Some Hitting Hope

So for once it was one of our star starters that maybe cost the Tribe a win today. We maybe had better hitting than pitching today. Probably. We definitely had better hitting than pitching today.

It's not so bad.

Carrasco - no doubt still in a wonky situation after his stutter steps to starting (paternity leave, at the end of spring, throwing a game, getting hit in the fact, throwing a short game, today) - didn't do so hot. He only made it 4 1/3 innings before getting pulled. He was already up to 91 pitches, and had 5 earned runs. He still had 5 strikeouts! A bad start for sure but the last guy you want to give up on is Cookie Carrasco, I tell you what!

Scott Atchison was fine finishing the 5th inning but goddamnit, Miguel Cabrera! He got a 2-run homer off Atch to make it 7-2 in the 6th. Miggy's average against the Tribe this year is .632 and his slugging is 1.00. ACK!!!

Zep came in for a flawless 7th. Cody Allen "needed work" so even though there was no save anywhere on the horizon, he game in for the 8th and gave up a run. To Miguel Cabrera on a SAC FLY. MOTHER!!!!

So, pitching wasn't too good. But the highlight of the game for me was not only scoring 6 runs (double our average - and pizza discount eligible!) but also that 4 of those runs were scored in the late innings! Fantastic!

Brandon Moss got HOT again! Great balls of fire! No extra bases but he did go 2 for 3 with 2 RBI and a run scored. That's 9 RBI in this series - how many have you hit this week?

A bigger story might be Ryan Raburn, who got his 6th double and made it an RBI double. He was tagged out at third but at least he's trying to be aggressive. He got 2 hits today to give him 6 in the last 4 games. His average is .385!

Aviles and Brantley each got a hit today and scored a run, batting 2nd and 3rd. Brantley's average dropped .018 points from last night's hit-fest down to .341. Ha! Only .341! Chisenhall got a hit too, by the way.

How's this for a blast from the past? Good Guy David Murphy came off the bench and hit a homer in the 9th! GOON SQUAD!

So the Tribe actually came within striking distance, and sort of kept pace in the later innings. It didn't happen but there was a lot more bat activity - 10 hits and only 4 strikeouts - than we've consistently seen this season. Put together with all the other losses and the series so far it was just another loss. But as a regular baseball game - well it wasn't so bad!!!

Tomorrow Kluber tries to get his first win, versus the Royals at home and an LHP 6.75. Oh no, LHP! Well whatever, I can't even manage to be scared anymore. These guys gotta just go out there and GRIND.

This will be the debut of the 6:10 home games, so don't forget! I won't be around and probably won't get to hear the game at all, so cheer loud for me!!!

Radio Chatter:

"You're playing with fire when you put batters on base against this ballclub."
- Jim Rosenhaus

"The next time the Indians make Cabrera uncomfortable at the plate will be a first."
- Tom Hamilton

They Did It All For the Cookie

So a week after getting drilled in the face with a ricochet baseball, Carlos Carrasco is perfectly fine. Well, maybe his face feels like it got hit with a baseball and he's got a raging headache, but he PITCHES just fine! Great Scott - dude had 8 strikeouts in just 5 innings today!

His velocity was right there, and he wasn't struggling - he only had 60 pitches after the 5th. I guess they took him out to protect him, considering he was already supposed to be staying low before he got hit in the face. So it might be a start or two yet before he's allowed to go all-out. But MAN, what a tough guy! Gotta love that Carrasco!

After him it was time for the parade of relievers. Atchison, Zep, McAllister, Hagadone, Shaw, Allen. Sigh, I wish it was the end of the season and we could all know what that list even means!

Atchison continues to be flawless, with 4.1 innings under his belt he hasn't given up anything but a single walk. The old man is showing the way! (He did throw a wild pitch but you expect that once in a while from the senile)

Zep finished the 6th with a strikeout, and then came back for 2 more outs. Then ZMac came in to end the 7th with a groundout. The 8th was all sorts of white-knuckly, even with 2 quick outs. After that was a single, then another single, and then an RBI single, then Nick Hagadone *gasp* and then a throwing error, so bases loaded and the damn tying run is at the plate. Then Bryan Shaw came in to get that strikeout to end the inning. WHEW! ZMac and Hagadone - hide your wife, hide your kids - it's the 8th inning!

Before the game Tito was all "I hope Cody gets to pitch tonight because he's our man" and I'm like "errrrm...." and then what do you know, Cody comes in to pitch tonight. This is why we tune in night after night, because what happened last night is old news and tonight Cody Allen pitched a 1-2-3 inning, and the Tribe wins.

Yaaaaaay!

This is why you can never second-guess Terry Francona.

Tonight's game was the 4th time since 1914 the Indians did not walk a batter while recording at least 15 strikeouts, last coming in 2013
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) April 22, 2015

The boys still weren't "bats on fire" tonight but the guys who did get hits managed to string them together this time, which makes all the difference in the world!

Carlos Santana and David Murphy each homered today. Solo homers, of course. David Murphy's was his first and it was "A-WAAAAAAY OUT OF HERE!" Love it!

In the 6th inning, Kipnis and Brantley got back-to-back singles and Moss loaded the bases with a walk. And then Ryan Raburn, pinch hitting for Murphy, got a 2-RBI single! It was just about the most baseball thing this team has done all year. It was so Goon Squad I almost fainted!!

But wait - there's more! This kid Carlos Rodon was brought in in the 6th, and gave up that 2-run single. He was back for the 7th and the Tribe continued to jump all over his first-appearance nerves. And his leetle tiny mustache!

Carlos Rodon everyone. #CanklesRodent pic.twitter.com/LowSQWDFjP
— Cespedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) April 22, 2015

So Rondon walked Perez and Ramirez, and Bourn got them over on a bunt. Kipnis gets an RBI sac fly but Brantley does him one better by getting an RBI single!

So Brantley is 2 for 4 on the night because he's amazing, and Kipnis is right back out of his pre-Chicago slump because he's in Chicago now.

Murphy and Raburn got 3 hits and 3 RBI between them! That's half of the night's RBI!

Carlos Santana walked and homered because baseball.

So now that we've got that bad taste out of our mouths, there's one more chance for us in Chicago. Tomorrow it's our awesome guy versus their awesome guy - Kluber on RHP 4.29. Yay, rightie! Yay, Kluber! It's at 2:10 so don't forget!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"When you don't score runs...it's like this club is a high-wire act and there's no net below."
- Tom Hamilton

"Doesn't cost a nickel to be nice to people. Some people still haven't learned. That's tonight's sermon."
- Tom Hamilton

"Chris Sale, if he had been walking on Lakeside Drive today he would have been blown into Lake Michigan."
- Tom Hamilton

"Eric Cooper says 'Remember big boy, I'm leaning over your shoulder in the 9th inning...be nice.'"
- Tom Hamilton on the ability of catchers to complain when at bat

Don't Call It A Comeback

Because it wasn't! Ha!

They did come back from a 10-2 deficit to make it a manageable 10-6, but it was too little too late, I guess. I had some hope in that last inning, that maybe they'd at least get a few and make it a reasonable 10-9 but no. Swisher, yaknow?

And even with the comeback, and even if it was 10-9, it's still a big ol' L.

Twelve hits, though!

Kipnis went 2 for 4, which you really love to see because the Kid's gotta grind it out for this team to win. He got a very exciting leadoff double to start the game and we all thought good things were coming! But it didn't happen. He's got 6 hits in his last 3 games, though. He also had an error because...that bug is back.

Aviles was back in the 2-hole today. He just went 1 for 5.

Brantley (.320) was back after leaving yesterday's game with an injury. But he tells us it's not a real injury and we should just calm down. Unfortunately he messed up his hitting streak by taking away some of his at-bats yesterday but today he was back with a DOUBLE and also 2 walks...one of them for an RBI!

That 7th inning was pretty tight, with Brantley walking in a run and 'Los busting out a 2-run double. In fact he busted out of a slump by going 3 for 5 today! Oh man but does he suddenly look crappy at first. He was King Shit for a minute there. I almost wonder if the Bro is giving him some sort of bad Bro vibes since he's been relegated to a wandering outfielder.

Creepy Bro Stank Eye

David Murphy is still hot! Because I told my brother to pick up Chisenhall over him for fantasy, of course. Murph's got a 6-game hitting streak with 14 hits in his last 10 games and 7 RBI. Tonight he got 2 more RBI, because everyone was looking a little down and needed a bit of a pick-me-up. Nice try, Murphy and Jesus, but it still wasn't enough.

Chris Dickerson didn't get any hits but he did steal a catch from Swisher in the outfield. I laughed.

Roberto Perez is showing himself to be pretty solid, as they let him catch pretty regularly now to switch out Gomes. One must take good care of their Gomes if one wants their Gomes to last! Robby went 2-4 and came in to score a run.

Oh, Trevor Bauer started. Not his best start but he didn't have good defense behind him. He got 5 earned runs but should have been fewer ER for him if they had given Jeter an error instead of a hit on a dropped ball. I still like the kid, though. He's doing better with us than he was with AZ. It's like we're taming a wild stallion. Slowly!

