Pronk Smash!

I text with some of my friends during the game, and today I was going to text "I have a feeling Pronk is going to go yard tonight" in the first inning. Even though his other at-bats weren't that productive, I just felt like today he'd Pronk one out of here.

Of course, I didn't text that to anyone even though I thought it, so there is no proof of the level to which I am tuned in to this team. Ah well.

How about that Josh Tomlin?! Nailed it! Seven innings, 2 hits, one run? He's only limited the other team to 1 run in 3 of his 14 games this year. Actually one of those times was 3 starts ago - but in his last 2 starts he gave up 11 in just 9 innings. So this is a huge turnaround for him right now! Wow if we have all 5 of our guys giving up 3 or fewer every game, and we keep hitting like this...this is how we have an amazing second half!

Vinnie and Perez came on for the 8th and 9th. You know what they did! Yeah buddy!

Speaking of Vinnie, here's some shenanigans from the 4th of July:

 

What a joker!

CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! He started off the game with a solo shot, his 9th homer on the season! That's 3 in the last 10 games, where he's been hitting .389. He also stole his 2nd base today (really, that few?) and ended up going 2 for 3 with a walk. Awesome!!

PRONK! Hafner only went 1 for 4 but his 1 was a big one! A solo homer in the 8th (his 7th on the season) which, judging by how the Rays were not hitting and the fact that it was Perez's turn, pretty much ended the game RIGHT THERE.

No Lou today - Acta basically said "Sorry, we hired Santana as our catcher." Sigh. But at least we have a hot backup catcher, and Santana can play first and if nothing else one of them can bat for Hafner. 

Anyway, Santana did something today in the form of getting a hit, going 1 for 4. Good job!

COUSIN MICHAEL! Brantley's back in the swing of things with his second homer in as many games! And in case you didn't know he's got a total of THREE on the season. He's got 11 hits in his last 10 games and tonight he went 2 for 3. Not too many guys got hits tonight and he got 2!

Man - looking at this lineup, we've got 4 guys who are hot and staying there (Choo, Cabrera, Kipnis, Brantley), two guys who are hot when they can play (Marson, Duncan), one guy who is just about to blow up (Hafner) and two guys who are hopefully going to get it going any time now (Hannahan, Santana). If we get this lineup firing on all cylinders, and rotate Marson, Duncan and Lopez in when we can AND the pitching stays like this? Holy smokes!

And don't forget Casey Kotchman, thank you - he went 1 for 2 tonight with a walk. He's got 5 hits in his last 9 at-bats! I just don't know how or where to count on him as a batter. I'm fine with him staying around .230, maybe .250. Just keep doing it at first base!

Aaron Cunningham would also like to not be forgotten. He was the subject of a "15 Questions" TribeVibe blog post today. One of his favorite movies is Despicable Me, he watches it over and over. HA! I've never seen it but now I have to check it out, to get deeper in to the head of Aaron Cunningham.  Anyway, I thought he looked good in right yesterday and today he had a great play from left after he took over for Damon. The radio guy on the post-game show said "no offense to Johnny but there's no way Damon makes that play." Finally, someone agrees with me! (to be fair I don't listen to much post-game anymore. I just can't hang with Bob Frantz anymore. So maybe he dislikes Damon a lot too, I don't know. But Tom Hamilton seems indifferent. Grr!)

You're going to want to check out Tom Hamilton has the Best Home Run call in all of Baseball later on tonight to hear, I think, all 3 homers. I know he called Choo's and Hafner's and since Brantley hit his in the 2nd that should be Hamilton too. Hafner's was great - it was a classic Pronk too. The way the guy does it you get to see the video with Hamilton's audio overlayed. It's a thing of beauty! Don't forget to check it out!

Tomorrow is Masterson versus a righty so there's a pretty good chance we've got this on in the bag. Also the pendulum is swinging towards a better home record, as opposed to how it was early in the season when we weren't doing as well here. Weather? Prolly.

It's a 7:05 game - see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Maybe he just needed to get ou tof the month of June."
- Tom Hamilton on Josh Tomlin pitching better

"Pena's got one thought in mind - he is looking middle-in to rip one out of here and tie the game up."
- Tom Hamilton