The Indians Buy Me Dinner But I Have A Headache, and Nobody Gets In

The White Sox don't get in to the playoffs, I mean. They needed to not lose any games and Detroit to not win any games the rest of the week or else they'd be eliminated. While Cleveland would have liked to be the one to give Chicago a loss, it was actually Detroit got the win that got the Sox their E. So sorry.

The Indians did not come close to winning today. Today's game was nothing like yesterday's game, except there was a grand slam. Only not by Asdrubal, by the White Sox. The Indians lost bad. Kluber was bad, the bullpen was bad (well not Joe Smith. Yay Joe Smith!) The batters...the batters were super bad. Or the Sox's starter was super good. We got 2 hits - one by Choo in the 3rd and one by PH Cord Phelps in the 9th. We also got 2 hit-by-pitch, one by Asdrubal in the 4th and one by PH Neal in the 9th.

And then it started to rain.

Anyway, aside from the baseball game it was Social Media Appreciation night! I think anyone who signed up to get in to the Social Media Suite got invited, which means I got invited even though I'm not good enough to go to the suite yet. They sent us a complimentary ticket and invited us to come as early as 4:30 for dinner on the Budweiser Patio. Free dinner! Needless to say, a lot of people showed up. Hot dogs, chicken, bbq pork, mac & cheese, potato salad, chips, popcorn, cookies and soda. We also got a free shirt which my sleeping dog will now model for you:

Not dead, just sleeping. Woah - metaphor!

We got to eat and enjoy the view:

And almost get hit by foul balls.

After a while, @VinnieP52 showed up for Q&A. For some reason they totally could not get the microphone to work so you had to read his lips or strain to hear or just forget about it. In general he was cool though. I asked him if the league had any rules about Twitter and if you could take your phone to the bullpen. He said no tweeting an hour before and until an hour after the game. No phones in the bullpen of course. Answers I pretty much figured on but hey I thought I'd keep it on topic.

How could you not like this guy?

This baby has something to do with Vinnie. I think the guy once asked Vinnie if his wife would get pregnant again and he said "Yes" and here is proof of his psychic abilities.

Some social mediaers. Recognize anyone? Sadly, @Jobu_Lives was not there - I was looking for him!

After Vinnie I ate more cookies (free cookies, yo) and then Mark Shapiro came and answered a lot of questions. They got the microphone figured out for him. Everyone asked pretty good questions too about the team and the future of the team and stuff. Shapiro sure is a smooth talker, I tell you what. People like to hate on him but they've probably never heard him speak. He got to where he was for a reason.

Everyone had on name tags with whatever you wanted to put. Mostly everyone used their Twitter handle. I put "The Positive Tribe" though because I'm not very Twitter-y. It was kind of funny walking by everyone and staring down their chest to see if you recognize anyone's name. I didn't recognize but like I said, not too Twittery. Probably some folks there were some of my awesome followers, no doubt. But I didn't know.

I did stop and chat with this guy because I don't know why - scary beardy is something I feel comfortable with I suppose. He's a pretty cool fellow. Google Stalking him later on I found his rap song about the #BullpenMafia and well you wish you would have thought of it first! Two thumbs up DStew! That's some Positive Tribin'!

According to DStew's Twitter he stuck around and met some dudes from Sports Time Ohio but I went down to my complimentary seat, really just not being familiar enough with STO to be able to chat. The seats were pretty good.

Always a pretty sight.

Baseball stretching or gay porn?

I had made plans with my friends to go to this game like a month ago, so I had them grab some Perfect 10 Voucher tickets and meet me inside. I also noticed that the section of seats assigned to the Social Media group was pretty sparsely filled (everyone stayed and enjoyed the patio, which is enjoyable) so once I determined that two seats in section 131 were going to be free for sure, I had my friends come down and sit down with me. Appreciate!

A couple foul balls came close to us. One hit the large guy 2 rows ahead of us and we were all quite relieved. The fella in front of us was trying pretty hard to snag something but all the rest were out of reach.