So I dunno, a lot of people are jumping ship right now. Just prepping for the inevitable "statistically out of the race" announcement. Well, I guess if you're jumping ship because of that you weren't firmly on our boat to begin with.

OH!! I am totally stoked about the Progressive Field improvements, though! It really makes me sad that I can't get to more games. This summer has been awful for getting to games because I'm broke and my dog is sick, so even if I could/should afford to go, it's hard to get someone to stay with the dog. Next year circumstances might change - in that my parents can stay with the dog - so I hope to get there and experience all of the AWESOME!!! I am excited to see how the new bullpens look in person. Also very happy about the ballpark meeting the street at street level. What would be MOST exciting is more fans in the stands! Cool!

Tomorrow is more Yankees and it's a 1:05 game, to totally mess up your day. But it's Corey Kluber so everything will be GRRRRRREAT! If anyone is going to stop this losing skid for us, it's the Klubot. Now if we could only have all of tonight's bats, none of tonight's errors and 100% Kluber you know we've got it on lockdown.

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"If I'm Carlos Santana I'm swinging on this pitch if it's anywhere near home plate."
- Tom Hamilton on Santana's at-bat in the first

"Bellino says 'You bat, I'll ump.'"
- Tom Hamilton

"There are small countries whose governments have been overthrown in the time it has taken to play this first inning."
- Tom Hamilton

"Well folks I hope you packed a sandwich. We're going to be here a while."
- Tom Hamilton

"Since Derek Jeter's mom is the scorer tonight, he was credited with a hit instead of an error."
- Tom Hamilton

"Josh Tomlin is Charlie Nagy Junior."
- Tom Hamilton

"Even The Sky Is Crying"

Even the sky is crying at this game.
— John J. Adams (@TribeDrummer) August 6, 2014

Cripes! Well you know a game is a real downer if it managed to bum out John Adams!

The box score is sad. The 5 hits we got were sad. The 9 runs we gave up are sad. Our 2 little runs are sad. David Murphy getting tricked in to being out at third was sad. Ending the game on a review was sad. Dammit...John Adams is sad!

But hey - we know how to lose, right? We've lost uhm....half of the games this year. It's just extra sad to win 4 in a row then lose one in a pathetic fashion right before the team goes away for a week. And it's raining.

Josh Tomlin did not have a very last-time-we-saw-Josh-Tomlin night. He only made it 4 innings before we'd seen enough. Five runs scored off 8 hits. He did strike out 5! But it took him 82 pitches to get that far, too. But you got to learn to live with what you got.

So since the Tribe wasn't hitting, it seemed, and the Reds had us by 5 runs by the time Tomlin was out, they just left Carrasco in there as "the second pitcher." It didn't feel like relief really since he was going to be the only one and in there for so long. Just the guy who is going to get us through to the end of this game. 

But hey, I do like that Carrasco can just go in there and be used for 4 innings and nobody cares that he gave up 3 runs because - hey, innings.

Carrasco was sleepy tired by the middle of the 9th, so The Boy Pitcher Kyle Crockett came out to get the last two batters. Cookie had left some men on base, because 4+ innings is a lot. Someone hit a ball off Crockett that confused poor David Murphy and I think some 17 men scored. But then one was out at the plate. Something like that. It was over by then, man.

Michael Brantley (.323) got a hit! It keeps his hitting streak alive at 6 but ends his streak of consecutive multi-hit games. SO WHAT! Totally LOB, though. All by his lonesome. He did get an RBI.

Gomes and Aviles both had doubles, and Gomes' was an RBI double. It was on that play that this shit happened.



 So very Cleveland of us.

David Murphy had a bad game but he did get a hit. Well that's how he got to third, and was tricked. Dirty tricksters.

I wonder if we'll see this any more in other games? Now that we know that the play can't be stopped until it's over or something. Everything I've seen says the umpires were right, it's the rules that are dumb. So yeah...expect the Yankees to be writing that one down.

Let's hope that the next two games, the Tribe is filled with revenge anger! I mean, nobody makes David Murphy look like a boob! He's such a good guy! We will run away with 2!!

It'll be 7:10 tomorrow, with  Danny Salazar facing anyone but Johnny Cueto (bonus - RHP!) Excited to see Salazar again now that we are pretty sure he's a good MLB pitcher. And - REVENGE!!!

I didn't get any Radio Chatter today but I did get some Sunday, forgetting that I don't do blogs on Sunday anymore. So - enjoy!

Radio Chatter:
"The ball is really small today, Rosie."
"There's only one of them out there at a time."
- Tom Hamilton and Jim Rosenhaus on the aftermath of "Hammy Weekend"

"These crazy mascots get together, the gloves come off!"
- Tom Hamilton on the mascot party

"Of course, 101 pitches in Japan would be like, eh, two-thirds of the way home."
- Tom Hamilton

"I'm sure the Yankees would say 'Look, we spoke with God and God said this must change.'"
- Tom Hamilton on when things don't go the Yankees' way

"How did we get here? Most of us by car."
- Tom Hamilton is about to give the recap in the 10th

"That one got him in the right biscuit. The trainer waved him off from the dugout. 'I'm not coming out there for that.'"
- Tom Hamilton

Happy Hammy Day!

It's Tom Hamilton's 25th anniversary as the voice of the Indians! Don't forget to treat yourself to a swell new tee for the occasion. I'm so old I remember when Hammy was "the new guy" but still he's been one of the voices of my Tribe since I was 10. I just loved him and Herb Score together. Herb was so...Herb and Tom was so radio. I love how Hammy's calls have become iconic. It always makes me laugh when Hammy is away and people complain about how bad Jim Rosenhaus is but in reality, Jim Rosenhaus is just fine. He sounds like everyone else in the league. His only "problem" is that everyone in Cleveland is used to Tom Hamilton!

I hope he's got 25 more years in him. If Cleveland can't have championships, at least we can have guys like Hammy who make every game seem like it's the most exciting game in the world!

Oh yeah so today on Hammy Day - Everybody Hits! I don't know how accurate my scale is over there on the right but if it is accurate then this is only the SECOND TIME this year that there's been a hit in every spot, 1-9! No foolin! And, get this - everybody SCORED too! Fun!

It was almost inconsequential that Danny Salazar had a great game, being that he could have given up 11 runs and we still would have been ok. But he didn't - he gave up just 1 run in his 6 full innings! Four strikeouts, 3 walks and just 4 hits.

Since it was 12-2 by the time Salazar was done, they tried out some new arms. The Boy Pitcher Kyle Crockett came in for 2/3 of an inning. He gave up 2 hits before Terry got bored with him and brought in the other new guy, Austin Adams. Adams finished up the 7th and pitched the 8th as well, giving up just one hit and striking out 1.

Carlos Carrasco finished it up and it wasn't his best showing. Once again, he had an 11-run lead but after ALL THAT it was kind of a bummer to see him give up a run on 2 hits to make it just a 10-run lead. Everyone was ready for the game to be OVER and for the party to begin!

David Murphy took the prize tonight for Pure Hitness! He went 4 for 4 against his former team/hometown team! He got 2 RBI and came in to score 2 runs, and 2 of hit hits were doubles. No LOB for him! I also hear tell that he went after a ball and ripped his pants - even though we were up 12-1. What a good guy! Six hits in the last 2 game for Murphy...locked in?

Next on tonight's awesome scale is, of course, Michael Brantley (.320). He went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI and a run scored. Five hits for him in his last 2 games. What did I say about last night being the beginning of a new hit streak? WHAT DID I SAY?!

Next is Lonnie Chisenhall (.309) who just HAD to do something big in this game. He had to! It was his 10th homer in the 6th inning that pushed him over the edge! He went 2 for 5 on the night with "just" the one RBI. Lonnie got 11 homers last year in his 94 at-bats. He's got 10 now, and I believe 96 at-bats. That's kind of interesting considering how we are viewing this year as "his" year but it just goes to show that we're being wowed by his consistency (er, by what used to be his consistency) and not just by his power. Now, if only this were the start of a great month for him, too...

Mike Aviles also got 2 hits, and went 2 for 4. Actually, I might have put him ahead of Lonnie Baseball because he got THREE RBI. All 3 of them on singles! That's our Aviles, in there making things happen. After the game he was interviewed by Hammy and was asked "Do you like to play short stop?" or something and Aviles said "I like to play. Just stop at that much." Love that guy!!

Carlos SAAAAAANTANA! He only went 1 for 3 tonight, meaning of course he walked twice. Interesting fact: His batting average and slugging were higher in July than in June (and both months absolutely trounced April and May)...but his on-base percentage in June was slightly higher than July. He wasn't hitting as much yet in June but he got his "eyes" back and started walking more than he had in the spring. There you have it! He got an RBI and scored a run tonight, giving him 13 RBI in his last 10 games.

Kipnis, Swisher, Gomes and Raburn each got hits tonight as well. And, as mentioned before, they all came in to score at least once.

Jose Ramirez, Tyler Holt and Roberto Perez all came in to the game in position player relief once the win was secured. None of them got a hit. But that was 5 young boys on the team for the Tribe tonight. Wow it feels...interesting.

