Michael Says Relax

Whew! I am so tired right now - I feel like *I* just played 9! It is sooooo much harder being a fan of a contending-for-wildcard team than anything else. Most of the rest of the fans in baseball are sleeping like babies right now, their teams having clinched a playoff spot. And the seven people who root for the Rays (yeah, not even all their parents!) have been falling asleep to the 11 o'clock news. It's basically just the Tribe and the Rangers fans who are on the edge of their seats, watching this rediculousness that is the race for the wildcard for the race for the playoffs.

Yay?
 
Michael Brantley is just a MONSTER. Well, not a monster. Look at those eyes!

But when he's at the plate he's just showing no mercy to that baseball!! Not only a 10-game hitting streak but 19 hits in those games, with 9 RBI over his last 5.

WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM??

I was sort of joking when I posited that Brantley should hit .300 after this streak...but his average has actually gone up 15 points since the beginning of the streak and he's at .289. How high can it go? I did the math...if he goes 15 for 15 in his next 3 games (might happen if he hits lead-off!) he'll hit .308. If he only gets 12 at-bats, he only needs to get 9 hits to bat .300. Turns out it's pretty do-able for him!

In short, Michael Brantley is amazing.

Speaking of guys creeping up on .300, Yanimal woke up today!

He was shut down yesterday but Gomes went head-to-head with Brantley, also getting 3 hits and 2 RBI! He got a big stinkin' 2-run homer. Can't stop won't stop!

What else is going on with the Goon Squad? Ryan Raburn gets to play because Bourn is hurt, so of course he's hitting too. Raburn went 2 for 4 today before once again being pulled for Carson - talk about can't stop won't stop (Raburn's injury!) He's actually been shut down in his last two appearances so let's hope if he's in it for the next three he's "all in" - Raburn style.

Kipnis got his 35th double, so Santana went and got his 36th!

All of this awesomeness added up to 6 runs. Man, I am still having a hard time shaking off this near-loss!!

The pitching situation was another throw-everyone-at-them situation. Not sure why they are putting everyone out there with 3 more crucial games to go. Do any of our starters go long anymore? No...so why are they burning out arms?

So it was ZMac with 6 of his friends to follow. McAllister only went 4 1/3 innings, then they did some matchups. Shaw was pretty tough going 1 2/3 and getting the win. Zep gave up a run, Allen and Albers did fine. Chris Perez. Joe Smith got the save.

I'm tired just writing that down.

Ok so MOVING ON....let's move on...

Tomorrow, again at 8:10. Kluber versus LHP 6.05. Cool! We've got this one, right? Let's hope Klube has a ton of innings in that Alabama arm of his. Maybe something along the lines of 8 innings?

Get some rest...I'll see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Ice fishing is right around the corner."
- Tom Hamilton on Minnesota

"If we have four teams tied for the wildcard, well then we'll ask you to go back to college to figure this all out..."
- Tom Hamilton after explaining wilcard scenarios

"Dreams sometimes do become reality."
- Tom Hamilton on the moves made last offseason

"You knew [Brian] Hoyer was a very intelligent man the day he proposed to his wife, who is from Avon Lake."
- Tom Hamilton

"There's enough electricity in this ballpark...to power a 25-watt bulb."
- Tom Hamilton

"Dennis Eckersley was one of the greatest relievers of all time and I don't remember this kind of...oh yeah, he played for Oakland."
- Tom Hamilton on the exit of Rivera and the hoopla involved

"This just doesn't seem possible."
- Tom Hamilton in the 9th

Indian Fever - Be A Believer!

I swear I had a bag of Red Vines at the beginning of this game. Thirty cents a bag at the Expired Stuff Store if you're willing to eat year-expired candy! Anyway, I had a bag of Red Vines and now I have an empty bag of Red Vines and a very, very red mouth. And I don't remember eating all these Red Vines. Is this how non-smokers live??

INTENSE baseball tonight! The Indians were looking rather flat against this "Little Mo'" pitcher for Kansas, just up from the minors via the Dominican. They managed just 4 baserunners in 5 innings, one via the error.

Corey Kluber wasn't doing enough to lead the charge against this kid, either. Three runs on 6 hits in just 4 2/3 innings. He was already at 79 pitches when they pulled him. Granted, there was a bonehead play (but not an error) that contributed to an extended inning, but Kluber really wasn't stunning anyone. Could the bullpen hold down the fort?!

Yes we can!

Francona strategically threw everyone out there, matchup-by-matchup, because no doubt he knew the crucial nature of tonight's game. I mean if we all figured it out, surely Cleveland's baseball mastermind knew!

The plan worked. The bullpen threw 4 1/3 innings giving up just 3 hits and striking out 5. They didn't let any runs cross the plate. They kept that Kansas City crowd quiet! Hill, Shaw, Allen, Zep, Smith and, Lord help us, Chris Perez. I think I was holding my breath from the time they said he was warming all the way through to "Ballgame!"

Boy what an inning for Perez, though. Back to his 1-2-3 tricks, and just for extra good measure it was a rare two-strikeout affair (most of the time he's good for one strikeout, maybe). I wish you coulda heard Hammy's final call - never has there been such a relieved "STRIKE. THREE. CALLED. BALLGAME!" Fun stuff!

The Tribe barely got any more hits tonight than last night but considering what a wasteland the first 5 innings were, all of their hits got bunched in at the second half of the game and it turned in to 5 winning runs!

Michael Bourn is BACK, man! Not only does he have a 7-game hitting streak but today he ramped back up to being that quality leadoff guy that we were happy to have in place of Choo. He flew around the bases to get a triple in the 7th, then easily tagged and went home on a follow-up sac fly. Then later on in the 9th he hit just his 6th home run for a super huge insurance run, and by the looks of this it was his #1 most happiest homer!

Nick Swisher hit a huge sac fly to get Bourn in, in that 7th inning. Bros helping bros!

Poor Jason Kipnis. He goes on Twitter every night to give his thoughts on the game. He is definitely not contributing in the way a Kipnis wants.

Unreal win tonight! Battling back! Bourn came up huge late!!!....... And did anybody see that sweet walk in the 9th inn?!? #enfuego
— Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) September 18, 2013

There's not enough time left in this season to do much other than keep fighting.. Last couple weeks have been frustrating and draining...
— Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) September 18, 2013

..But the way this team finds ways to succeed and keeps moving forward is the same way I'm gonna get out of this! #batfeelslikeswisscheese
— Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) September 18, 2013

Mmmmm...swiss cheese!

Santana was at DH tonight, and did his thing going 1 for 2 with 2 walks. He didn't come in to score but Stubbs/Flash came in to run for him in the 8th and he scored instead! Another genius move by Francona but even me in my little pea brain I was all "STUBBS! NOW!" Did you know he's got a 12-game hitting streak? Sure does!

Speaking of hitting streaks, Michael Brantley is always going to be a key player on this team. He is good for some hitting streaks, usually some rather long ones in a season. Tonight he doubled his current streak to 2 games. Who wants to see him streak out the season?! It'd be a very MODEST 13-game streak - which Santana seems to be working towards with ease. Totally, totally do-able. Oh, also his one hit was an RBI tonight. More of that too, please!

Asdrubal had one weird game tonight. He had a couple of bad defensive plays and a bit of bad baserunning. Yet he drove in the go-ahead run with a huge double that made outfield darling Alex Gordon fall right over!

"Ho! Ha ha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!"

Ryan Raburn was in the game today, and Tom Hamilton totally jinxed him by pointing out that he is amazing every time he got to the plate. So, we got nothing from Raburn today. No runs, no hits. Just...inspiration!!!

The Chiz Kid wasn't feeling it tonight, either. After 4 RBI in his last 2 games, he went 0 for 4 tonight. Unfortunately, even though Aviles came in for him it was too late to see what the other half of the platoon could bring to the plate. Plate! Ha!

Yan Gomes didn't leave us wanting, though! He Rudy Steined right up in there and got himself hit by a pitch and came around to score the 2nd run of the night. Teamwork! He's hitting .290, by the way.

Since Texas and Tampa are playing each other again, we leave tonight still .5 out of the wildcard race. Tomorrow is big big big big. We could be IN IT by this time tomorrow!

I went out and bought a ticket for Thursday. Carefully planned so that I will be able to get the maximum cheering done. No one will need me on Dollar Dog night (Friday) or fireworks night (Saturday) but I bet they'll need asses in the seats Thursday. And my ticket was only $10! Holla! (Plus $2 plus parking plus fees but advertised as $10! Holla!)

