One Little Victory in the YYZ

Tonight's game had everything you wanted from your Tribe. Solid Masterson, unbelievable defense, plenty of hits with a little bit of power, and the Bullpen Mafia. Oh, and capitalizing on the other team's errors, of course.

And Geddy Lee!

Do you think that inducting Rush into the Rock Hall generated some good juju for the Tribe this week? Yes.

I'll be the first one to admit that I was more afraid of R.A. Dickey than I was confident in Justin Masterson. Masterson's rocky start didn't add to my confidence level, though. But dude totally proved me wrong by hanging tough some walks and loaded bases, and finishing off with three one-two-three innings. If that's what Masterson is going to do this year than doggone it we've got our ace!

I don't even need to tell you what Joe Smith, Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez did in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings. I know you know what the Jays did - nothing. Well, nothing except for the one hit that Chris Perez likes to give up. Otherwise, our boys blanked 'em!

Of course the stellar pitching did get help from stellar defense, in the form of Asdrubal Cabrera, natch. He wasted no time being amazing this season by snagging one off the felt, getting knocked on his culo and still having the ability to get it to Kipnis who got it to Swisher. Nick Swisher was of course pumped UP! about this play, but you'd better believe it that Justin Masterson said a little woo-hoo of his own!

Wondering what some of the other FNGs were doing? Drew Stubbs was running around as advertised, catchin' stuff. Would Choo have slid into a wall in the first game of the year? Hmm, I'd vote no.

So, how did the new Tribe do against 2012 Cy Young Award Winner R.A. Dickey? Fantastic! They got 4 runs and 3 earned runs. One of those runs was due to the inability of Dickey to throw into the catcher's glove.

Much love to JP Arencibia for not only giving us 3 passed balls, but for also being a stand-up guy against bullying. Tangent: April is Autism Awareness Month. This February, JP gave tickets to tonight's Jay's home opener to an autistic guy who's a huge Blue Jays fan once he heard that the guy had been struggling with bullies. Nice that the whole stadium was Lit Up Blue for autism, too - I assume.

My dog was lit up blue for autism today!

Ok, so, how'd we hit?

Michael Bourn is our new leadoff guy, because he's got the speed of Kenny Lofton (or Rickey Henderson, however you want to phrase it). He didn't get any steals today but he went 2 for 5 on the night with one of his hits coming after the game in a scoring change!

OMG ASDRUBAL!!! He started the game with a walk then in the 5th, BOOM! Two-run homer! It was pretty funny because I started the tradition of posting "OMG ASDRUBAL!!!" to Facebook after every homer, and my friends were commenting on how they were racing to their newsfeed to see my announcement. Ha! He's on track for 162...

Michael Brantley is hitting .500 already. I definitely see .300 in his future! He went 1 for 2 today with 2 walks - either he's got an amazing eye or the opposing pitchers are afraid of him. I'm going with the latter - the cat's out of the bag! Man, that guy is awesome. I hope you all put him on your fantasy teams...

The Carlos Santana we paid for showed up today! He went 1 for 3 with a double and a walk. That's patience at the plate, yo.

Mark Reynolds was the DH today. Not sure why he's our guy and not Ryan Raburn but I'll leave that mystery to Tito. I guess maybe he gets the nod for being the first guy we based our season on? He went 0 for 3 today with a walk and a run, so not useless. I don't really have an opinion on this guy so we'll get to know him together this year!

Lonnie Chisenhall is your guy to watch this year! (Aside from Michael Brantley) He went 1 for 4 with an RBI (on a ground out). He got the Tribe's first RBI of the season. Nick Swisher was so excited for him!

Drew Stubbs also got it done at the plate, so far proving to be a valuable 9th hitter. So far, you know, after one game. He also went 1 for 4 with a RBI. Batting, fielding - we like Drew Stubbs!

Nobody stole a base today. A little disappointed since we kept getting promised speed. Asdrubal tried to take care of it himself but got caught. ¡Ups!

I liked this game as an opening day game because it wasn't extreme in any way. Nothing crazy happened, there wasn't a big blowout (either way), we didn't have to employ any trickery. It was vanilla and excitingly so. It looked like a game we could play any day, and if we play this very game every day then we will have an amazing season!

Tomorrow's game is at 7:05 but I'll be at my grandpa's wake. Huge bummer, sorry. But don't worry, I'll be back as soon as I can to see what happened and then to give you my most upbeat impression of things. I hope there's as much excitement and enthusiasm for tomorrow's game as their was today! It was a great baseball day - let's keep it up!

Radio Chatter:
"In the past you'd come here and it was like watching a game in the library."
- Tom Hamilton on the enthusiasm of Jays fans

"You wouldn't think there would be FIVE Cy Young winners who would end up pitching for another team the next year on opening day."
- Tom Hamilton (Dickey, Clemens, Martinez, Cone, Maddux)

"He is going to know everybody in the first row by their first names by the end of this game."
- Tom Hamilton on Arencibia's troubles with catching Dickey

"If you give Smith, Pestano and Perez a 3-run lead, usually that's a great day for the Indians."
- Tom Hamilton

"The Blue Jays, if they lose this game, are going to say 'Woulda, coulda, shoulda' about the first few innings."
- Tom Hamilton

"Boy those baseball gods have a wicked sense of humor..."
- Tom Hamilton on Perez coming in with a 4-1 lead in the opener...again