In other news, Asdrubal had a nice play tonight at second for the Nationals. And this happened:

Why baseball is best: 2nite in Phills-Nats game: Roberto Hernandez (aka Fausto Carmona) got Asdrubal Cabrera to line out to Grady Sizemore.
— Bob DiBiasio (@BDbaseball6) August 2, 2014

Some sort of Circle of Life, there.

Tomorrow is the Jim Thome Statue game. Meh. It'll be another young man, TJ House, up there against RHP 8.54. What? Wow, bring extra money for snacks it's going to be another long one! Do you think they can "Everybody Hits" two nights in a row after taking 3 months off? We'll see!

See you there!

I don't have any Radio Chatter tonight, but here's a celebration of Hammy's career that was compiled last year (and it's part 2!) Check out other videos by the guy who put this one up - he's Hammy's biggest fan!

Royals

I know, I know. Not positive. But it's a Weird Al kind of week, right? Gotta get my parody out there.

So I don't know who the culprit was today. Starters? Defense? Offense? Relievers? Everyone contributed to the loss. The starter gave up 3 runs. The defense 1. The relievers 2. And the offense only scored 4 - or, the offense without Carlos Santana scored 1.

So at least they were working together on that nonsense.

Here's Josh Tomlin with an empty face:

Much less hair to distract him today. But while he struck out 5 in his 5 1/3 innings, he also gave up 3 runs including back-to-back solo homers. He's given up 16 runs in his last 4 games with an average of under 6 innings per game. These are the 4 games since his 1-hit complete game, by the way. So how do we interpret that??

The Boy Pitcher Crockett came in to finish the 6th for him. He did fine, with one strikeout and one walk. Carrasco came in for that "long" middle, throwing 1 1/3 innings. He gave up a run, though. So they brought in Hagadone who got his guy out. Then they brought out Axford, apparently having been falsely lulled into thinking he was ok to pitch in a tie game situation. He then gave up the winning run, in the form of a huge homer to a guy with 3 homers so far, because he sucks.

Kind of amazing that the game was so close today, seeing how our lineup failed to hit much!

For some reason Dickerson didn't get a hit today (but he was electric in the field), and they put in Raburn to hit instead. Bwuh? He didn't do anything either.

Brantley FINALLY got a hit (.316). He was 1 for his last 18! When does that ever happen, huh? He just went 1 for 4 today but maybe it's the beginning of a new streak?

Carlos Santana, waaaaaaaat!! Two homers for 3 RBI, and a walk. He went 3 for 2 and as I said, scored 3 of the team's 4 runs. He stole a base, too! STOLE A BASE! I don't know if you can really hate Carlos Santana, long-term. He keeps taking us to the edge of disgust and then coming out with the awesome.

Gomes has been pretty consistent lately, huh? Thirteen hits in his last 10 games. Usually they work out pretty well, too, either producing an RBI or a run. Like tonight, he came in to score. With his offensive production as of late and his general lack of errors, it's exciting to have Gomes again!

Oh man - David Murphy! Even though he's after Gomes, his three hits went for NOTHING today! No RBI, no runs. How did that happen? He's such a good guy, though. He'll just keep hitting, no matter who's around.

Jose Ramirez got a bunt down today! Which led to Gomes scoring on a Kipnis sac fly. Tom Hamilton was livid about his lack of ability to get a bunt down last night. So he was quite proud to have been listened to today. Ramirez also got a walk, so he went 0 for 2. They keep mentioning that Asdrubal might be back soon and...weird, I don't feel too excited about it. Just ambivalent. Bad fan.

Tomorrow is a 7:10 game, even though it's in KC. So, don't forget! It'll be our ZMac versus RHP 4.56. We have as much chance of winning Saturday as we did tonight. Let's hope it actually happens! Offense, fellas. We need some offense.

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Minor league innings and Major League inning, they have nothing in common."
- Tom Hamilton

"If your doctor says your cholesterol is a little bit high and you should cut out red meat, Kansas City is not the destination for you."
- Tom Hamilton loves him some meat

"I don't read lips but I can only guess the conversation is something like 'If you don't get this bunt down, do you know where you might be practicing bunts tomorrow?'"
- Tom Hamilton on Jose Ramirez

"That ball sounded like it was shot out of a cannon."
- Tom Hamilton on Butler's homer

"They wanted to run Billy Butler out of town, until about 10 minutes ago."
- Tom Hamilton

The Way It Ought To Be

Finally! Back to the Tribe roundly beating the worst team in the division, after kicking butt against the best team over the weekend. I guess yesterday's game was a fluke.

Right handed pitcher, man. That's all we need.

Pitching for the good guys was Danny Salazar, back up from Columbus because I think Tito gets some kind of frequent-bussing points. Like the other kids this past week, he did ok but of course had a heart-stopping inning where he struck out one, walked the bases loaded, then struck out the next two. STOP THAT! He did get the win after pitching 5 innings and giving up 3 runs. He struck out 6 and only ended up walking those 3 in that one inning!

Then it was the boy pitcher Crockett who had a nice clean inning, juxtaposed the next inning with the old man Atchison (15 years his senior) who made a point to pitch 1 2/3 innings I think. Trying to show up the kid didn't work too well for him - he did give up a run on 2 hits. A homer to Dozier, who at least has 19 homers so it wasn't such a surprise.

He was followed by Zep who apparently can't pitch to right handers? What the heck is all this nonsense?? His ERA is 1.29 versus left, 6.93 right. The fuck??

Allen had to come in early, to finish the 8th since Zep couldn't, but it was ok because he wasn't needed for a save in the 9th, as it was 8-2 by then. Carrasco took care of it.

The Tribe was 5-12 with RISP! And also looked good in the field. And touched a couple different pitchers. All sorts of winning!

Kipnis wasn't on his hitting game today, after being named last week's Player of the Week. But in the 9th he did get put on intentionally (no doubt they heard about the POTW thing) and then stole a base and then came around to score on a single, sliding around the tag and all that jazz. BEHOLD! So yeah, that kid's a TEAM PLAYER.

Speaking of team - Brantley and Chisenhall were also hitless tonight. Our three best guys, shut out! (Well Brantley got a walk too) But the rest of the TEAM stepped up and got RUNS - so that's pretty awesome!

And, Chris Dickerson?

Yes?

Keep doing whatever you've been doing, because it's just so right! Another hit, another TWO RBI, even though he countered it with 3 strikeouts. Just keep getting those hits when it matters, yo.

And Carlos Santana! Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarlos Santanaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! He went 4 for 5 tonight including a homer, a double and two singles. No-go on the triple, of course. It was the anniversary of the last Tribe cycle, though. And it happened in Minnesota! How weird is that? I guess his homer went pretty far, too. A no-doubt-about-it job. Later on, his double in the 9th brought in the 8th run.

Yan Gomes is still hot. He's got 12 hits and 6 RBI in his last 8 games! Tonight he went 2 for 4 tonight, and knocked in Nick Swisher for a RBI.

Everybody's favorite clutch hitter, David Murphy (actually I think he leads the league), was up with the bases loaded, and guess what happened. Guess! Guess! Two-run single!

Mike Aviles didn't get any hits, batting ninth, but he did follow up Murphy's single with a sac fly and an RBI. And he looked good at short.

Lots of nice stuff from the top and bottom of the order tho, huh?

Tomorrow's game is the big boy Bauer versus another RHP with an ERA over 4. Easy peasy, right?? I'm looking forward to it. As long as I can remember to tune in at 1:10 PM. Man, I can hardly remember to eat lunch these days.

But I think it's going to be a fun, high-scoring game with lots of hits for the good guys. So I'll see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"When it comes to an up-and-down season, Santana's would resemble one of those roller coasters at Cedar Point."
- Tom Hamilton

"Oh it looked like he blew a tire going into second!"
- Tom Hamilton on a slide by Kendrys Morales

"Give it up, the Twins are not going to rally, LAY OFF THE ORGAN!"
- Tom Hamilton

"Is that the job description? 'Eternal optimist'"
- Jim Rosenhaus on the upbeat Twins' organist

Exhale

A little deflation after last night's big big win, but at least the Tribe didn't walk out of there empty-handed. They managed to get 5 runs off the tired starter and the reliever, but that wasn't enough to overcome the poor performance by Corey Kluber (I KNOW!!!!)

Klubot was out of juice today, for the second game in a row. The last game was a "gimme" since it was a rain delay. Not sure what his deal was today. Well I mean, 3 of his runs were un-earned so that's what that deal was. But 3 other runs in his 5 innings were all on him. Two of the runs were from the longball. He did strike out 5, but he still wasn't the dominant KLUBOT we've seen up to now. Maybe he was just too wound up! Ha!

Carrasco came in to do some more long relief and I think it really suits him. Just one hit in 1 2/3 innings. No strikeouts or anything but the name of the game is no runs.

Hagadone made another appearance and it didn't go so well for him. He came in and gave up a hit, then got the final out of an inning. Then he came in for the next inning and gave up a dang homer. Argh! Atchison came in for some batters, and he gave up a hit too before getting an out. Outman was next and - BOOM! Moustakas with a 2-run homer.

