The Long Con

Corey Kluber had one heck of a game tonight. Unfortunately he got screwed out of the win by his teammates. Because they couldn't hit, and they committed an error, and they lost the game.

Kluber pitched NINE innings. All nine of them. Nine innings with 10 strikeouts and no walks. Like the Doors had no bass, Corey Kluber had NO WALKS. He had a perfect game going in to the 7th, and only used 107 pitched through 9. Two hits, one run. For July he had 4 games, 23 innings, 1.47 ERA.  BOW TO KLUBER!

There were still 5 more innings to go after that, because however good Kluber was pitching, the team was behind him not hitting.

So there was Shaw, Atchison, Zep an Axford. They were reliably reliable, including Zep. And by that I mean he is starting to reliably be bad. What's up with that? Tonight he gave up the winning single by leaving a man on base for Axford to deal with and then lose later on when Aoki hit a single to left. Did you follow that? Blah blah - 5 innings later, the Royals won.

Not much to say today about our offense except for CARLOS SANTANA. On base, like a boss!

Somebody tweeted my "Like a Boss!" picture today and it got 8 favorites and 10 retweets and I was sad cuz no attribution for me. My own mistake - sometimes I make these pics so fast I forget to stamp 'em!

But anyway back to baseball.

Carlos Santana had 2 hits and 2 walks tonight, and came in to score the only run! How about that! See you just can never give up on this guy (Swisher, yes you can.)

Gomes is the man who stepped up and made it a tie ballgame in the NINTH after the Royals got their first run right before that in the 8th. Wahoo! Free baseball! Gomes actually ended up striking out 4 times and leaving 4 on base. Whomp whomp.

Brantley was completely shut down but since he's had so many at-bats, having an 0-6 game only puts him one point (.316) behind Chisenhall (.317) who managed to hit 2.

David Murphy and Jose Ramirez also got hits tonight, but nothing came of them.

I'm not going to talk about Ryan Raburn's play in left field, because I feel like the anger is over-the-top. I mean I guess if you were already ready to get rid of him before tonight, ok it's some nice "SEE??" fodder for you. But he's only got ONE error, and Gomes has 12. So....? Also, I don't see why everyone is so shocked that a guy can bounce a ball like that. Pitchers do it all the time and they only have to throw it 60 feet 6 inches.

Anyway, tomorrow Kansas City is putting up a RHP for us, so they can stop mocking our lineup. Let's hope everyone's not all stiff and sore from all that whiffing tonight.

It'll be 8:10. No cheap Papa John's for us. I'll see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"They're thinking they don't want to be the guy to mess this up."
- Tom Hamilton on defense during a perfect game

"This isn't a case of two offenses not performing. This is a case of two pitchers performing brilliantly."
- Tom Hamilton

"If they leave Duffy in and Gomes hits a home run, they'll barbecue Ned Yost. If they bring the right hander in and he doesn't get it done, they'll do the same thing."
- Tom Hamilton

"This Indians defense is numbing in how they can beat themselves time and again."
- Tom Hamilton

"When I said one swing of the bat would win this game, that wasn’t what we were envisioning."
- Tom Hamilton

"If Kluber loses this game 1-0, that's a felony."
- Tom Hamilton

"I wanted to come out here and comment on your blue eyes. They are vivid."
- Tom Hamilton imagining what Ned Yost is saying to the umpire

"I know it's easy to sit up here and say 'You gotta get a bunt down' but you know what? You gotta get a bunt down."
- Tom Hamilton

"That's how the game has changed. There was a time when if you couldn't get a bunt down you'd be practicing that bunt the next day in triple-A."
- Tom Hamilton