King Justin

What is UP with this, guys? All of this shellacking of Cy Young Award winners? How cool is this?! Today they threw Felix Hernandez at us and we threw 6 runs back at them! And for good measure, we had Justin Masterson up there throwing nothing but strikes and only allowing 3 hits. When the Tribe scored 2 runs in the first inning, I had a feeling that that'd be all we needed to get this game won. I was right!

Masterson is absolutely beautiful right now. He hasn't allowed any runs in 18 innings over 3 games. He's struck out 71 in 70 innings (3rd in the league for total strikeouts, first for innings pitched). And FINALLY the guy is getting run support! I mean, what can you say about this guy other than he is pitching better than all of the Cy Young Award winners in the league? Truly a thing to behold.

Rich Hill came in again, for the third day in a row, to start the 8th. He was fine - he walked a guy and struck a guy out. Then they gave us Joe Smith! Yay! Smith finished the 8th then came in for the 9th, and gave us a truly Perez-like performance: walk, strikeout, popout, hit. Ballgame!

The top of the lineup had all of the action today, aside from Mike Aviles who threw up some assists.

Bourn had his third great game in a row, despite reports that his hand isn't 100% healed yet. Today he went 2 for 4 and scored 2 runs, giving him 7 hits and 3 runs scored in this 3-game series thus far. Wow! He didn't steal any bases today but he stretched a single out to a double and also came around to score afterwards, daring the outfielder to try to make a play at the plate. Since Bourn is so speedy the guy totally did not make a play at the plate, and it gave the other runner a chance to get to second.

Kipnis was also 2 for 4 and came in to score a run. He's got a 4-game hitting streak but he's also been hot in this series with 6 hits and 3 runs scored! He also got a double!

Michael Brantley was the story of the game today (aside from King Justin) and guess who was in town to cheer him on?

I expect good things, son!

His dad! An ex-Mariner, even! So after no hits in the last 2 games (yesterday he sat out), Brantley opened up for 2 hits, 2 runs and FOUR RBI today! One of them RBI was a 3-run dinger! It was just his second homer of the year and of course it came on 2 outs (that's what - 12 2-out runs in this series now?)

I can dig it!

Swisher got a double today, but the rest of the middle of the order was silent. Jason Giambi did walk twice, though.

Aviles got in to the act, going 2 for 4 with a run scored. He got a double in the 4th, then Drew Stubbs came up and hit one between the plate and the mound. Stubbs was out at first but in the meantime Mike Aviles was racing around third and scoring. Cue the Puerto Rican parade music! Bonus points if you can spot the Indians hat in the video!

So today's win makes us 17-4 in the last 21 games. It puts our winning percentage at .595. It puts us TWO games ahead of the Tigers in first place.

Is this real life?

Tomorrow we get to face these Mariners again! Hooray for the Mariners! And lucky for us (?) the pitcher is one of those near-Cy-Young-Award-winners which means there's a pretty good chance he'll be trounced. If we win tomorrow that'd be two 4-game sweeps in a row for us. I can't wait to hear all the historical stats on that!!

It'll be Scott Kazmir versus RHP 1.84. Oooooh...Well, let's see here - we have a smaller batting average versus righties, as a team, but 12 more homers and 29 more RBI. I think this team can manage.

Don't forget it's a 12:05 start! I'll see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"If you ever get a rental car and the wipers work, or are relatively new, then you've hit the lottery."
- Tom Hamilton

"You wonder if he's just another product of Yankee hype."
- Tom Hamilton on Jesus Montero, who sucks

"If it wasn't an orange barrel, it was a skinny person you were trying to avoid today."
- Tom Hamilton on the construction and marathon downtown

"What you need to know as a pitcher is that your catcher will give you effort."
- Tom Hamilton on Jesus Montero

"Masterson, when he's pitching like he is today and like he did against New York, you wonder how anyone can hit him ever."
- Tom Hamilton