Yeah that is just a bad day all around when your starter isn't too hot, then your relievers give up runS. Multiple. And then your infield gives up 3 runs on an error.

The 17 runs got to them. They thought they were untouchable.

As for the offense...they were pretty abysmal all night, until the 8th and 9th.

Michael Bourn got his 1 hit tonight, for the 4th night in a row. Not really hot anymore but definitely, far from cold.

Asdrubal is back in the doghouse with everyone for his huge run-costing error today (his 11th!) And Lindor is just down the road, basking in the love of Rubber Ducks fans. Asdrubal did go 1 for 4 tonight with an RBI sac fly, so he had that going for him. But it wasn't 3 runs, and that's the price they had on his head.

Brantley (.307) was hit by a pitch twice! DO NOT BREAK BRANTLEY!! What the heck, KC? Anyway, so he went 1 for 3 with a double.

How 'bout that Kipnis?? He's got a 7-game hitting streak, with 11 hits and 7 RBI in that time. To add to last night's 4 RBI, he got 2 more tonight on a 2-out, 2-on double in the 8th - the team's first runs of the game! He came around to score, too. Scrappy!

Santana strung together 2 hits himself today. How do we feel about that?? He does have 6 hits and 4 walks in the 5 games he's been back so that's pretty good. Going to get hot going in to the break? Let's hope!

Yan Gomes went 0 for 4 tonight. Him and Cabrera are pretty neck-and-neck in their lack of consistency. But neither of them are having super long dry spells anymore.

The Chiz Kid Lonnie Baseball was once again on his game today, even though it took until the 7th. Everyone was like "Yay! He is as good as we think!!" when he got a double. And then he got a single in the 9th and it was party time again! All hail Lonnie Baseball!

My lame attempt to liken him to Johnny Football (and this weekend's TMZ pics of him floating on an inflatable swan)

Once we knew Lonnie was safe and still hitting, and the Tribe wasn't going to go home run-less, the rest of the game was much easier to digest. Raburn went 1 for 4 and Murphy went 1 for 3 with an RBI double. Not enough, but still - 50% off pizza!

Tomorrow is already shaping up to be better because there's a RHP on the mound. It'll be Trevor Bauer versus RHP 3.41. Beatable! Let's hope Bauer is feeling better than the rest of the bullpen right now, and we get the series split!

It'll be at 2:10 in the afternoon - don't forget! See you there!

Sorry no Radio Chatter tonight. I kept being away at critical funny moments.

Messin' With Texas

Josh Tomlin!! Josh Tomlin's hair!!! Both had fantastic outings in Arlington this afternoon against the Rangers!

Flow it! Show it! Long as God can grow it!

Eight innings, 5 strikeouts, 7 hits and 3 runs. Only one extra base hit! He was getting through innings with ease, doing what the pitching coaches keep telling everyone to do - throw strikes. Guys were swinging away and getting out. It was awesome!

They put Tomlin in for the 9th, but he went up to 105 pitches and gave up a hit, so that was that. John Axford game in with a 5-run cushion, and I totally applaud this move because really how could he mess up a 5-run cushion?? He did give up one hit, as he will, but being so relaxed there were no runs scored.

More double digits in the hit column today for the Tribe (and more 50% off pizza for the fans at Papa John's!) Two doubles and two homers, and while there were 7 LOB the team still managed to score 8 runs.

Michael Bourn is starting his hitting streak back at ONE. He just went 1 for 5 today but he did steal a base.

Asdrubal wasn't feeling it today after last night's awesome game. No more homers today. No hits, actually. He was shut out AND he hit himself with a foul tip. Ouch!

Michael Brantley (.305) is never not hitting, so he went 1 for 5 with his 14th double.

Kipnis had a decent day - he went 1 for 3, but also had 2 walks and came in to score once. Much patience. Kiiiiinda wondering why he's batting 4th instead of Chiz. Maybe 4th is too heavy for the slightly younger Chisenhall?

Lonnie didn't get any extra base hits today either (he does lead the team in doubles, and has 1 more homer than Kipnis) but he went 2 for 5 with a run scored and an RBI. He got his THIRD RBI bloop single into left field in, I think, four games. I love it!

David Murphy, who is an ex-Ranger and from Texas and no doubt still has a home(s) in Texas didn't get any hits yesterday - no doubt in deference to his old fans who were there to cheer him on. Good guy. Today it was his new team's turn and he went 3 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored. Interesting to see if he steps it up even more tomorrow!

Jason Giambi went 1 for 3 today with a long single that coulda been a double for maybe Michael Bourn. And everyone went "GROAN!" because on the play prior to that hit, Lonnie got caught hanging off the bag at third and it didn't produce a run. I wonder what kind of words of wisdom G imparted on him about that?!

Raburn came in to pinch hit for Giambi later and got an RBI and a run scored.

Carlos Santana! He went 2 for 2 today with a biiiiig game-clinching 2-run homer, a single and 2 walks. He came around to score twice. He was at first today and....well, he's hit in both of his games since he's been back. Did he get some skill knocked back into him when he got that concussion? Of course, two games does not make a trend. But that'd be pretty fun if true!!

Hey, did you hear they drafted Juan Gomes today? Here I was thinking that "Yan" was "John" in Portugese but it's not. It is "John" in Belarusian or something. And "Juan" is "John" Spanish. Anyway, both brothers are named "John" in different ways. And they are both Indians now. It will be just awesomely amazing when the Tribe with all of its Gomeses plays Tampa or Boston with their Gomes. What if one of those teams gets a Cabrera, too??

Anyway, Yan Gomes went 1 for 4 and it was a big, big one. It was a 3-run homer! That was all for Gomes for the day but that was all we needed from him.

Two more games in Texas yet, and I feel pretty good about them! I think the first game was decent enough and the second featured a lot of hits and matching runs. Nice weather for homers, I guess.

Tomorrow it'll be at 3:05 (for real this time. Yesterday I reported today's game was 3:05 when it was really 4:05). Masterson versus LHP 3.68. Hmm...LHP on the road. Everyone just start the game with rally caps, ok?

No Radio Chatter today - Hammy was out watching his son's graduation, and you're just not going to get quality quips from Mike Hargrove. He was trepidatious about taking questions from Twitter, though! I don't think he answered any haha

See you there!

A Handful of Hits and a Whole Lot of #Whiffs!

The game was on TV today! Very cool - and this time, for the first time in a long time, nobody stole my attention at all during the game. I saw it all!

Man, watching baseball on TV gives me the munchies, though. I had a bunch of snacks, and I don't even have snack food here! Did anyone else watch with the radio on? The synching was fantastic! Previously it's been double-digit seconds different. Tonight it was maybe 1 second off. Fun!

Speaking of fun, I was having a little fun with the #HeyGirlGrady meme on Twitter tonight. Found a bunch of new followers so that's cool. Check it out, see what Grady had to say!

After declaring last night that our hitting needed to be back up to par today because Justin Masterson wasn't going to take the team very far without giving up some runs, I am TOTALLY gonna eat my hat! After a shaky start in the first inning, he slammed the door shut on the Red Sox with bases loaded and did not look back from there. It was a thing of beauty to see! By the 6th inning I was lamenting that at some point, this game had to be over! And Justin would have to sit down! But for those 7 innings it was just a sight to behold!

At one point, he threw 25 straight strikes. Swinging strikes, looking strikes, foul ball strikes. Total legit strikes too, all of them. During that time, he threw a 9-pitch, 3-strikeout perfect inning- An Immaculate inning! He is the 27th American League pitcher to do so...oddly enough, the second one already this year.

He was followed in the 8th by the only guy worthy to follow that performance, who is Bryan Shaw. But Shaw is totally over-worked and not himself so he gave up a 2-run dinger. Dangit! But the Tribe had already scored 3 at this point so it was still ok. Zep got Big Papi to fly out for the third out, and that was that.

Cody Allen - who has red hair, or at least a red beard, and I did not know this - was there for the save at the end. He got them 1-2-3, with Grady Sizemore as the last out. This will make a few of you feel really old:

Allen, on Sizemore's out in 9th: "I was a kid when he was here at his peak. ... To be able to get him out for the 27th out was pretty cool."
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) June 3, 2014

On the offensive side, Michael Bourn is still RED HOT! Today he was 2 for 3 with his 5th triple! He also walked and stole a base, and came in to score twice. I saw someone else on Twitter today saying that they were also getting over Nyjer Morgan. Too bad - he was quite a personality. But Bourn is all over the place now too, they like to interview him and stuff. Also, tomorrow is his bobblehead day so - good thing his hamstring is all healed!

Asdrubal was on the downward end of his current progression, with a strikeout in the first. But then he started shooting upwards when he got a nice RBI single in the 3rd to score Bourn after that triple. He also took part in 2 double plays.

Brantley (.302) went 0 for 3 today with a walk and it made me very sad. I mean...we won, great pitching, some great hits. But no Brantley. Sigh.