I did notice a distinct lack of kids around us so when the Fun Bunch came around I gave a great holler and they walked up and handed me a swell canvas bag. Normally I'd let the kids have all the Fun Bunch swag but tonight it was all me!

As the game wore on the crowd got pretty restless. And then sparse. The guys in front of us were having a great time yelling at the Sox while they were on base. One guy said "ADAM DUNN YOU SWING THE BAT LIKE A GIRL!" as loud as hell and then "I KNOW YOU HEARD ME DUNN!" and Dunn turned around and waved! Ha! That is pretty high up the ladder when it comes to crowd yellin' I gotta say! Another guy was heckling them about Detroit winning. Not as loud but still funny.

It was a pretty fun time altogether even though we lost like a motherfuck and I did have a headache (no doubt from the cookies. I STILL have a headache now!) It did start to drizzle at the end but the weather was quite nice otherwise and didn't get too cold. I wore my Kipnis shirt, my Wahoo waffle shirt and my jersey and 2 pairs of socks and I was good. Didn't even need the hoodie, scarf or gloves that I lugged around all night. At least I got a swell bag to put them in!

Oh hey check this out - if you come up with any good ideas for any of the following, tweet @dncindians (the Indians food service company) and you could win 4 Club Lounge tickets! If you recall I went to the Club Lounge on the 4th of July and it's awesome!

So try to come up with something cool and send these guys a tweet:
- Ideas for "Burger of the Month"
- Ideas for "Pizza of the Month"
- Idea for  a "Fried Delight"
- New food at the stadium

Their food is actually quite good, I think, and there's a lot to try at the park. It'll be fun to see what they come up with next! And no I'm not even getting paid to say any of this, I'm just fat.

Ok so tomorrow I am NOT going to the game but I'll be listening at 7:05 to Masterson versus RHP (3.37). Probably - now that they're eliminated it might be LHP (0.00) or something. You better be there - I'll see you there!

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

Crabby

I went out tonight, and had a really nice time. Went to a clambake at an old friend's house, with some current friends in tow, and met some new friends. Then there was a bonfire, and a movie on a giant inflatable screen. A really nice time indeed!

Then I came home and saw I had a postgame alert email from Indians.com and was like "oh yeah, missed today's game." Then I saw the boxscore and I'm pretty sure I let out an audible groan.

I still listened to the game, just in case anything exciting happened. Turns out nothing exciting happened. Cord Phelps got his first Major League home run but it wasn't actually his first Major League home run because he got one last year.

Ubaldo didn't do well, he gave up 5 runs in 4 2/3. The bullpen did good, so yay. Jeanmar came in to finish it. Weird.

Ten hits, four walks, 9 left on base. Carlos Santana had a multi-hit game but it didn't do it for us - he didn't get any RBI. Kipnis sat out while Phelps played second. Asdrubal was in, no longer hurt I guess, but shut down at the plate. Russ Canzler still a hit machine. Choo did some bad baserunning. Thomas Neal had an error but it didn't lead to a run. Matt LaPorta left 4 on base.

Blah blah blah. I've seen this game like 40 times now since the break. At least this time there was no Johnny Damon!

Tomorrow is newbie on newbie - David Huff versus RHP who is coming off a stellar season in Triple-A Omaha. Maybe tomorrow will be totally fresh.

The game's at 2:10 so you get an hour of ho-hum football before you put 3 hours of ho-hum baseball on in the background. At least that's what I'm going to do. And do laundry, just for something different.

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"With Justin Masteron and Ubaldo Jiminez, there's no middle ground. When they win, they are overpowering people. When they lose, boy they go down hard."
- Tom Hamilton

"I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, but how can you be Ubaldo Jiminez on the mound and forget about Hosmer running to third? It's the little things, especially when you're not pitching well."
- Tom Hamilton

"There's nothing like coming to Kansas City Missouri and watching adults and children lift their beer mugs and sing along with Garth Brooks."
- Tom Hamilton on KC's trying to shoehorn "Friends In Low Places" as a theme song

"If you get picked off while down three, you may not want to go back to the dugout."
- Tom Hamilton

"Little mistakes like that are why the Indians have been in such a tailspin since the All Star break."
- Tom Hamilton

Everybody Hits!

