THIS is the team we were all imagining in March, isn't it? Shaky/whatever pitching propped up by tons of big hits that kept on coming! How fun!!
Scott Kazmir made his debut and didn't do too hot. In fact, he only pitched 3 1/3 innings and didn't get the win. He gave up 6 runs on 7 hits including 2 home runs. He did strike out 4 in those few innings but uh...there was nothing much sharp or exciting about his performance. I don't want to hear crying about how long it was between each inning, either. Bob Feller's watching!
Bryan Shaw came in for a respectable 1 2/3 innings and only gave up one hit and struck out 2. He's our best new guy in the bullpen for sure, with a .93 ERA over 10 innings. Welcome, Bryan Shaw!
Corey Kluber was called on to pitch the final 4 innings and he pitched a beaut. He only gave up 2 hits and no runs, striking out 4. Pretty awesome for his second outing of the season, right?!
Our guys had 49 at-bats tonight and got 22 hits and 8 walks. They scored 19 runs (over the first 5 innings), had 3 homers and 6 doubles!
Let's start!
Michael Brantley had 6 at-bats at leadoff. At first he flied out then the team scored 5 runs and he got up again and hit a 2-run double! Later on he walked in a run and then got a single, going 2 for 6 on the night. His average is back up to .250. Aaaah!
Kipnis was back for his second game and got a hit, a walk and scored twice. He actually was the "least good" of all the lineup tonight but hey at least he was in there making a difference.
So before the game, Asdrubal was coming down the steps into the dugout and he fell. "Sprawled out" is what Francona said. He hurt his wrist - not broken, but bad enough to be annoying when he bats right. OMG....ASDRUBAL!!! Gah... Before he left the game he did go 1 for 2 and came in to score.
Mike Aviles came in for him and kept it up going 2 for 4 with a walk and coming in to score 2 runs. Pretty nice that our backup guy is able to do...dare I say more? ... than our starter. Go Aviles!
Nick Swisher had a smiley smiley good night! He went 4 for 7 with three doubles! He got 2 RBI and came in to score 3 times. Swisher - sweet!
Jason Giambi finally managed to impress me for real today, going 2 for 4 with a homer and a double. And two walks. And oh yeah - five RBI! He's still super old and has an overall crummy batting average but five RBI? Awesome!
The other big guys in the lineup followed suit with their own homers and doubles. Carlos Santana is now batting .378 and is near the top of the league in average. He went 2 for 5 tonight with a homer, a double and a walk, coming around to score 3 times. He got 2 RBI. Carlos Santana is not going away!
Neither is Mark Reynolds, it seems. He went 2 for 4 with a 3-run homer and ended up with 4 RBI on the the night. He's near the top of the league in both homers and RBI! He's batting .296, to boot. And he only struck out once which is pretty good considering he got on base the other 3 times. Woot!
Yan Gomes came in to bat for Reynolds later on, just for restees I think (I hope). He went 1 for 1! Also him and his wife (and Meryl Masterson) are lovely people!
The Chiz Kid didn't get a homer today like the big boys but he did get a double and ended up going 2 for 5, so that's not too shabby!
Drew Stubbs was super hot tonight. Maybe he knew I was finding him to be mediocre? He went 3 for 4 with a walk, 2 runs and an RBI! Cool! Later in the game he fouled a ball off his knee and they took him out and put in Raburn who did nothing but oh well.
Let's hope that Stubbs, Cabrera and Reynolds aren't hurt for real. I bet Cabrera sits out tomorrow. Stubbs might too - nobody likes a foul ball in their knee. Not sure what's up with Reynolds but if everyone is hitting home runs and doubles we sure as heck need him in there!
This is truly how I have expected every game to go this year. Maybe not 19 runs but 19 runs when we face bad teams. And it looks like we have to score 19 runs because our pitchers are giving up, like, 6. So we need to keep hitting like this forever.
I do want to point out tho, real quick, that our team has been racking up the strikeouts [pitched] lately. Today it was 10, yesterday 9, Thursday 11, Wednesday 10, Tuesday 16. Not bad, right? We're not leading the league as a team or anything but that's a bright spot in an otherwise dismal pitching record, right? (We're 2nd in the league in homers given up)
I also want to point out that last night Meryl Masterson and her cookie made an appearance in the blog in a sparkly-smiley homage gif, and tonight the team went nuts. Baseball is full of superstition, folks, and right now I am convinced the Sparkle Meryl and her cookie are a good luck charm for the Tribe, so she'll be making an appearance again tonight...just in case:
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| You know you want one! |
Tomorrow's game is at 2:10. It's Ubaldo versus LHP 7.04. If we need to score a ton of runs to overcome Ubaldo's suckitude, now is the time to do it. I hope they take tonight's momentum (minus injuries) and run with it! Deep in the heart of Texas!
Radio Chatter:
"You're not going to see many more innings in which every member of the team hit the ball as hard as they did this inning."
- Tom Hamilton
"Even in Houston they know what a Bronx cheer sounds like."
- Tom Hamilton
"Nobody anymore can give you a word anymore that's 1 or 2 syllables when they can give you one that's got more syllables."
- Tom Hamilton on Asdrubal's wrist contusion
"Nobody up warming in the Houston bullpen, although the mascot has shed his jacket and is beginning to throw."
- Tom Hamilton in the 2nd inning
"The guy who's cringing in the Indians dugout is Houston native Michael Bourn who can't get in on the action."
- Tom Hamilton
"Kluber's one of those guys you feel should be more successful."
- Tom Hamilton
"He said he slipped and Major League Baseball said 'Yep, and your dog ate your homework. We've heard that one before.'"
- Tom Hamilton on Carlos Carrasco
"So many times you see a team score 19 runs one night then go 2 or 3 games with one run total."
- Tom Hamilton
"The Indians fans are on their feet - they're the only ones left at the park!"
- Tom Hamilton in the 9th
"You're not going to see many more innings in which every member of the team hit the ball as hard as they did this inning."
- Tom Hamilton
"Even in Houston they know what a Bronx cheer sounds like."
- Tom Hamilton
"Nobody anymore can give you a word anymore that's 1 or 2 syllables when they can give you one that's got more syllables."
- Tom Hamilton on Asdrubal's wrist contusion
"Nobody up warming in the Houston bullpen, although the mascot has shed his jacket and is beginning to throw."
- Tom Hamilton in the 2nd inning
"The guy who's cringing in the Indians dugout is Houston native Michael Bourn who can't get in on the action."
- Tom Hamilton
"Kluber's one of those guys you feel should be more successful."
- Tom Hamilton
"He said he slipped and Major League Baseball said 'Yep, and your dog ate your homework. We've heard that one before.'"
- Tom Hamilton on Carlos Carrasco
"So many times you see a team score 19 runs one night then go 2 or 3 games with one run total."
- Tom Hamilton
"The Indians fans are on their feet - they're the only ones left at the park!"
- Tom Hamilton in the 9th
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