Dealing With It

Hello! Welcome to The Positive Tribe - the blog where we only say positive things about the Indians and thank God every day that there even is a thing called baseball! John Adams is the patron saint of this blog because he goes to every home game, rain or shine, and cheers on the team, winning or losing.

If he can do it so can we!

All right, just gotta get that reminder out there. It's hard to remember if the team doesn't come back fighting after the break. Even harder when they dip below .500 for the first time since April. And it's seriously hard when they lose 4 in a row to the 2 worst teams in the AL.

Hey, guess what! Nobody was traded away today! Awesome move - I'm very happy. There was NO ONE out there who would be able to replace the hittiness of Choo or the closingness of Perez. No one. Everything we need is right here. Every single one of those guys in the lineup, excepting Johnny Damon, has the ability to be awesome and maybe somewhere else they'd be awesome and that'd be the worst of all. Getting rid of a guy who's not doing well and replacing him with a guy who was sell-able is not going to cut it. Kicking some asses in the clubhouse would be a much more effective and much cheaper idea.

Won't talk about starting pitching today other to say that YAY Tomlin was sent to the bullpen and now Corey Kluber is going to take his spot in the starting rotation. Derek Lowe is done, it would seem, but we probably won't know to what extent for another 3 or 4 days. Let's hope Kluber is all McAllister-like and can wow them in the bigs!

Accardo and Smith pitched 3 innings with 3 strikeouts and only 3 hits and NO RUNS! Way to go, other bullpen guys!

Asdrubal had a good night at the plate tonight, going 2 for 5 with a run scored (on a wild pitch!) and a double. His double was just about a home run, grr! He's been a little bit streaky lately since being declared "BACK!" but if he can get back into a groove perhaps everyone will follow.

Kipnis has been struggling but he ended up going 1 for 3 with a walk. He didn't steal any bases, but he had this monster play. I love great second baseman-ing!!

Brantley had another Ahmad Abdul-Rahim catch today AND he went 2 for 4 with a run scored. He hit his 29th double and is tied for 3rd in the league. Kinda funny we're scared about Choo getting traded - and don't get me wrong, he's wicked awesome - but Brantley seems to be Cleveland's little secret! Don't forget to let Fresh Brewed Tees know that Brantley should be on a t-shirt!

Santana didn't have a multi-hit game, which is probably the real reason why we lost (joke!) but he did go 1 for 3 with a walk. Not sure if I count that as a multi-hit game in my little brain log or not. One of his hits was a double, which he had 7 of in July. Not bad!

Johnny Damon, who is still on our team, went 1 for 4 and got an RBI.

Good ol' reliable Casey Kotchman - you know he got a hit. And an RBI. Because that's what Casey Kotchman will do for you. He'll also help Jason Kipnis make the highlight reel by catching that off-the-mark Alomar-style throw from the Kid and hang on to the ball too. What a guy!

Unfortunately our hitting was only decent, not spectacular, and definitely not enough to overcome our starter. Same ol' same 'ol, right? Oh well.

Tomorrow's another 8:10 game, which I love because it's just enough time to get everything done and not have to scramble around after work. Gotta get to the gym and all.

It'll be our best pitcher (really) McAllister versus RHP. No problem, right?

Since we all love baseball, I'll see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Here you earn your home run."
- Tom Hamilton on Kauffman Stadium

"Hosmer is basically a guy who has never failed at any level. This is a growing experience for Hosmer."
- Tom Hamilton

"It's not going to take any kind of a baseball genius for someone to look at the numbers and see that Corey Kluber is the Indians best minor league pitcher."
- Tom Hamilton

"Never go with a guy golfing who finds more golf balls than he loses."
- Tom Hamilton went golfing with Jim Rosenhaus

"I do believe that everyone is ok, but the only reason they are is because of an act of God."
- Tom Hamilton's reaction to a broken bat flying in to the seats

"You call up your wife Carol every night and say 'Oh yeah I went jogging.' You jogged around your room because the batteries went out on your tv remote and you had to get up to change the channel!"
- Tom Hamilton on Jim Rosenhaus jogging in the heat

"If this woulda been Yankee Stadium it woulda been called an out."
- Tom Hamilton on a foul ball just barely going in to the seats

Painful

Ack! We weren't supposed to lose this bad on the second day. That hurts, but what hurts worse is my favorite guy had 2 errors resulting in at least one unearned run, if not maybe two. And we lost by two.

For what it's worth, Manny Acta is on the radio right now saying that one of Asdrubal's errors wasn't an error and the guy was out, and Jack Hannahan didn't ground out he fouled a ball off his foot. Manny Acta is the first guy to tell you when the team sucks, I take his word for it when he says it's not our fault. After that he says our pitching sucks. Ha!

Derek Lowe did not have his best outing tonight, no sir. He gave up 4 runs in 6 innings, with 8 hits and 3 walks. Huh only 3 walks? Seemed he walked half the guys he faced! He got himself into some jams but also got out of them...just not as fully and completely as Ubaldo seems to be able to do.

The bullpen was actually worthy tonight! Esmil Rogers came in for the 7th and had to throw 25 pitches to get out of it, but he gave up no hits and no runs. Then Cody Allen, the new guy, walked one but got the rest. They brought him in for the 8th to face Miguel Cabrera! And he struck him out! They collected Allen's heart from in front of the mound and put in Sipp to get the next two. He walked Fielder and struck out the next two. Nice!

None of our lineup had a particularly big night. Well except Choo. Choo went 1 for 2 with 2 walks. His only hit was a double giving him 31 on the year, squarely in second place for doubles.

Asdrubal at least got a hit, but he left 3 on. Kipnis didn't hit but he walked.

Brantley also got 1 hit and left 3 on. And all of his outs were huge heartbreakers because they went very far in to right field but never over that damn fence, with all those dudes on base. His one hit was a ground-rule double so technically it went over the damn fence. It just needed help from the ground. He stole 3rd base on indifference and I sort of think the Tigers were like "eh, they never get anyone in from third. Let him go." Sigh.

Hafner, omg...he was a true DH tonight. He struck out 3 times before hitting a homer, but it was a solo homer. Too little too late.

Damon was on from a walk when Casey Kotchman hit his 10th homer of the year. Not only does that put him 4th on the team in homers (and only 2 behind Cabrera and Choo with 12 each) but it ties his 2011 home run total and puts him only 4 under his career-high 14! How does he do it? Nobody expects the Casey Kotchman!

That's all she wrote. The game wasn't as awesome as it could have been. Maybe it would have been more awesome without Asdrubal's errors and a little bias from the umpires. I coulda said it was a valiant effort. But no it was clearly a loss. A painful one.

Tomorrow is Josh Tomlin versus Justin Verlander. If he can give up 8 runs to the National League, we can get some runs for ourselves! Tomlin just has to pitch his mustachioed heart out.

Another 7:05 game and another game on WKYC - See you real soon!

Radio Chatter:
"So the taxpayers built Miami their beautiful new ballpark, and almost right on cue the Marlins are about to blow it up."
- Tom Hamilton is troubled by what goes on in Miami

"Boy the Indians have been begging for trouble tonight, haven't they?"

- Tom Hamilton on the Tribe having two on when Miggy is up

"That has to be the biggest time waster of all time."

- Tom Hamilton on fantasy football

"Verlander can make a guy look like he's swinging a hot dog at the plate some nights."

- Tom Hamilton tying together Verlander and Dollar Dog Night

"It's hard when you're out at first base to raise that right arm. I can see that. ... Just retire."

- Tom Hamilton on umpire Tim McClelland

Double Trouble

First post! Do you think I was first in with this clever, clever title today? Started writing before the end of the game because when they take out Choo and Cabrera for Cunningham and Lopez, you know the game's over.

Derek Lowe did not have the stuff today. No more "wow that old man is good!" nope just "please don't suck today!" He gave up 9 runs in 3 innings, including 5 doubles and 2 homers. He didn't strike out any today but today it wasn't cute and funny like it usually is with him. "Hee hee he didn't need to strike any out he had 27 ground ball outs!" No. He just plain sucked.