I'm serious! Against a team that has beaten up on us for our last 8 meetings and each one of our guys ended up getting a hit tonight. Not only just the 9 but also pinch hitter Cord Phelps. In fact if their lineup wasn't so mind-blowingly awesome right now, we would have totally had a chance to win it!


In fact, had Gomez not given up 4 runs worth of homers - victory would have been ours!

Jeanmar Gomez really got schooled tonight, which is good for a young guy to experience. Perhaps a better experience if he did not give up 8 runs in 4 2/3 but ... he did strike out 5.

Durbin finished off the 5th and gave up a 9th run, then Hagadone and Putnam got some man-work done out there and had 2 scoreless innings between them. They have fresh arms for sure but all of the new guys seem to be shaping up all right. The three relievers struck out 5 together, so that's cool.

Fukudome lead off again and he went 1 for 5. He was red hot for a minute there but has been "slumping" lately. Kipnis and Santana also went 1 for 5.

Oh yeah, even though we went through a good portion of Detroit's bullpen - as a team they struck us out 13 times. Ouch!

Thome had a hot night tonight. Yeah he did! He ended up going 2 for 3 with an RBI and 2 runs scored. Guess how many strikeouts? NONE STRIKEOUTS! And as I said above, his replacement legs Cord Phelps got himself a last-minute double and a RUN too.

Nice job, 4-hole!

Shelley Duncan had an RBI double, so now he's got 22 hits and 23 RBI in the month of September. That's in just 25 games. HOLY CRAP SHELLEY DUNCAN!

I know, right?!

He also got on base due to a fielding error AND had a sweet catch in the 6th. It pains me that it's not a highlight clip, though, because Tom Hamilton made it sound great.

Lonnie Chisenhall is workin' it some more, playing for that job no doubt. He went 2 for 5 with an RBI and a run giving him 11 hits in his last 10 games.

Jason Donald is also singing for his supper with another hit tonight, a sweet 2-run single in the 6th. Can hit in the clutch? Do it!

Zeke and Sweet Lou were also-rans tonight in the race for Everybody Hits! but dangit, they did their parts and got their hits. Lou also went the extra mile and caught a guy stealing.

Stayin' in the game, fan!

So let's see...not winning tonight means we won't end up over .500. Winning tomorrow means we'll be at .500. If we lose and Chicago wins we'll be tied for second.

A win would be really awesome tomorrow night. As it would EVERY night but especially tomorrow. Last game, a couple things at stake.

Zach McAllister, no pressure. Hahahaha....I hope we get to see Pure Rage tomorrow. And of course Joe Smith. I think they should each pitch 3 innings what do you think? Yeah!

Last game, folks. 7:05, pending the weather. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"The Indians have NO...absolutely NO answer for Miguel Cabrera."
- Tom Hamilton

"Right now, Bob Feller in his heyday might have problems with this Tiger lineup the way they're hitting."
- Tom Hamilton

"That is a home run in any other park in all of baseball. American League, National League...that was 420 feet!"
- Mike Hegan on Santana's long fly out in the 4th

"Thirty-one thousand sitting back wishing tomorrow were Friday and the Tigers were at home."
- Tom Hamilton

"The Indians ought to seriously consider walking him every time. Even if the bases are loaded."
- Tom Hamilton after Miguel Cabrera's homer in the 6th

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

Wow what a cool baseball game! It felt very tense. Of course, my very large (and wet from swimming) dog growling trying to sit in my lap for half the game probably added to the overall tenseness of the night. That and the lightning.