Kipnis got a hit, though! They are few and far between yet. He then went on to steal second by getting his hand around the glove. Nice!

Lonnie Baseball was the big winner today. Surprised?? Yeah he totally got a bloop single in to left field with men on 2nd and 3rd. So it was a 2-run bloop single. HE CAN DO NO WROOOOOOONG!!!

Giambi and Gomes were shut out. Mike Aviles was almost shut out but he got on with a fielder's choice, then stole second, then the Red Sox appealed the call and it was upheld. But then the next play was an out.

David Murphy tried with all his might to get more runs for the Tribe - he got 3 hits in 3 at-bats. But no one around him took notice, and no runs were scored.

So really, not to impressive at the plate today but in a twist of fate all of the magic was on the mound!

Tomorrow is Michael Bourn Bobblehead day and it'll be another 7:05 start. It'll be our new friend TJ House versus RHP 4.50. Yes! Bring it on!

Hope the weather is nice and you're all there!

Radio Chatter:
"You can have a lot of energy but if you're hitting 180 people tell you 'shut up!'"
- Tom Hamilton on Mike Availed and his energy (and putting it to good use)

"John Lackey is one of those guys who probably would not be a very good poker player."
- Tom Hamilton

"The Indians are like 'you wanna bunt? Go ahead big guy.'"
- Tom Hamilton on David Ortiz in the 9th

Best. Game. Ever.

Man, I was lamenting the lack of baseball last weekend and for the last three days the Tribe has been BRINGING it! And today, they served up 5 hours of epic, epic baseball! Even if they lost it woulda been epic but to end with a walkoff balk? UNBELIEVEABLE!!!

Good evening, sir...

Sad Albequerque

There was so much game today. So much. All the pitchers. All the hitters. Errors, stolen bases, guys thrown out at the plate, guys thrown out of the game, two Cabreras, two Martinezes, three starting pitchers and a guy who pitched relief for himself.

I almost am hesitant to recap this game because 1) I hope you read about it online and see it on TV and watch some videos 2) I hope you listened to/watched it anyway or maybe want to check out the replay tomorrow 3) It's so crazy, how could I possibly do it justice?!?

There were definitely low spots to this game. Two errors and a base-running mishap were big, plus a bad start from Zach McAllister. He's sort of falling down that same rabbit hole that Carrasco was, where he's putting together strings of bad starts. Except unlike Carrasco, he started off awesome. Is he hurt? I kind of hope he is...? Because you don't want him just turning bad overnight.

So after ZMac gave up 4 earned runs in 2 innings (plus one homer to start off the 3rd), he was done. Glad Francona got him out of there early. There was no time for playing around today! No one probably realized that there'd be 11 more innings to go, so relief became crazy important.

Atchison did as Atchison does and went 2 very strong innings with no runs scored. He actually didn't have to face the cream of their lineup but even the low guys on this team are all up over .230. Someone posted this amazing photo meme to Twitter and I love it:

@CLERallyChicken @Indians pic.twitter.com/4qUoAh8Hhe
— Nathan Edwards (@NateEddy4) May 21, 2014

Scott Atchison is old. Get it? Hilarious!

Zep was next and HE had to face the cream and it did not go so well for him. He gave up 2 runs and didn't make it out of the inning. Carlos Carrasco had to bail him out. Embarrassing! Cookie actually did ok and pitched 2 whole innings. He also frustrated Miguel Cabrera enough to get him to get ejected. Heynow! It was a lovely ejection. I love ejections. Here's the video - the Detroit announcers are like "Tim Timmons was quick to pull the trigger" and then a minute later "this is the third time he's been ejected at the plate" so....really, guys?

Next was Axford, who really fucking sucks. Two more runs. Although one was an un-earned run on an error but we'll blame that shit on him anyway. So he was no help in the length department, going only 1 out.

Next, Josh Outman. Fine. One full inning, no hits, no runs, no strikes, no balls. Huh!

Next was this guy:

No kidding! He was there for a Major League game! And he totally got 5 outs, including Don Kelly and Victor Martinez. Oh, his name is Kyle Crockett. Really awesome to see him blow through like that today - especially since the older, veteran, millionaire Axford couldn't get two outs.

Bryan Shaw, who was throwing his third game in a row, came out just to finish the 10th inning. Francona was out of pitchers, as Allen was just off the table and he was the last one. Who was next? Tomorrow's starter, Josh Tomlin! And his hair!

Tomlin threw THREE innings and basically pitched like he would have pitched tomorrow. Two hits, one earned run and SIX strikeouts. Yeeehaw! Don't mess with Texas!

After all that it was Tomlin who got the win, cuz it was still tied up when he came in and it was very un-tied by the time he left. So now the bullpen is SPENT and our starter for tomorrow is used up. Will be interesting to see what they do. I would figure they bring in the next starter but I am not in charge of such things. I'm sure there's a lot of gum-chewing going on right now in deep discussions about this.

So, that was just the pitching!

Would you believe....that not everyone got a hit today? I'll give you a guess as to who fell short. No, not Dick Swisher but really good guess. Carlos Santana, that's right! But did he walk? Of course.

Michael Bourn is going up up up again, today upping his total to 3 hits (last night, 2) with his 5th double of the year and 2 runs scored.

Asdrubal was kind of cooled off in the second spot, just going 1 for 6. He also got HBP in the knee, and I don't know how or why but he stayed in the game. I guess because he knew Yan Gomes was not going to be able to come in to play short for him. Plus it was the 13th inning so who wouldn't want to be on base when the winning run scored? And like, SCORE THE WINNING RUN? On a balk!

Michael Brantley (.302) is a god among men and I think we should all start sending him notes every day about how much we love having him in Cleveland. Why isn't he on Twitter? Why must we be forced to send him weird notes on paper? That's weird. Brantley went 4 for 7 today and got 3 RBI, including the tying RBI. He also stole 2 bases because, dangit, nobody else was. And 2 of his RBI came with 2 outs. So, get your purple pens out and start telling him how awesome you think that is!!

David Murphy being a good guy is a meme now, or at least a trending Twitter hashtag. Check it out, there are some very clever photo memes being made! Today, Murphy and the Lord teamed up together go to 2 for 6 but most importantly they had 4 RBI. Including a 2-run homer in the 9th to tie the game. A.MEN.

Nick Swisher is still on our team. He had a walk and then got a pinch runner in Justin "SellBlock" Sellers.This guy:

California love

Jason Giambi got his first hit of the season! He also walked. Somehow, this didn't translate in to any RBI or runs scored but it's nothing but up from here. Uh...I hope. He woulda been up during the balk but they had Raburn pinch run for him, so it was Raburn who "won" the game!

You've already heard the sad, sad tale of C-los, batting 7th.

The Chiz Kid played at third and first today. He moved to first after Swisher came out for pinch runner Sellers, who plays second. Aviles went from second to third. Easy peasy. More Lonnie at first, please!

Lon went 2 for 5 today with a walk, and his 11th double on the season. He got an RBI and came in to score 2 runs. He did have an error (tied for 5 with Santana) and a base-running blunder but fuck it. Dude is hitting .367. Nick Swisher has 6 errors and he does nothing to contribute at the plate. Bah.

Handome Mike had a Handsome game today, himself. he went 3 for 6, also with a double, and also with an RBI and 2 runs scored. He did a really nice job hustling to score the tying run on Brantley's single in the 13th. Aviles is everything!

Man that was so much awesome baseball, I never want it to stop. It's like a rebirth, with all the fun on Twitter and talking to the non-usuals about what a great game it was and watching highlights and seeing all the memes and stuff. Is this the start of something good?

My brother posited "What happened with the Tribe?" and my answer was they FINALLY happened! It's not too weird that they played like this today (except McAllister) - the weird part is that they HAVEN'T played like this all season! And not just today but all 3 games here. This is totally the team I was bragging on the day before the season started, and the team I was sure would be knocking on Detroit's door all season. What changed to bring this out in them? Was it the lineup changes? The personnel changes? The return of Giambi? Quicker Columbus trigger fingers?

Whatever it is, we must see it carry over to the Baltimore series. It's imperative. And if it does - it's FINALLY going to be an awesome season for us!

Tomorrow they face Baltimore in Baltimore. It'll be a MYSTERY PITCHER (since Tomlin pitched today) versus LHP 3.69. O noes! LHP! It will be a fine test indeed.

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Of all people that you can't give a 4-run lead to, it's Max Scherzer."
- Tom Hamilton

"Max Scherzer is probably saying [to his pitching coach] 'Why don't you talk to my defense and ask them to catch a fly ball?'"
- Tom Hamilton

"This Tiger club with their offense, they are never out of a ballgame."
- Tom Hamilton

"Carlos Santana must feel like a pinata when he's catching. I've never seen someone take so many foul tips."
- Tom Hamilton

"It's almost like Scherzer started the game then Scherzer came in for long relief."
- Tom Hamilton

"If you're just joining us...yikes, you've missed a lot."
- Tom Hamilton

"Martinez knew it was strike three. The only person who didn't was [umpire] Tim Timmons."
- Tom Hamilton

"Knowing Josh Tomlin, he probably went up to Terry Francona and said 'Hey, put me in there.'"
- Tom Hamilton

"They heard Miquel Cabrera probably say some things they probably should not repeat."
- Tom Hamilton on what the kids at the field for Weather Day may have learned instead

"We enjoyed lunch with you, now we enjoy supper."
- Tom Hamilton

"HOW ABOUT THAT!! We now. have seen. Everything!! A walkoff balk! Unbelieveable!"
- Tom Hamilton

 

Bauer Boy, Tell 'Em!