Then Manny Acta just started throwing everyone out there. First was Cody Allen, fresh up from AAA. Very fresh. He walked the first two he faced, loading the bases (Lowe had left a guy on base) then Lowe's guy scored on a ground ball out. Then Allen struck a guy out yay! And a ground ball out. I wonder if he went back and puked in the clubhouse.

Next was Rogers for 2 innings, who has pitched 8 innings in his last 4 games, and is still coming out to pitch 96 MPH so he's looking good. Except he did give up a double and an earned run, but whatever - that's tons better than Lowe in his 3 innings.

Still with 3 innings to go, we saw Smith, Sipp and Perez. Smith was awesome, as usual. Sipp was awesome, surprisingly (one walk, one hit but no runs) and Perez struck out 3. Holla!

You sort of thought this game was going to go differently when it first came on, didn't you? I did. Yeah there was an Oriole run in the first due to a walk and a wild pitch but then Asdrubal comes in and reminds us THE SLUMP IS OVER and you think "All right! Gonna be hot!"

Not so.

Choo went 2 for 4 with his 30th double (2nd place behind Alex Gordon with 31). When it was 1-10, they sat him down for Cunningham.

Asdrubal, as you may have heard, got his team-leading 12th home run in the first inning! OMG ASDRUBAL!!! He went 1 for 3 until they put Hannahan at short and plugged the left side with Lopez. He went 0 for 2.

Kipnis is back to doing stuff, getting his 11th double (once again - only 11?) and going 1 for 4. Michael Brantley, on the other hand, didn't do stuff. Amazing!

Carlos Santana, still with the patience! He went 0 for 1 because he walked twice and was hit by a pitch. He's got 13 walks and 7 hits in his last 10 games. Only 5 RBI (4 of them Wednesday) but I'm hopeful. This is indeed better than nothing.

Also better than nothing was Hafner going 1 for 3.  He got a single and also got hit by a pitch. Lean in there, hoss!

Today's hot hitter was Johnny Damon. Of course, not in the second inning when the bases were loaded, but ever other time he was up he got a hit, going 3 for 4. Why does he get the willies when there's guys on base? Jeez!

Of course, he did this act of magic. Dammit.


I hate when I have to tip my hat to that money pit.

Casey Kotchman...he left 6 on base and didn't do anything tonight. Tsk tsk...

Supermanahan was out tonight, getting his 4th homer of the year! Woohoo! He only went 1 for 4, though. I think we're done waiting for him to come back now - we'll consider him back, and start prodding him to do better.

Nothing was coming together for us today against the O's starter. That didn't do us much good considering we had a 9-run deficit to work with. The lineup gets off the hook due to Lowe's utter failure, but we still need these guys to hit consistently no matter what.

Tomorrow is our new favorite guy, Zach McAllister, versus an even newer guy, Chris Tillman who's got an ERA of 1 since he had one great start then one start in which 5 of the 7 runs given up in the first inning were un-earned.

Anyway he's a right-handed kid. LET US CRUSH HIM!!

It's a 7:05 game. I'll see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Why are all the uniforms pink?"
- Tom Hamilton musing on the thought of Rosie helping with the team laundry

"This isn't New York - he really caught the ball, it's not in some fan's back pocket."
- Tom Hamilton on Damon catching a foul ball in the stands

"Well you can't teach stuff. And he has stuff."
- Tom Hamilton on Cody Allen

"Get out of here! ... and no, it won't."
- Tom Hamilton on Choo's almost homer

"Jim Thome has surpassed Sammy 'I didn't cork the bat. What do you mean it broke open and cork flew everywhere?' Sosa on the all-time home run list."
- Tom Hamilton

"Well it's 10-2 so Rosie and I have got to talk about something."
- Tom Hamilton after a long diatribe about performance enhancing drugs

Weaksauce

Yesterday it was the pitching, today it was the rest of the team who had a case of the "duhs."

Derek Lowe did give up 3 runs but they were pretty much a fluke compared to the rest of the game he pitched. Six innings, 3 hits and 5 strikeouts. He just gave up those 3 runs in one inning where he had too many walks. Otherwise he was aces with 8 ground-ball outs.

Joe Smith came in to finish the job for 2 innings. The two guys did everyone a solid by going the distance after the bullpen's extended use yesterday. Joe struck out 2 and only gave up 2 hits in his 2 innings. His ERA is still under 3.

Our batters were pretty much stymied today. They did walk 5 times but they only got 5 hits and had a team LOB of 9. ARRRRRGGH!!!

The top of the lineup is just not getting it done at the moment. Choo did get a hit and Kipnis did get a walk, but Hafner did nothing.

Asdrubal got a hit, which stopped an 0-for-16 slide. But...nothing else. He went 1 for 4. So, that does jibe with his .278 average but - dude, why is your average .278? He is, however, back to being solid in the field so that's at least one thing we've got going for us. He's not literally giving up runs with errors anymore. For now.

Santana...ok, slowly but surely. He was actually more impressive than the 4 above him today, getting both a walk AND a hit. But he left guys on base, Hafner left guys on base, Asdrubal left guys on base...you get the picture.

Michael Goddamn Brantley tho - how about that dude? Thirteen game hitting streak now, going 2 for 3 today and 8 for 11 on the series. HOT DAMN! He got 2 hits and a walk today, both of his hits being doubles. That puts him tied for 2nd in the league with Choo and A-Gon. His average is over .300 now and he's hitting .474 over the last 10 games.

I sent over a request to Fresh Brewed Tees that they need to get some Brantley gear made up. I don't think we need to be ignoring this guy any longer!

And that's it! Not even Casey Kotchman did anything heroic today, nor did Shelley or Lopez who came in to pinch hit. Of course Johnny Damon couldn't get anything done. Him and Kotch left 7 on base between them (that's different than the team LOB and I'm sure their 3 and 4 LOB's overlapped. But still...THAT IS A LOT!)

It's going to be a rough week versus the Rays if we can't get our bats out of our asses. I'm hoping pitching won't be too bad (won't see Ubaldo until Thursday) but I guess Rays' pitching has been dominant as of late and our hitting has been anything but these last 3 games.

Chris Perez is from the Tampa area so I'm hoping he's going to get the boys extra special pumped up for a win. Or extra special hung over from a huge pig roast. I'm hoping the former, with gusto.

Tomorrow starts us off with our new favorite Zach McAllister versus a RHP, so we've got promise.

I'll see you there!

Oh sorry, no Radio Chatter...I was in the car on my way home for most of the game. I don't take notes and drive!

Inside the Fire[works]

So I got woken up early today on my day off so my friend could invite me to today's game. A mutual friend had 4 awesome season tickets for us to use if we were into it. Normally I'd be an "Angry Elf" to be woken at such an hour (10:30!!) on my day off but I sprung up and accepted the invite!

If you're not a fan of heat and sun, I'm not sure that there are any "awesome seats" at Progressive Field at 4 PM on a 92-degree day. Well, by like 6 PM the left field seats are good but for the most part everyone was there to bake. And bake we did.

BUT...these were "All You Can Eat Seats." But not the regular one, where you can get hot dogs, drinks, popcorn and nachos. This was the CLUB seats, which are now all "All You Can Eat" and in addition to that stuff you could get ice cream, pizza, sausages, hamburgers, fries and sno-cones. And buffalo mac & cheese which my friend said was not worth $5 when he tried it, and my other friend said it was ok for free but he agrees he'd be disappointed paying $5 for it.

My oven

 Since I don't eat carbs, I was pretty much screwed as far as variety goes. I did end up chowing 4 delicious sausages, 3 Diet Dr. Peppers and 3 cold waters. My friends tried the dogs, nachos, ice cream, pretzels and mac & cheese.