It was just a nice little matchup for two closely-matched teams. The pitchers weren't as evenly matched, but neither of them "blew it."

Talbot only managed 6.1 innings and gave up 3 runs and only struck out 2.

Conversely, Rockies pitcher Jhoulys Chacin struck out 7 but also walked 8 so our patience chased him off after 6.2 as well with 115 pitches. He actually had a no-hitter through 6 but then walked two and CHOOOOOO! got the team's first hit and first RBI!

So it's 3-1 Rockies in the bottom of the 8th. A storm is rolling in, with thunder and lighting in the distance. Chacin is gone and Rafael Betancourt comes on. The slowest pitcher they've got, oddly enough. Possibly slow enough to allow the storm to shut down this official game.

But, there was a glimmer of that April magic when 3 singles in a row (Phelps, Asdrubal, Hafner) scores a run and still no outs. Then a pitching change. Then two outs. O noes!

Then Travis Buck, of all people, snaps an 0 for 24 slump and gets himself an RBI single to right. The game is tied! The storm is coming! Hurrah!

Ah, but, after 30 innings of scoreless work, the bullpen gives up a run. Chris Perez gave up a homer after not giving up a homer all year. BUMMER.

The last inning was still pretty fun, though. Still lightning and thundering out here, the dog panting wildly and drooling on my feet, cracks of thunder fuzzing out the radio reception. Two outs and it's Sunday's hero Cord Phelps! Oh hey he gets a triple! Yaaaaay!

Now Asdrubal's up. Yaaaay! But he walks. Not intentionally but intentional enough.

The Questionable Call of the night goes to Manny Acta for pulling Hafner in the 8th for a pinch runner (Everett, .228) and then putting Kearns (.207) in to hit. Kearns isn't the questionable call, pulling Hafner is. No Shelley Duncan anymore, ya see.

And then the game was over.

But! The storm continues and my dog continues to moan, I've had a couple Benadryl and a Goji White Grape popsicle and all in all I am pretty happy with tonight's game. I was listening to it thinking about the people I know who can't get in to baseball or sports in general and wonder if they know what they're missing. I've never felt this much emotion watching The Office. How can they like Firefly so much and not Cleveland baseball?

Weirdos.

Anyway this is the sort of game that The Positive Tribe is founded on, because even though we did a lot of losing last season there were tons of cool games like tonight. I'm happy to spend a night listening to this kind of baseball.

Lou Marson got his second (second!) triple, by the way and also threw out a guy at second. Still loving him behind the plate.

And Asdrubal went 1 for 2 with 3 walks, 2 runs scored and his 12 stolen base.

Amen.

Ooooh, I just heard that Chris Perez is going to be on WTAM in the post-game show in a bit. Great, gotta hear what he says. Gives me something to do while waiting for this damn storm to pass, because the dog has made it clear that going to bed is not in the plans.

Tomorrow's at 7:05 and I think it's going to be a great game again. This one we have a real chance of winning too! See you then!

Radio Chatter:
"Pronkville is begging for a souvenir."
- Tom Hamilton

"People listen to these games and they actually believe you guys! I pay for that in the offseason!"
- Jim Rosenhaus taking Mike Hegan to task for suggesting that he was wearing pink high heels

"Chacin is walking around the mound thinking to himself 'Why can't I throw strikes over the corners of the plate?'"
- Tom Hamilton on Chacin's multiple walks

"Those 'All You Can Eat Seats' ... great time to go to the ballpark and then get a physical the next day."
- Tom Hamilton

"The way the wind is blowing now, it'll be easier to rally from behind."
- Tom Hamilton puts a positive spin on the impending storm

"They put a 'no doubles' defense on at Coors Field and doubles will be dropping in everywhere."
- Tom Hamilton

C is for Cord

Hmm, could this be a trend? Cabrera, Cabrera, Choo, Carlos, Carrera, Chris, Carrasco and now Cord? Good thing I got my representative hat:

Sounds like all those fellas belong in Cleveland!