Again, with the baseball! The Tribe playing baseball!

And, hey - Everybody hits!!

But first - our main man Trevor Bauer.

Awww yeah! The kid is back, and he's the perfect guy to throw out there against Verlander because he's totally a cocky sunofagun. Trevor Bauer ain't afraid! He didn't strike out too many in his 6 innings - just 5. He also gave up 2 homers. Solo homers, though. Otherwise, he was getting the ground outs, just like Justin Masterson (who normally is out there on Verlander days!) Bauer got up to 100 MPH, according to the Progressive Field gun. And according to Jim Rosenhaus it's a couple digits high, but whatever - it's worth a shout-out! I remember last time I saw Verlander pitch in 2011 he was throwing 100. But what was special about that it that it was the 8th inning and his 111th pitch. HA!

Bauer finished 6 innings with 95 pitches. No HBP, no wild pitches. Great stuff! Bryan Shaw came in to do what Bryan Shaw does - namely throw TWO innings with no hits and no runs. And of course he faced some .330+ worth of batters because their entire lineup is crazy good. Shaw got an out and a double play in the 7th, then in the 8th Kinsler popped out, Lonnie made a double-saving play at third and then Shaw strikes out Miggy. Yep!

So what was left after that? Cody Allen versus only like, .300 worth of batting average. V-Mart, Austin Jackson (who is always just awesome against the Tribe) and Castellanos. Strikeout, out, out. BALLGAME! No problem for Cody Allen!!

Like I was talking about yesterday, we need some REAL BASEBALL around here and that meant not only pitching and hitting but some stellar FIELDING too. Today we got it again. The aforementioned awesome stop by Chiz. Another outfield assist by Brantley - his league-leading 5th of the season (I love having an awesome player that nobody seems to know!) THREE double plays and no errors!

The Tribe got 12 hits! Eleven of them were off Justin Verlander. Holy SMOKES! Four doubles and a homer off the man, and 5 earned runs.

Michael Bourn had a good night, going 2 for 5 with 2 big doubles, one for an RBI. And he totally rocked Verlander by stealing 3rd - only his 3rd steal this year but I guess that makes him more surprising to catchers! Bourn's got 12 hits in his last 10 games, by the way.

Asdrubal again in the 2-hole and he's heating up again, going 2 for 3 with NO strikeouts. A walk, a run and an RBI. His average is a big, beautiful, beefy, round .268!!! And two DP for him today to boot! (No, no booting.) He's got 14 hits over his last 10 games.

Michael Brantley (.291) is still our God. He should make $45mm a year. He "only" went 1 for 4 today - 6-game hitting streak! But he had that huge outfield assist, nabbing Ian Kinsler in the 5th. Boop!

Lonnie Chisenhall had the cleanup spot today. Which...duh! Dude is batting .366. Not leading the team in homers (er...he has none) but he's up there in doubles. He leads on on-base percentage. Still not enough at-bats to qualify though, as they just don't let him hit versus lefties. Grr! He only went 1 for 4 today but he got the job done on that one with an RBI!

David Murphy was the last guy to get a hit today, but he's such a good guy he wanted me to update my list and so he got a HOMER in the 7th! He also walked.

Santana's chillin' down in the 6 spot. He got a single to go off Miggy's glove and roll down the first-base line, and 'Los took the opportunity to try to hustle out a double. I know he stole a base the other day but really he ain't that fast. I also know that he was counting on Miggy to go all slow on the play - and he did - but his throw still beat out Santana at second and he was out. He went 1 for 4 today then (that 1 was a 1 and out) with 2 strikeouts.

Nick Swisher is batting above .200 now. He is much less scared of the ball batting 7th.

Gooooomes! A big 'ol double and a walk tonight. His walk was made way more exciting when it was followed up by a huge 2-run double from Aviles to start off a 4-run inning. Yeah! Handsome Mike is back to wow us!

So nice to see everyone playing good baseball today. Wish they had it in them to play like this before...but we can't go back so let's hope it goes on forward forever!!

Tomorrow is a noon game, our chance to sweep the series. And you know what? JOHN ADAMS WON'T BE THERE!!! Wow. What do we do? How do we score? I sure hope people are filling the stands and going crazy in his stead.

YOU GO BE THIS!

It'll be ZMac trying to redeem himself for not being Kluber or Bauer, versus Scherzer who is actually better than Verlander and was last year too. But he's a righty so NO PROBLEM.

Noon! See you there!

No Radio Chatter tonight. I was at my niece's pre-school graduation. Here she is, a lifetime ago in 2013.

Left Behind

Missed last night's game, as I was down taking care of water in the basement. I bet a lot of you did! Or you missed Wednesday's game because the weather was worse, but that's a shame because the game was much better.

I decided to listen to this game at work today just for kicks and boy did it take forever. And I didn't really get interrupted much, it was just a long damn game - 3:23. And not because everyone was scoring so much. I guess maybe it was slow pitching, long at-bats, lots of personnel changes and also a review.

Lots of relievers on our side (6) because Salazar had another one of those bad outings. He just went 4 innings and gave up 2 runs and only struck out 3. He only gave up 2 runs yes but he threw 98 pitches in just that time!!

They brought in CC Lee for the 5th and he promptly gave up 2 runs (single, homer) so his ass was grass.

Everyone but Shaw was there to finish the game. No more runs scored, just a couple hits and some walks. But 4 runs was more than enough for the Blue Jays to persevere this time.

'Cuz the Tribe just can't hit lefties, it would seem. After coming off a 15-run game today they only managed to score 2. They actually got a lot of hits! Nine hits! And also 3 walks. But those lefties just stunned everyone into silence when it counted and 9 men were left on base.

Today was Jesus Agular's first MLB game. Tom Hamilton had a lot of nice stuff to say about him and his plate discipline. Didn't get a hit but he did walk. And his mama is very proud. I've heard a lot of great stuff about him as a minor-leaguer so I'm excited to see what he can do up here!

Bourn was keeping up a hitting streak, now at 5 games. Ryan Raburn, who hasn't played since the 10th, was in at left (Brantley's birthday is today! Also, he is sitting with a sore back) and got a hit. In fact, it was a double!

Santana got a hit. No kidding! And Asdrubal got TWO hits! How does it work when both of these guys are hitting that the team isn't winning? Well...I guess the 7 LOB between them says a lot...They are not hitting when needed.

The 8th inning got slightly exciting when there was a new pitcher and 3 men got on base and Raburn hit that double. But all that came of it was one run, a RBI courtesy of Yan Gomes.

David Murphy is actual hot! Just not fake one-game hot. He's gone 3 games in a row now, first with 1 hit then 5 hits, then 2 more hits last night including a solo homer! Woah, I just got some deja-vu. Does this sound familiar? Maybe Mark Reynolds this time last year, I dunno. Anyway, at least Murphy can hit lefties!

Handsome Mike isn't faring as well - after 3 games of solid hitting, for this game his bat went cold. Poor fella, his average is under .300 now.

Tonight the team is back from the Great White North, and it's Dollar Dog Night and Fireworks too! Unfortunately it'll be hella cold. But I hope a ton of people show up anyway! I was supposed to go but things happened and I'm staying at home. Where it's warm. Wet, but warm.

It'll be ZMac versus RHP (whew) 2.71. Sounds like they will need a lot of help from the fans to get through this one. Go get 'em!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Juan Francisco went after that ball, toward the thrid base line, like he was Sean Penn in 'Dead Man Walking.' Not much of an effort."
- Tom Hamilton

"Lawrie is hitting .234, 7 homers, 24 RBIs and 53 tattoos."
- Tom Hamilton

"Northwestern's [baseball] park looks like a bad high-school field. That recruiter must be a whiz."
- Tom Hamilton

"Adam Lind had a goatee that would make Burl Ives proud."
- Tom Hamilton

"This game's been about as riveting as a piano recital."
- Tom Hamilton

See Any Good Baseball Today?

Wooooooooah! Look at all those numbers! "Crooked numbers" as they say. Woooooah!

Today we'll go over the game in order of awesome. Starting with:

Corey Kluber! The Klubot! Totally stoked to have gone 7 innings, only giving up 2 runs and getting a huge win. Nine strikeouts and just 4 hits for the fourth-highest scoring team in the league!

Yeah you are!

Now for the hit parade!

David Murphy: Came back from wherever his head was and not only got 5 hits today (praise the Lord!), and not only were 3 of those hits doubles, but he also got 5 RBI! It's not too terribly strange for Murph to get that many hits in a game (May 19 and May 30, 2013) but he didn't get 5 RBI in any game in the past 4 years that I can see. He only got 15 total in 2012! Now, let's just hope that this is the start of something awesome - again - for our new friend David Murphy.