Here's a secret - there are upper deck All-You-Can-Eat Seats for $32. If you plan on going to a game on a hot day, you cannot beat these seats. Why? Because it's all the cold water you can drink, for free. You will drink $32 in cold water and pop. You will MAKE money on these seats on a hot day! I have no idea how people stayed both hydrated and financially solvent in the other seats today.

Another tip...if you find yourself with Club tickets and they are LOADED club tickets (most likely it is because you know some swanky and generous folks with season tickets), don't waste your loaded on over-priced drinks in the bar. Instead pool your ticket values and use them in the souvenir shop! I paid $4 for two Slider dolls after redeeming my friends loaded tickets and my 10% Indians Fan Club discount. Score!

So here's another interesting thing (I swear, I'll get to the game soon. I know you know it was quite a game!) - the folks sitting across the aisle from me were selected to play a game between innings. Some dude with a headset on came down and asked if they'd be in to it, described the game ("Wheel of Fortune") and the prize (4 Nickelback tickets) and had them fill out a couple forms. They asked the couple to wear some sponsor t-shirts during the bit, and when it was time the headset guy gave a cue and the nice little fella who does the scoreboard games did his thing. They ended up winning (hopefully with my help!) and they got to keep the First Energy t-shirts.

Since my entire section was empty - even my 3 friends had bailed for cooler quarters - I was sitting alone with my We Are All Kipnises t-shirt when the camera guy came up to film the "Wheel of Fortune" game. While he was waiting, he tool a bunch of shots of me looking absolutely stupid putting my fingers in the air and showing off my t-shirt. So if you saw the fat person with the Kipnis t-shirt on TV today with the matching red hat and face, that was me.

Ok one more thing - I enlisted the help of my mother to apply my SPF 50 before I left for the game today. She must have done an awesome job because I was sitting out there in the sun for 3 hours straight and I don't have a smidge of burn. Moms rule! I also had my secret weapon - an SPF 50 stick for re-applying face protection. Protected!

All of that heat (there was a lot of heat) was totally worth it because today's game rocked! I had told my friends that the Tribe had a good chance today, considering our performance in Baltimore and our performance versus Haren the day before. NOBODY was disappointed!

Derek Lowe took the mound, and you've got to imagine he pitched on a few hot and sticky days while in Atlanta. He made it 6 innings and only gave up 3 earned runs. He gave up 11 hits and usually when he gives up a ton of hits the opposition gets like 8 runs. I don't know if it was part of his game plan or what but he let guys get on base but not past 3rd. He also only struck out 1, of course. He looked GREAT until he very obviously hit a wall (no doubt a heat wall) in the 6th. That's about when I felt it too. He gave up his 2nd and 3rd runs and finished the inning out. Lowe ended up with the Win - his first since June 1! He also leads the majors with 19 ground ball double plays.

Hagadone, Sipp and Accardo came in and only gave up 1 run between them with 2 strikeouts between them. YES, THOSE GUYS!!! Sipp looked good, even!

Hey did you notice - Everybody Hits today! A couple of guys had a multi-hit game. I really liked our lineup. Sorry, Santana. I was disappointed to see Damon and not Duncan but....well he got 3 hits so hrmph.

The team was SO patient today at the plate. Their patience is absolutely magnified when it's a million degrees out. But they had Santana up to 58 pitches in 1 1/3 innings. They only got 4 walks out of it but they got pitches to hit!

Choo's back up in 2nd place in the division with 26 doubles, thanks to his RBI double in the 2nd. He went 1 for 4 with a run and that 1 RBI.

I didn't bring OMG ASDRUBAL!!! with me, once again being that I was in someone else's season ticket seats. I don't think it would have been seen by too many folks, although I was surprised at the number of signs around us in the fancy seats! 'Droobs went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI. Finally! He didn't hit in the last 2 games. I wonder what's up with that? I still don't think he's being patient enough. I had pointed out to my friend about him hitting at junk lately and she noticed it too. So there you have it.

Kipnis was on it today, going 1 for 3 with a walk, a RBI and 2 runs. He didn't steal any bases today - weird!

In a courteous move, Acta sat Choo, Cabrera and Kipnis in the 6th, 7th and 8th respectively. Because by then we were up by 11 and it was a million degrees, so why not use our use-able bench? No Shelley today, though - he's officially on the paternity list. Cunningham actually looked good in right field and went 1 for 1 at the plate!

Hafner's back! Hafner's back! And I saw him! And boy does he look good! Can you imagine...it was just like 5 weeks ago that he had knee surgery and he's been playing a bit in the minors and today he was just fine hitting and running at a major league level. Woah! He went 1 for 3 today with 2 walks and was, in my opinion, the driving force behind today's patience at the plate. I am SUPER stoked to see him back!

Brantley only went 1 for 5 today but his 1 hit was the clincher - a 3-run homer in the 1st! Only his second home run of the season and I saw it!  He did end up hitting in to a couple of fielder's choices and got a second run out of it.

You know who else got a home run today? Say it! Casey Kotchman! His was down in the right field short wall, just like Brantley's. Casey had an awesome night going 2 for 3 with a walk, 3 RBI and 2 runs scored. Plus he was part of 3 double plays! WE LOVE YOU KOTCH!

Hannahan was 1 for 4 today with a run. He looked GREAT at third!

Johnny Damon was making a fool out of me again today. When I last saw him it was that awful, ugly Cincinnati game where he fell over and shit in the outfield. But before that it was a Pittsburgh game where he went 2 for 4 and tried to smash my cousin with a foul ball. Today I told my friends what the deal is with him and here he went 3 for 4 and scored 2 runs. He also had an outfield assist, throwing out stupid Pujols. Hooray for Johnny Damon.

Sweet Lou had another awesome game! He went 2 for 4 today with an RBI and a run. He's got 15 hits in his last 10 games and a 6-game hitting streak with 11 hits in those 6 games. DAMN!! Makes it so hard to want Santana back...

Going to today's game was a nice surprise, and I was handsomely rewarded for enduring the heat. And you know, it honestly wasn't that bad. Well, 12-3 makes you forget a lot of stuff. But also there was a breeze and the more you sweat the more breeze cools you. I think I was thinking about how it could be worse - it could be like when i was at band camp, it could be like when I worked summers in an outdoor restaurant, it could be a pitcher's duel. It was none of those things - it was awesome!

Tomorrow is the Rays at 7:05. Their record's about the same as ours. They're starting a rightie - yeah rightie! Our man on the hill is Tomlin.

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"He's still got the respect level that most batters don't have."
- Tom Hamilton on Travis Hafner

"Sometimes you gotta lose a battle to win the war. You just can't burn out a bullpen if a ballgame is getting out of hand early."
- Tom Hamilton

"Santana might be better off just jumping off the rubber than throwing to first."
- Tom Hamiltin thinks Ervin Santana has a bad move

"Derek Lowe had a chance to sit back and watch the early fireworks show."
- Tom Hamilton

"Shows that even the best players sometimes get a brain cramp."
- Tom Hamilton on Pujols trying to stretch a single and getting thrown out

"Strange things happen on the 4th of July, Rosie [...] The Indians summer league in Arizona was rained out today. [...] If it weren't the 4th of July it would have been declared a holiday anyway - rain in July in Phoenix."
- Tom Hamilton

"High school kids in Northeast Ohio throw their curveballs faster than Takahashi."
- Tom Hamilton on Takahashi's 68 MPH curveball

"I guess this is what it was like watching Mickey Mantle play."
- Tom Hamilton on Manny Acta on Mike Trout

"His former teammates, many years from now, are going to go on and on about 'You know, Torii Hunter is the best teammate I ever had.'"
- Tom Hamilton

"Would it hurt the Rangers to win once?"
- Tom Hamilton on the White Sox winning

New Way To Lose

At least you can't say it wasn't an exciting game. They came out of the gates hitting and scoring, and scored in 5 innings. They were on base in all innings but the 8th. They managed a respectable 8 earned runs but...12 left on base! The big problem today was errors.

Derek Lowe seems to maybe be out of that "wow that old man can still pitch!" juice that has been going around the league this year. It's not like he's throwing everything in the dirt but we don't need another dude with a 4+ ERA right now.

