Cy-Young, Schmy-Young

"Wow!" is what I texted to my friend, and "Wow!" is what reader @twimpus tweeted to me, at exactly the same time - when Ryan Raburn hit his second homer on the night and the Tribe was up 13-2. Or maybe it was after that, when the next batter, Drew Stubbs, hit the team's 7th home run. Something like that...both times I'm pretty sure we were all thinking the same thing. "Wow!"

This Tribe team that we saw roll over David Price and R.A. Dickey was back to face another Cy Young Award winner in Roy "Doc" Halladay and it was, like, no big deal. Hallady had two bad starts but rocked his last two starts so it was assumed he'd just blow through the Indians. But the Indians had other ideas!

First, our pitching. It was "ace" Justin Masterson who faced off against the other two Cy Young winners but today was "new guy" Zach McAllister who showed the big guy up! McAllister went 7 innings and only gave up 2 runs. Of course they were homers (upping the percentages again!) but hey at least they were solo homers! He only gave up 3 other hits and just one walk. Also helping was the lack of errors in the field again. Could it be our starters are evening out?!

Nick Hagadone came in and looked a little shaky, giving up two walks before getting a guy to ground in to a "whew!" double play, and then that final ground out. Matt Albers finished the job, with his third shut-out appearance in a row. I'm getting pretty comfortable with these guys!

The team got 7 home runs tonight, which is the second most they've gotten as a team (8 was the most, which they've done twice, and had 7 one other time). This is the most home runs they've hit in Cleveland since...er, some long-ago date that you'll have to find on the radio tomorrow. Tom Hamilton was saying in the first inning that the team was on pace to hit 204 homers this year. If I did my math right, that pace was upped to 243!

Oh also, we now lead the league in homers. In fact, we're tied with the Braves for leading the MLB, with 36. At the beginning of today we would have been, like, 8th in the league. WAT!

Everybody hits today!

Michael Brantley got a home run! In fact, it was his first of the year. He only went 1 for 5 tonight but he made it count, as it was one of many 2-run dingers. Back to a 3-game hitting streak!

Kipnis was gettin' it done old school today with no homers, but instead two singles, going 2 for 5 on the night with a run scored. He also stole a base, really early on. He tried again and got caught but whatever! He's gotten on base 21 times and has stolen 5 bases and leads the team. So even if the kid isn't getting on base as much as we need him to, at least he's stretching it out when he gets there!

Asdrubal extended his hitting streak to 9 games today, going 1 for 4 with 2 RBI. His one hit was a total clutch job, dropping one in to right with 2 outs and 2 men in scoring position. Both came in to score! Mike Aviles came in for him in the 7th (because he could, I hope) and he went 1 for 1.

Carlos Santana - UNGH!!! Is this guy just the guy this year or what?? He got his 5th homer tonight, his 13th RBI, and he went 1 for 2 because he walked 3 times. So this means he still leads the league in average (by 14 points) and OBP (by 19 points) and he is just the awesome! Remember how disappointed we were in him last year? All that potential is just spilling out of him now like [picture whatever you want to picture spilling out of a person]. I am totally loving it!

Jason Giambi did NOT get a home run today but here's what he did. First, he said he's cool with gay players in professional sports and says the MLB is ready.  Then tonight he walked and came around to score, then hit a double, and in the 8th inning with the team up 14-2 he slid headfirst in to first base to get himself a single. I hope someone turns that in to an animated GIF for me to see!! Apparently it got him a standing ovation from the dugout.

Update: Here's a vid!

Anyway, I think I pretty much like Jason Giambi now, even if I don't like that I like him.

Mark Reynolds, huh?! He's got a 3-game streak going with 6 hits over those 3 games. He got his 8th homer today, which was his first since April 21. I think I called it yesterday that he was relaxing again to get ramped up! His was a 2-run homer, and that gives him 9 RBI over his last 10 games. Now he's hitting over .300 too, and he's tied for second in the league in homers!

The Chiz Kid finally got into the act today too and got himself a 2-run homer! He only went 1 for 4 but hey, keep going Lonnie!

Ryan Raburn! If I wasn't stoked enough about him last night he comes back tonight and tops himself! Tonight he went 3 for 4 with not one but TWO homers for a total of 3 RBI and 3 runs scored! Dude's got 4 homers this season and all of them came in the last 2 games. Ha!

Drew Stubbs squashed an 0-for-15 slide and went 3 for 4 tonight! In the 4th he singled and then stole a base (4 total), allowing him to score from second on Asdrubal's hit to right. Then in the 5th he singled and was on base when Brantley got his homer. Then in the 7th he got his OWN homer! It was his second homer of the year and his second 3-hit night. That's the kind of #9 hitter we need so let's hope he's back in gear to keep it up!

We've scored 51 runs in the 6 night games we've won since Meryl showed up. Just sayin'.

Let's score 51 more!

In other news, did you hear that a dude named J. Cole released a song called "Kenny Lofton"? It's true. I'm sure you heard about it if you subscribe to Kenny Lofton's Twitter feed, because a million people tweeted about it and he re-tweeted each one! I love Kenny Lofton but he's a terrible Twitizen, kind of like Bernie Kosar (who seems to have calmed down). You can listen to the song here. I'm a fan of hip-hop but I'm not really a fan of this song. I think mostly because it's not so much a song about Kenny Lofton as a song about something else that name-checks Kenny Lofton and uses his name for the title. Letdown! What do you think about it?

Clips of some of tonight's homers are already up on Tom Hamilton Has The Best Home Run Call In All Of Baseball. Check them out!

So this is 3 games in a row now where the team has been batting like we all thought they would. Does that mean there's been a permanent shift? Are they primed and ready? What does it mean that we're taking on these Cy Young winners with such ease?

We're facing another Cy Young winner tomorrow in Cliff Lee. To that we say "BRING IT ON!" right? If anyone has the swagger to go out there and face Lee on the mound it's Trevor Bauer, who'll be our starter. He is either going to be "I knew it!" good or "I knew it!" comically bad. What we need is our bats to stay hot, that's for darned sure. I wonder how many people are going to show up to see Lee? Hope it's a good number, after these 3 wins and with the good weather and stuff. I won't be there but I'll be listening!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"You leave a bottle of that around and it's going to to missing, whether you're in sports or not."
- Tom Hamilton on Adderall

"85 percent of the people in this world don't care what your problems are, and the other 15 are glad that you have 'em."
- Tom Hamilton


"The Pirates must be allergic to brats. [...] Bernie the Brewer went down that slide so many times the other night, he had burn marks on his biscuits."
- Tom Hamilton on the Pirates' struggles in Milwaukee

"Fans are now shocked when the Indians don't hit a homer."
- Tom Hamilton