Squirrel!

Ha! I love that dog! And you know that's what you were thinking when you heard there was a squirrel in the game, right?

Another quality start for Zach McAllister! And it was a super good outing for him until it wasn't, but after he gave up some runs he came back and finished up like a man. And didn't give up any more, yo. McAllister threw 4 scoreless innings, then in the 5th stuff got away from him. He ended up giving up 2 earned runs as well as an un-earned run - on an error by him! He came back for a scoreless 6th and actually started the 7th, but he walked the first batter and was at 98 pitches so that was that.

On comes the wicked bullpen - Zep, Allen and Axford. They are so awesome they are boring! Zep's ERA is now back down, at 1.00. Cody Allen is still at 0.00. STILL! He's only 5th in the league, though, if you can believe it. There are 4 guys with more innings than him who are still rockin' the goose eggs.

Axford showed up and had a nice, clean 1-2-3 inning. Aaaah. He got his 7th save too!

Speaking of zeroes, Jason Giambi was back today! He didn't get anything done. But they were saying on the radio about how different MLB and minor league pitching is. "G" (what an annoying nickname) has been working the pitching machine hard in the batting cages, but it still doesn't get him there I guess. Regardless of his quiet bat, does having him in the dugout make for a multiple home-run game? Hmm?

Giambi is actually the only dude who didn't hit today! The Tribe got 11 hits, which is good because they got no walks. It translated into 4 runs and a tidy little 6 LOB.

Bourn is still struggling. One for 4, with 2 strikeouts. Yeesh. Swisher went 2 for 4 with his 3rd double.

Kipnis went 2 for 4 but he got 2 RBI! That's because his 2 hits were a double and his first homer!

Yaaaaay!

They finally moved the Chiz Kid up to the 4 spot today. Winning? Yes. He also went 2 for 4, including his 6th double. Except no one was able to bat him in so that sucked. But seeing him continuing to produce (.455) at a different spot in the lineup is pretty awesome. Now, committing 2 errors in one game is not awesome but he has only had a few games at third this year so let's hope he got that out of his system.

Holy cow, Michael Brantley (.282)! All of a sudden hitting for power! He got his 4th home run of the year tonight (top of the league has 6), and his 17th and 18th RBI (tied for second in the league). Last year he only had 10 homers, yaknow. He says this is the first time he didn't have to do rehab in the offseason, so he is just healthy as a horse. All of that, and he also looks good in a fedora.

An approximation of Michael Brantley in a fedora.

Asdrubal is still hangin' in there. He went 1 for 4 with no strikeouts. He also was tight in the field, which he sort of had a problem with last year.

Murphy and Gomes both went 1 for 3 today. No errors for Gomes! The team as a whole was also low on strikeouts, so that's good. Stay agressive, boys!

Even though they got all those hits, the game was won by Kipnis and Brantley's homers. The team still needs to put together more hits. Oddly enough they were pretty soft on the starter, regarding pitch count, when yesterday they really ground the guy down. Maybe that's just a Santana thing? They let Guthrie get out of the first inning on 6 pitches!

But, we'll take wins any way we can get them. And it did feel like the team turned a corner tonight, batting-wise. Not a 90-degree corner but a slight curve to the right. They're not getting worse, that's for sure.

Tomorrow is another day of Royals (royals) at 7:05. It'll be Salazar versus RHP 2.00. Salazar needs to be steppin' up. Use it or lose it, Danny! He's got a 7.71 ERA with no quality starts in 3 games. Let's see that change!

I don't have any Radio Chatter today, even with the squirrel thing. I'm tellin ya, Hammy and Rosie aren't that into it yet! It's all business right now it seems. Maybe after 2 wins in a row, they'll be more loose tomorrow.