I will give it to him tho - he gave up 4 and there were 3 un-earned right along with them. Son of a bitch!

Accardo did ok in his 2/3 of an inning. Walking 2 but getting out of it. Smith came in and gave up what ended up being the tying run (GROAN!) and somehow it worked out that even tho the homer Perez (yeah Chris Perez) gave up in the 8th was the winning run, it was Smith who got the loss. Almost like Perez paid him to take that L or something.

So ... pitching? Yeah, kind of crummy today. Nobody's bullpen needs to be giving up 2 runs in 3 innings. But there were 3 un-earned runs on errors by our truly amazing infield - Asdrubal and Kotchman. Not sure why Asdrubal has 9 fucking errors this year...is there some sort of post-All-Star curse? Didn't seem to hit Chris Perez. Or it all hit him on the first game of the season and he beat the curse to death with his bare hands.

Batting was pretty great today, except for when it wasn't. I mean 5 guys had a multi-hit game and almost everybody hit (DAMON!!! *shakes fist*) There were merely 6 strikeouts which isn't bad when you consider how many at-bats we had. But everyone was leaving guys on bases left and right. A tragedy!

Choo had a great night, going 3 for 5 with 3 hits and a walk. He got 2 RBI and scored a run and you know what? All that on no doubles or homers! One of those RBI was an RBI walk! I caught the first inning on TV and my mom was impressed at how dirty Choo was by the time Kipnis was up. Working hard!

OMG ASDRUBAL!!! #11! He's being less disappointing at the plate right now but damn what's up with the errors, bro? He's got 9 on the year and the last 3 have been COSTLY. Ugh. Well he went 2 for 6 today but he did leave me sad when he was up in the 9th and blooped out with a man in scoring position.

Kipnis was locked in today, going 3 for 5 with 2 RBI. That's 2 TWO OUT RBI! Cool! Brantley also hit and went 1 for 4 with a walk.

Now that Santana's out for a smidge (hurt back), our top 4 guys are hitting a combined .282, and really they were the stars of the show tonight getting 6 of the 7 RBI (one run was a fielder's choice). Not to totally discount the bottom of the lineup, though - they scored 6 of those runs!

Kotchman scored 2 of those runs today, from being on base twice. But like Asdrubal he also made a run-costing error today. My friend was joking about the number of errors Asdrubal has made, and wondered why Kotchman was erroring too. Do you think they are erroring way too much (18 for Hannahan. Asdrubal and Kotchman) or do you think we notice it way too much because they are - all other times - awesome? Kipnis only has 3 errors, same as Kotchman, but I think he's been exciting at 2nd this year. Because we expect him to suck.

I refuse to blame anything on the heat today, by the way, because if you recall we had a hell of a time in April and it was blamed on the cold. All these guys are from Latin America, Florida or Arizona - they can handle the heat. Except Brantley who's from Washington state, but he's Dr. Smooth so nothing flaps him.

Speaking of Arizona - Shelley Duncan had a nice night! But first he had to come in for Lonnie Chisenhall, who had a nice night! Lonnie went 1 for 2 ... and then got hit by a pitch in his arm and now his arm is broke and GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! He was just about to break out - or already had broke out - and now that's it. Surgery.

On the POSITIVE side, Shelley Duncan ended up going 2 for 2 with a double, an RBI and 2 runs. Bittersweet, yo...bittersweet.

Supermanahan and Marson both went 1 for 4 with a walk. They're both hitting about .250 which would be great to see up in the .270s soon. They both need to get their games in and stabilize at the plate and we know they can do well. Question is - how much more Marson will we see? Now that there's very little question of "how much more Lonnie?" (MOAN!) we know we'll see a ton of Hannahan...let's hope he's still got it. A nice fat .275 or .280 at the bottom of our lineup sure would be swell!

So all-in-all we made a lot of progress but had a bit of a step back. Pitching didn't get any WORSE and hitting didn't get any WORSE - it got better in that we got an early-season level of hits but we're still leaving them stranded. But fielding cost us big, which was sort of a new way to lose the game.

Tomorrow we're back to trying to figure out LHP. Let's hope there's some confidence and we can keep on with the hitting and could-be-worse pitching. Tomlin is up - he's seen worse. Don't need to see it again.

It's a 4:05 start, and it'll be damned hot. Bring your battery powered fan and enough cash for at least 3 large pops. I'll see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"When you have a pitcher who is first in the league for ground outs to fly outs, you're going to have to play good defense."
- Tom Hamilton

"The Cleveland karma is paying off for us, now that we've gotten out of New York with that engineer Paul..."
- Jim Rosenhaus on the Baltimore engineer who married a Mayfield girl

"This is an Indians ballclub that cannot stay in contention if they can't find some middle relief. Whether it's Cody Allen, or George Allen, or Marty Allen, they need some help."
- Tom Hamilton

"Adam Jones just learned that Christmas can happen even on a hot day."
- Tom Hamilton on a questionable fair ball

Nobody is a Hero

Sunday strikes again, huh? I do need to stop complaining about Sundays because I think we're 5-7 on the year so it's not like we lose EVERY Sunday. But like I said before - it just hurts more because I usually get to see it on TV.

It was a stupid game today - stupid pitching and stupid hitting. It didn't matter that our pitchers gave up 7 because our batters could only muster 1. Everyone lost this game. Even Johnny Damon who thankfully didn't play today.

Lowe melted down and gave up 3 runs in 6 2/3. Three doesn't sound to bad but it's nearly unsurmountable when your team isn't hitting. Plus when he left the game he had 2 guys on base. He was pretty pissed at himself and once again started tossing shit around the dugout. Well, tossing it then picking it right back up because that's about as shitty as giving up 3 runs. Derek Lowe, the Gentleman Pitcher.

Smith did his thing and finished off the 7th without letting more score. Then Nick "Remember When He Was Good?" Hagadone came in gave up 3 runs, including a homer, in 2/3 of an inning. You know he was fucking good before because after giving up 3 runs in 2/3 of an inning his ERA is still under 6. Anyway he left and went in the dugout and had a bit of a "Remember when I was good?" sniffle over his performance (that's the kind of sad stuff you get to see on the TV on Sundays) while Esmil Rogers got the third out. But before he got the third out he gave up a home run.

Dayum!

On the offensive side, Choo was shut down. Asdrubal shut down. Kipnis was shut down. FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, BRANTLEY WAS SHUT DOWN!

Lopez got himself a hit - a big honkin' double off the wall. He then came around to score on a passed ball. End of story as far as runs go.

Lessee...Oh yeah, Shelley Duncan started today and even though he didn't hit (just like Asdrubal and Kipnis) he got TWO walks! SHELLEY EVERY DAY!!!

Today's big winner was You Can Always Count On Casey Kotchman (Usually). He went 2 for 4, hoofing out a single in the 5th.

Speaking of good fielding (we were talking about Casey Kotchman, of course) - Kipnis looked pretty fancy out there today. He had another nice one too. I also think that a couple of hits could have been avoided if Derek Lowe didn't fall to the side and check the bus schedule after every pitch. Several hits went right up the middle and it looked like Lowe was trying to get out of their way instead of do stuff like stop the ball.

Lowe did get a hit! He bunted himself to first on a bunt down the first-base line. He snuck by the Astros while they were waiting for it to roll foul. It didn't! This happened on one out. Excitement! Choo and Cabrera couldn't do shit to get him in. Horror!

That's about it for today. I did manage to get a lot of chores done due to the extra hour I had before the game so that's cool. I also got sunburn so now it really feels like summer time. Also I hope you had a chance to listen to the radio because Hammy and Rosie were continuing the saga of the FroYo machine and I can't really print it all here because there's so much of a back story. I did grab some for you. Just note that Rosie really likes the frozen yogurt machine and Hammy calls him out on it, but he likes it too.

