So Nice, I Listened Twice!

I was hanging with my nieces today during the game instead of sitting here glued to my screen, watching Gameday between reading Buzzfeed pictorials (my favorites are animals and retros!) But my brother was kind enough to let me carry around his iPad with AtBat on it, like a radio. Kind of funny because at the moment I don't have a portable radio at home per se - I have my radio plugged in to avoid having to buy batteries. So being able to bring the radio with me around the house was all kinds of neat. It's like I was visiting from 1937!

My younger niece doesn't talk yet but she kept pointing to the iPod and saying "ball?" Heck yeah little girl - that's the ballgame! My brother gave the older one a blow-up light sabre, which she sort of managed to use as a light sabre, but really she wanted me to play baseball with her. The younger one thought we were playing rugby and ran off with the ball. Fun times!

Anyway so I listened to the game with one ear and heard the finale during post-bedtime adult time but I was so happy that it was a nice winning game with some hits and good pitching that I decided to listen to the whole thing again when I got home. Ballgame!

Re-listening to the game was kind of funny because it slowly dawned on me that not much really happened and it really was a pitcher's duel. There were a few tense moments with bases loaded for both teams, but that was about it! Although, it was a nice time listening to the build-up to the final run. And, I had bought snacks.

Masterson threw 10 strikeouts today, which is 2 fewer than his record of 12. He's still looking good! And this time his line is showing it, unlike his last outing where he looked good, technically, but still gave up 4 runs. He went 7 innings today and only gave up 1 run, on a bases-loaded wild pitch. Our starting pitchers have really been tight over these last 3 wins, which is exactly what the doctor ordered for a team that is trying their darndest to hit their way out of this wet paper bag we call a slump.

Masterson was lucky to be followed up by Cody Allen and Joe Smith, two of the most sure relievers we've got. They threw 25 pitches between them over 2 innings, with 3 strikeouts. It would have been an absolute f'n shame if someone had come in and gave up a homer after Masterson's performance - so kudos to the big guys for doing exactly what we needed!

The Tribe only got 7 hits and 4 walks. They loaded the bases in the 6th on 3 walks - and nothing happened! Then they did it again in the 8th, this time with singles - and still nothing happened! The big downer in both of those bases-loaded situations was Mark Reynolds. Remember that guy who was hitting 460' homers and leading the league? He's not quite leading the league in strikeouts yet but he sure is leading the team. Sigh. Let's hope that he follows his teammates up out of this FUNK and we can get back to laughing at the teams that gave up on Reynolds because he struck out too damn much.

The big winners tonight were: Ryan Raburn, Jason Kipnis and Drew Stubbs.

Ryan Raburn got himself a solo homer today to tie the game! Did you know that he's got 3 homers in his last 5 games? And 5 RBI too.

By the way, I just realized I have no idea what Ryan Raburn looks like. LMGTFM....

From espn.go.com

There you go. He looks like Typical White Baseball Player #3271. Although from this angle he looks more..."specific." Kind of like my friend Chuck D. (not that Chuck D., I mean Typical White Guy #93, Chuck):

The guys tried their hands at getting runners on the bases one more time in the 9th, with the score tied at 1 (thanks to Raburn!) Still doin' fine at number nine was Drew Stubbs, who extended his little hitting streak to 3 games with a single. He's got 9 hits in his last 10 games, yaknow. Next up was Bourn, who got a single and Stubbs was off running on the pitch so he made it to third. And you know, with those two on base, it's just off to the races time.

Jason Kipnis was up with 2 on and 1 out. Unlike all of the Reynoldses before him, he would not be defeated! He had already had two hits on the night, by the way - a double and a single. That gives him an 8-game hitting streak with 13 hits over those games! Thirteen! He's also got 6 RBI over those 8 games now too, because he hit a grounder that the first baseman was lucky to snag and then throw home.

Except it looks like he didn't expect Stubbs to be flying home. His throw looked a little soft. Stubbs said post-game that he was just going to go on anything because whatever happened, Bourn would be on 3rd behind him so we'd have another shot (Bourn had stolen 2nd, by the way). Anyway, the first baseman threw to Kurt Suzuki at home, who is merely fulfilling the position of "catcher" in a literal sense in that he is there to catch the ball and no more. Suzuki couldn't tag Stubbs and...ballgame!



That was the Tribe's 6th walkoff win of the year! Not only am I excited that they won - now 3 in a row, AND finally got a win off Gio Gonzalez - but I'm extra excited that there were over 30,000 in attendance to watch it. And they got fireworks and dollar dogs. Hopefully now those people will be as myopic about baseball as Clevelanders tend to be and come back thinking "Hey, they are winners! Let's go to another game!"

Tomorrow is more fireworks and Kipnis jersey day. What a run-up for the Kid! Let's hope he makes it 9 games in a row, and maybe something in the way of the cycle, huh? The game is going to be on Fox (national TV? Not sure, actually...) so the whole world (or at least the non-cable-having part of the broadcast area) will be able to see all of the Kipnis love in the stands.

It's a 7:15 game with Scott Kazmir (solid!) facing RHP 2.00. Ooooh....we like a guy who's good, right? 

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Third base coach Brad Mills...if he gets any further away from the action, he'll have to buy a ticket."
- Tom Hamilton

"You kind of figured it would be that kind of a game tonight."
- Tom Hamilton on Masterson versus Gonzalez

"One mistake could decide this game tonight."
- Tom Hamilton

"He would not do well playing poker."
- Tom Hamilton on Gio Gonzalez

"...he was much more selective. Now it looks like he's trying to hit every pitch ten miles, and has really expanded his strike zone."
- Tom Hamilton on the changes in Reynolds