to them! Eric Carmen was there of course because he wrote "Almost Paradise" for the movie and he is from Cleveland. He also went on stage and I wondered "who is that creepy old lady?" but then I saw him in the lobby afterwards and put two and two together.

Anyway so I was all pumped for this game and then got in the car to go home after the musical and found out we'd lost so I was sad. I did listen to the whole thing, though, so here we go.

Tomlin, who has thus far given up a predictable 4 runs most games, now has an ERA of over 5 runs so that is what he gave up today in 6 innings. Ten hits, good gravy! He woulda been ok if he hadn't given up that last hit, a homer in the 6th. Tipped him over to 5-run side of the 5 ERA. He only struck out 3 which is on the low side for him.

The game was lost by the time Sipp came in, and you know he lost it some more. Two hits, two earned runs - a big homer for f'n Joe Mauer. So there was that. After him was Joe Smith, who had an "up" day (no hits, no runs) and our new favorite Scott Barnes who has kept his 0.00 ERA over two games now. Hurrah!

Our guys had a lot of strikeouts tonight. Eight total, Choo with two. I hadn't noticed this at all since he became out awesome leadoff guy, but he's got a 6-game strikeout streak going, with 10 strikeouts in those 6 games! It just never occurred to me that he was racking up the K's but there you have it. I guess I was blinded by him racking up the hits too, although tonight he was just 1 for 5. He did turn that hit into a run, though!

Kipnis is still going gonzo, again with the multi-hit game going 2 for 5 tonight. Yes he stole a base and he even helped turn two double plays! He didn't get any extra bases and in fact nobody did.

Asdrubal tried to get a double but it didn't happen. He got a long RBI single in the 3rd then tried to hoof it over to second to no avail. Looks like the team has been really trying to ramp up their running game lately and it's working out only about half of the time. I don't know that it worked out for them at all tonight but in other games it has. I guess if we can't even be near the top of the league in any extra-bases category, we can lead the league in stolen bases. Did you know we lead the league in stolen bases? We do. We still lead the league in walks too in case you forgot.

Boston is at the bottom of the stolen bases list with 17 to our 46 because they are very old. And fat. HAHAHA!

Jose Lopez was representin' at DH again today. Remember when I said I was happy with Hafner's performance even though he was just walking and getting singles? Because he was on base LIKE A BOSS! Well, Lopez is sort of settling into that groove now. He's got a 6-game hitting streak and tonight went 1 for 3 with a walk.  Hafner's OBP was still .380 when he left (albeit dwindling) and Lopez is merely .305 but he's working his way up there. He's got 4-6 weeks to try.

Holla at your boy Michael Brantley! He's got an 11-game hitting streak! He went 1 for 4 with 2 RBI, giving him 10 RBI in his last 10 games, making him 2nd on the team (but dayum, still 10 behind TheJK_Kid). How do you like the top 5 in our lineup? They have a combined average of .277. That is pretty nice right there... Asdrubal is sort of sliding away from .300 but Kipnis and Brantley are keeping the dream alive!

Kotchman was "red hot" for a bit there but he's cooled way off. He hasn't hit in his last two games. He's still hitting better than Damon, who continues to play left field for the Indians.

Speaking of the .300 dream, how about Lonnie Chisenhall? Oh my Maude is he bringing the excitement or what?! Dude went 1 for 4 today and of course he stole a base because Kipnis stole a base. He almost had a 2 for 4 night had Ben Revere not done those acrobatics in the 9th. One of those "We know you've got the stuff, kid" sort of plays. I look forward to seeing what he'll do next, every game! (Lonnie, not Revere. I would not mind if it Revere stayed on the ground from now on.)

Good ol' mortar mouth Lou Marson was back in tonight and he continued his 4-game hitting streak going 1 for 3. Yes he's only hitting .175 but that makes his "streak" especially good. They brought Shelley in to pinch hit for Lou in the 9th and he got a single, which is one more hit than Damon got so why are we not replacing him? Blargh.

There were 25.5k folks out there tonight! That's pretty cool! Good job filling up 2/3 of the stadium for national television! Sunday is your last chance to see them in town until the 15th. It's also Carlos Baerga's mustache bobblehead day and "kids fun day" and a weirdo 3:05 game so hopefully there will be a nice crowd on hand to see the guys take the series. I feel a Vinne and Rage afternoon coming on so you're in for a treat if you go!

Ok the game is now in 12 hours, I gotta go to bed. See you there!

Oh yeah - congrats to the Golden Flashes for taking care of Kentucky in round 1 and Purdue on round 3. They're now on to the regional final in Indiana on Sunday. Which means no Tom Hamilton for us but could mean a trip to the College World Series for them. Go Flashes!!

Radio Chatter:
"Shin-soo Choo saying 'do not do that to me, do not take that big turn of I will throw it right behind you.'"
- Mike Hegan on Choo's attempted throw-out of Span

"Kipnis was sliding in to second when the ball was halfway to home plate!"
- Jim Rosenhaus on Kipnis' stolen base

"The official scorer and I agree. After further review, the play does not stand."
- Mike Hegan agrees with the reversal of a play to give Kipnis a base hit

"He's made that full mental change to leadoff hitter. I think Manny would rather see him hit the ball out of here with 2 outs."
- Mike Hegan on Choo