Oh yeah also the Astros' announcer Milo Hamilton (no relation) came in to chat and call a couple innings. That was cool...he sounds great, and he's 85 years old! I really hope we get to keep our Hamilton that long...

We're off to face the Yankees now. I hope someone remembers to pick up our bats on the way from Houston to New York. I think they got left in Cleveland!

No break tomorrow - a 7:05 game. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"In a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, Tom Hamilton is eating a large plastic cup full of ice cream."

- Jim Rosenhsus

"The servers said 'Mr. Hamilton we advise you to get the biggest cup possible because Mr. Rosenhsus has requested a hose to be run from the machine to the booth'"

- Tom Hamilton

"You wonder Rosie if that's a function of hitting 8th. You think 'The pitcher is coming up. I should try to get extra bases.'"

- Tom Hamilton

"It's the bottom of the 6th, there are four hits and two runs and nobody's made an error - that's been called.

- Milo Hamilton

"You can see the video board on Mexico City, it's so big."

- Tom Hamilton

"Boy that ice cream has made you really sharp today. That's where the confidence comes in. You were confident when you went for the Butterfinger crunch..."
- Tom Hamilton after discussing Hagadone's lack of confidence

"I don't care if you're Manny Acta, Eric Wedge or even Joe Torre - if you don't have a bullpen you can count on, you're doomed any way because any decision you make blows up in your face."
- Tom Hamilton

The Chiz Kid!

Oh man, oh man, oh man!! I was at the game tonight y'all! I saw all of those 19 runs! I cheered for all of those 13 hits! How lucky am I?!

I was supposed to be at batting practice today and got there in time but it was cancelled due to rain. Bullocks. The good news is that we get to come to a different game and will get free tix. We had nowhere to go but The Winking Lizard, where I drowned my sorrows in 1lb of ground beef. And a salad.

Back at the ballpark by 6 PM where we got to participate in "Photo Day." They have 2 players standing in for photographs with 400 of the first-come-first-serve fans. Our choices today were Tomlin and Cunningham. No offense to Aaron Cunningham but the obvious choice was Tomlin. He is not a tall man. That is to say, he is regular-sized but I guess maybe short for a pitcher. Maybe like 5'10" (stats say 6'1". No.) He was very very cordial. He shook my hand and I introduced myself. I think my friends did too. Then we moved along and paid $20 for a copy of the photo. I thought maybe it'd be free. We were told while in line that it was $5, actually. The young lady who told us this did say she was wrong, as she took my $20. We were slightly perturbed but since there were 4 of us, $5 each wasn't too bad. We're going to do it again.

I had brought along some baseball cards and pens for autographs, and went down to left field to try to get some, but nothing doing. It didn't help that the tarp was on the field until 15 mins before the game. I'll try next time.

By 7:05 the sun was out and the air was dry(er than it had been previously).  Being that we had some law firm's swanky seats, you betcha someone had dried them off for us. I got myself a Diet Doctor Pepper in a souvenir cup. They're doing a new thing now - $6 for one, $8 for one plus one refill, $10 for one plus two refills. That's a savings of $4 on one refill or $8 on two. Not bad! No way I could (should) finish two huge pops on a Monday night but the cups are good all season. So I'll be bringing my cup back for sure!

Derek Lowe was the starter. If you aren't familiar with his shit with Reds' manager Dusty Baker, here's some info. As far as I know there was no problem tonight. I do know nobody got hit by any pitches today even though the same two guys were pitching. They gave up 19 hits between them in just 5 innings so really they probably didn't want to put any guys on base on purpose. Anyway, Lowe wasn't at his best today. He gave up 7 earned runs in 5 innings. But since it was tied up when he left, it didn't seem that bad, yaknow?

We got treated to Smith in the 6th and 7th, who held them to just 1 run. He got 2 outs in the 7th, thanks to Kotchman's unassisted double play. Then he gave up a homer (Progressive Field is just a home run paradise lately) and Manny took him out after 1 2/3 innings for Pestano to come take care of the rest. Vinnie got out of it and then had a 1-2-3 8th, because he is in fact The Man.

VinneP52 - look who just sprinted in!

I feel so lucky cuz I got to see Pestano and Perez tonight. It's a treat to watch them pitch because of the huge energy they bring but also because when they come in you know it's over. Perez had a 2-run lead and you know he was going to give one up and he did. He started off strong but of course Brandon Phillips had to have the last word and he got on, then scored on a single from Bruce. But Perez took care of the next guy who struck out looking. Ballgame!

Crank it, Jerry!

So like I said we had 13 hits tonight and FINALLY we had a bunch of guys with a multi-hit game. Choo knocked the second pitch of the game from Latos out of the park, matching up Votto's homer in the first. He also got an RBI double, going 2 for 5 on the night.

Touch-em-all time for Choo!

Tonight was Asdrubal bobblehead night - they did include the compression sleeve but they left out the huge forearm tattoo - and I wore my custom-made Asdrubal t-shirt (they didn't make Asdrubal t-shirts in 2008!) but nothing brought him luck. He went 0 for 3 with a walk and a run. Oh well - we did really need that run today.

In the hole? Anything? No?

Kipnis was silenced today, which of course is weird. You don't expect the JK Kid to go hitless in a game with 10 runs and 13 hits for the good guys but there it is. He did turn 2 double plays, though!

Lopez was the DH again tonight. Better than nothing, I say. He was wearing a little thin until he got a hit in the 7th. Unfortunately he didn't get any runs or RBI.

Santana was looking more like himself today. He got a key 2 hits. Multi-hit Santana = win!! Those 2 hits turned in to 2 runs. You see how important it is to get on base, 'Los? I think he gets it.

Cousin Michael's back on to a 2-game hitting streak. He went 2 for 3 tonight, both hits being doubles. He had 1 RBI and scored 2 runs. Plus he looked good in the field...well, anyone looks good next to Damon...

Stretch it out Michael and Chiz. You've got a lot of left field to cover.

Johnny Damon...oh my God you guys, I almost cried. Seriously. He is so bad in the field. Just comically bad today. I felt bad for snubbing Cunningham in the Photo Day line because by the 3rd inning I was ready to vote for him for Mayor Of Left Field. Damon did get a hit, a RBI and a run but I am pretty sure he had a hand in about 7 Reds runs scoring. Please, can we be done with this Damon shit now?? Seeing him come to the plate is like seeing the goddamn pitcher come up. There's no room for that in Cleveland.

The other part of the bottom of the order was rockin' tonight, thank Og. Casey Kotchman not only had the aforementioned unassisted double play (easy peasy for the Kotch) but he also banged a 2-run homer in the 4th! I totally called it. It was 5-4 and there was 1 on for us and I was like "You know, he can hit homers. He had 14 in 2011. He needs 7 by the break, just 2 more." BANG! YES I DID!!! You're welcome!! He also got another RBI on a well-placed groundout. Because that's the kind of standup guy Casey Kotchman is!

The big news for the night was Lonnie Chisenhall who went 3 for 4 and was about 2 feet away from going for the cycle. He got the homer and the triple and a single, and in the 8th tried to get that double but didn't. Of course we gave him a standing ovation anyway! He ended up going 3 for 4 with 3 RBI and 2 runs. AWESOME!! This is the guy we went nuts for at his debut. Is he back?? Let's hope!

The beginning of Lonnie's big night!

There were just under 20,000 fans tonight, which I think was pretty good for a night that started with rain. Now, it seemed that about 10,000 of those fans were Cincy fans (indeed half of the fans by me were) but whatever. Money in "our" pockets either way. The guys next to us were trying to be rowdy but were ultimately nice. It didn't hurt that we won!

Some dickhead got thrown out for throwing something on the field in the 6th. I don't know what it was, but it came from waaaay up in the top of the upper deck. A cop went up there and people were quick to point the finger at whoever it was. Ha!

At one point a fan got smoked by a foul ball, and it turned out to be scary. It's scary when they call an usher down. Even scarier when an usher starts waving a yellow card and all the players go wide-eyed. Yikes...I just listened to it on the radio archive and they went off the air for a second while they tended to the fan - that was creepy! But not long after the second cop arrived but even before the EMTs arrived, fans around the injured fan started clapping to let us know she was all right. Whew.

