Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Indian Fever - Be A Believer!

I swear I had a bag of Red Vines at the beginning of this game. Thirty cents a bag at the Expired Stuff Store if you're willing to eat year-expired candy! Anyway, I had a bag of Red Vines and now I have an empty bag of Red Vines and a very, very red mouth. And I don't remember eating all these Red Vines. Is this how non-smokers live??

INTENSE baseball tonight! The Indians were looking rather flat against this "Little Mo'" pitcher for Kansas, just up from the minors via the Dominican. They managed just 4 baserunners in 5 innings, one via the error.

Corey Kluber wasn't doing enough to lead the charge against this kid, either. Three runs on 6 hits in just 4 2/3 innings. He was already at 79 pitches when they pulled him. Granted, there was a bonehead play (but not an error) that contributed to an extended inning, but Kluber really wasn't stunning anyone. Could the bullpen hold down the fort?!

Yes we can!

Francona strategically threw everyone out there, matchup-by-matchup, because no doubt he knew the crucial nature of tonight's game. I mean if we all figured it out, surely Cleveland's baseball mastermind knew!

The plan worked. The bullpen threw 4 1/3 innings giving up just 3 hits and striking out 5. They didn't let any runs cross the plate. They kept that Kansas City crowd quiet! Hill, Shaw, Allen, Zep, Smith and, Lord help us, Chris Perez. I think I was holding my breath from the time they said he was warming all the way through to "Ballgame!"

Boy what an inning for Perez, though. Back to his 1-2-3 tricks, and just for extra good measure it was a rare two-strikeout affair (most of the time he's good for one strikeout, maybe). I wish you coulda heard Hammy's final call - never has there been such a relieved "STRIKE. THREE. CALLED. BALLGAME!" Fun stuff!

The Tribe barely got any more hits tonight than last night but considering what a wasteland the first 5 innings were, all of their hits got bunched in at the second half of the game and it turned in to 5 winning runs!

Michael Bourn is BACK, man! Not only does he have a 7-game hitting streak but today he ramped back up to being that quality leadoff guy that we were happy to have in place of Choo. He flew around the bases to get a triple in the 7th, then easily tagged and went home on a follow-up sac fly. Then later on in the 9th he hit just his 6th home run for a super huge insurance run, and by the looks of this it was his #1 most happiest homer!

Nick Swisher hit a huge sac fly to get Bourn in, in that 7th inning. Bros helping bros!

Poor Jason Kipnis. He goes on Twitter every night to give his thoughts on the game. He is definitely not contributing in the way a Kipnis wants.



Mmmmm...swiss cheese!

Santana was at DH tonight, and did his thing going 1 for 2 with 2 walks. He didn't come in to score but Stubbs/Flash came in to run for him in the 8th and he scored instead! Another genius move by Francona but even me in my little pea brain I was all "STUBBS! NOW!" Did you know he's got a 12-game hitting streak? Sure does!

Speaking of hitting streaks, Michael Brantley is always going to be a key player on this team. He is good for some hitting streaks, usually some rather long ones in a season. Tonight he doubled his current streak to 2 games. Who wants to see him streak out the season?! It'd be a very MODEST 13-game streak - which Santana seems to be working towards with ease. Totally, totally do-able. Oh, also his one hit was an RBI tonight. More of that too, please!

Asdrubal had one weird game tonight. He had a couple of bad defensive plays and a bit of bad baserunning. Yet he drove in the go-ahead run with a huge double that made outfield darling Alex Gordon fall right over!

"Ho! Ha ha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!"
Ryan Raburn was in the game today, and Tom Hamilton totally jinxed him by pointing out that he is amazing every time he got to the plate. So, we got nothing from Raburn today. No runs, no hits. Just...inspiration!!!

The Chiz Kid wasn't feeling it tonight, either. After 4 RBI in his last 2 games, he went 0 for 4 tonight. Unfortunately, even though Aviles came in for him it was too late to see what the other half of the platoon could bring to the plate. Plate! Ha!

Yan Gomes didn't leave us wanting, though! He Rudy Steined right up in there and got himself hit by a pitch and came around to score the 2nd run of the night. Teamwork! He's hitting .290, by the way.

Since Texas and Tampa are playing each other again, we leave tonight still .5 out of the wildcard race. Tomorrow is big big big big. We could be IN IT by this time tomorrow!

I went out and bought a ticket for Thursday. Carefully planned so that I will be able to get the maximum cheering done. No one will need me on Dollar Dog night (Friday) or fireworks night (Saturday) but I bet they'll need asses in the seats Thursday. And my ticket was only $10! Holla! (Plus $2 plus parking plus fees but advertised as $10! Holla!)

But focusing on tomorrow...it'll be Salazar versus LHP 3.11. Hmm...311 is my lucky number, I wonder what that means? I won money in roulette in VEGAS betting on 3 and 11. Let's do this!


It's going to be so super intense tomorrow night. Hope I see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"A very ominous beginning to this ballgame for the Indians and Corey Kluber."
- Tom Hamilton

"I don't know if I've ever seen a Major League umpire, outside of Leslie Nielson, make two different calls on a play."
- Tom Hamilton

"The way Raburn is swinging it lately, is there anyone you'd rather have at the plate?"
- Tom Hamilton

"Ryan Raburn would like to send the folks to the parking lot with one swing of the bat."
- Tom Hamilton

"No way do you want to play come-from-behind baseball with the Royals' 'pen."
- Tom Hamilton

"Michael Bourn, doing his reincarnation of Babe Ruth!"
- Tom Hamilton

"If the Indians can win this, this will be one that you put in the memory bank."
- Tom Hamilton

"STRIKE. THREE. CALLED. BALLGAME!"
- Tom Hamilton
Posted by JJ at 11:30 PM
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