Blanked Out Weekend

My brother asked for a little help at his house on Saturday afternoon, but I told him "I can help but only until 7. The game is on TV. I want to see the Tribe trounce Boston!" I'd actually already told my friends to fuck off, because they wanted to hang out an I wanted to watch the game (my friends don't share the same...fervor...as I do for the game.) I was on my way back home to get comfy on the couch when my cousin's wife called to tell me my cousin had taken apart my aunt's old shower and found a moldy mess and was faced with a complete gutting and asked if I could go give him a hand. Yadda yadda I got home at 1 AM on Monday and hadn't heard a stitch of baseball nor seen any on TV.

It would seem that other than the blisters, cuts, scrapes, slivers and lack of sleep the bathroom remodel was a good thing because it saved me from having to survive a weekend of sad, sad baseball. The Indians losing in spectacular fashion to the shitty 2012 Boston Red Sox. In Boston. Yuck!

I didn't bother to go back over Saturday's game - that would have meant like 9 hours of baseball for me today! I of course checked out the box score. Zach McAllister - pitching for an injured Tomlin (!!) went 7 innings and gave up 4. That's actually really good for your second start of the year. Tomlin gives up about 4 per game himself. He struck out 8, which is Tomlin's high!

Unfortunately our guys couldn't overcome the deficit, even though we had our "good" lineup (the one that doesn't include Damon or Donald). We just can't hit lefties right now. Which, I dunno...you'd think they would have thought to practice that earlier this year. Not like it was a surprise we have a bench full of lefties. Perhaps they were counting on Shelley and Asdrubal just to carry everyone?

So that was Saturday. Kind of boring all around. A predictable 4 runs given up and a lonely run batted in. Asdrubal didn't even get a hit (but Lou did!)

I did make a point to listen to Sunday's game this afternoon, even though I saw the score. I figured maybe Tom Hamilton may have been furious and started talking goofy after 12 runs. Unfortunately it was sort of a sleepy Sunday (as usual) and nothing exciting happened on the radio (don't worry, I still got the quotes!)

Justin Masterson is breaking down. I wonder if he's got some physical issue that he's not telling anyone about. Do pitchers just have like, one good year in them anymore? (See: Carmona, Jiminez) Well I guess not. Cliff Lee, Joe Nathan, Jared Weaver, etc etc etc. Oh, I see the pattern. It's only pitchers we can afford that have an early expiration date.

Anyway, Masterson gave up 6 in 6 innings and got his 3rd loss. Funny, though - even if he only gave up like 1 or 2 runs he still woulda lost. Maybe he has just given up? "Yo, I'm only throwing well when I have 5 runs or more behind me!" Actually I'm sure he feels awful about it. Maybe that will help.

Dan Wheeler came in for the 7th and promptly gave up 6 runs including a homer. He was sent away before the team even left Boston. Says Jordan Bastian:

Before he left the ballclub, Wheeler was asked if he was given a reason for the team's decision to part ways with him.
"Did I really need to hear one?" Wheeler said. 

 Well at least the guy's humble. Now we get to dig in to our pool of minor league relievers and bring someone up to add to the bullpen. I hope that's as fun as it sounds and doesn't end up being scary!

I wonder if there's any other veteran players that we can consider "not working out"....

We only scored one run (Asdrubal with a bases-loaded walk!) but some guys had a good game.

Jason Kipnis hit .375 against Boston last year and so far is hitting .412 against them this year. They say he likes hitting in Fenway, which happens to be the only place he's played against Boston. He went 2 for 4 and his average is creeping up towards .300, at .284.

Santana and Choo each got a hit. Still not a multi-hit game like they both need to have but I guess 1 is better than none.

Michael Brantley had a great day! He went 3 for 4 with his team-leading 12th double. He's actually tied for 5th in the league. Not bad for a guy who's not having the year I thought he should! He's only hit in 5 of his last 10 games but in those 5 games he had 12 hits. I guess once he settles in to a pitcher, he is locking in. Or otherwise locked out!

That's all she wrote in terms of offense. Walked-in run, seven hits, three of them by Brantley.

It's never a happy time when we lose to Boston, especially when we end up losing 3 in a row. Growly growl.

Oh well, at least we're moving on to Minnesota who sucks better than Boston. Hopefully we can handle them (ok the game is already half over as I write this - we're handling.) Maybe getting rid of Dan Wheeler will be the catalyst this team really needed!!

Hahaha just kidding. Sorry, Dan Wheeler.

Next game is Minnesota at 8:05 Monday. That was 75 minutes ago. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Gonzales said, after rounding first base 'If you're not going to play good baseball and cover second, I'll just walk in to there.'"
- Tom Hamilton after a bad offensive play in the first

"Indians had the tables turned with the big 2-out hits on them for a change."
- Tom Hamilton

"The Indians might be in first place by a scant 2 games, but if they're to do anything this summer they have to get Masterson figured out and Jiminez figured out."
- Tom Hamilton

"Red Sox will say 'Thank you, go ahead.' If you've got a guy up who's either going to double or homer, you'll gladly give that to him."
- Tom Hamilton on Choo getting a bunt single

"He's only made 93 pitches, but it's been a deflating 93 pitches."
- Tom Hamilton on Justin Masterson

"People say 'Oh, the train, that ought to be neat.' Well it is if you're not on it."
- Tom Hamilton on the train from New York to Boston

"The Fenway Faithful, they're bored. They're doing the wave."
- Tom Hamilton

A Whole Lot of Nothing

Wow man - 4 hours of baseball and it's almost like nothing happened. Do you remember much of this game? I kept looking at the scoreboard on MLB Gameday thinking "Oh cool, there's still a lot of innings left..."