Someone in front of us got hit by a ball when she reached out to catch it. It was an older lady. An older guy down her row slinked over to ask if she was all right, not before picking up the damn ball and quickly giving it to his wife to stow safely in her purse. Jesus, people! That was seriously uncool. The rowdy from Cincy (Kentucky) that was sitting next to us (his name was Lonnie, by the way) bought the lady a margarita. She never did get a ball.

Lots of crazy stuff in the game tonight for sure. All of it exciting and doubly so since we won!

Oh yeah and KSU won tonight too! They eliminated #1 Florida!!!! They're in the top 6 now and they'll be taking on South Carolina Wednesday at 8 PM. People at Progressive Field were pretty excited about this too!

I managed to get some stuff from the radio tonight, just for yous. Tim Belcher was in the booth and he had a lot to say about this game, being that both starting pitchers got smacked around. I didn't listen to 100% of the game but I got some good stuff. I've got to sleep!

Tomorrow is more Reds, Tomlin versus Leake. Pretty even...will our bats show up again?? That'd be fun. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Serves him right that he gave up the game-tying run to Choo, because he started the game with an 80-mile-an-hour curveball."
- Tim Belcher

"He looks like someone stole his dinner or something. He is mad!"
- Jim Rosenhaus on Mat Latos's Media Guide photo

"Progressive Field doing its best Great American Ballpark impression."
- Jim Rosenhaus on the number of homers

"...they craft the memos about proper press box decorum. But Kent State got a huge strikeout with the bases loaded and only one out, and that's an addendum to cheering in the press box where you get a waiver."
- Jim Rosenhaus on upper management cheering in the press box

"Does this look like a tennis match or what?"
- Tim Belcher on the scoring

"Are you sure? It seems like the 15th!"
- Tim Belcher in the 5th

"Count me as one who doesn't like a good-old-fashioned-slugfest."
- Tim Belcher

"That's why you don't make plans for after the game. You never know what kind of game it's going to be."
- Jim Rosenhaus

"A wild one here at Progressive Field."
- Jim Rosenhaus in the 8th. My friend predicted this would be used to describe tonight's game. 

Brandon Gets the Best of Us

If Torii Hunter is my favorite non-Indian in the AL, then Brandon Phillips is my guy in the NL. Could be that I know what he's up to *touches nose* when he plays against Cleveland, since we let him go all those years ago. Could be that as a former second-baseman myself I just appreciate a great middle man. Could also be that if I'm not able to throw my hands up and say "Well, that Brandon Phillips, you can't beat him!" that I would just curl up and die every time the Reds came around on our schedule.

I did vote for him for the All Star Game, tho. Him and Votto. Wow.

Derek Lowe was the starter today. He wasn't "Wow, Derek Lowe!" tonight but he was better than 2 of his last 3 games. He only gave up 3 in his 6 innings, but he walked a lot (6) which is not what you want to do against a team with a guy hitting .363 (Votto).

Nick Hagadone, however, was absolutely not "Wow, Nick Hagadone!" today. Two hits and two runs in just one inning? I'm afraid I cursed the boy by suggesting him as a Fantasy pickup. My bad, Cleveland. I also apologize for planting grass seed in half my front yard 4 weeks ago - I appear to have caused a bit of a drought.

Esmil Rogers. We just got him from Colorado "for cash" and apparently he needs a little love. Like a malnourished kitten who throws 95 MPH. He got to peek his head out of the cat carrier for the 8th inning today and throw his nastiest stuff at the Reds. It was a good opportunity to put him out there - albeit against a NL team in an NL park so what is the difference? - it was the bottom of their order. He did strike out 2 and throw 96/97 MPH fastballs. Came out unscathed. Can he do that in long relief? Time will tell.

By the way, his minor league team was the Modesto Nuts. Their logo actually makes nuts look tough:

Fuck off with your monocle and top hat.

Today's game was about as blah as yesterday's game, batting-wise. A bunch of guys went 1 for 4. Johnny Damon is turning from useless into a liability. Happy to see Santana hit, and a double at that! The pitcher got a hit. I think all of our pitchers have hit this year, or darn close to it.

And of course the biggest, bestest news of the night is that Michael Brantley is at 20 games now!!! He's been slowed down to just single-hit games but whatever, a streak is a streak. He's still hitting like .350 during it too. I can't quell my smilies anymore so I'll just lay a few out right here :) :) :)

Will give props to LOPEZ! for his late-inning pinch hit home run. That's what I'm talkin' bout, Lopez! Show him why you've got to stick around!

That's pretty much it. We were at least closer today at 3 runs to their 5 but still not good enough for a win. Pitching is coming around but batting needs to tighten up. This music video for Akron's Own The Black Keys "Tighten Up" - in which said band gets beaten up by some children - is better than tonight's baseball game.

Tomorrow is a noonly game versus another right-handed pitcher, Mike Leake. Our guy is Josh Tomlin. Should be good, right? Yeah, that's what I thought before these last two games. Oh well, I like a good noontime romp through the ballpark so happy I will be.

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"The last thing you want to do is walk Wilson Valdez in front of this guy."
- Tom Hamilton on Valdez's first walk of the season, before Joey Votto

"They were talking in the dugout about Santana's performance at the plate and shaking their heads."
- Tom Hamilton

"You can't teach 95 miles per hour."
- Tom Hamilton on the training of Esmil Rogers

"People were lined up at the press dinner like it was the Last Supper. [...] If you came home from a long day of work and your wife offered you hot dogs and chili, you'd probably go somewhere else."
- Tom Hamilton on the Skyline Chili (and hot dogs) at the press dinner, of course after describing Rosie coming back from dinner covered in chili like a dirty toddler

"Rosie will be delivered by crane to the Indians plane tomorrow."
- Tom Hamilton after going over all of the foods Rosie had tried in Cincy

"It seems like every time we look up, isn't Joey Votto or Jay Bruce swinging the bat?"
- Tom Hamilton on the too-large number of walks

"It's almost like he's on a mission against the tribe."
- Tom Hamilton on Brandon Phillips

"He's an angry elf."
- Tom Hamilton on Asdrubal's hissy fit

"It's like they found a picture and put it on somebody else's body and put an imaginary cap on his head."
- Tom Hamilton on the Reds' scoreboard photo of Johnny Damon

"All he's done is thrown strikes. He's come in and pounded the strike zone with mid-90s sliders."
- Tom Hamilton on Esmil Rogers

"These are Little League numbers. Fifty-five strikeouts in 31 innings. Fifty-five strikeouts!"
- Tom Hamilton on the Reds' closer

"People ask how can Chisenhall swing at that ball in the dirt? Well when it's going 100 miles per hour, you don't have a lot of time to decide."
- Tom Hamilton

"The Cuban Missle is human."
- Tom Hamilton after Lopez hits one off Aroldis Chapman

O Noes, Derek Lowe!

Oh boffins, I bet you thought I forgot about you. That I listened to the game this afternoon and buried myself in my work then came home and buried myself in a hot bath and did my best to wash off this loss. But, not so. I just got busy at work then after work stuff. I am here now!

You know who was most upset about this game? Derek Lowe. You can tell he's upset because he threw a cooler full of ice in the dugout and that's not something a seasoned veteran does that often. Lowe is from Detroit and he had some 30 family members in the stands today. Plus it was game 3 where we'd rolled over the Tigers twice already. Plus he fucking rocks and should not be giving up 7 runs in 5 innings. But that's what he did. For some reason I can excuse this more than any of our other starters when they suck. Lowe's done so well for us this year, it's just as hard for us to see him do bad as it is for him.

Scott Barnes came in for 2 and was lights out. His ERA is still 0. Jeremy Accardo did the same and is pitching 1.54. Nice stuff from the "low end" of our bullpen!