I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Father's day! I spent most of the day watching the game with my mom. But to be fair it was because I was cooking in honor of dad. Dad did not feel the need to watch the game - he prefers to get the Good News as filtered through me. Props to Dad for molding his wife into someone who at least lets you tune the TV to the game instead of something lame.

I was also impressed that when she saw STO was showing golf crap an hour before the game mom asked "Is there a rain delay?" noting that she has noticed over the years that if there is golf on the television it is most likely due to a rain delay.

Oh! Guess what! Goddamn Masterson shaved his goddamn beard. He didn't get the W but he had his 3rd 2-run game in a row and he didn't get the loss. He no longer looks like he pitches for the hipster bar league sponsored by PBR.

Besides that good news, he struck out 5 and went 5 innings.

Then the relievers came in and they were probably planned to go one inning each and close it out, except then it rained for 2 hours and then the game went in to extra innings. So there was Chris Perez in the 9th, after nice single-inning performances by Durbin, Raffy and Pestano. We go in to 10 and one thinks "well uhm, what comes after Chris Perez anyway?" sort of like "who works that extra hour at the 24-hour convenience store during the end of Daylight Savings Time?"

Well the answer is Joe Smith and then Tony Sipp, duh. After that would have been Hermann and then perhaps your mom (actually, it could have totally been Choo.) Glad we didn't have to find out!

Our middle of the lineup was kickin' it out today. Eight hits, two walks and HBP for 4-5-6-7!

Choo was totally ON IT today. He went 3 for 5 and stole a base (and eh, got caught stealing...) His hits looked great, too. He's batting .244 which is his highest since June 3.

If you're wondering how Choo felt about the firing of John Nunnally, quoth Nick Camino (@CaminoTribe):

Shin-Soo Choo told reporters: "We're still in first place. Why is he fired? I am very disappointed because he helped me a lot."

Also ON IT was Carlos Santana (who, if you noticed, was playing first just like we like it.) His 9th home run, his 13th double, two walks, two runs scored, one RBI, even saw the lights of the Goodyear Blimp and it read "Santana's a pimp."

What's up with Choo and Santana? Do you think having Hafner at #4 just keeps all pressure off them? Does he whisper some secrets about the opposing pitcher to them after he bats? Whatever it is that's into them right now...Like!

Aaaaaanyway...also getting a double and a homer tonight was the FNG Cord Phelps, who we will start comparing to Ezequiel Carrera but just for a minute, and maybe that was only me. Phelps has been struggling at the plate, no doubt. Even though he was hitting .295 I think when we plucked him out of the minors, this is still the big leagues. But he got his first double so that was cool.

Then he was up in the 11th and there were 2 men on. Santana had been walked to get to Phelps (followed by Marson - wouldn't you?) So there's a RISP in the form of Choo and we're running out of pitchers and it's been almost 5.5 hours since we started an it's muggy and hot and CAN'T WE JUST SWEEP THE PIRATES ALREADY?! Cuz I brought my broom, dammit!

If Tom Hamilton was calling today's game, which he wasn't, I don't know if he would have trotted out the old "Can the Indians re-create that same magic here at Progressive Field?" from the last few times we had a close-at-the-end situation. If you recall the Indians were all about wins at the last-at-bat and walkoff wins earlier in the season. Hammy has tried to evoke those sorts of wins lately but nothing comes of them. Would he have done it again, probably the third time in the past week or so?

It would have been epic to hear what might have happened between Hammy and Cord Phelp's bat tonight. But I will take the win and the sweep over the lack of epic radio call. I will concede to the television call.

Oh, yeah, this would have also been cool to hear Hammy call. Oh hai. I am in ur infieldz, vacuuming up ur baseballz wit mah bare hands. This may be the play of the year, I dunno. I don't know if it's better than his behind-the-back flip or what. I don't care. People will still call him "ass-dribble" and vote for Derek Jeter. Gah. But you know where it's at, right?

