Don't Trust The Happy, The Happy Are Insane

Argh, Nick Swisher! I had just outed myself as a hayter and what does he do? He goes and wins two games for us! That's the kind of junk that terminally exuberant people do. They're all "U mad, bro?" then go out of their way to do nice stuff for you until there's no way you can possibly be upset. Upset with the world or upset with them.

So yeah, whatever. I can start rooting for him now.

In other news, Ubaldo Jiminez still can't go past 6 innings. I guess we're pitching him now as a "At least there won't be blowouts anymore" starter, but definitely not as a long guy. His line was pretty busy - 5 innings, 9 hits, 3 runs, 4 walks, 8 strikeouts. Pretty nice on the strikeouts for just 5 innings. But he had to throw a lot of pitches (112!) to get those 8 outs and the other 7 outs it took to pitch 5 innings.

Lucky for us there's this dude Joe Martinez who was for some reason called up to do some relief work. Never heard of him. His AAA ERA is 6.23. He does have 56 strikeouts in 86 innings with only 21 walks, so that's pretty nice. Oh and guess what? He's got his first major league win since 2009!

He looks just as surprised as we are!

 Martinez picked up 2 innings and only gave up 2 hits, striking out one. He doesn't throw for speed - seems to top out at 92 and likes some slower stuff. Instead he seems to like to throw them where they can be hit - for outs. Fly ball outs - nothing wrong with that!

Since all of the other dudes were used up in game 2 yesterday, we got back around to Smith and Perez again today. What we got was the Original Recipe Smith and Perez, with Smith having a blank line and Perez as well! Smith got the hold, and Perez got his first save since May 11. Last night I was bragging on Perez's 5th 1-2-3 inning of the year, now he's already making a habit of it!

The Tribe was held to "just" 9 hits today, and 4 walks. They got back to their habit of hitting the long ball, though - that's how we got 3 of our 4 runs!

Asdrubal was back again at #2, and he went 2 for 4 - with a homer! OMG! Only his 6th of the season, but it's still early for him being that he missed so much time. Since he's been back he has a 4-game hitting streak, going 7 for 15 in that time. YOU HEARD ME! He's back and better than ever!

Which is just fantastic because he's followed up by SLG king Jason Kipnis, who got his 4th homer of the month today, and his 24th & 25th RBI. There's a lot of talk this weekend about how well Kipnis does in Chicago, being from there, but actually when we were there earlier this year he went 1 for 7. This time? 6 for 10! (So far!)

Nick Swisher only went 1 for 3....but it was a total clutch "one." It was a clutch "one." It was the winning RBI "one." Well done, you.

Brantley was kind of hung out to dry today. He went 2 for 4 but didn't get an RBI or a run. No one around him to help out! Santana got a nice double but it wasn't in tandem with either of Brantley's hits.

Did you know that Mark Reynolds has a little 3-game hitting streak going? Pretty awesome. He was hitting really consistently while he was homering like crazy earlier in the year. So perhaps this is a bit of a warm-up for him to explode back in to the team's home run guy pretty soon? Or heck, if he just keeps consistently hitting that's cool too.

Chiz, Aviles (pinch hitter) and Stubbs didn't get anything done today. Sucks. I'm expecting more tomorrow!

Today's game was the half-way point of the season (game 81) and tomorrow's game puts us halfway done with the Sox. Bummer, because if we played these guys every weekend we'd be tops in baseball! We've got two more 4-game series with them and a 2-gamer. Weird, huh?

As for 4-game series this year: 2 split, 2 swept, 1 lost. I would not mind sweeping another!

We're 1 game behind Detroit by the way. They are playing the Rays, who are not too shabby. The Tigers are 4-6 in their last 10 while we're 7-3. Anyway, what all this means is...we could be tied for first by the end of Sunday!

It'll be Masterson versus LHP 2.75. I dare say our guys are really going to need to be on top of their game tomorrow - if nothing else, getting through the starter as early as possible. And Masterson's going to have to pitch a classic Masterson, going long with a low score. Totally, totally can happen.

It's at 2:10 - see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"He must have forgot. 'Gosh, I thought I was supposed to do something. I guess I was going to tell people what that play was.'"
- Tom Hamilton perplexed on the home plate umpire's super-hesitant strike call

"What is that a 5.5 hour drive? Six hours? Well, for you 5.5."
"For you, 7. [...] Driving like you is like when you go up to the bowling alley and they have those bumpers up so you can't get a gutterball."
"Have we ever not gotten there safely?"
- Jim Rosenhaus and Tom Hamilton on driving to Chicago

"You gotta be careful shaking your head at [home plate umpire] Wally Bell. It's like shaking your head at your dad and the next thing you know, you're over his knee."
- Tom Hamilton

"Wally Bell, with a litle Leslie Nielson action on strike three. All he needs is a little moon dance."
- Tom Hamilton

"He continues to be public enemy number one for the White Sox!"
- Tom Hamilton on Jason Kipnis

"The only thing those guys had going for them is they had long hair and it sort of looked like seagulls."
- Tom Hamilton is totally not a fan of Flock Of Seagulls

"Most of the Indians relievers have an IV stuck in their arm, after yesterday's yeoman duty."
- Tom Hamilton

"Robin Ventura must feel like every time he looks up, Jason Kipnis is at home plate."
- Tom Hamilton