Sunday, April 14, 2013

Momentum Halted

After the big hitting in yesterday's game, possibly on momentum from the 9th inning of Friday's game, the Tribe was held to just one run and 6 hits today.

It's kinda crazy that our pitching has been reliable for 3 games now and our hitting has been erratic. Granted, Jake Peavy is pretty good but so is Chris Sale and we beat him up! (And so is David Price and we beat him up too).

Brett Myers was the starter today and he looked great! That's pretty awesome because there was nothing remotely great about his last two starts when he gave up 14 runs off 18 hits in 10 innings. Today he went 6 innings and only gave up 2 runs, which came in the 6th. I still don't know what to make of Myers and I definitely don't trust him yet, but today he gets a big pat on the back!

Bryan Shaw came in again today and he looked good, not giving any hits and striking out two, including Conor Gillaspie who has been drinking our milkshake all weekend.

Vinnie Pestano came in for the 8th and had a very un-Pestano-like outing. He gave up a home run and a single before retiring the side. Oh well, I guess no one can have an 0.00 ERA forever! It's weird because they were touting Brett Myers' heroism the other day for pitching half of a blowout game and saving the bullpen. But then today they were blaming the lack of need for the bullpen this past week for making Vinnie rusty. You know I love our bullpen and think they're worth their weight in gold, but sometimes I get tired of how delicate pitchers can be. Or maybe they're not and the media just likes to make up excuses for bad outings.

Chris Perez came in for the 9th just to get his work and he gave up no hits and struck a guy out. So there you go.

Michael Bourn was the big hitting hero of the game today, knocking a homer off Peavy on the first pitch of the bottom of the first. His would be the only run scored of the day. He is definitely a great replacement for Choo in the lineup, with power and consistency. He might not have the same cannon as Choo, in the field, but he can steal. I mean, like, any day now he can steal a base. Soon?

Bourn went 3 for 4. In the 8th inning he hit one to first base and there was quite a scuffle as Bourn slid in to the base. Reports say he got his hand stepped on and was replaced by Mike Aviles. Let's hope having Monday off and a vat of frozen Neosporin gets Bourn back in the lineup by Tuesday!

Brantley was up in the third spot today, with Asdrubal doing nothing of interest in the 2-hole (although he still is fabuloso in the field!) Kipnis I guess is still healing his shoulder, which is cool because you don't want to rush it and make it some season-long issue. Cousin Michael went 1 for 4 at the plate.

Asdrubal struck out 3 times. I am not going to look it up, but I think he leads the team in strikeouts right now. (Ok I looked it up. He does.) Swisher didn't get anything done today either, and he struck out twice, ending his hitting streak at Progressive Field (20 games since 2008).

Swisher started in right field and Reynolds at first. Reynolds went 1 for 3 and got a pinch runner in Drew Stubbs in the 7th. Then Stubbs went to right field and Swisher to first. That's a lot of interchangeability on this team. Is that good or bad? I mean it's good that dudes can play anywhere but are they just half-assed everywhere then?

Carlos Santana pinch hit for Stubbs in the 9th and almost hit one out! It was foul though and he ended up walking. They're saying Tuesday for catching now. Yan Gomes didn't do anything today at the plate but he did catch a guy stealing. I'm ready for Santana's return.

Jason Giambi was in the lineup today as DH. Not very excited about him being on the team but Tom Hamilton keeps assuring us that he is doing the work of Moses in terms of guiding this young team towards greatness. He parted no seas today, though, going 0 for 4. Man, he's old.

Ryan Raburn was in at second again today. He went 1 for 3 with a single. Only one guy walked today, and that was Santana in the 9th. Huh.

I don't know what to say about this stretch of games so far. The team has been amazing or miserable. The weather has been horrible or non-existant (domed). The opposing pitchers have been the league's best or mediocre. Our pitchers have pitched amazingly well or horribly. As far as I can tell there has been no pattern to how the team is doing.

But, at least it's baseball season, right? (Although it's apparently also basketball season. My WTAM broadcast was abruptly cut off right at 3 PM in order to air the Cavs game. Crummy.)

Monday we've got the day off and Tuesday the Red Sox come to town. Hopefully Francona leads us to a sweep, right? Also hopefully Bourn's hand is fine, Santana's hand is fine and Kipnis's shoulder is fine and everyone decides that now is the time to start hitting. If those things happen then we've got quite a ball game ahead of us!

Slated to pitch Tuesday is Jiminez vs LHP 5.40. You know I don't know what to think about that, so we'll just get excited anyway and I'll see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Ozzie Guillen had the maturity of a 12-year-old."
- Tom Hamilton

"You'll take 6 innings of two-run baseball from Brett Myers any day."
- Tom Hamilton

"If anybody thinks the NFL players are as big, strong and fast as they are because of spinach...then we have a tale for you."
- Tom Hamilton

"If there's a no-hitter going on, usually Tampa Bay is the team getting no-hitted."
- Tom Hamilton



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