Justin Masterson pitched his second quality start in a row! Still not super long innings - which probably would be nice right now - but it was 44 degrees and windy at game time (sunny too, so no doubt in the 30s by dark) so we'll call it a nice outing for him. He's also still not the Strikeout King that he was last year but he did have a respectable 6 in his 6 1/3 innings. Add in just 2 walks and 2 earned runs, and we can all look past the 8 hits.
Once again, AGAIN, the bullpen was Teh Awesomez. Yes, so good the Cheezburger cat got my tongue! Zep (.96), Shaw (1.86), Allen (0.00) and the closer Axford. Two and two-thirds innings, 2 hits, 3 strikeouts and no walks!
Axford has 8 saves now and it sort of makes me laugh, because he has the bullpen's second worst ERA. It's the other guys, stupid! He was 0 for 7 for save opportunities last year. If he gets 40 this year, it ain't cuz he's awesome. It's because the guys before him are. But then again, if he does BECOME awesome, I won't complain!
Asdrubal, Bourn and Kipnis were our big hitters tonight. That sounds super promising doesn't it? Asdrubal is still on the fence, Kipnis is more down than up, and everyone was about done with Michael Bourn. But they found some #BatMagic today and along with our super-producers Brantley, Gomes and Chiz made for a 5-3 victory!
Bourn was on his game tonight, going 3 for 5 with his first TRIPLE of the year. Ok, he was actually half on his game because when he wasn't hitting he was striking out, and twice when he was on base he got caught stealing. MOTHER.... argh. He did get 2 RBI on his triple so there's that. Also he's got a 4-game hitting streak with 7 hits in that time. Much better than his first 3 games back where he did nothing but get a single hit.
Jason Kipnis came up in the 7th with 2 on and 2 out, and got himself a 2-RBI double. How nice is that to see? Everyone is rooting for Kipnis to be the best Kipnis he can be, right?! He only left 1 guy on base tonight too. What a gentleman!
Oh Carlos Santana. What are we going to do with you, kid? You do realize that there's another 3B/DH on the team who is hitting almost 300 points higher than you, right? Try not to think too hard about that. Free your mind, and the rest will follow.
Also bumming me out is the fact that a Raburn/Murphy combo in the 5th spot produced nothing but a walk today. Yeesh.
But there's always Michael Brantley (.295) to turn that frown upside down!
Asdrubal was ON IT today! Two for 3 with a run scored, NO strikeouts, and he also managed to steal a base. Pretty sweet that both Brantley and Cabrera got steals today - apparently the Royals' catcher is a pretty sure arm. Ok he did get Bourn twice but he was only 50% sure today!
Gomes went 1 for 4 with a strikeout. Hey - no errors today!
Aviles was at third today, I guess they're easing Santana back in to playing after his big "mental day off" yesterday. Pfft. Anyway, Aviles got on via force out then chugged around to score on Bourn's triple. They pinch hit for him with Lonnie in the 8th, who came up with bases loaded and floated up a single. Yeah Lonnie! Then Big Bucks Bourn and Swisher got up and struck out with the bases loaded so now I'm sad again. Sigh.
Here's a bunny with a Buster-Posey-signed baseball on his head, so that's cool.
Lots of good stuff happened in this game, and we won despite all the bad stuff so it's all good! We're either going to win or split this series so that's good too!
Tomorrow is a NOON game so don't forget! It'll be the Klube against ol' slow-hand Bruce Chen who is not so badass right now with his 6.60 ERA.
So, noon! See you there!
Sorry no Radio Chatter - I was mowin' the lawn!
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