But focusing on tomorrow...it'll be Salazar versus LHP 3.11. Hmm...311 is my lucky number, I wonder what that means? I won money in roulette in VEGAS betting on 3 and 11. Let's do this!


It's going to be so super intense tomorrow night. Hope I see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"A very ominous beginning to this ballgame for the Indians and Corey Kluber."
- Tom Hamilton

"I don't know if I've ever seen a Major League umpire, outside of Leslie Nielson, make two different calls on a play."
- Tom Hamilton

"The way Raburn is swinging it lately, is there anyone you'd rather have at the plate?"
- Tom Hamilton

"Ryan Raburn would like to send the folks to the parking lot with one swing of the bat."
- Tom Hamilton

"No way do you want to play come-from-behind baseball with the Royals' 'pen."
- Tom Hamilton

"Michael Bourn, doing his reincarnation of Babe Ruth!"
- Tom Hamilton

"If the Indians can win this, this will be one that you put in the memory bank."
- Tom Hamilton

"STRIKE. THREE. CALLED. BALLGAME!"
- Tom Hamilton

Your Money's Worth

Walkoff win, y'all! WALKOFF WIN!

Man, who doesn't love a walkoff win? I don't like to be all complacent but how many of you figured we'd probably have a walkoff win in the 10th? Maybe not a walkoff homer (although everyone thought there'd be a game-tying homer when Giambi got up, huh?) but it's pretty hard to give up on this team in the final innings anymore.

WALKOFF WIN!!!

Here's the video. Usually offense goes at the bottom of the post but I can't wait! See here now! (Also: Carlos cut his hair!)

There were 30k fans at the ballpark today, I guess. Only 22.3k marked as paid but apparently 8k more came through with their rainout tickets from way back (actually Shapiro says 12k were free and 30k were there and MLB says 22.3k paid so I can't follow this math anymore). Since there were fireworks afterwards, I hope everyone stayed to watch the big win!

I know this guy was there, at least after Kipnis's sac fly in the 9th to tie the game:

I wonder if he's from Michael "Dr. Smooth" Brantley's gang? Mr. Cool?

So, pitching-wise we got another good start, this time from Corey Kluber. Yeah, yeah "almost lost", "lost the lead" etc etc. But really the story here is "one bad inning" or even "three bad pitches." Kluber was gravy until the 6th, where he gave up 3 runs on 4 hits. Then there was a talk with Mickey Callaway and he got out of it. And there were no more runs until he left the 9th with 2 outs and, surprise, the reliever gave up one of his runners.

So you get rid of those 3 hits in the 6th and all of a sudden Kluber has an 8 2/3 inning game with 6 hits, 6 strikeouts and 1 earned run. Sounds good to me. And even tho he DID give up 4 runs, well, our team averages 5 runs per game so -bully for us!

Kluber only had 95 pitches when he was pulled with 2 outs in the 9th. Viciedo was up and Francona didn't trust that Kluber had his number - Tito thought it might have been the other way around. Francona admits that he was wrong (which you can do when you are the guy who makes the mistake but the team wins anyway!) 

I think the default answer to "should we bring a reliever in?" if there is any question, at least this season, is NO, DON'T!!

Cody Allen came in and gave up one of Kluber's runners plus one of his own. Crazy, man - Allen has been pretty solid for us as of late...well uh except his next-to last outing against Texas where he did give up 2. But in 10 appearances, only 3 runs. Ok, that's a lot of runs. Dangit, Cody!

Wow - 4 appearances in 5 days for Chris Perez? I LOVE IT! And - he won/saved all those games! Tonight he was 1-2-3-4, meaning that he got 3 outs and also hit Adam Dunn but Dunn is a very large man. He gets in the way sometimes. Perez got his 4th win of the year!

Here he is being happy and joining in the fun at home:

Yay all of us!

Tito cleared our bench today with pinch hitters and runners, trying to get ahead. Although we cruised into the 6th with a healthy lead, baseball happened and we were tied after that. In the 9th we were behind by 2 but then the INDIANS happened and we came back to tie it, and won in extra innings! W00t!

Tito on tension in 9th: "I love it. . .you're so damn nervous, you know you have a chance to win, but you don't know how." #Indians
— paul hoynes (@hoynsie) August 1, 2013

Michael Bourn led off the game with a double! It seems like he gets a healthy amount of first-at-bat hits this year. Let's see...according to the splits he's batting .278 in the first inning - 20 for 72. So, not bad. One stat that jumps out at me, though, is he is 4 for 6 with bases loaded. Wow! Bourn came around to score after that double, on some heads-up running on a throwing error. Once again the Tribe is scoring first!

Swisher went 2 for 3, and they must be scared of him because he walked twice - once intentionally to load the bases in the 9th.

Load the bases up on Kipnis? Well, all right Robin Ventura. Take this sac fly and stick it up your nose! The game is now tied!!

Kip didn't get any hits but he was a crucial part of the game, with that sac fly in the 9th and also with the ground out in the first that ended up scoring the first run. Anything to win!

Droobs was a big disappointment today. Like, super sad that he didn't do ANYTHING to help in this excitement. He wasn't even part of the double play. Sigh...just one of those nights I guess. A Swisher kind of night.

Carlos Santana hasn't hit a homer since July 7. He only had 11 RBI in July so far. I can't tell if he's on his way up, or on his way sideways or even on his way down. But all that mattered was that tonight he went 2 for 5, with a double and a homer, and 2 RBI. The winning RBI, a walkoff homer.

Santana HR'd on 3-2 pitch, not 3-1. Santana: "He called the 3-1 pitch a strike, but it was a ball. So I hit a home run on the next pitch."
— paul hoynes (@hoynsie) August 1, 2013

Haha! I love that stuff! The revenge homer!

Aviles was in at 3rd tonight. He went 1 for 4, and was part of that double play!

Michael Brantley is like woah. Three more hits tonight, that's 11 in his last 9. It drives me crazy that he's not hitting over .300!! It feels like he should beeeeeee! Tonight he went 3 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored. Two of his hits were doubles. Dang, Cousin Michael you just have the spirit in you right now!!

Reynolds was a real gem at first base today, which is nice to see because you don't want a guy to just be plain failing at baseball. If you're going to give him a chance to stretch his legs and see if he can hit, it's just too sad to see him falling on his butt in the field. But he made some really nice plays at first, including this one that required a little athleticism. 

Dude went 0-3, though, so they put in Giambi in the 9th to come in as the tying run and everyone was like "yeah do it again!" but Giambi got hit by a pitch (see Adam Dunn, above). Chisenhall came in to run for Giambi and he's the one who scored the tying run. Raburn came in to play 1st for the 10th.

Let's talk about Drew Stubbs, who is one of those guys that they say "oh he's so fast." A lot of guys they say they're fast. Like Ezequiel Carrera, even Michael Bourn. And they are. But it seems like Drew Stubbs not only is fast, and knows he's fast, but he's also smart. He seems to know what it takes and keeps ending up in these situations where his speed is making a difference.

He did it again tonight in the 9th by beating out a bunt for a single. That loaded the bases with no out and 2 runs down. It was nearly a given that the Tribe was going to get those two runs to tie the game on sac flies (it was almost literally the least they could do at that point) and it could not have happened if Stubbs hadn't beaten out that bunt!

He's for every one of us!

One to nine, man - that's what it takes!

So we've won 7 in a row, won 6 of a 10-game series against sub-par teams, won 2 series in a row (so far) and have had 3 walk-off homers in the last 6 nights.

ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?!

Whew, this is just too cool. I'm starting to get excited that this team is a major playoff contender. If only it weren't for those pesky Tigers! (If the playoffs were today we'd be the second wildcard.)

Tomorrow's game is an afternoon dealy, with Masterson versus their good pitcher, LHP 2.69. It's going to take a lot of muscle to either make it an easy win or get yet another scraped-together win. But I'm really loving this streak so I would take a win either way!

It'll be 12:05 so see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"The Yankees deserve everything they get. They're the ones that gave him that contract."
- Tom Hamilton on A-Rod

"[Umpire] D.J. Reyburn wants Cody Allen to put it on a tee."
- Tom Hamilton on bad calls in the 9th

"Boy this place was rocking a minute ago. Now it sounds like St. John's Cathedral down the street on E. 9th."
- Tom Hamilton in the 9th

"On this last day of July, if they rally to win, this one goes to the head of the class."
- Tom Hamilton

"Herbie's got the best seat in the house tonight, and he's watching that with arched eyebrows."
- Tom Hamilton on what he thinks Herb Score would think of walking Swisher to load the bases for Kipnis

Giambino!