Lonnie Baseball: Be still my beating heart! The Chiz Kid's first 5-hit game. And to be honest it nearly was a 6-hit game had that outfielder not made a good guess as to where to position himself. One of Lonnie's hits was a double (his 9th) and curiously, he only had one RBI and no runs scored.

Yanimal: Yan Gomes "only" got 2 hits tonight but his final hit was just a thing of beauty. With the Tribe already up 12-2, he let loose with a big bomb out to right field for THREE runs to make it 15-2! Also - No errors!

OMG ASDRUBAL!!!: Everyone was riled up about him GIDP with the bases loaded in the third, but hey - how many hits do you have this year? And he stole a base and there was a review that stood, then 2 seconds later he was out at third. Again - how many have you stole?? He did end up going 3 for 5 with a walk. He got his 10th double. He came around to score 3 times. He got an RBI. His average went up 13 points and is now 60 points higher than Dick Swisher. So nonny nonny to you!!

Handsome Mike: Actually not as on fire as he's been lately ("Mister May" so to say) but of course he contributed tonight! He went 2 for 6 with both a run scored and an RBI. Unfortunately for Lonnie and his 5 hits, Aviles left 7 men on base. Yeowch!

The Other Michael: Bourn - still hangin' tough out there. Still not bench-able. Today he went 2 for 6 with a run scored and an RBI. It's sort of miraculous that 5 games on the turf seems to have taken out both Brantley and Morgan (back and knee - we'll know more tomorrow) but the guy with the bad hamstring - who is doing a lot of running due to hits - is still standing upright. Not only that but he totally chugged it out for a triple, his 4th so far this year! Hope he stays healthy (and learns to hit better against lefties) because he is IT for now!

Carlos: Heck yeah, Carlos Santana got a hit today! And remember all that stuff I said about catchers yesterday? And how he didn't score from second yesterday? Well today he totally scored from second AND he also stole a base. Shut me up!

Brantley/Morgan/Ramirez: Brantley's out with some back trouble. Precautionary. Morgan came in for him and banged his knee on a play and left the field today wearing a soft cast. Jose Ramirez came in to play second and they sent Handsome Mike out to left to cover all the injuries. And Jose Ramirez got an RBI single! He also came around to score twice. Ole!

Nick Swisher: Can go suck an egg.

I can't wait to go see those Jays one more time! Their bullpen seems to be pretty tapped, with 3 guys going longer than an inning each. Then there was the fun times of a position player coming in to pitch (and Lonnie getting a hit off him!)

Tomorrow will be another 7:07 start with another fair-to-middlin' starter for the opposition. LHP 4.63. The guy's last start only went 2 innings so we might wear him down early. Good times!

Now, let's hope Cousin Michael is there to join us. Say a little prayer and see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"...Rosie walked in with one of those holster sets...from Toy Story..."
- Tom Hamilton telling some weird story about Rosie and the engineer and Buzz Lightyear

"If you thought the strike zone was small before, Esmil Rogers, he has now got a thimble-sized home plate to throw to."
- Tom Hamilton

"On the wrap-up show we'll share with you the game highlights. That should take you to morning rush-hour."
- Tom Hamilton

"This looks like a Little League scorecard."
- Tom Hamilton

What Snowmen Do In Summer

Today's temperature at game time was 20 degrees above what it was at the beginning of Monday's game. By the end of today's game, there was nearly a 40-degree spread from the temp at the end of Monday's game. Is warm weather and sun what it takes to get these guys hitting where we expect?

Some guys didn't live up to expectations* but the guys who did step up stepped up BIG. In fact this is the first time since 2009 that the team has had 4 players with 3 hits or more in a game. There were 15 hits! Nine extra-base hits! Nine runs scored! And over 13,000 fans there - what an afternoon!

The numbers to focus on for Justin Masterson are of course are equally as important. Six and 1/3 innings, 7 strikeouts, only 2 earned runs. He walked 4, hit a guy and committed an error but even through all that, there was just the 2 runs. And even though there were 4 runs total on his watch - this lineup was FINALLY able to overcome whatever deficit the pitcher (and the defense) put up.

Scott Atchison - who "Can't help that he has gray hair and looks like the groundkeeper for the Red Sox" according to Francona - came in to finish the 7th and also throw the entire 8th. He did let one of Masty's runners score to start off with, but then he had a 1-2-3 8th inning. A 1.88 ERA!

Carlos Carrasco pitched the 9th, which is fine. He had a 5-run lead. It was fine.

Nyjer Morgan wasn't in today, but he was reportedly in the dugout being an awesome cheerleader! Keep it up, Tony Plush!

The first two batters were crummy so we won't mention them. It's never a bad thing to leapfrog to Michael Brantley, anyway!

Brantley (.289) went 3 for 5 today, a triple away from the cycle! Three hits, 2 runs scored, 3 RBI. No strikeouts for cousin Michael, natch. He is second in the league in RBI now with 29, just behind Colabello's 30.

Santana had a hit and a walk! He hustled it to first for his single. Unfortunately none of this translated in to runs.

They're still working on Murphy and Cabrera as 5 and 6 hitters. They're perfect for that spot if they can get going - and today they did!

Murphy went 3 for 4 with 2 doubles and a walk! He came in to score twice and got an RBI. And he stranded no one! What a good fella.

Asdrubal had some kind of day today! Of course I missed his first hit - a home run in the 2nd inning because of work stuff. Grr. But I was there for the rest of the excitement. Just like I was there - literally, in the park - for his two 5-hit games in 2012. Just sayin'... Anyway, he also totally flubbed a ball which let 2 runs score but he wasn't charged with an error. In exchange for that, his RBI hit in the 8th inning where he made it to third base was not counted as a triple, it was a double and uhm...not an error. Not sure how it was a double. But it was and he didn't get the cycle. But hey! A 4-hit game with 3 RBI and 2 runs scored! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Chiz Kid got no hits today but as I like to point out, he was still in the middle of things. He ended up going 0 for 3 but came in to score twice. He got on base from catcher interference in the 6th, and in the  7th he grounded in to a force out but reached first and then came around to score. Stay in it, Lonnie Baseball!

Good thing everyone got acquainted with Handsome Mike last night, because he was back again being a big player today! He had another 3-hit game with 2 doubles. Although he didn't leave any men on base, he somehow managed to not get any runs scored or any RBI. That's kind of weird right? But hey - hits is hits and now his average is a crazy .328!

Fun time today interacting with the Indians' Twerps on Twitter. Wondering what people who go to day games do for a living. Someone is very excited because they took a picture of Terry Francona driving his scooter on the bridge, and the Tribe is 3-0 since he posted the pic.

Oh and now that that's all over, I guess the next 29 hours will be spent talking about the NFL draft. Sigh.

While the all-important Draft is going on, the Tribe will be traveling to Florida - where it is ALWAYS warm! - to take on the Rays for 3 games. The Rays' record is as bad as ours so that's good. And it'll be Kluber (again? Already? Yay!) versus RHP 6.83. I look forward to more hits upon hits upon hits!

*Other than Chisenhall, the guys who didn't live up to expectations were Bourn and Swisher, neither of whom got a hit and who are the two highest-paid players on our team by miles. Not very positive thoughts about these guys so they go as a footnote.

Radio Chatter:
"Kevin Correia, in no hurry to get to Detroit."
- Tom Hamilton on the hesitation of the Twins pitcher

"The way Masterson looks today, one run might be enough."
- Tom Hamilton

"The way the pitching has been, they have a chance to win every night if they get the bats going."
- Tom Hamilton says the truth

"Doink!"
- Tom Hamilton describes a foul ball hitting the Terrace Club

"Number thirteen looks like he's back!"
- Tom Hamilton

"Horses used motor oil in 1866?"
- Tom Hamilton is pissing off the sponsor

Corey Kluber, All Day Long!

Done and done.

Complete game! Eleven strikeouts! No Walks! No earned runs! Two hours and fifteen minutes, 101 pitches. SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!

It was Kluber's first complete game in the majors, by the way. He was cold as a carp talking with the radio guys afterwards too. Oh, Klube!

After Masterson's quality start yesterday, are you feeling stoked about starting pitching right now? I know we've got a coupla goobers in the rotation still but there's a new goober in Columbus ready to take someone's place if they don't show up. But now we've got 3 guys who seem to be in control - and a bullpen worthy of follow-up.

A bullpen with a full day's rest now, of course!

What's even cooler is that the Tribe bowled over Bruce Chen, who I think I'd heard was 7-3 against the Tribe. They got more runs than needed for the win, and had some great situational hitting and only left TWO on base!

The Tribe got a series win, too. It's just a fun game all around!

Asdrubal was the leadoff today. Not sure if Bourn just doesn't bat against lefties or if he needed an old man day off. But Asdrubal had it taken care of in that top spot, going 2 for 4 with his 6th double of the year. His double was a 2-run dealy. His average is creeping up to respectable. Go go go!

Dick Swisher went 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts, and an error that allowed the Royals' only run. His face is still the face you see all over Indians.com though. How awesome must it be to be him?

