Well "Wow!" is not what I was saying while I was stuck in traffic on the way in and ultimately missing the first inning, but it did make me happy to see so many folks there. Actually it sort of made me suspicious. Why are Clevelanders able to not be at work at noon on a Monday and why were all of these kids out of school?
I can't answer for the kids (awesome parents, I suppose) but I have come to the conclusion that Cleveland is a second shift town and nobody is coming to the games because they're all at work. That's why noon games are so popular. So, the media can stop pondering the question and leave Cleveland alone. And no, I do not know who is covering first shift. Clearly not sports fans.
We had our seats up in the nosebleeds, the All You Can Eat seats. I thought it was a solid plan, being that we like the view from up there, and for $15 more than regular seats in the section we could eat all day. And while I had no problem eating $15 worth of food (I calculated I managed to down about $49 worth over 5 hours) the selection does sort of suck. It's the lowest of the low forms of food from the stadium - the cheapest nachos, the smallest drink cups, the dollar dogs - and you definitely get jealous as you watch people walk by with their ice cream cones and pizza and cotton candy. Granted you are totally free to buy all that stuff but then you can't smugly chow down on more free hot dogs. It skews your ratio of free food to paid ($15) food.
Anyway the whole situation is mentally exhausting, trying to make sure you eat enough. Perfect plan for when you have two games to sit through and need lunch and dinner, but otherwise - skip the All You Can Eat seats (unless someone gives you tickets to the Club version of this, which is a million times better and full of ice cream. Go get that!)
It was cold today - 44 degrees at noon and 47 degrees at the beginning of game 2. I planned ahead and wore 5 layers of shirts. An undershirt, my "We Are All Kipnises" tee, an Indians thermal shirt, my usual blank-back jersey and an Indians hoodie. I actually had to keep my hat on and hood up the entire time and wear heavy gloves for the first game. There was no sun anywhere in our section until about the 6th inning of the first game. Then it was weird because it was windy and cold but our faces and legs were hot from the sun beating down on them. I was able to take my gloves off (much better for my cheer ability) but I still stayed huddled up. My butt (my literal BUTT) was freezing!
So, we missed the first inning, since it took me too long to get downtown. Saw Kipnis's homer on the television as we ascended the escalator and that was that. No more runs for the Tribe in 17 more innings of baseball.
There were no runs for the Yankees in the first game so that was cool. Actually that was one of the few times I enjoyed a pitcher's duel, I think because Masterson looked so sharp. Any fan of this team wants desperately for Masterson to be able to come out and throw a complete-game no-hitter. That is exactly what he did and by about the 5th inning it was evident that whatever troubles he has been having his past few outings were straightened out - at least for today - and it was going to be lights-out for him. He struck out 9 and only walked 3, and held the Yankees to just 4 hits. Mid- to low-90s pitches with the occasional off speed. It only took him 118 pitches to finish the game, too.
Oh, Masterson did have a little help from his friends. Twice:
Ok, three times. No one would have won anything had it not been for Kipnis' home run!
Asdrubal had a good first game, uh, aside from the 2 strikeouts. He had those 2 nice plays and then a double. I had refreshed my sign just for this occasion, so I was happy to get to wave it about. Twice. Then I spilled some more pop on it.
 |
| Old |
 |
| New |
The first game only took 2 hours and 30 minutes. The second game did not start 20 minutes after the first ended, as promised. Instead it was 30 minutes. Didn't seem too bad! Especially since we finally had sunshine by then.
Trevor Bauer pitched the second game and I think he looked good. He did have a quality start going 6 2/3 innings and giving up only 2 earned runs. The Yankees did make him pitch a heckofalot though. He was past 100 by the time he left. Th first two innings were slow, but he roped in his pitch count in the 3rd and 4th, and had 1-2-3 innings for the 5th and 6th. It's nice to see that Bauer is progressing each time he pitches with us!
Nick Hagadone is going the opposite way. He struggled his last time out and today fared no better. He gave up 3 earned runs on just 3 hits and a walk. Three earned runs! I think we've got enough good stuff going on in our bullpen that Hagadone needs to be sent away (like Chisenhall was today) for a bit to figure things out.
Matt Albers finished up the 7th for everyone. Not until Mark Reynolds let a run score on a throwing error. But that inning ended and Albers came in for the 8th, giving up a single and throwing a wild pitch. Damn! The Bad was catching! They yanked him for David Huff...
Yeah, David Huff! I didn't even consider that he was still on our team. Apparently he's been in CBus throwing a 4.07 ERA and winning 3 games. Last year he finished the season with a 3.38 ERA and 6 appearances. I'm not sure what his role in our organization is since his appearances keep going down and his ERA stays relatively high. But today he faced 5 batters, striking the first 2 out and then finishing the 8th and 9th innings with no runs scored. Huh.
Nothing worth mentioning on the offensive side. Yes they got 5 hits but only went as far as 2 in one inning, then did poorly at bringing the runs home. Well, they did nothing in the way of bringing the runs home. Not sure what that means. I guess the weather and some exhaustion (I'll wait here while we all roll our eyes at the thought). I'm pretty tired and all I did was sit there!
Oh so the guy who shut us out in the second game, Vidal Nuno, was a 48th round draft pick by the Indians. And today was his first MLB start. We beat 6 Cy Young Award winners so far this year and just got beaten by a 48th round draft pick in his first start.
OMG BASEBALL!!!
Tomorrow is more baseball, if you can stand it! Off to the city of brotherly love to be harassed by Philly fans. It'll be our new favorite Scott Kazmir versus RHP 3.36. We ka-rushed the Phils in our last 2-game series, last week or whatever. This is another 2-game series, so it should be interesting. Anything will be more interesting than today's games! (And with fewer hot dogs)
See you there!
(No radio chatter...totally not going to listen to the archive of 5 hours of baseball where nothing happened)
No comments:
Post a Comment