So this game was sort of messy, sort of confusing. The White Sox seemed confused, the umpires seemed confused. Even the Tribe bats sort of seemed confused. In a game where we should have been whompin' a much worse team, we were scrambling for hits and only managed to get 4 of them. We needed some help!

Just say the magic words! "Mecca lecca hi, mecca hiney ho" or, "Have a sear, Reynolds. You're up Giambi!"

Zach McAllister was the starter today and he did what his friends are doing and what we need him to do: Go long, low score. He managed 7 innings and just 2 runs for the team's 5th quality start in a row!

He only threw 90 pitches, so I'm not sure what was up with taking him out in the 7th. I guess since our guys were not getting the hits we needed more shut-em-down power out there. Allen only struck out 2, but he only gave up 5 hits and 2 walks.

The answer, I guess, was Cody Allen and Oh No Not Rich Hill.

Yeah, Cody Allen and Rich Hill were the guys who were going to save us in the 7th. But Cody Allen is perfectly good and if he doesn't leave guys on base (he didn't) then Rich Hill can strike out a lefty (he did).

Then is Chris Perez who has been dominant lately. He's got nothing to do but focus on his pitching, and is taking it way seriously. He's back to being a top-notch closer for us! Today he did give up a hit but that's nothing compared to a lot of the stuff we've seen him do out there. Hit, no prob! He got his 3rd win today. I also saw him looking incredibly jovial and team-spirited at the end of the Giambi home run clip, so at least we know he's still got his mellow.

Not much to report on the offensive side of things tonight. Kipnis was the big man with 2 hits, going 2 for 4. No runs or RBIs off that.

Cabrera and Santana both got RBIs with no hits! (See: confusion) Santana's was a sac fly and Asdrubal hit a bases-loaded GIDP which ended up not being a DP due to some hustle by Kipnis. But still Cabrera was out, but a run did score.

Santana had a nice pickoff at second, which ended up being called safe. Because....confusion.

Ryan Raburn had a double because he's awesome!

Blah blah blah blah - Jason Giambi, off the bench in the 9th for Mark Reynolds. Batting .194 but whatever - he hasn't fallen as far as Reynolds.

I'll steal some pics to show you:

A big swing!

Spider-Vinnie follows it over the fence.

Get ready for your mobbing!

A big ol' gorilla hug for Tito!

So that was pretty fun. We sure do love our walkoffs in Cleveland! And our old guys, too. Giambi is the oldest guy to ever hit a walkoff homer. Previously it was Hank Aaron in 1976. Also:

Since Progressive Field opened in 1994, the Indians have more walk-off home runs than any team in baseball.
— Zack Meisel (@ZackMeisel) July 30, 2013

Here's something interesting...during the home-plate-mobbing-mele, Giambi had a big long hug with Swisher (who jumped up on him) and Kipnis had to awkwardly wait in line to hug Giambi, then it turned into a threesome. And Kipnis kind of called him out on Twitter:

Oh and @NickSwisher.. If you steal my Big Papa G bear hug again... There will be consequences and repercussions #hellyaiwantmycornbread
— Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) July 30, 2013

Now, I'm sure Kipnis was just messing around and nobody is actually hurt but man - what a douchebag that Swisher is! I wonder if all the dudes are totally tired of him now, like I am? Heh.

Anyway - sloppy win tonight but at least it was a fun one (at the end). And a W is a W, as long as we have the balls to back it up come October! Do you think we do? I'm becoming more and more convinced that we have a SHOT but it's not a lock. I'll have fun watching, though!

Tomorrow is the 2nd of 4 against the White Sox at home, and it'll be Scott Kazmir versus either Jake Peavy or a player to be named later! We're up 4 games now in this 10-game series against crummy teams - do you think we can take the next 6? Looks like the team is up for anything!

It'll be at 7:05 tomorrow - see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Viciedo thought he was Roberto Clemente and tried to throw him out [at the plate] on the fly."
- Tom Hamilton

"Raburn's not happy. He never shows it but you can tell."
- Tom Hamilton

"Robin Ventura is still playing like they are in contention."
- Tom Hamilton on pitching changes

"This is the kind of game, Rosie...there isn't too much flow or rhyme or reason to it, but you have to find a way to win."
- Tom Hamilton

"Adam Dunn handles ground balls like they're live grenades."
- Tom Hamilton

"I guess that gives him a little more deception and it gives us all a better look at his posterior. If that's what does it for you then good for you."
- Tom Hamilton on Ramon Troncoso's pitching stance

A Good Little Game

And I do mean little! Two hours, 16 minutes - woah! And the Tribe only got 4 hits!

I think the longest parts of the game was when Ubaldo was pitching and facing 4-5 batters per inning. Otherwise the two starters were both tight, and were just cruising (interestingly both have ERAs over 4.5).

Ubaldo finally had a quality start! Not only quality but the team's league-leading 11th shutout! (Well, like, the bullpen helped...) After the game he said "The fastball was good, and the slider was good too. So that was good." Like pitching for him is an out-of-body experience. Whatever, I'll take it! He did get himself into some jams, giving up 5 hits and 2 walks, but man did he ever get himself out of them. It was actually exciting!

The bullpen actually held up their end of the bargain, too. Allen, Smith and Perez gave us 3 innings without giving up any runs! Perez was a little touch-and-go, giving up 2 singles, but he got out of it unscathed and got himself a save!

The Blue Jays' pitcher was surprisingly tough, and our batters were stymied. But you can't keep a good team down, so when they saw an opening they took it. In the 4th he gave up a walk to Asdrubal then the next three dudes - Kipnis (3-game streak!), Swisher and Brantley got singles and suddenly it was 2-0! I say 2-0 because there was one out when I got out of the car and 2 runs when I got back in. Huh!

The only other hit was pretty nice - a double by Stubbs in the 8th, followed by a nice sac bunt by Bourn and then a sac fly by Asdrubal to get him in to score!

Were you wondering about Stubbs' average? It's .249! He's also hit safely in his last 7 games!! Yes, ever since getting hit in the head with a foul ball! I put it out there on Twitter asking if anyone has commented on this but I'm so out of the loop...I probably wouldn't hardly know if this was a top story or something.

It suits me.

Hey don't look now but the White Sox beat the Tigers 11-4. Yeah, the White Sox, man! This is their first of I think, honestly, 19 games to go for the rest of the season. Do the White Sox have Detroit's number, even if they suck otherwise? Wouldn't that be something?!

Nice game today, even if it was low on action (but you "real" fans know that there can be action in lack of action.) Let's see if we can get another series win! Tomorrow will be Masterson versus - Esmil Rogers! RHP 3.84. That should be fun times (Mickey Callaway wasn't Rogers' pitching coach but he was in the system at the same time as Rogers, so perhaps he's got some insight.)

It'll be a 7:05 game - barring rain. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"This is the epitome of a jam."
- Tom Hamilton on Jiminez with runners at the corners and no outs

"When you get in Tony LaRussa's doghouse, there is no out door."
- Tom Hamilton on Colby Rasmus

"If you can have Ubaldo Jiminez pitch six innings every time out, you would sign right up for that."
- Tom Hamilton

"Boy it's amazing how simple this game seems when you have good pitching."
- Tom Hamilton

Don't Trust The Happy, The Happy Are Insane

Argh, Nick Swisher! I had just outed myself as a hayter and what does he do? He goes and wins two games for us! That's the kind of junk that terminally exuberant people do. They're all "U mad, bro?" then go out of their way to do nice stuff for you until there's no way you can possibly be upset. Upset with the world or upset with them.

So yeah, whatever. I can start rooting for him now.

In other news, Ubaldo Jiminez still can't go past 6 innings. I guess we're pitching him now as a "At least there won't be blowouts anymore" starter, but definitely not as a long guy. His line was pretty busy - 5 innings, 9 hits, 3 runs, 4 walks, 8 strikeouts. Pretty nice on the strikeouts for just 5 innings. But he had to throw a lot of pitches (112!) to get those 8 outs and the other 7 outs it took to pitch 5 innings.

Lucky for us there's this dude Joe Martinez who was for some reason called up to do some relief work. Never heard of him. His AAA ERA is 6.23. He does have 56 strikeouts in 86 innings with only 21 walks, so that's pretty nice. Oh and guess what? He's got his first major league win since 2009!

He looks just as surprised as we are!

