All You Need Is Stubbs

Man, so much not good stuff happened today. Well, no - pitching was good but that was about it. Batting was sooooo boring and fielding? DID YOU SEE THE FIELDING TODAY?! Like the guys were playing with squids on their hands instead of gloves. Visual:

The lesser flying squidnis

I dunno how but Scott Kazmir - struggling as of late - managed a nice clean quality start going 6 innings and giving up just 1 earned run. And not only one earned run but one run overall. FOUR errors didn't result in any un-earned runs, and Kazmir was darn good pitching out of a couple bad situations. Also, he committed an error too so perhaps that helped him shrug off his teammates' bad play? Kazmir struck out 8 in his 6 innings, which is the second most he's thrown in one game all year (10 on 5/9). Not bad for a guy who is spoken of as if his season is slowly rounding the toilet bowl. Nice comeback, Kazmir! Hang on a few more games, bud...

Cody Allen got off his little naughty stint and came in for another Allen-worthy performance. He threw the 7th inning and thanks to an error on his part (bad pickoff), a walk and a single, he was faced with a man in scoring position with no outs. But he got out of it! Rock!

Joe Smith came in for the 8th, and I always like watching him pitch on TV (I caught some of the game on TV). His submarine-style pitching just looks so hard to hit! But that's why the guys at the plate make the big bucks...they manage to get the bat on the ball. Smith had a baserunner due to error and then another got a single, but he got out of it too.

Next up - Pure Rage! Flyout, groundout, walk, strikeout. A typical Perez inning. Ballgame! Also, 21st save! Wahoo!

Even though the guys got 7 hits, it still felt quiet and weak on the bases today. Possibly because they only got 4 hits in the first 7 innings.

The good news is that Asdrubal has a 7-game hitting streak, with a single, and that is the most important stat in the box.

Other stats include Bourn scoring from second on a soft fly to left, courtesy of Jason Kipnis. Santana and Swisher got singles in the 7th, and even though those hits were accompanied by one of the Tribe's 8 walks on the day, nothing came of them.

Jason Giambi was brought in in the 8th to hit for Chisenhall and you'd better believe he was in there to score the game-winner. He struck out.

BUT!! DREW F'N STUBBS, the next batter, he got the homer instead!

After drawing THREE walks on the day and I'm sure being devastated that he didn't get to steal a base, Stubbs got his 9th homer and went 1 for 1 on the day.

His speedy buddy couldn't be left out, so after the nice performance by Stubbs, Bourn legged out a double with 2 outs and made it in there. The next batter, Nick Swisher, got himself his second hit on the day and of course Bourn had no trouble scoring, as he did for the game's first run.

So, while it was a bit of a bumblin', stumblin', fumblin' game for the Tribe, we've always got our heroes and today it was Stubbs. And Bourn. The guys with speed also flashing a bit of power!

Monday is a day off. Wow! Then it'll be the hardest road trip ever - Atlanta and then Detroit. Aye aye aye.

Tuesday will be Salazar versus LHP 2.50. Oh my!

Funny thing: I looked through the stats on the blog yesterday and saw someone had been searching "Positive tribe why don't you say opposing player's names?" Like that. Not sure why they didn't just ask me but whatever...I suppose they meant opposing pitchers, too. And I started doing that because we can't be looking at just pitching matchups on name but need to see where a guy stands with his ERA and look at their handed-ness to look forward to our lineup. That's it. Names don't come into play, just stats!

So, now you know!

I'll see you Tuesday at 7:10. Get your rest, you're totally going to need it.

Radio Chatter:
"He does to the Twins what Miguel Cabrera does to the Tribe."
- Tom Hamilton on Jason Kipnis

"By the time Popper got done destroying this cream-filled doughnut, it looked like it was in the middle of a Barbasol commercial."
- Tom Hamilton on John Krepop, pressbox manager

"Remember John, I've got the mic. I always win this war."
- Tom Hamtilon to the Fairview football coach

"It's not been easy for this Indians pitching staff to keep this a one-run game."
- Tom Hamilton

"Style points don't come into play when you're trying to get a playoff spot. Just get a win any way you can."
- Jim Rosenhaus

"Well if you're going to be a playoff team come October, these are the kinds of games you really need to find a way to dig out."
- Tom Hamilton