The offense actually almost came back. The Tigers defense tried to give it back. But we came so close and it slipped away. Sorry, Derek Lowe. It was just not your day.

Our man Choo is at it again - a SEVEN game hitting streak in which he has gotten 12 hits!! He went 2 for 5 today but neither of hit hits were doubles. Weird! He of course came around to score.

Asdrubal's still getting it done, at the plate and on the field. HE got a double, because he is awesome and it was a two-run double. He also walked and came around to score, because that's the kind of stand-up guy he is. You should take a moment and vote for him in the All Star Game. You know he would vote for you. Well not for shortstop, because he wants to be the all star shortstop, and play every day!

Hey, welcome back Jason Kipnis! The JK Kid woke up and went 2 for 4 today and of course he stole another base because that's what Kipnis does now. He also showed a little patience and walked, and turned two of his on-bases in to runs. We need that guy!

Everyone can take a breath now - Santana's back! Well, I dunno maybe I'm jumping the gun but dammit, I've been waiting patiently! He went 1 for 4 today with an RBI and a walk. That's one! Now he can just continue on getting hits every game! We won't mention how he tried to stretch a single in to a double and was out by a mile...wouldn't want to embarrass him on his first day "back."

LOPEZ! Rockin a 1 for 2 tonight with one walk, one double, one sac fly and 2 RBI! Maybe he is fighting for his job? It does not hurt us that we've got 3 awesome guys fighting for 3rd base. Well, until we send one of them to the Red Sox.

OMFG MICHAEL BRANTLEY WITH A 15 GAME HITTING STREAK!! He got on base earlier thanks to Prince Fielder being awful, but he was cutting it close hit-wise, not getting one until the 8th inning. If we ignore Santana, our top 6 (well, 5) hitters are batting a .282 average. That equals the average for all of the Rangers, the top team in the league for average.

Casey Kotchman! Slowly and quietly working his way up the average ladder. Tiny hitting streak at 3. Today he went a crazy 2 for 4. Unfortunately the guys around him weren't knocking the ball around at the same time so he didn't get any runs or RBI.

Did you know Marson has a 7-game hitting streak? Amazing what every day of play will do. Of course he's still scraping the bottom of the barrel average-wise but he's been consistent and useful. Today he went 1 for 4 with a run so he's doing the same stuff as Santana is.

Choices, choices!

Well, now we move on to the St. Louis Cardinals. All I know about the Cards is that I rooted for them in the World Series and they looked amazing and unstoppable. But that was last year and so far this year they're only playing .500 ball.

Oh yeah the pitcher we're facing tomorrow? Jake Westbrook. He was totes my faves when he was on our team and I was crushed to see him go. His stats this year look pretty much the same as always, around a 4 ERA. So we might not get too far with him.

Speaking of St. Louis pitching, there's some other Indians blog-like thing that is not TribeVibe or the Indians Tumblr or MLBlogs but something called Cut4 which has entries separated by city. To get around to the St. Louis pitching part, the latest entry has a video of Chris Perez doing his "You can't see me" thing, which I don't think was previously available. Chris Perez used to pitch for the Cardinals, you know. We win! But anyway, check out Cut4, whatever it is.

I also like the blog for Topps Bunt. Bunt is an iApp but apparently only for iPad. I couldn't find it for my iPod Touch. I am not even sure what I'm missing. But their little blog is pretty good, with weird little videos from around baseball and even non-MLB baseball. Scroll down past the app update posts for videos. There's a video of Charlie Manuel getting into an argument with an ump that just made me laugh. I can only imagine how it sounded. You've seen Waterboy? It sounded like that.

Ok that's enough from me. Good try at a comeback today, bad job by Derek Lowe. He's sorry and he's sorry he threw that cooler.

It's another day tomorrow in St. Louis. An 8:05 start so I'll actually have time to fix dinner beforehand. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"You can watch all the video you want, but as a hitter there's nothing like seeing it in person."
- Tom Hamilton on the Indians facing Crosby for the first time

"Everyone wants to know 'Did your team have a good draft?' but how do you really know until 5 years later?"
- Jim Rosenhaus

"Where would this club be without Jose Lopez?"
- Tom Hamilton after Lopez's RBI double

"The Tigers are desperate for a win. They can't afford to lose this game today, not with a 7-1 lead."
- Tom Hamilton

"He comes charging to the mound like a bull running the streets in Spain. He almost bowled over Leland who is trying to give him the ball."
- Tom Hamilton on

"Rocker woulda decked the driver and driven the cart himself."
- Tom Hamilton on the idea of John Rocker being driven to the mound in a funny cart

"He can call home tonight and say 'Cabrera and Fielder, they're not that good.'"
- Tom Hamilton on Scott Barnes

The Kids Are All Right

We are all Kipnises!

What a game! I'm a little peeved I didn't end up going...I was going to go with a friend, then he flaked and I was going to go by myself. But then I saw there'd be fireworks and a promotional giveaway and thought "nah, they don't need my ass in the seats today." But my other friend was there and she said it was sparse so I don't know (it was actually 19k so that's "good" for the Tribe this year). I know I missed a bomb by Lonnie and the season's first grand slam!

But instead I stayed home and got to not only hear Candy Maldonado (!!) and Carlos Baerga chat with the radio guys, but also none other than Albert Belle who drank a cup of Grown Up Juice and is now a swell guy with lots of things to say. It was pretty much a life-changing radio event for those of us who were around in the 90s! It almost made me want to take up golf so I can spend a day on the links with Belle and Maldonado and Rosie. But not really, because ugh -golf.

One thing I did do today is sign me and my friends up for Cleveland Indians Photo Day on June 18. We already have 4 sweet behind-the-plate tickets for that day that I got at auction, and 4 batting practice tickets that I got at a different auction. And it's Asdrubal bobblehead day, and now we're going to get our photo taken with one of the players. How cool is that? I had no idea it existed and all you have to do is sign up to get in. I signed up and got a confirmation of my registration right away! I wonder who the player will be? I'll pretty much take anyone! Hmm except the two guys with the initials JD, how about that? Sandy or Manny would be cool too.

Jeez, I don't think I'm going to sleep until June 18 now. This will be almost as cool as our game at the Hargrove Suite. But really nothing can be as cool as the Hargrove Suite.

Anyway, also exciting today was that it was Derek's Lowe's 39th birthday and he got his 7th win and went 6 2/3 innings to boot! This is the team he pitched a shutout to last time around. He actually struck 2 out this time (NONE last time!) and "only" had 9 groundball outs. Just 5 hits and 1 walk, and he only gave up 1 earned run. He's got the Lowe-st (HA!) ERA on the team now, 3.06 and he's tied for wins in the AL with 7. He did get hit by a ball in the calf early on and damn right we all went "EEP!" but he shook it off - literally - and told everyone he was fine. And he was.

Hagadone and Accardo came in to finish it up and did just fine. They gave up 1 hit between them and struck out 2. Glad I didn't miss the Firestarter tonight.

Choo was out there Choo-in it up, finally with his first multi-hit game in a week. And of course he turned those 2 hits into 2 runs!

Yeah, I'm pretty sold on the Kipnis. I just remembered the other day that he signed my ball this winter, along with Shelley Duncan and the other Jason guy. I've got the Shelley side face up on my display...maybe it's time to show that I am a Kipnis?

Anyway, @TheJK_Kid went 2 for 5 today and got himself the team's first GRAND SLAM of the season! So he ended up with 4 RBI and a run, and his 12th stolen base. And he got plonked in the head with a ball while on the bases, but apparently since he's a "dirtbag" his head was all right. Carlos Baerga was in the booth for the grand slam and he was just beside himself. Kipnis is Baerga's dude. If Kipnis wasn't convincing you on his own, well now you've heard it from Baerga. Believe!

Asdrubal wasn't totally on fire tonight (no doubt he was missing me and OMG ASDRUBAL!!!), only going 1 for 5. But he's only been back a short while. I expect him to rock out this weekend.