 Martinez picked up 2 innings and only gave up 2 hits, striking out one. He doesn't throw for speed - seems to top out at 92 and likes some slower stuff. Instead he seems to like to throw them where they can be hit - for outs. Fly ball outs - nothing wrong with that!

Since all of the other dudes were used up in game 2 yesterday, we got back around to Smith and Perez again today. What we got was the Original Recipe Smith and Perez, with Smith having a blank line and Perez as well! Smith got the hold, and Perez got his first save since May 11. Last night I was bragging on Perez's 5th 1-2-3 inning of the year, now he's already making a habit of it!

The Tribe was held to "just" 9 hits today, and 4 walks. They got back to their habit of hitting the long ball, though - that's how we got 3 of our 4 runs!

Asdrubal was back again at #2, and he went 2 for 4 - with a homer! OMG! Only his 6th of the season, but it's still early for him being that he missed so much time. Since he's been back he has a 4-game hitting streak, going 7 for 15 in that time. YOU HEARD ME! He's back and better than ever!

Which is just fantastic because he's followed up by SLG king Jason Kipnis, who got his 4th homer of the month today, and his 24th & 25th RBI. There's a lot of talk this weekend about how well Kipnis does in Chicago, being from there, but actually when we were there earlier this year he went 1 for 7. This time? 6 for 10! (So far!)

Nick Swisher only went 1 for 3....but it was a total clutch "one." It was a clutch "one." It was the winning RBI "one." Well done, you.

Brantley was kind of hung out to dry today. He went 2 for 4 but didn't get an RBI or a run. No one around him to help out! Santana got a nice double but it wasn't in tandem with either of Brantley's hits.

Did you know that Mark Reynolds has a little 3-game hitting streak going? Pretty awesome. He was hitting really consistently while he was homering like crazy earlier in the year. So perhaps this is a bit of a warm-up for him to explode back in to the team's home run guy pretty soon? Or heck, if he just keeps consistently hitting that's cool too.

Chiz, Aviles (pinch hitter) and Stubbs didn't get anything done today. Sucks. I'm expecting more tomorrow!

Today's game was the half-way point of the season (game 81) and tomorrow's game puts us halfway done with the Sox. Bummer, because if we played these guys every weekend we'd be tops in baseball! We've got two more 4-game series with them and a 2-gamer. Weird, huh?

As for 4-game series this year: 2 split, 2 swept, 1 lost. I would not mind sweeping another!

We're 1 game behind Detroit by the way. They are playing the Rays, who are not too shabby. The Tigers are 4-6 in their last 10 while we're 7-3. Anyway, what all this means is...we could be tied for first by the end of Sunday!

It'll be Masterson versus LHP 2.75. I dare say our guys are really going to need to be on top of their game tomorrow - if nothing else, getting through the starter as early as possible. And Masterson's going to have to pitch a classic Masterson, going long with a low score. Totally, totally can happen.

It's at 2:10 - see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"He must have forgot. 'Gosh, I thought I was supposed to do something. I guess I was going to tell people what that play was.'"
- Tom Hamilton perplexed on the home plate umpire's super-hesitant strike call

"What is that a 5.5 hour drive? Six hours? Well, for you 5.5."
"For you, 7. [...] Driving like you is like when you go up to the bowling alley and they have those bumpers up so you can't get a gutterball."
"Have we ever not gotten there safely?"
- Jim Rosenhaus and Tom Hamilton on driving to Chicago

"You gotta be careful shaking your head at [home plate umpire] Wally Bell. It's like shaking your head at your dad and the next thing you know, you're over his knee."
- Tom Hamilton

"Wally Bell, with a litle Leslie Nielson action on strike three. All he needs is a little moon dance."
- Tom Hamilton

"He continues to be public enemy number one for the White Sox!"
- Tom Hamilton on Jason Kipnis

"The only thing those guys had going for them is they had long hair and it sort of looked like seagulls."
- Tom Hamilton is totally not a fan of Flock Of Seagulls

"Most of the Indians relievers have an IV stuck in their arm, after yesterday's yeoman duty."
- Tom Hamilton

"Robin Ventura must feel like every time he looks up, Jason Kipnis is at home plate."
- Tom Hamilton

Pluggin' Away

What a cool game today! Why was it cool? Chris Perez giving up the tying run in the 9th was far from cool, but the Tribe coming back to win it - with ease - was awesome! I love how even though the last play was close, it was inevitable that the good guys were going to win this one. Bases loaded and nobody out? The Mariners were DOOMED!

Plus there were a lot of hits in this game. Thirteen hits for the Tribe! Amazingly, the only guy who didn't get a hit was Santana (or Brantley, his pinch hitter). He's only not been on base in like 4 other games this year! Only one of our 5 runs today came from a home run, so it was a fun game of hits and runs. Old school!

Zach McAllister was the man today and he racked up another quality start, going 7 1/3 and only giving up 2 runs. Six of his 8 starts this year have been quality starts! If you recall in the beginning of the season a quality start wasn't that exciting because it meant there were up to 3 runs given up already and it was a monumental task for this lineup to overcome that deficit. Now the quality start is a point of pride again, even if the guy gives up 3, because it's apparently no problem for our offense! McAllister only struck out 1 in his 7 1/3 innings but also only walked one. The Mariners were just swinging away!

Rich Hill came in for the 8th and fared better than he did yesterday when he gave up a run on 2 hits and a walk. Today he did give up a hit but that was all.

Enter Chris Perez. Exit two home runs! The hell?? I know Perez will give up a run if he has a 2-run-plus lead to work with but - wow! He left with the score tied and get this - he still got the W! Hahaha! I thought after he got the first 2 guys out swiftly that maybe we were done with the theatrics from Perez and we could say he was all warmed up and settled in after missing so much Spring. Guess not! I can't wait until he becomes the solid saver we know and love.

Speaking of the Chris Perez we love, there were only 17.5k fans at the game today. On a giveaway day, in 77 degree weather, with the team winning like nobody's business. That's kind of crazy!

Michael Bourn went 2 for 5 today, so that busts my theory that he's flailing against lefties. He stole two bases too! Sweet. He's gone 5 for 10 in his last 2 games.

Jason Kipnis is still a shining star! Today he went 2 for 5 with an RBI, stole a base and came home to score the winning run. And how did that look?

He didn't mess up his helmet or anything this time! Kipnis has a 3-game hitting streak going. Not too exciting, until you consider that he's gotten 8 hits in those 3 games!

Asdrubal was in on the action big time today! He went 3 for 5 with a double and a run scored. He's got 12 doubles now and is tied with Santana for the team lead.

Swisher went 1 for 3 today, walking twice.

Mark Reynolds blasted himself back into relevance today after being kind of quiet for a bit here. He got his 12th homer, which ties him for first in the league (3 ways). He also got 3 RBI on the day - including the winning one - giving him 37 and putting him 3rd in the league. Other than the homer and the game-winning fielder's choice, his other hit was an RBI single which people who knew him as a ballplayer previously would never believe he could do. Well, believe it, Arizona - Reynolds gets hits all over the place now!

Mike Aviles was in left field today, because apparently he can and will play everywhere! Tom Hamilton said that Aviles was excited to play for Francona because when they were in Boston together, Francona let him make his outfield debut in a nationally-televised game against the Yankees. Obviously he didn't blow it up so Tito stuck him out there again today, to give Brantley a break. He ended up at 3rd, because he can. He also ended up going 2 for 4 on the day with a run scored after he hit a double!

Yan Gomes was in at catcher today. It's been a surprisingly long time - 5 days! Of course he got a hit today and scored a run, extending his little hitting streak to 4. He also threw out a guy stealing! I wonder if we'll see him tomorrow, too?

Drew Stubbs was holding down the end of the lineup today (or was he setting up the top of the lineup?) and went 0 for 2 with a walk and a sac bunt. Sad that he didn't get a hit out of that bunt but I'm sure he made it darn close!

Tomorrow is gonna be awesome, as we're taking on our 7th Cy Young Award winning pitcher of the year - Felix Hernandez! It'll be Justin Masterson versus the RHP 1.53. I hope our bats are ready and not in "Sunday" mode. Let's get it done!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"The next Dollar Dog night isn't until May 31. It'll take Sugardale that long to recover."
- Tom Hamilton

"One would suggest he wear the sunglasses because the 'block C' doesn't need them."
- Tom Hamilton on Santana wearing his sunglasses on his hat

"If you're a left hander and you're 4'8" they say you're stocky. If you're a right hander and you're 5'9" they say you'll never make it."
- Tom Hamilton

"One thing you know about an Eric Wedge ballclub - they will fight you until the 27th out."
- Tom Hamilton

Chris Perez Is The Mayor Of Savingsville!

