Never thought I'd be saying that! I don't think we've had a game this season - or any season - where Ubaldo came off like a shining star amongst some crap batting and crap relief.
Was it crap batting or amazing pitching? The other guy didn't walk any of our guys, and struck out 7. I suppose if we're going to say Ubaldo did great with similar stats, then so did Leake. It doesn't get our batters off the hook, though - if they can manage all those Cy Young guys they can manage some dude from Cincinnati!
Ubaldo went 7 1/3 innings before he had thrown enough (108) and was done. In that time he only struck out 6 (I'm getting greedy with my strikeouts, thanks to Justin!) and gave up 2 earned runs. His ERA is actually the third lowest it's been all season already, thanks to the long outing. He is throwing in the low 90s, as prescribed, so that's cool. He didn't hit anyone today but he did have a wild pitch and gave up a home run to the leadoff hitter, Choo, in the first.
Best news - no meltdown!
Jiminez didn't have much help from Santana, who had 2 passed balls (one for Jiminez, one for Hagadone). Good thing Santana is hitting pretty well yet - I think everyone is chomping at the bit to get Gomes in there as our catcher and it seems like the minute Santana does something "off" he gets extra scolded for it. It's a weird spot to be in, though. There are a lot of possibilities as to who can play where and when but I'll be darned if I can tell you what the best one would be!
Hagadone was called up from Columbus today, after just being sent down to Columbus whence I said "Good, he needs to go to Columbus." He was brought up because Perez is momentarily disabled in the arm. Hagadone is not that good, but he's all we got. He started off good with an ERA under 3 all through April and the beginning of May only giving up 2 runs in 10 appearances. Then he gave up 3 runs in 1/3 of an inning. Then he did it again. Then they sent him away but they had to bring him back. Today he was back and he immediately got bitten by this bug where our relievers are giving up home runs.
Our relievers are giving up home runs.
Hagadone gave up a 2-run homer to Joey Votto in the 8th and that was that. Bryan Shaw, who is bug-free, finished off the 8th with no fanfare. What can you do about Hagadone? He's the only guy ready enough in Columbus to come up, I guess. Does he have a sore arm too? Anyone else we can try? Can Bauer do more relief? I'd like to see that.
It was "only" a 2-run deficit going in to the 9th but considering the team's take for the first 8 innings was only 2 runs, it didn't look promising that we could come back on this one. And we didn't. Perhaps if Swisher had let Chapman hit him in the head when Chapman threw at his head in the 9th we'd have had a chance at some game-tying homer. But also we might be down one Nick Swisher and the guy is really growing on me.
Speaking of growing on me - Jason Friggin' Giambi. I hate to see him up anymore, he's like Damon or Thome. Blech. But then every 10th at-bat or so (actually, he's 3/61 so I guess it's almost exactly every 20th at-bat) he hits a homer and it's some game-changing homer (today: game-tying) and I'm all "woohoo! I knew he had it in him!" It'd be so much easier if I didn't have to think about it, you know?
In other news, Kipnis and Asdrubal are keepin' on with their hitting, despite the rest of the team's poor performance. And despite their own "relatively" weak showing. Both went 1 for 4, Asdrubal with a double - extending his hitting streak to a Brantley-like 7 games.
Asdrubal also stole third! It doesn't seem like they are some huge stealing threat (although we have two of the fastest dues in the league) but it's sort of a round-robin of who might be running on you next. The Tribe is 3rd in the league in stolen bases and they've been running a lot more in recent games. Maybe because Bourn is back and Kipnis is getting on base more? The only regulars with no stolen bases are Giambi, Gomes and Chisenhall. Leading the team in SB is Kipnis with 10 but Bourn - who's got 60 fewer at-bats - is catching up fast with 8!
Reynolds got the only other hit, and Santana got the other run via sac fly. The end.
Tomorrow's another day is about all we can say about this, huh? We TOTALLY have to win tomorrow because my Negative Nelly friend said we'd go 1-5 on the road trip. Please please win tomorrow to prove my friend wrong! Also, because I'm tired of losing. Terry Francona is too. There better be some major heart-to-heart at tonight's Skyline Chili eating contest where Tito whips these knuckleheads in to shape and gets them back on the win train.
Tomorrow at 7:05 is McAllister versus RHP 3.17. Guy's given up 15 runs in his last 4 starts. Let's hope they can coax some more out of him tomorrow!
No Radio Chatter today. I was up at dawn (or what seemed like dawn) to go to the local parade and I crashed hard in the middle of the game. I had a good nap, and it would seem I didn't miss much of anything.
But, see you tomorrow!
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