Wow, check out this awesome Asdrubal 2011 highlight reel that MLB just put up. It randomly showed up in my browser. I watched it twice.

I didn't really want to be a scoreboard watcher after we dipped down into 2nd place, but...the Tigers lost 2 our of 3 against the Rockies so now we're a whole game ahead of them, alone in first place. Now we get to play the Rockies.

Three more days of Hafner until we're in Other Timezone and Other League Hell, so be sure to tune in faithfully. Speaking of faithfully, I guess this weekend was our first 100,000+ fan weekend since September 2008! So, good job, Cleveland! I'm glad you're all done crying over basketball enough to come watch some awesome baseball.

I didn't catch any radio tonight but there was some good stuff on Twitter with regards to Phelps, Cabrera and even Perez, so I'll totally steal all that right now and present it to you. Enjoy!

Twitter Patter:
"The more Phelps does things like that, the more likely he gets a multiyear deal and my dream of an 'Extension Cord' headline comes true."
- @castrovince (Anthony Castrovince)

"Cord Phelps .. Absolutely awesome!!! Cbus fans know him well! Way to go buddy! #Indians #neveradoubt"
- @JLEWFifty (Jensen Lewis)

"Pestano, joking about Asdrubal's web gem: 'You know they don't give out gold hand awards. They're called Gold Gloves.'"
- @MLBastian (Jordan Bastian)

"Last Indian who’s first career homer was a walk-off was Ben Francisco on 6/29/2007 vs Tampa Bay"
- @tribeinsider (Cleveland Indians)

"Talk about a team effort and a guy finally getting rewarded for putting together great at bats all day, grats to Cord great moment for him"
- @VinnieP52 (Vinnie Pestano)

"Santana, on Asdrubal's gem: 'I wasn't surprised. For me, that's just normal for him.'"
- @MLBastian (Jordan Bastian)

"Masterson, on Asdrubal's play: 'Everyone was going crazy. We reminded him that he did have a glove. That's incredible.'"
- @MLBastian (Jordan Bastian)

"Smith also on mound for Asdrubal's barehand, behind-the-back flip in Chicago. Said Smith: 'He came in and said, 'I looove when you pitch.''"
- @MLBastian (Jordan Bastian)

"Indians manager Manny Acta, on Asdrubal's gem: 'Oh my God. Half of the dugout was yelling, 'Best play ever! [...] Some guys were like, 'Slow down. We've some other ones. Ozzie Smith and all that.' It was unbelievable.'"
- @MLBastian (Jordan Bastian)

"Any congratulatory tweets for Phelps let me know I will pass them on, and no he did not have choc milk in cinnamon toast crunch today."
- @VinnieP52 (Vinnie Pestano)

"In case you didn't know @ChrisPerez54 purposely loads the bases from time to time just so he can crush other teams souls. #LetTheRageBegin"
- @ClevStrikesBack (ClevelandStrikesBack)

"Wow. Nice catch. Plays were on 5/19 & 6/19. Smith on mound for both. RT @wellthatsdumb: Cant wait see what he'll do next month on the 19th"
- @MLBastian (Jordan Bastian)

Getty Images

Oh, That Fausto...

Well tonight was different. Different than the last few (or dozen?) games in that we ended up doing some batting and did not hang the pitcher out to dry.

It was the same in that Fausto hung himself out to dry. But then something different did happen in that our bullpen came in and gave up a ton of runs and actually ended up losing the game for us more than Fausto had lost the game. I KNOW, RIGHT?!

Perhaps they were stupefied by their trip to the MLB Fan Cave today. You gotta read that article and watch that video. It's all sorts of goofy.

Almost everybody hit today. And when I say almost I mean everybody but two guys. But that is soooo much better than our other games of late, you know? For a while it's been ONLY two guys have hit!

Orlando is one of those guys who did not get a hit. He wasn't supposed to be in the game today - Travis Buck was, but he was in a taxi accident yesterday. NOT COOL, NEW YORK!