Sorry for the commercialization of tonight's title, but I hear so many of those darn Progressive commercials on the radio that I decided I needed to start putting them to work for me! Now, if you've never heard the Progressive radio spots this year then you are both lucky and confused. In short, Flo sings. She sings 18 times per game and 2 or 3 more times in the postgame. This is why people still pay for cable.

Hey, another win! That's 9 of our last 10, 3 in a row and 10 night games for Meryl Masterson. Streaky streaky streaky! For some reason my first thought after this game was "Wow can we sweep a 4-game series?!" but we'll discuss that later.

Justin Masterson was together today. His end line (7IP/4H/3R/2BB/7SO) with the 3 runs sort of betrays the fact that he only had 2 baserunners, total, in all of his innings excluding the 4th. The 4th is where things went haywire and guys got hits, there was a wild pitch and Masterson even hit a guy. Oops! But it says a lot about him that he came back in and shut them down over 3 more innings. Says a lot that they'd even let him come back! So, well done, Ace!

Since Vinnie's out, we got treated to the Smith & Perez show after that. Smith gave up a lead-off single and I sort of shifted uncomfortably in my seat because Joe Smith is suddenly in the habit of giving up hits. But, never fear - he struck out the next two and got the last guy to pop out!

Chris Perez was once again the star of the show. The closer of the close game. First he struck out a guy. Then he gets a guy to ground out. I was joking with my friend that he needs to give up a hit yet, because that's how Perez do, and then I was all "NO! Not that kind of hit!" as the ball sailed up and...out? Nope! The umpire called it a double. The call went to review and it stood! IT STOOD! Even Tom Hamilton said it was wrong. The MLB didn't put it online because they probably know it was wrong. (They put it up. Oops!) The A's manager was ejected. ha-ha.

Perez wasn't done...he hit a guy (!) and then walked a guy and the bases were loaded, with the Tribe only up by one. Holy hell! The final guy hit one to the right side of the mound. Perez picked it up himself then chug-chug-chugged over to first with the ball to touch the bag, because he probably felt that after that performance he probably couldn't count on a throw making it to first. Good call!

Like a beardy gazelle!

Oh and after all that he got the save. He did actually get out of this mess on his own accord tonight, unlike last night where he needed the help of Yan. But boy - did he ever put on a show!

Michael Brantley only got 1 of the team's 4 runs, but I'll call him the player of the game. Because while everyone else was sort of stunned at the plate or not able to put enough power in it to combat the wind blowing in, Brantley managed to go 2 for 4 with an RBI and a stolen base! His RBI actually  was not on one of his hits - he got on base with an error and a run scored. With bases loaded and 1 out, he hit into what was about to be a double play but the second baseman muffed the throw to first and Brantley was safe. He also just sort of watched the first baseman scramble after the ball instead of trying to beat it over to second, which is the right move. He just made it look extra smooth.

Kipnis and Asdrubal didn't do anything today. Asdrubal was nicknamed  "Abra Cabrera" last night in @FrankHermann56's #TribeNames contest. (The winner was The Yanimal. I like!). Although I guess Asdrubal had a stunning leaping play that the MLB didn't see fit to give us video of.

Nick Swisher was back to having fun tonight! He hit a solo home run to tie the game at 3! They play the OSU Fight Song when he hits a home run, which is pretty cool. He also does the "O-H" on his way into the dugout, so be prepared if you're ever sitting behind the dugout to respond in kind!

When Carlos Santana followed up Swisher's homer with a solo, go-ahead homer of his own (Mark Reynolds was between them - not hitting a home run! Huh!), Swisher did a little dance. I can't embed the video but I can show you an approximation:


Apache Fresh Prince Mix from DJ RKade on Vimeo.

Oh yes he did!

Santana and Raburn led the 5th off with walks. Chisenhall, who was sent away to work on his hitting, was back and up next. Good things should happen! He did get a hit but it was like a little squib infield hit. But, hey - now the bases were loaded. Stubbs got on base by a fielder's choice and the bases were still loaded when Brantley induced the error and the Tribe scored two! So, however they're giving runs today, we're taking them, by golly.

Stubbs got a single, too, which is great cuz dude hasn't had a hit yet this series. And you know I expect way more from him!

So really it turns out we won this game by the skin of our teeth. Masterson DID look good but our bats were not that great. Two homers were nice but the other two runs came by chance. And the tying run didn't score in the 9th by chance. But if chance is all we've got, we'll take it!

So do you think we can sweep the 4-game series? We've got momentum, and we've got the fact that we're facing another Cy Young Award winner in our favor. However we're under .500 on day games. Kazmir was pretty great his last start - can he do it again? And will our bats wake up already?! Two home runs is not enough! (Haha look at me complaining about lack of home runs!)

Even though Meryl doesn't count for day games, she's coming along anyway. She did win a day game last week, so it doesn't hurt!

Afternoon delight cookies!

By the way, did you read the the bullpen cop, AKA the Tootsie Roll Cop (officer Jeff Stanczyk) is retiring? I don't know him from the visitor's bullpen (never really sat over there) but I've been the recipient of his candy a couple times in the bleachers! Sad to see a regular like that go. I hope he takes the time to enjoy some games out of uniform!

All right so tomorrow's game is 12:05. Don't forget! Bring your BROOMS!

Radio Chatter:
"You look at that beard and you think 'Grizzly Adams'."
- Tom Hamilton on Daric Barton

"You don't think they practiced the 70-foot single?"
- Jim Rosenhaus on Chisenhall's recent extra batting practice

"Carlos Santana, like Nick Swisher, says 'Mother Nature is not a factor tonight!'"
- Tom Hamilton on Santana's homer in the 6th

"They lead the league in beards, the Oakland A's."
- Jim Rosenhaus

"Even with a replay, Angel Hernandez got it wrong and that's really not a surprise."
- Tom Hamilton after the "double" in the 9th

Let's Play Two!

Double header today! Awesome, awesome way to spend my birthday. Of course, that is not what I was thinking about 2/3 of the way through the first game. I was like "Oh man, I hope I don't have to endure two of these routings today..." but much to my JOY the second game was oh-so-much better and my birthday ended on a high note!

Justin Masterson started the first game and I'm sure that you, like me, had high hopes for that one. Because as Andre Knott said it seems like our starting rotation is becoming "Justin Masterson and pray for rain" (Hey! Stop praying for rain!) Even with Sweet Meryl looking on from last night, Justin didn't really have it all together today. He DID strike out 9 and he DID go 6 1/3 innings. But in that time he gave up 7 earned runs including a homer (solo, thank goodness). Terry Francona and Jim Rosenhaus asserted that he didn't actually look bad out there, things just went bad for him. He did give up two runs and had a wild pitch in the 7th before he was taken out, so he ended on a sour note. But heck, he's Justin Masterson - if we can't believe in him we're out of starters to believe in. So I still look forward to his next start.

Speaking of Meryl Masterson, the Indians have not lost a night game since she showed up here. Granted, they have only played five games in total since then but the three of them that were played at night, they won. Just sayin'!

You bet your sweet bippy she's staying!

Matt Albers came in to finish the 7th and he was fine. Looks like he's going to be another fine reliever for us. Just fine.

Scott Barnes, who was tapped as our Special Double Header Day 26th Man was not so fine, giving up 2 runs in the 8th in the form of a 2-run homer after a walk. So there's that. Ok see you next month, Scott Barnes!

Of course all of that is moot because there was no hitting support in the afternoon game. There were 8 hits total with 10 strikeouts. Yowza! There was only one hit or one walk in every inning. In one inning they got one hit AND one walk - and a double play. And in the 7th things heated up with TWO hits and then...nothing.

HOWEVER - the story of the first game is Asdrubal Cabrera! He was on FIRE today going 3 for 4 with a double and no errors! I am guessing that he was inspired not only by my birthday but his son Meyer (of the famous Meyer & Ashley) being at the park today. There's a couple pictures of them up on the Tribe instagram, like this one. And here's two more.

Sign him up - as a lucky charm!

If having his son around gives Asdrubal this sort of boost, I hope Meyer is immediately taken out of school and given a permanent seat on the team bench. Our pitchers can educate him between starts!

Carlos Santana is still kicking ass and taking names. His average went up to .355 after the first game where he went 2 for 4 with a double! He did strike out twice, but oh well - he is totally legit!