Kipnis is slow to heat up still but at least he got his 6th double of the year today. Even SANTANA got a hit - a double!- and came in to score!

Michael Brantley (.296), 1 for 3 today with a run scored, and yet another outfield assist. You just make life worth living.

I know.

Raburn was the DH today. He went 1 for 2 with a walk, and came in to score.

Gomes and Murphy both went 1 for 3. Murphy had another clutch hit that was a 2-run single, giving him 17 RBI on the year, which isn't bad for 62 at-bats. It puts him in the top 10 in the league! (Brantley leads the team with 19, and it 5th in the league to Murphy's 7th).

Aviles was 0-2 today, but he was still getting stuff done just like last year. He had a sacrifice bunt that helped 2 runners to score on the next hit.

Kluber deadpanned that his next step after this great win is "a long plane ride," alluding to the fact that the team is now on its way to San Francisco to face the Giants. Let's hope he sits next to Carrasco and tells him everything he knows about being a stud!

So it'll be Carrasco versus RHP 2.40 tomorrow at 10:05. Make sure you nap first!

No Radio Chatter today - it was a WORK day. You should have been listening on the radio, anyway.

Beat The Sweep!

Welp, the Tribe hasn't swept anyone yet this year but so far they've avoided being swept! So they got that going for them.

Big win today! And a big game for Carlos Carrasco. It's been no secret that he is both the worst starter in the rotation and also the one that has not made any great improvements (they all seemed to start off poorly). He's also the one with Trevor Bauer breathing down his neck. It was kind of imperative for him to impress today.

Did he? Well he was off to a great start with THREE consecutive 1-2-3 innings. But he unraveled quickly in the 4th, giving up 4 hits and 3 runs. They gave him a chance to come back in the 5th but there were more hits and more runs. In the 6th, it was walks. He lasted 5 2/3. I don't know what this means for Carrasco going forward but from here this game clearly showed he is just fine for a couple innings but once he starts to unravel it happens quickly. And they can't say enough great stuff about Bauer this year. Let's make the move!

I'm sure there will be more info this week.

Outman finished the 6th with a single and a strikeout, and he got the win. Bryan Shaw looked good again and Cody Allen looked even better - keeping his 0.00 for another day, even though he didn't strike anyone out. He led with a walk but then got three balls in play for three outs.

John Axford seemed to struggle with finishing off the game, putting everyone on the edge of their seats while he loaded the dang bases!! Doesn't he realize we are all very sensitive to shaky saves? He ended up getting Edwin Encarnacion to hit into the shift. I ended up eating some Tums. And now the guy has 6 saves!

As for offense, I don't know how but the Tribe managed to get their 6 runs on just 5 hits and 6 walks.

Michael Brantley (.284) continues to just be amazing! He got a double and a homer today, with 2 RBI. He's second in the league with 16! And he had his second outfield assist today, this time to second not to home. We also learned in the post-game interview that he doesn't have much of a sweet tooth and doesn't eat much chocolate. Lolipops for him, please.

David Murphy, though, is the one to be pounding on the back today. He must have been filled to the brim with Easter Love (Murphy is very Christian) and delivered one of the biggest hits - if not THE biggest hit - of the season. A three-run bases-clearing single to right in the 7th inning, that brought the Indians into the lead 5-4. God bless us every one!!

Lonnie was in there today at 3rd, with Santana behind the plate. Lonnie only went 0 for 2 with a walk but he's still hitting over .400. Santana struck out 3 times and is batting just .145. Man-o-man-o-man. Do not want.

With all these blips of excitement I still find the lineup to be quite lacking. Maybe the re-injection of Giambi into the clubhouse will help pump things up again. It's probably pretty hard for a doofus like Swisher to pump anyone up when he's playing every day and only hitting .181. I wish I wish I wish...

DID SOMEBODY SAY WISH?

Tomorrow the team goes on a grueling 3-day stint of 7:05 games, something we have yet to see this year! And I say grueling because I haven't gotten myself accustomed to being back in my seat at 7:05 yet, as it happens so sporadically. It will be a test for me!

It'll be Zach McAllister versus RHP 4.34. Zach's down around 2.00 still and is our best starter, and Giambi should be back, so hopefully it'll be a treat of a game! See you there!

Sorry, no Radio Chatter. I was having a nice time lounging around during the game, going in and out of sleep, in a bit of a sugar coma. Thank you, Jesus!

#BatMagic is Back!

Finally, a game in which the offense carried the team to a win after some bad pitching! I watched some of this game on TV then came home to listen to the radio archive because I was just ready to hear a lot of hits. Refreshing!

Justin Masterson was down and out today. He gave up 6 runs and only lasted 4 2/3 innings. Sucks. Let's not talk about it. Props to his 7 strikeouts, though.

Our bullpen had a long afternoon but they did great! All four guys only gave up one hit between them (no walks), and struck out 6 in 4 innings. Outman, Shaw, Allen and Axford. Allen still has the 0.00 ERA and both Outman and Axford are down to 1.69. Cool!

While those guys were keeping the White Sox tied up in knots - and even while Masterson was feeding them cake - the Tribe bats were suddenly alive, with 12 runs on 12 hits - a double, a triple and three home runs!

Nyjer Morgan was back! We've been facing a lot of lefties so they just flat out benched him. Wow, his stats show he's only had 62 at-bats against lefties from 2011-2013, and 605 against righties. I wonder if he has a medic alert bracelet that says "NO LEFTY ON LEFTY"? He actually only went 1 for 5 with a walk, which wasn't stand-out today but he did steal a base. He also got Francona to call for a review on a pickoff where he knew he was safe but was called out, and the call got overturned, and the Tribe went on to score 3. How big is that??

Swisher got his second home run today. He is batting under .200.

Kipnis is batting well at "home" again! It took him a minute, doing all right at the plate in the first two games. But today he went 2 for 4 with a walk, with a homer in the 5th to follow up Swisher's. Over the right field fence on a gust of wind!

Carlos Santana is kind of taking this walks thing too far. Once again he got on base twice due to the walk, and he even scored 2 runs. But he's hitting under .200 now too, with only 7 hits on the season!

Michael Brantley (.289) had the patience today. He also walked twice but he got a 2-run single in the first, because there were men on base to bring home!!

Asdrubal Cabrera is trending upwards! After just 2 hits in his first 8 games, he's now got 6 hits in his last 4 games - with 5 doubles and 5 RBI all told! People might be down on him but hey - he's batting over .200! (.205)

Did you know that Ryan Raburn has a 5-game hitting streak?? He's only appeared in 10 games so far this year but he's got 9 hits, and has hit in all but one of his starts. Today he went 1 for 4 with a lovely 2-RBI single to put the Tribe squarely ahead!

David Murphy, though - woah! I seriously did not have any clue why they signed this guy but now I know. He's definitely filling that Choo role nicely, aside from being leadoff (which we clearly no longer need). Power and reliability! Murphy had a 3-run triple with the bases loaded in the 9th! WHAAAAAAAT? Of course that was 7 innings after his second homer of the year!

David Murphy puts himself second. To God.

Can you believe we didn't need Chiz or Gomes to win today? Or even Santana, for that matter. Our man at the bottom today was Mike Aviles, who did make a huge crappy error in the first (he was at third today) but it ended up not mattering. And he came through with the bat going 2 for 5 with an RBI. He started off the season with a bang (a homer) but has been pretty spotty, aside from these last 2 games. Let's just hope he doesn't get rusty sitting on the bench - that is not how the Goon Squad works!

Seems to me that aside from Masterson, the team really played up to their expectations today. I think that's been my problem with the team thus far - we know all of them, from 1-15 or whatever, can hit. Most of them can hit homers and for extra bases, or at least avoid a strikeout. All these big gaps in the hit totals and lack of power was driving me nuts! Especially against these soft teams!

So, this is the team I expect to see all season and I hope they get their practice in now against the White Sox, in preparation for a real team in Detroit next week.

Of course, rumor has it that there'll be no baseball on the South Side tomorrow due to rain. We'll see. Two days off, if that's true...is that good or bad?

If they play it'll be Kluber - hopefully in good form - versus LHP 2.77. Aww, another LHP? Take a seat, Tony Plush!

Another 2:10 game, see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"This is not the same Justin Masterson from a year ago."
- Tom Hamilton in the first inning

"We've got a chance for a 5-hour game with about 20 runs scored for each team."
- Tom Hamilton

"It's a doozy today, from the South Side!"
- Tom Hamilton

"We'd recap the scoring, but we don't have time."
- Tom Hamilton

"Rosie, this would remind you of a spring training game in Arizona where no lead is safe."
- Tom Hamilton

"Yesterday the bus was on the way to the ballpark [...] and two young ladies were on their way to Lake Michigan - in bikinis. That is the definition of an optimist. Or a polar bear."
- Tom Hamilton

"The pitchers have one thing in common on both sides - they don't like the guy behind the plate calling balls and strikes. He's a hitter's umpire."
- Tom Hamilton

"This...will be a big win."
- Tom Hamilton