Orlando played 2nd and Cord Phelps was DH (what?) Phelps got his first major league hit tonight! His folks were there to see it, too. Bravo!

In my no-way-professional opinion, today's team that showed up was the team that we saw on April 1, who then went on to win like a million games. Fausto sucked and we got a bunch of hits and had a bunch of good at-bats and scored a bunch of runs.

Carlos Santana had himself a good night offensively, with two hits, one of them a two-run-dinger. He did however give up a run on an error. Whoops...

Ok, better yet, Matt LaPorta! Pretty stinky lately but tonight had 2 hits and 2 RBI!

Ooh, and there was Hannahan who not only got a double and two walks (I've learned that with Hannahan we "love the glove" and put up with his offense or lack thereof) but he also had a sweet stop that reminded me of my dog versus a moth.

Brantley and Asdrubal got hits today. Brantley even got an RBI. I am really glad about that because I had a really bad day at work. I told my co-worker that if Brantley and Asdrubal get shut out tonight, I just might cry.

Turns out I didn't have to cry. In fact, I quite enjoyed the game really. Of course it could have been better in many respects but it gives me hope.

Oh yeah, and there was an awesome fight. So awesome that the bullpen (see above) came trotting out AND MLB.com put a two clips up. That's pretty rare - they don't always like to highlight fighting.

Tomorrow's gonna be sweet...1PM game and it's on TV! One good thing about playing the Yankees, I guess. We are THIS close to beating those pinstriped jerkfaces. I hope tomorrow is it and I see it on TV.

Radio Chatter:
"The way Carmona is pitching right now he is helping all of the Yankees out of their slumps."
- Tom Hamilton

"Carmona just served one up and said 'see how hard you can hit it.'"
- Tom Hamilton on Granderson's homer

"I don't blame Teixiera for being angry. That is bush league to throw that high after a home run."
- Tom Hamilton on Carmona hitting Mark Teixiera after giving up a home run

"That may be the most useless news story ever."
- Tom Hamilton on a story Rosenhaus read about the official scorer wanting to make sure he scored Jeter's 3000th hit correctly

"I don't even know if I can read some of these other headlines in this paper."
"Well you can, but I'll have another partner tomorrow afternoon."
- Tom Hamilton and Jim Rosenaus on The Daily Post

"Rosie's wife Carol is pregnant with their second child, which is great news. [...] I thought it was pregnant women who liked ice cream and pickles, but Rosie is going through ice cream here nobody's business. [...] You went through that ice cream like Sherman went through Georgia."
- Tom Hamilton

"If people could see what you destroyed before we went on the air tonight..."
- Jim Rosenhaus to Tom Hamilton in defense of his ice cream

"Those customs people at the air port are like 'Look, I don't want this job, I don't want to be here, so you are going to be miserable too.' You say 'hi' and they look at you like 'what did you mean by that?'"
- Tom Hamilton on going through customs

"We just heard that the grounds crew has been spotted on Long Island. I guess they are heading to the Hamptons for the weekend."
- Tom Hamilton on the rainy 7th inning

"There's a guy in the stands here who looks exactly like President Obama. Since they put him up on the big board, that guy hasn't bought his own beer all night."
- Tom Hamilton

"That just shows how your bullpen is in disarray, when you have to go to Mariano Rivera when down by 6 in the 9th."
- Tom Hamilton

Noontime Nail-Biter

If you didn't hear, Cord Phelps was brought up from the minors and Shelley Duncan sent down. Big blow for the Dunc Tank who is way too old for the minors but Acta pointed out we won't be facing but 2 lefty's in the next dozen or so games, so the guy hitting .152 versus RHP had to go.

Phelps came up to play 2nd and if you recall, we discussed this scenario 2 days ago because The Cleveland Fan had made the plea to bring someone up to replace Orlando. I like it and I like it a lot. I think our farm system is outstanding and I also think our coaches (Nunley, Acta) are outstanding with young players. And, since Dunc took one for the team, Orlando gets to stay on and be a veteran presence in the club house.