Ryan Raburn got a hit, and Lonnie Chisenhall had a much better game than Friday and went 2 for 4 himself. I think maybe he is relaxing and not trying to crush the ball every time - which he can do but he's got to start with the basics first. He's up to .234.

That's it for hitting! Sorry, sorry stuff - all those hits got left on base. But oh well...Sundays have never been our strong day.

But wait! The second game was like a complete 180! Of course the Royals did a 180 as well, giving up 4 un-earned runs on 3 errors, but whatever. We won by SEVEN runs so we could take or leave the un-earned ones!

Corey Kluber was called in to action as the starter for the second game. He'd only pitched 5 innings this year - one inning in relief on 4/17 then four in relief on 4/20 when Scott Kazmir caught The Awfulz. Turns out Kluber is awesome, or at least was awesome at pitching past a tired Kansas City team. Whatever the case he went 7 innings only giving up 2 runs and striking out 6. And no walks! AND NO HOME RUNS! Just a few doubles and a few singles and that was it. Is he our 5th starter now that Myers is hurt? I hope so!

Being that Kluber had such a lovely game we were treated to the 7-8 punch of Vinnie and Perez. BAM! Actually, not so bam - Vinnie gave up two walks right out of the gate, and then a single to load the bases and a run on a sac fly. But that was it and he's our golden boy so you just be quiet!

Chris Perez tried to be cool and catch a come-backer with his bare hand, and he shook it off but I hope that was a smart decision and not something we're going to hear about in August. He got the out, by the way - then he struck out the next two suckers.

You can't see me!

According to the radio guys (speaking of which, I heard tell that people were pissed that the game wasn't on TV - hope you all listened on the radio!) the clubhouse was just dead silent inbetween games. Everyone was embarrassed or something. They should be! But whatever quiet reflection happened there seems to have WORKED because the guys got 14 hits and scored 10 runs! YES!

Almost everybody hit, except Drew Stubbs, which is actually weird because he's been one of the most consistent dudes on the team as far as getting at least one hit most nights. But hey, he hustles down the baseline and makes every play close so at least he's got that going for him.

Brantley is still in leadoff. Bourn reportedly was throwing today during practice. Brantley went 2 for 4! Sadly he had ended his hitting streak at 5 by not getting a hit in the afternoon game but there's a lot more where that came from, I'm sure!

Asdrubal got bumped up to the 2-spot, with Kipnis being benched for Aviles. Asdrubal added two more hits to his tally for today going 2 for 5 in this evening game - with a TRIPLE! It was an RBI triple! So he ended up going 5 for 9 today on my birthday - awesome!! His average is FINALLY over .200 now at .208. Is this it??

Swisher had a good night batting third. He went 1 for 3 with a walk and was the beneficiary of two errors! He hit a sacrifice fly to get an RBI, and came around twice to score.

Mark Reynolds hasn't hit a home run in a week! But he did go 2 for 5 today and only struck out once.

Carlos Santana - holy smokes is he on a tear! He went 4 for 5 tonight, bringing his average up to .388. At this moment, right now, he leads all of baseball with that average. He went 6 for 9 today! With all the problems he had last year did you think he was going to be this consistent this year? Nobody really seems to be talking too much about it - because I don't think anyone believes it! Boy is it going to be huge for this team he can keep this up and his teammates can support around him.

'Cuz you know who's not hitting anywhere close to .388 right now? Victor Martinez, that's who. Go 'Los!

Speaking of Puerto Ricans (I wasn't) how about Mike Aviles and his red-letter day?! He was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the evening game, and showed everyone by getting FIVE RBI!  He somehow managed to get all those RBI off just one hit - a 3-run dinger in the third. His other two RBI were from a ground out with runners on base and a sacrifice fly. This team is in desperate need of hits but we can also use at-bats like those - getting the bat on the ball and putting it in play with runners in scoring position. Well done, Aviles! Well done!

It took Ryan Raburn forever to get a hit, but he finally got one in the 9th, going 1 for 5 on the day. Yan Gomes - who is up for Marson, who is just not able to shake off the beating he got - only went 1 for 5 but he got a triple which was his second triple in just 7 appearances with the team (22 at-bats). Poor Lou...he's not doing too good and his replacement is awesome. I promise I won't make a Yan Gomes Gleemer, Lou!

Thanks, pal.

I already told you about Drew Stubbs, who didn't have too good of a game. Oh well - we won!

So we had a super great game in the evening to wipe away the nastiness of the afternoon game and the game the night before. We've got 3 more games before a break so hopefully they keep this momentum going!

Tomorrow they play the Royals one more time, at 8:10. It'll be Ubaldo versus RHP 3.20. Honestly I don't even know what to predict about this team anymore. All I can do is hope!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"If you're a minor-leaguer, there's no such thing as a direct flight."
- Tom Hamilton

"I know that Tim Belcher loves the powder-blue uniforms because they match his pretty blue eyes."
- Tom Hamilton

"The Indians locker room was as quiet as a church on Sunday morning, after the first game."
- Tom Hamilton

"You can't get away with mistakes on the strike zone, especially when you throw in the mid 80s."
- Tom Hamilton on Bruce Chen

"It's like you can't even apply to be on this Royals club unless you throw 95."
- Tom Hamilton

"Boy this guy is like hugging a cactus. He sometimes is all about Billy Butler and sometimes that gets him into trouble with his team."
"Have you ever hugged a cactus?"
"Oh yeah. At 2 or 3 in the morning. It certainlly wakes you up quick!"
"You don't want to do that in daylight."
- Tom Hamilton and Jim Rosenhaus

White Knuckles

Here's a song for you for today's game, to listen to during this post. Chicago's own Ok Go with "White Knuckles," which is totally how I was yesterday and today listening to the games! (If you haven't seen the video you'll want to watch it because...dogs)

Masterson was the starter today and I really look forward to his starts now, which is refreshing. I think we looked forward to them last season but in a more of a "maybe it'll be a good one today!" capacity unlike this year where we're just going to see what damage he will do this time!

He actually had a second shaky game but we'll just forget about that lack of decisiveness there and pretend that it was an easily-pitched 2-run game. He did only give up 2 earned runs, after all. He also went 7 innings! And he threw exactly 100 pitches! it definitely didn't feel as smooth as his complete game but the whole thing on paper is stunning. Five strikeouts too, by the way!

Before we saw Vinnie, Masterson had a crazy 7th. He hit a guy so that sucked. And then he walked a guy and that sucked. But that guy got picked off! And then the next guy hit in to a double play! Oooooooh...the Sox just crumbled around him!

Like a cookie!

Vinnie came in and it was ho-hum, classic Vinnie. 1-2-3 inning. Hooray for classic Vinnie!

Perez had a bit of a whacky inning - yes he contributed mightily to the white-knuckleness. He struck the first guy out, no prob. Tom Hamilton was mighty impressed. Then Connor Gallispe, who still is drinking our milkshake, singled. The next dude hit an omg-this-game-is-over near home run foul ball. But just a foul! The next pitch he popped up and was out. Then in a replay of last night, Perez got the final batter to ground out to third but this time Lonnie was there and he threw to Perez's new best friend Mark Reynolds at first. Ballgame!

The team didn't really do much in the hitting arena today, which is why it was a white-knuckler even though Masterson ultimately had it under control. We got 6 hits and 4 walks and only ONE extra-base hit!

Michael Brantley has a 3-game hitting streak (work with me, here) so I guess maybe he's settling in to the leadoff role now. He went 1 for 3 with a walk and came in to score a run.

Kipnis, who usually does awesome in Chicago, did not do awesome tonight. He didn't do anything.

Asdrubal, on the other hand - OMG! He got the winning RBI! RBIs! We were down 1 to 2 in the 8th and had 2 men in scoring position, thanks to Drew Stubbs being fancy-pants on the bases and getting the pitcher to throw the ball away on a pickoff attempt. There were 2 outs and Asdrubal was up. He's the guy you want up in this situation, right? Well like, you want the April 2012 version of Asdrubal up. And he showed up! He took the first pitch and booped it in to center field and our speedy outfielders speedied themselves home and those proved to be the winning runs! ¡Caliente!

Jason Giambi got a single, so that was weird.

Lonnie Chisenhall...is he breaking out? He does have 7 hits in his last 4 games, with 2 doubles and a homer in that time. His average has climbed almost 80 points in that time! He went 2 for 4 tonight - good things happen when Lonnie Hits!

Drew Stubbs also has a 4-game hitting streak and he's also becoming a difference-maker on this team. I've called him mediocre in the past but perhaps I mean more "solid" now. He's making plays in the outfield and is getting on base and now tonight he proved he can make stuff happen with the steal. He's only got 3 but - hey, he leads the team!

