Bye Bye Bawlmer

Corey Kluber, after pitching like this guy in Washington:

...just did not have the same stuff today. I won't blame it on the heat because dude is from Alabama. It was just a bad outing, I guess.

He was getting in and out of jams all through the first 4 innings. Then he got to the 5th inning and it was downhill from there. Sound familiar? He gave up 6 hits and 5 runs. Holy smokes! At least he didn't give up any homers to the big-homering team. He gave up 7 runs and 11 hits all told.

His stats for the season are so weird. He doesn't seem consistent at all. But everyone attests to how he is really working his butt off to become a premier pitcher for this team and I do feel that. If he was bad all the time, you wouldn't believe he was working hard. If he was consistently mediocre, you wouldn't think he was changing. But the up and down means something's afoot...I just hope it gets here soon!

The bullpen was shockingly effective today! They rolled out the b-team: Hagadone, Shaw and Albers. Hagadone finished off that awful 5th inning with a strike, then came back for a 1-2-3 6th inning. Then there was a rain delay.

Intermission music:

Oddly enough I had cooked up this grand scheme to go to the store during the game (I have been hella busy after work, no time to shop) and decided that dangit, I was going to listen to the game on headphones while I shopped. So I was sitting in the car trying to tune my radio to 100.7 (the NBA draft was on 1100 WTAM. The NBA draft is more important than a mid-season Tribe game. AS IF!) and as soon as I tuned it they were like "Rain delay. See you soon."

So it turns out I didn't have to shop with headphones on. The delay was over just about the time I got home. Neat!

Anyway after the rain delay was Matt Albers, who had a 1-2-3 inning then Bryan Shaw who had a 1-2-3 inning. Gloriously boring outings from 3 of our relievers!

The Tribe got a lot of hits today but they got NO walks. Not a one! They also struck out as many times as they hit (10)...which can't be good. Even though they got 10 hits, the hits were all spread out enough that it only resulted in 3 runs.

Michael Bourn was back to hitting today, going 2 for 5. Waiting for him to heat back up, any second here.

Kipnis was held to just a single today, and went 1 for 4 with 2 strikeouts. Perhaps this is the key to why we lost?

Brantley got a hit, finally, after being shut down for 2 games. He got his 11th double!

The man of the night, though, was Lonnie Chisenhall!! After showing up with his hustle last night, today he brought the bat and went 3 for 4, with 2 RBI, a double and a bit PHAT homer! Real nice, out of the park and on to Utah street where 69 other homers have landed since 1992.

His double was an RBI double, too. In fact it was a long single that he legged in to a double, nearly getting picked off at second. But more importantly he proved he could do stuff in the clutch, with a man in scoring position - something he's been missing almost all year.

Let's hope this is the beginning of something awesome from the Chiz Kid!

Other guys got hits today but they weren't Asdrubal or Yan Gomes, so I'm sure you're not interested. I did pick up some sort of coconut, fudge-covered Oreo cookie thing from the grocery store during the rain delay....I think that's a bit more interesting, don't you?

Ok so tomorrow is a traditional double header, I guess, being that the first game starts at 5 PM. We'll be facing the White Sox in Chicago. Trevor Bauer will start the first game and Carlos Carrasco the second. Jeebus - I don't know WHAT to expect! Bauer's ERA is kind of high in the Minors but he does have 67 strikeouts over 65 innings, so that's cool.

I'm hoping it'll be a hum-dinger of a series - Chicago is awful right now. Perhaps it'll give the team a chance to get their win on again. At least they'll be in the Windy City and not the City Of Horrible Humidity And Stickiness!

I don't have any Radio Chatter for you today, sorry. I've been painting a thing, and I'm lucky they give me a radio at all. I don't get a pad of paper to write down quotes, too.