Hold Steady

Anthony Castrovince wrote a good article about feelings behind the Thome statue. He pretty much nails how I feel about the issue, so I'll just let you read it. Since I'm the Positive Tribe I'm not going to rain on today's parade with my feelings. And it doesn't matter anyway.

I will say that it's always nice to see a big crowd at the stadium, and always nice to see Indians fans cheer on Indians - old and new. So if nothing else, it was very nice to see all of the excitement for Thome today.

And then a win! They did a big win last night for Hammy day, a respectable win tonight for Thome day. Wonder what will happen tomorrow on Slider's birthday??

TJ House was our man today. Man - can you believe how young our rotation is? Or maybe not young, but green? It's almost amazing we've got this many wins, considering how much these kids don't get picked up by the offense. Hats off to the rotation!

Anyway, House did have his struggles today. He only lasted 5 innings because it took him that long to throw 97 pitches. But he struck out SEVEN in that time! Lookout!! No runs allowed by House, with just 3 hits and 2 walks. When he wasn't striking them out, he was getting ground outs.

Up next was Old Mat Atchison. According to Jim Rosenhaus he is a-ok with the ribbing he gets about his age. Some of the players have been Tweeting "Atchison is so old..." stuff lately and I guess he gets it in the dugout. Tonight everyone was like "WOW look at him go!" when he chased down Elvis Andrus during a rundown between third and home. After the game Francona quipped that Atchison might not be able to walk in the morning. Zing! Well, Atch got the win, you whippersnappers. He also stuck around for 1 2/3 innings.

Shaw had a 1-2-3 groundout inning in the 8th, and then Cody Allen came in to "close." But not officially still? I dunno, he's our closer. I think after making a big deal out of Perez and Axford, everyone is afraid to mentally knock a guy down by calling him a closer! Anyway, it was a little shaky going at the end there with a walk and a single. But In Cody We Trust. The game remained a shutout!

Good thing, too. Because the Tribe had a heck of a time figuring out this Mikolas fella who came in to the game with an 8+ ERA. He lasted 7 innings and struck out 6 Indians, only giving up 5 hits. But thankfully they put a couple of those hits together and scored 2 runs. With the good work of House and the 'pen, that was all they needed!

Kipnis is still making a go of it, now with hits in 3 games in a row. He even came around to score!

Michael Brantley (.322) is sloooowly creeping back up to my magic .330! He's hit in 3 games now, as well. Even though Kipnis has a respectable 4 hits in those 3 games, Brantley has SEVEN. Because, Brantley. Shameful he didn't get an RBI or score, or get any extra bases. But he'll keep grinding out those hits.

Santana went 0 for 2. Hey, turn that frown upside-down! Cuz you know what that means? Two walks, yo! On base, like a boss!

Chiz and Swisher both got 2-out RBI singles in the 6th, which is all there was of scoring today. Good to know that the team still has that 2-out run scoring ability. Nice to see it BEFORE the 7th inning, too.

Also, Chiz back on the hit-horse. Do you think we'll ever have a statue of him? I just advised my brother to pick up Lonnie for his fantasy team because I have an inkling that he'll be on an upswing the rest of the year. I hope I'm right!

Tomorrow is a 1:05 game, and it's Slider's birthday! I hope he has a bunch of mascot friends there. I always find that amusing. I like the Phanatic and Mr. Met. I noted last year that the Padres sent over some actual Catholic-looking guy and not the Chicken. What's up with that??

It'll be Bauer tomorrow versus RHP 2.90. Hmm, scary. But today we only scored 2 against a guy with an 8+ ERA so maybe tomorrow we'll bust it open against this guy? Stranger things have happened.

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"It's like somebody there ticked off God."
"Or someone is there with a doll wearing a Texas jersey, sticking pins in it."
- Mike Hargrove and Jim Rosenhaus on Texas' fall from the top

"I'm glad they didn't ask me to talk, cuz I have a lot of stories."
- Mike Hargrove on the Tom Hamilton anniversary presentation

"If I really said how I feel, we'd both be fined by the FCC and we'd be doing something else."
- Mike Hargrove on Thome hayters

"I feel bad about this but my first thought was 'He'd better be dead.'"
- Mike Hargrove on Slider falling off the wall and interrupting play in the 1995 ALCS

"That's worth the ticket right there."
- Mike Hargrove on the interesting Thome-statue-related play by Mustard during the Hot Dog Derby