Speaking of Drew Stubbs...I totally was so excited about all the events of yesterday's game, and focused on "What would Shelley Duncan think?" that I forgot to add in the part where Drew Stubbs hit a home run in to some guy's box of popcorn and the Astros' outfielder got buttery shrapnel spewed upon him. Observe:

What's weird is there was no reaction from the outfielder concerning the popcorn. Imagine if you went to clean out your gutters and a box of popcorn exploded forth. Wouldn't you do more than turn around and slap your hands and say "Aww, shucks?" No, you'd probably go all "ACK!" and maybe fall off the ladder! Rick Ankiel was seriously, seriously focused on that ball. I wonder if he got back to his spot and was like "Why is there popcorn in my ear?"

So the Tribe eked it out today and Masterson got his 4th win and Vinnie got his 4th hold and Perez got his 3rd save and we're all happy happy happy! You'll see that Meryl Masterson is once again included in tonight's blog, as she helped bring us home a win the last 3 nights. She's doing such a fantastic job!

Hopefully tomorrow at 8:10 Zach McAllister will feel the Meryl Mystery and get himself a win too! He'll be facing LHP 2.55. Everyone will be well-rested at the plate for the game, and just hit the ball all over the place. Right?

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Lonnie Chisenhall hasn't gotten going yet but look out when he does."
- Tom Hamilton

"Right now for the Miami Marlins, they have hope. The hope is that they get a new owner."
- Tom Hamilton on the moving around of the Marlins

"I make enough mistakes without having to tip a few."
- Tom Hamilton on drinking with dinner

"He played here one year and the best news he ever got was that he was traded to the New York Yankees."
- Tom Hamilton on Nick Swisher

"Tyler Flowers runs like a dump truck so that's why Tekotte is in there."
- Tom Hamilton on the pinch runner for the hurt catcher in the 7th

Houston, YOU Have A Problem

I totally, totally stole today's blog title from @PureRage_Perez

Houston, YOU have a problem. Crank it Jerry. #Indians
— Pure Rage Perez (@PureRage_Perez) April 21, 2013

But, that guy stole Chris Perez's identity so what goes around comes around. Besides, you all subscribe to his Twitter feed already anyway, don't you?

Exciting game today, lots of stuff going on! Home runs! Triples! Stunning plays! A cow in the outfield!

Ubaldo pitched today and I still don't really want to talk about him. I hope this helped "get his mind right" blah blah blah. We'll see you in 5 days.

Nick Hagadone and Cody Allen collaborated for the 6th inning and didn't give up any runs, but Hagadone walked two. Allen actually ended up with the win even though he only threw one out. Hagadone had come in and gave up a sacrifice run in the form of Jiminez's base runners, and then walked two, so Allen did do a huge service to the team by coming in and getting that elusive third out without giving up any more runs (especially since we ended up winning by one).

Everyone was excited that in the 7th inning we were in a Smith-Pestano-Perez situation! Except Joe Smith was shaky shaky and gave up 2 hits before getting 2 strikeouts and a groundout. Whew!

Vinnie P came in and gave up a single but he got the next 3 out. Good ol' boring Vinnie. Chris Perez, on the other hand - not so boring! Usually he gives up one hit and gets a strikeout or two then gets the last guy to pop out. Tonight he gave up a double then hit a guy (no warning), then a guy who totally botched a bunt in his last at-bat laid down a good one and was almost safe but he did get the sacrifice done. Then he intentionally walks a guy and the bases are loaded and it's like "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!"

The next guy hit a sharp grounder to Mark Reynolds...who was playing third...who fielded it with aplomb and tossed it over to first and that was the end. Are you kidding me?!

Nobody seemed to notice that Reynolds just saved Perez's ass, either. After he made the play he just sort of wandered the middle of the infield by himself.

Did anyone see that? No?

Reynolds wasn't the only one saving pitchers today. Mike Aviles helped out Jiminez with this Asdrubal-like play (he's still out with a wrist contusion). And Drew Stubbs, filling in in center, got a double play by catching a towering fly ball at the wall, with his back to home, and getting it back to first just before the runner. He's been chasing them down left and right this year. What do you think of that, Surprised Shelley Duncan?

Drew Stubbs is good!

Compared to yesterday, the team wasn't on fire at the plate. However they did rack up 4 homers, 2 doubles and a triple and came away with 11 hits. Almost everyone hit!

Michael Brantley only went 1 for 5 today, and Kipnis only went 1 for 4. Neither of them walked or got any runs.

Carlos Santana was the only other multi-year Indian in the lineup today and he was representin'! He went 2 for 5 with a capital-H Homer to Oklahoma and also a double. He's batting .380 and it's legit, with 13 hits in his last 10 games. I am guessing his bruised thumb is all fixed!

Nick Swisher only got one measly hit today, a single in 5 tries. But he was literally the most excited guy in the dugout each time a guy hit a home run! Go team!

 Mark Reynolds continues to be a stud at the plate (as well as in the field, as you saw. Third base?) getting his tied-for-league-leading 7th home run today. He's also nowhere near the top of the league in strikeouts, unlike Chris Davis (BAL) who leads the league in both! He's also tied for 4th in RBI. Reynolds went 1 for 3 today, he also had a walk.

Ryan Raburn is slowly simmering...today he went 2 for 4 with a double. He is batting .241 and while he has yet to match his regular season to his spring in terms of home runs (so far, none) three of his seven hits have been doubles. He doesn't have that many at-bats yet - he's got fewer than Aviles but more than Giambi.

Aviles wasn't feeling it at the plate today. But his play in the field was worth the spot in the lineup!

Yan Gomes, native Brazillian and good guy, is definitely beating Raburn in the homers-to-at-bats department. Today he got his second homer in just 19 at-bats. He also got a big-ass triple! Oh dear, Sweet Lou...oh dear...

Drew Stubbs - who I was just describing to my dad as "mediocre" - not only had his fancy-pants play but he got his first home run of the season today! He went 1 for 3 with a walk and is hitting a very respectable .259. Dig that Stubbs!

I dig him!

I do want to discuss something really quick here, after all this excitement - it was the most exciting, even game we've played this year (the high scorers were exciting but not even) but...should a team like this be playing games like this against a team like that? I'm appreciative of all the fun today but should we really have a while-knuckler against the Astros? Hopefully we can blame the close score on Ubaldo (oh look - we can!) and injuries but I know and I know you know that we can't play like this against anyone else. Well, maybe the Cubs. We can play like this against the Cubs. Putting two wins together and getting the bats going yesterday hopefully is a huge morale booster, and the team is ready to bust out now!

Anyway, we won the last two games after Smilin' Meryl and her cookie showed up, so here she is again JUST IN CASE. And...cookies.

Tomorrow we're right back in it in Chicago (according to @TheJK_Kid they've been there since 10:30 Sunday night) at 8:10. It'll be Justin "No Problem" Masterson versus RHP 4.70. On paper, that should be an awesome game - I like our odds!

I'll see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"For Ubaldo Jiminez, eventually he'll run out of time and his contract will expire."
- Tom Hamilton said, hopefully

"I wonder if today's code is 'WALK' because Ubaldo Jiminez and Eric Bedard are on the mound."
- Tom Hamilton on the season ticket holder special code

"The Indians would love to add some starting pitching, but nobody's going to trade you starting pitching in April."
- Tom Hamilton

"I think the FCC is closed on Sundays."
- Jim Rosenhaus fuels Tom Hamilton's dislike of station identification

"They will lead the league in Tommy John surgeries by the time the year is over."
- Tom Hamilton on the overuse of the Houston bullpen

"It went right over the head of the cow with the Houston cap on. You shoulda seen the cow roll his eyes upward."
- Tom Hamilton on the long foul ball in the 9th

"You don't get style points in this game, just be one run better."
- Tom Hamilton

Good Bye Red Sox and Good Riddance!

There were almost 13,000 people at the game tonight, which is 3,000 more than last night. I bet there were a lot of walk-ups due to the nice weather! The team is still rockin' the strikeouts - tonight striking out 11 (16, 10, 11 over 3 days). I wonder who won the $100 tonight?!

The Tribe gave it a go today and didn't let it get away from them, but it was a hard-fought battle that we never got too close to winning. Maybe at one point in the late innings but we're still very poor offense-wise, or reliability-of-offense-wise, so any time we got close to coming right back the Red Sox just kicked dirt in our faces. Again.