All eyes were on Phelps today, so he did this and then this in the field. A couple of balls that may have gotten past Orlando? Possibly. Orlando is better going to his right than to his left but you have to assume that a spry young guy is going to get a few inches of stretch over Cabrera.

Phelps did not produce at the plate today, but it was just last night that he came up. On the radio they mentioned that his parents didn't have time to get to Cleveland but his sister flew in from Manhattan to see him. I wonder what she does that she can get from Manhattan to Cleveland so quickly? That's pretty awesome of her. Especially since if she would have waited 24 hours, he'd be on a bus on his way to New York for our series against the Yankees.

You know who did produce at the plate today? Michael Brantley! I don't know how he's not back at .300 yet - he's gotten 15 hits and 6 walks in the last 10 games. Perhaps maybe being lead-off is giving him too many at-bats. Whatever the case, I am still sure he'll be over .300 at the break.

Asdrubal did not do anything spectacular today. No idea why. No hits, no crazy fielding. An off-day, I guess. I don't think he's had an actual off-day yet this year. His stats say 59 games (today was game 60) but I don't know if they have updated the stats today or not. Another cool thing about Cord Phelps is that we can sit Asdrubal or even have him hit DH for a game or two. Phelps actually is more of a SS than a 2B.

Oh, in all my excitement of loving Michael Brantley and worrying about Asdrubal, I forgot that our two runs today came courtesy of HOME RUNS by GRADY and SUPERMANAHAN!

I don't know why, but MLB.com posted Tom Hamilton's audio for the Hannahan homer video clip, so here it is. Enjoy!

Not only did we get homers today but both CHOOOO! and Santana got doubles. Although I do report every time they get hits, and it seems to be almost every night, with this team slump I can see why everyone is pretty frustrated with those two. If they're only getting one hit per game, it's not usually with RISP or when we need it. They can keep hitting their doubles but if they can manage to do it when someone is on base ahead of them - sweet!

Speaking of sweet, Sweet Lou - who's had a few 2-day catching stints here and there - broke an 0-for-23 slide today with not one but TWO hits. Oddly enough, even though he's ahead of Brantley, he did not make it home either time. But, good to see him get his stuff back. Since he's a bencher and has so few at bats, his average went up .010 points just by getting those 2 hits to put him back over .200. Whew!


Justin Masterson was decent today. He gave up 3 runs but once again - 3 runs used to be nothing to this team and now it's nearly insurmountable. Manny Acta actually said he was very disappointed today and especially disappointed for Justin not getting the W. Although it was Chris Perez who got the L.

One more time, tho - Justin Masterson, shave your fucking beard. For real. Look at yourself!

Photo by MLB.com

Even though this was a one-run loss in 10 innings to the worst team in our division, it was still an exciting bit of baseball. We got 10 hits, just not enough runs. My heart was flippity-floppin through a lot of it, that's for sure!

The game wasn't on WKYC today, by the way. I sat down and made a list of games on broadcast really early on, perhaps even before the season started. So my info is a bit off. Two of my friends did tell me they were "watching" on Gameday today and they really liked it! Me too!

Everyone has the next two nights off so make sure you get all your chores done and meet me back here Friday night as we take on the Yankees for the first time this season. And, from what I hear, BOTH Saturday and Sunday's games will be on WKYC. That really tickles me! Me, my dog, Tom Hamilton and Jim Rosenhaus all sitting on my couch. Will you be there too?

Radio Chatter:
"That's his second bat of the day. Good thing he's going home - might not have much lumber left for a longer road trip."
- Mike Hegan on Cuddyer's broken bat

"You said it, Tom. They needed a spark from somebody, somewhere, and that just did it."
- Mike Hegan on Hannahan's game-tying homer

"If you're wondering, the Indians have 4 walk-off wins."
- Tom Hamilton