Of course the thing you'll remember most about this game is that Ubaldo Jiminez sucked. It's a good thing to remember so you don't get your hopes up too much next time he's slated to pitch. Now, he might surprise you like he did last time he pitched and it'll be an even better surprise when you think he's going to suck. But he's probably going to suck.

Here's some nice things, tho - Dan Wheeler and Tony Sipp had to cover 4 innings and they did so without giving up any runs and Sipp struck out 3. We didn't even need Pestano and Smith tonight!

The Red Sox have scored an average of 9.5 runs every time Clay Buchholz (9.09 ERA) pitches. Except for tonight! Jiminez "held" them to 7. Wahoo!

Almost everybody hit tonight except Asdrubal. Can you believe it?! He did get 2 walks and came in to score 2 runs so his average is still safely at .333.

I'm not going to talk about Johnny Damon tonight, as this is the Positive Tribe and not the Obvious Tribe.

Kipnis and Hafner worked some of their shit out and both went 2 for 4 with a walk.

Santana, that bugger...he is still swinging for the fences every time I think. I don't think since John Nunnally  was fired that anyone has told Santana to stop moving his foot so much when he bats. Last year when he woke up from his slump the big news was "we told him to stop moving his foot and look what he did!" I saw the boy batting live last week. I was really close. I could hear the polyester rubbing on his jockeys as the pitch came in. SOMEONE TELL HIM TO COOL IT!!

He did go 1 for 3 tonight with 2 walks so at least he's having patience.

Choo is looking better even if he's not getting the balls to drop. He's got 9 hits over his last 10 games with doubles in the last 2 games. He's been smokin' the ball just right at people. I don't think he was even making contact before (16 strikeouts in April) so this is indeed progress.

 Brantley is settling back in at the bottom of the lineup, hitting 7th today and going 2 for 5. Since the entire lineup was hitting today, it gave Brantley a chance to collect 2 RBI too. He still doesn't have the .335 average I bragged he would but I said he'd have it WHEN GRADY GETS BACK. So that means he has until infinity to get up there right? Heynow!

Casey Kotchman is going to break .200 any day now. Aaaaaaany day. He went 1 for 5 tonight and then handed it off to Donald who stole a base. Can you imagine, Donald at first? Me neither!

Supermanahan still blastin' the hits with his third 2-hit game in a row. Oddly enough he didn't get any of our 5 RBI tonight. But he does look good in a kilt.

We had 12 hits and 6 walks tonight and 14 LOB. *Astonished Smiley* That's crazy! That's why it took 4 hours and I guess that's why we didn't win. The best thing about tonight was that we've still got the good half of the bullpen rested for the weekend. And we don't have to see Ubaldo for 5 more days. Schwing! (Yep, I said "Schwing!")

Tomorrow is a 7:10 game and it's on WKYC so I literally cancelled fun plans so I could sit home and watch baseball. It's our man Josh Tomlin who is going to go for a career-high 9 strikeouts. How hard can it be?

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Boston has lost 11 of 15 of their home games this year, which is unusual for Boston. Usually teams come here and melt."
- Tom Hamilton

"There's no energy at the park tonight. It's like they spend all day yelling at the television and are exhausted by the time they get to the ballpark. They've spent all day being angry at Josh Beckett."
- Tom Hamilton

"The good news is Clay Buchholz's ERA is 9.9. The bad news is that the Red Sox score 9 runs every time he pitches."
- Tom Hamilton

"Jared Saltalamachia would like to be known for something other than having the longest name in baseball."
- Tom Hamilton

"Let's face it - Sam from Cheers is a former Red Sox pitcher, he wasn't a Patriot."
- Tom Hamilton on the difference between baseball and football in Boston

"Fenway Park has become quiet as a church on Sunday. [...] The only difference is no matter what your religion is, you're not going to be booing the minister like this place."
- Tom Hamilton with the bases loaded and one out in the 7th

"Nobody is going to leave Fenway Park saying 'Wasn't that a game to remember?' Unless Neil Diamond was actually sitting next to them singing 'Sweet Caroline' in the 8th inning."
- Tom Hamilton

"Paul Revere could have gone on his ride, gone around to tell everyone the British were coming, come home and had a few beers and some pizza and still caught the last 3 innings of this game."
- Tom Hamilton

"They probably took some of the gifts, if they were cash, and let their step-dad Bruce Jenner get another face lift."
- Tom Hamilton thinks this game lasted longer than Kim Kardashian's marriage and wonders if people got their gifts back