Roll Tribe!

Verlander watching Pronk's homer leave the yard

I'm lovin' it, for real!! Do you feel it, boffins? What a great night! The Good Guys never gave up, never gave in, and never crumbled under pressure and showed their potential. THIS is the Tribe I see in my mind before every game. So glad to see them come out the other side of one!

It was a great team effort, so many heroes! First off and most important was Zach McAllister who I think was just brilliant for his age, his experience and his opponent. He gave up 9 hits but none of those hits were to Miguel Cabrera and none of them were a home run for Prince Fielder. He only gave up 2 earned runs (3 total) and SEVEN STRIKEOUTS!! (Verlander only had 4) Plus he went 6 2/3 innings, setting up the terrific trio to follow. No mess inbetween.

Joe Smith finished off the 7th, and we were lucky to get him because he doesn't usually come in when we're losing. But Manny knew the score. Smith was tasked with facing Miggy and threw two pitches, the second of which went to an inning-ending double play. Most important two pitches of Smith's season!

Next was Vinnie who was there to hold what now was a winning score, and hold he did. Three up, three down with two pop outs and a strike out. He's waaaay ahead of the rest of the league with 29 holds (22 for 2nd place). I guess he hurt himself a little bit on Tuesday, pulled a muscle. But he was thankfully better by today.

Perez came in for the 9th and got himself into a jam. He always seems to find his way in to a jam when we have an insurance run or two. But he proved awesome and even though he gave up a double and walked a guy, nobody scored. And he managed to get 4 outs by being a bit screwed over by a double play that wasn't called as such. BALLGAME!!...no, its not! Hahaha!

The top of the order was just aces tonight, doing all the things we know they can do and all the things they had to do to get us the win.

Choo went 2 for 4 with a double, and came around to score 2 runs - as a lead-off man should do!

Asdrubal's light went on in the 7th, after the game was tied. He got an RBI single that was the go-ahead run (and he stretched it in to a double, noticing nobody covering second). OMG!!!! Maybe the proudest I've been of him all season!

Kipnis was totally locked in, going 2 for 2 with a walk, a sac fly and 2 RBI. He left NOBODY on base! He was makin' stuff happen for sure - Justin Verlander can't scare TheJK_Kid!

Michael Brantley almost hit it out of the park 4 times, I swear. Tom Hamilton was under that impression as well. All of his hits went to the track, except the one that dropped in for a single. He never did come around to score, though. I went and peeked in on his hitting streak, though - he's already back to 6 games! I guess I haven't checked in a while. Go Michael! :)

Carlos Santana! How about that?! He was a second too slow getting to 1st base in the 4th inning and could have avoided the double play. Otherwise, he got 2 hits including a double AND a home run! I told you when that guy gets more than one hit, we've got it locked up! He's had 11 hits, 3 homers and 8 RBI in his last 10 games. Back!

[aside]
I think my friend Jen, who hopefully is reading today, hasn't been reading lately because she was under the impression that Carlos Santana sucks. I would just like to point out to her that no he doesn't suck, he was just not playing up to his full potential and recently he has been. He's heating up to what he's supposed to be!
[/aside]

Travis Hafner only got 1 hit tonight and hoooooo boy was it a big one! It wasn't just his second homer in two games, it was the team's second homer in two at-bats! He followed up Santana's dinger with one of his own to tie the game. I don't know if you saw Pronk last night after striking out twice, but he Hulked out a little bit:

(awesome grab from Tom Hamilton Has The Best Home Run Call In All Of Baseball)

Tonight he didn't strike out at all but was also 0 for 2 when he got his bomb. Not striking out is progress!

Since this is The Positive Tribe and not The Angry Tribe I'm going to keep my statements brief on the replacing of Duncan (.224 vs left) with Lillibridge (.083 vs left) in the 8th. Possible maybe a bit better fielder if someone hits one down the line in the top of the inning? Sure. Probably not going to hit in the bottom of the 8th and is likely to strike out? Extremely. Not just Shelley Every Day - now we need to campaign for Shelley All Day! Good grief!

So to recap - Choo scoring twice, Asdrubal tying up the game, Kipnis making many things happen, Brantley keeping a hitting streak alive, Santana with two extra base hits and Pronk with a homer. THIS is the team that they put together a couple years ago, with Kipnis filling in the blank spot. This is the team that can get it done. And if the rest of the lineup can throw some sugar on it (they actually didn't tonight), then even better. If this is our team for the rest of the season, then we are going to be right up there at the end.

But that's too far off. Tonight we celebrate a tremendous victory over the top team in the division and the top pitcher in the league. Hopefully we take this win and roll over and over and over the super-pitiful Twins the next 3 days. I've got a fire in my belly - let's hope these guys do too!

Tomorrow is Josh Tomlin versus LHP in Minnesota at 8:10. It's also the opening ceremony for the Olympics at 7:30. I'm guessing they don't start right at 7:30 and end 40 minutes later...but I really want to see this spectacle so I'm going to have to split my focus between the radio and the TV. Nothing I haven't done before!

So excited to keep this rolling through the weekend - see you there!

PS Welcome to all my new Twitter followers! Sorry that I am no good at Twitter - hopefully you will come and enjoy the blog instead. Drop a line if you love to be positive about the Tribe!

PPS The Tom Hamilton Has The Best Home Run Call In All of Baseball dude was on the ball tonight - got your video right away! Enjoy!

Radio Chatter:
"When it's Justin Verlander on the hill, sometimes a one run lead is a death sentence."
- Tom Hamilton

"He didn't look like any 12 year old you'd ever seen in your life."

- Tom Hamilton on witnessing the young Prince Fielder

"If he had pitched for the Yankees there'd be another statue next to the Statue of Liberty."

- Tom Hamilton on Justin Verlander

"It's like waiting on death row for that call from the governor. Usually that call is not going to come."
- Tom Hamilton on being behind in the count to Verlander

"If you were a betting man you'd be homeless. You would have bet the mortgage on Verlander after 6."

- Tom Hamilton