Staying the Course

Aaaack! Everyone else won today (everyone else = TB and TX) so the standings stay the same. But the critical part of this is that the Tribe won today so the Tribe being in the Wild Card race stays the same too. Wahoo!

Those damn Royals, tho - they were all good when they played us but apparently not good enough to keep after those sliding Rangers. Step it up, KC!


Scott Kazmir did not stay the same - he got better! He's given up 26 runs in his last 52 innings (and that's 52 innings over 10 starts so less than 6 innings per start), but today not only did he give up NO runs, he also went 7 innings and as a little bit of a treat for the kids he also struck out 10! Way to dig deep for September, old man!

Cody Allen was chicken-licous today, throwing the 8th, striking out 2 with no hits and no runs. Joe Smith didn't fare as well, giving up a run. But that humongous first baseman Chris Carter got to him for a solo homer, but he also 2 hits off Kazmir too. So yeah, Carter is frustrating.

Speaking of frustrating, Michael Bourn had his stuff together today and started off the Tribe's offensive game with a double! Then since he raised so much excitement, Swisher hit a single and then Kipnis followed with a sac fly and the Indians were on the board in no time! Bourn ended up with TWO doubles on the day, as well as a walk.

Swisher and Kipnis didn't do anything else the rest of the game but hey, it was runs.

Swisher did, however, present fireworks after the game. And drew over 26,000 fans. So, that's cool.

Oh, well Swisher did come in to score after that single on Brantley's follow-up 2-run homer! Only his 9th of the year and it was a pretty big one, getting the Tribe over their 2-run hump and putting the 3rd run on the board - something new for this series!

Asdrubal was muy caliente hoy! He went 3 for 4 with a double, and also stole 3rd base. It was only his 9th of the season (and Brantley's 9th homer too....ooOoOoo....) which is why nobody suspected it. Super sad that he was stranded on base all 3 times though.

OMG the Astros almost broke Yan Gomes! In fact, I bet his cannon arm is pretty purple right now. They hit him with a pitch on his right forearm. Seriously, outside of the bullpen there is no more important body part on this team. I hope they send him home with a masseuses and round-the-clock ballboys with ice packs. That arm needs to be perfect from here on out! But he might sit out tomorrow and have Monday off, and be not purple but yellow on Tuesday. We'll see.

Oh, around all of that he went 2 for 3 with a double. Lonnie hit him in with a single to score the 4th run.

Still not the best and biggest game against these Astros. I've been expecting a lot more! But I do see that they are trying very hard and scrapping as much as they can to get the wins. I like to see those sac flies and stuff - means they are playing smart not just hard.

I'm going to the game tomorrow. I got super weird seats - Section 425 which is one of those front-of-the-upper-deck boxes, but its beneath 525 which isn't even on sale. So we'll be out there by ourselves! And it will be neat! (Actually we'll probably be hanging over the bullpen for a bit, I imagine. We like doing that!)

It'll be Kluber versus LHP 4.60. I have a feeling Kluber will be locked and loaded for this one. It's his turn to have a magnificent start!

Keep an eye on the scoreboard - we want KC to win against Texas to keep Texas out of our hair. Our total number of games will even up on Monday when we're off and Texas plays, so we need them to be losing to avoid extra playoff games. Boy howdy!

No Radio Chatter tonight. I was out at a restaurant, watching the Tribe on TV while I stuffed myself silly on various fried foods at The Local Tavern. Oh what a treat....and the food was good too!