Zach McAllister was the starter and he went 5 innings giving up 3 earned runs. He struck out 7! I say he was pretty decent - 3 runs shouldn't be unsurmountable. But he might be falling to the place where Masterson was last year where 3 runs is too many when you have no run support.

Hagadone came in for the 6th and gave up a run. We can't be having that, with the way the team is batting. Shaw was in for the 7th and 8th and he gave up 2 un-earned runs thanks to an error by Cord Phelps. I'll give you a moment to moan about Jason Kipnis. There, there...

Chris Perez came in and he was awesome! He threw 17 pitches with 13 of them strikes! He totally did his job today that's for sure!

We only got 6 hits today but 3 of them were doubles, so that's pretty cool. We did manage to score 3.

Brantley was the leadoff again. He does not like being leadoff, dangit! He much prefers the middle of the lineup. This year his average is .318 when batting 5th and .000 when batting first (well, it's slightly off now since he did get a hit today). Last year it was .308 when batting 5th (where he was the most) and .350 when he was 6th, but only .227 when he batted leadoff (where he was the second most). SOMEONE PLEASE FORWARD THIS INFORMATION TO TERRY FRANCONA!

Ok, ok...I just looked at Stubbs' splits and he's no better batting first. Bourn is our guy. But then again Stubbs is mediocre up and down the lineup while Brantley clearly prefers the middle so that's another good argument to get him out of the top spot. Also, for those of you who read the blog in 2011, forget what I said about how much Asdrubal loves hitting after Michael and how well Michael does in the top spot. That was two World Series ago!

Asdrubal also got a hit tonight, going 1 for 4.  He is not one of the dudes who got a double.

Carlos Santana is one of those guys! He's batting .405 now, and went 2 for 4 on the night. It was an RBI double giving him 6 on the season...still less than half of the leader, Mark Reynolds. So nice to have 'los back and presumably healthy.

Nick Swisher is very sad that he didn't do anything tonight and if he didn't have to go buy treats for the team's trip to Houston tomorrow, he most likely would have a press conference to apologize for his poor performance. But hey, there's always tomorrow, buddy!

Mark Reynolds was the man again tonight, getting one of those doubles going 1 for 3 with a walk. He came in to score - did you know he leads the team in runs?

Mike Aviles is keeping it up! He was in at 3rd tonight and got one of those doubles (his first) going 1 for 4 with a run scored. He's a rightie and Chiz is a lefty so I guess we'll see Aviles any time the team faces a lefty pitcher. They have given Chisenhall chances against lefties both this season and last season but he's just not ready for it yet.

Stubbs didn't get a hit today holdin' down the 9-hole but he did get an RBI ground-out so that's all right with me. He went 0 for 2 with a walk.

Tomorrow we're in the west in Texas, playing the Astros, bless their hearts. They just got swept by the A's, so that's much better than facing the Red Sox who won 4 in a row before coming here. It'll be Old Man Myers versus RHP 5.63. Oh man, I hope it's a big hit-fest. Even if it's a hit-fest on both sides, I don't care...this season is so far kind of boring. Let's stir it up!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"They like to go deep in the count, and they are always flaberghasted when there is a strike against a Red Sox player."
- Tom Hamilton

"Right now Jarrod Saltalamachia feels that with his swing and this wind, Chagrin Falls is within reach."
- Tom Hamilton

"Victorino becomes the eighth hitter in this game to bark at [the homeplate umpire]. He's going to develop a complex before this game is over. Nobody likes him."
- Tom Hamilton

Enter Sandy

Looks like it's not only the White Sox's turn to have a late-season skid, but also the Royals. And here we are to be a part of it - yay! It also could not be a better time for Sandy Alomar to take over as manager. Not because Manny Acta was running the team into the ground or anything - we all know he wasn't to blame - but because our team is on a little upswing and the last 2 teams we're facing here are on a bit of a downswing. Also the fans have been calling for Sandy since uhm...last year so it's nice for him to start off at home.


I got a baseball with Sandy and Manny's autographs on it last week. How about that? I can't tell if it's lucky or unlucky for anyone...

So, on to the game.

Our new favorite guy, David Huff, is now 3-0 with a 2.86 ERA. He went 6 solid innings today giving up only 3 runs and striking out 5. Yeah he gave up a homer but to Billy Butler who is dying to get #30 (it was #29). Huff only threw 89 pitches but Sandy was following Manny's lead - get your quality start and get the guy out of there before it goes south!

Cody Allen was back to his old self today. He threw an inning and gave up nothing. Scott Maine had the opposite fate - he didn't even get an out but gave up 2 runs on 3 hits. NOT COOL!

Even Sandy recognizes the value of Joe Smith and put him out there to finish the 8th. Chris Perez rocked the 9th and got his 39th save. Awesome - still 5 more chances to get his 40th!!!

The top of the order was solid tonight but there were so many hits, the bottom of the order got in on the act too!

CHOOOO went 2 for 4 with his 41st AND 42nd double - both of them packaged with an RBI! That puts him tied for 4th in the league with 2 other dudes for doubles! He also walked and scored a run. He's got an 8-game hitting streak with 13 hits in those games!

If Choo wasn't exciting enough, ol' Cord Phelps was shoehorned in the 2-hole (Asdrubal out with wrist again I guess) and went 3 for 5 with an RBI. Gotta love the new guys having a good September!

Kipnis was knocked down to 3rd, and kept up his hitting streak (10) going 1 for 4 with a walk. His one hit was pretty awesome, though - it was a 2-out bases-loaded single that scored 2. Choo and Phelps couldn't get anything done but The Kid came through! He got another RBI on a force-out, earlier in the game, for a total of 3 plus he got his 31st stolen base!

Santana didn't get a hit tonight - Ended his little hitting streak but he does have a 4-game walking streak. And his OBP for September is .389, so not bad. And look - we managed to win without Santana having a multi-hit game!

How is Russ Canzler doing? Just fine, thanks! He went 2 for 5 tonight with a run and is keeping his average over .300 (.313). So he's got a 5-game hitting streak with 10 hits in those games.

The Chiz Kid had no hits against lefties in 22 at-bats so far this year. Then tonight all of a sudden he's 3 for 5 against lefties. Bam! One of them was even a RBI double (his 4th double). It'd be pretty nice if something has "clicked" for him and he suddenly is hitting lefties like a champ. Heck it'd be good for any of our guys to hit lefties like a champ so it might as well start with him!

Brent Lillibridge was at short today and made ZERO errors AND he went 2 for 3, got hit by a pitch and scored 2 runs. A red letter day for Brent!

Zeke continues to be on the ball there in the 9th spot. Today he went 3 for 4 with an RBI and came around to score 3 runs. Incredible! He's got a 6-game hitting streak with 10 hits in those games, plus he's scored 7 runs and gotten 4 RBI! Who knew that goddamn Ezequiel Carrera would be such a useful addition to our team?? Now if only he were 50 lbs. bigger and had an arm we could put him in right - I hear there's an opening in 2013!

Still tied with Minnesota for last place. That blows! But we've got 5 more games against teams we've got no problem with all of a sudden.

Here's something nice - we won't lose 100 games this year! If you're curious we're 66 and 91. Pretty crummy, I agree. But hey at least the problem (Acta) is gone now - right?! (Woah, slow down, sarcasm)

Tomorrow is another one at 7:05 against the Royals at home. It might be rainy...but I hope people come out to the game anyway. Winning baseball! Go see who's on tap for next year!

I just sold my last two Perfect 10 Vouchers (for half price, yech!) but never fear, I've still got 2 more games on my slate. Monday I'm going to a special Social Media meeting which is swell, considering they keep passing me by for visiting their Social Media Suite. This seems like a pretty good consolation prize. And perhaps if Mark Shapiro is there I will plead with him to not get rid of Perez.

I'm going Wednesday too with some primo seats from StubHub. I've gone to the last 4 years final games so I've decided it's a tradition now and I made my friend go this year (she's been to 3). Gonna be cool. Free stuff!

Anyway, that's then, this is now. Tomorrow another rout of the Royals? Maybe! Tomorrow is Jeanmar (ack) versus RHP (5.06) that we had a good game against last week. Should be a good game...

See you there!

Sorry about the lack of Radio Chatter today. It was sort of solemn with Manny being gone, and sort of pro praising Sandy. I did what I could!

Radio Chatter:
"David Huff trying to make a statement this year. Basically 'Don't forget about me, I'm still here.'"
- Tom Hamilton

"There won't be any hugs after that ceremony."
- Tom Hamilton on Omar's retirement after blasting the Toronto club in the press