LOPEZ! I don't know what I was talking about Wednesday saying his welcome is wearing out. Cuz he's working his way back up to deserving DH status by going 2 for 5 tonight.

Don't forget Cousin Michael, tho! He's got a TEN GAME HITTING STREAK. His average is painstakingly moving towards .300. Just 60 points to go before he's where I told you he'd be!

Casey Kotchman is the only guy who didn't get a hit today, and yes, that is surprising. Because Old Man Whatshisface went 2 for 4 and scored a run. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to dislike an Indians player while loving the Indians team. It's like having to hate one of your own children. Except not because this is just a game.

The other "kid" who knocked our collective socks off tonight is Lonnie Chisenhall who got his 2nd home run in 4 games right there in the 2nd. A "no doubt about it" homer, even. He ended up going 3 for 4 with 2 runs and 2 RBI!!! Not to be outdone by Kipnis, he also stole a base. FUCKIN' A, LONNIE! I wonder if Hannahan comes back they'll put Lonnie in at DH? If he came back tomorrow I'd totally do that (sorry Lopez).

Tough Guy Lou Marson was back today after getting beaned in his beautiful mouth on Sunday. They said Lonnie Soloff had to "take him to the dentist" which just sounds so weird cuz they're both grown men. But to the dentist he went and his mouth was all stitched up and they joked that they weren't sure if the ball was ok yuk yuk. The stitches came out and Sweet Lou geared up and ended up going 1 for 3 tonight with a walk. That does in fact make a 3-game hitting streak for Lou, which is notable when you're hitting .185.

Still shiny!

In the middle of all this, KSU is playing Kentucky in the NCAA Div I baseball playoffs. It's in the 21st inning right now. That's pretty wild, considering our game only went 2:30. Also going on tonight is Johan Santana threw the first no-hitter for the Mets. Seriously, Mets? I guess you'll have that with those "expansion teams" heh.

Anyway, if you were thinking about going to a game, you should go tomorrow because it's gonna be on Fox and we don't want it to look sparse. Of course, once again, I am being dragged out to do things out of the house and I'll miss the entire damn thing and have to catch it on the radio. Not that I don't love radio but seeing a game on TV is a rare treat for me and missing it makes me grrrr...

Maybe I'll go to the game Sunday, then.

Tomorrow's game is 7:15 against the Twins again. And we gotta mop up these Twins because they suck. Boston sucks too and they mopped US up so we've got to keep this shit going so we can swing in to Detroit on Tuesday and kick some more kitty ass.

I'll be late, of course, but I hope you enjoy the game. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Mike, I'd say the chances of Tom, Wendy and the kids listening to us right now is slim-to-none. [...] Their son is in a nail-biter against one of the top teams in the country. This game is of no consequence to them right now."
- Jim Rosenhaus on Tom Hamilton's family watching his son Nick and the Golden Flashes play in the NCAA tournament

"I know it's gonna be a bullet. He's gonna hit a line drive. [...] I called it! This guy's gonna be a big guy!"
- Carlos Baerga on Jason Kipnis before he hit a grand slam

"Jim Rosenhaus has a smile like a cheshire cat right now..."
- Mike Hegan brings up golf, which leads in to the story of Rosie's 65 foot putt

"That's why you can never count on spring training. They always say 'Barring injury...'"
- Mike Hegan

They Got Lowe

For however much we lost by today and however sad you were that we lost, you gotta admit this was a good game. I mean, there was a whole lot of baseball going on in Chicago today. Twenty-one runs on just 23 hits. Only two walks. Four homers - one guy with two homers. A robbed homer. Hit by pitch, error, steal ... and the Indians only had 1 left on base!

Yeah, there was a lot of baseball going on in Chicago today. And Bob Saget sang the National Anthem. Huh.

Funny how it works out that after Masterson and Jiminez had good outings back-to-back, our ACTUAL reliable guys, Jeanmar and Lowe, had bad outings. Lowe gave up 8 runs in his 2 1/3 innings today. He probably would have gone more if they'd let him but Acta felt that 8 wasn't too high a hurdle for us, even without Cabrera, Hafner and Santana. He was almost right, too - we ended up scoring 7. Unfortunately, they ended up scoring 14. Lowe did end up striking out 3 in the 7 outs he collected, which is 3 more than he struck out when he had his complete game shutout. It was just the inbetween stuff that got him.

Jeremy Accardo went 2 2/3 which I think is pretty long for him. In that time he only allowed 1 hit and HE struck out 3 as well. In the 6 innings he's pitched, he's only allowed 3 hits and 2 runs.

Next was Hagadone and he was back to form. He pitched the 6th and nothing happened but a strikeout. But then Joe Smith, who has always been reliable for us, gave up 4 runs in the 7th and Sipp, who is never reliable for us, gave up 2 more.

Paul Konerko - who is hitting .396 - went 4 for 4 today with 2 RBI. Dayan Viciedo got 5 RBI. But his name is Dayan ha ha!

When people say the White Sox are on a hitting tear, you should believe them!

Speaking of hitting tear, Choo got another one today! He went 1 for 3 and he also got hit by a pitch for the 6th time. (If you're wondering, he's tied for 1st in the AL and 2nd in the MLB.) He's been on base every game since he started hitting leadoff. Oh and he can play right field too.

Brantley! :) :) Double smiley today for the dude they moved up to 2nd. He went 1 for 4 with his 15th double (3rd in the league) and ended up with 3 RBI on the day, which is awesome because we sure could use RBI today! He also pulled a Kenny Lofton, bringing a home run back into the park. You know how I said the other day that the play at the plate is my favorite play? I think I like snatched home runs pretty good too.

Hitting 3rd today because Asdrubal's out, and because he's awesome in Chicago, was Kipnis who was, in fact, awesome. He went 2 for 4 with 4 RBI and two homers! How awesome is that for Kipnis to come home to Chicago and bash away like that?

Jose Lopez (LOPEZ!) was our DH today, because Hannahan is in and Hafner's out so it was a no-brainer because Lopez is hot. But the DH spot proved to be too daunting for him or something because he went 0 for 4. Sadly, Hannahan suffered the same fate.

It's sort of funny to see that our next best hitter after Lopez is apparently Kotchman, who was hitting 5th. He didn't disappoint and at least got a hit. I guess he did disappoint in the runs and RBI columns.

Johnny Damon was at this game.

Juan Diaz is still in at short. He didn't get any hits but he walked once and came around to score. Sweet Lou Marson, who's going to get some more playing time here (Santana is on the mandatory (I think mandatory?) 7-day concussion DL) went out and got his 4th hit of the year! AND he turned it in to a run! If you were wondering, Luke Carlin - who is 31 years old and has played in only 6 MLB games - is up as our backup catcher. I want to see him play just to see what that's all about. Apparently he got 5 hits in 2010 when he played 6 games for us. Too bad he can't play left field...

Tomorrow is a dreaded Sunday game - Ubaldo vs. Gavin Floyd. Ubaldo is coming off a good outing and Floyd coming off an outing in which he gave up 8 runs. We'll still have the b-squad as far as I know. Hafner didn't even make the trip I don't think. Will be interesting to see what our lineup looks like, that's for sure.

At least there will be some baseball!

I'll be missing the game in exchange for a Memorial Day party, but you know I look forward to listening afterwards. Do you think the game will be on at the party? Hahahaha...yeah, what am I thinking?

Anyway, 2:10 tomorrow - see you there!

PS Speaking of the b-team, they were short Hammy today again on the radio. From what I can tell, Scott Bailes will NOT be there tomorrow so I don't know if Hammy will be there or some other guest (Hammy would have to make a 1-day trip to Chicago).

Anyway, I didn't get any Radio Chatter today because there was nothing really to write down. Maybe there was, when I was cleaning my shower (Saturday is cleaning day!) but if there was I didn't hear it. Scott Bailes wasn't too bad to listen to, really - I like player perspective and miss it a lot with Hegan gone. But Rosie and Bailes just aren't as quotable as Hammy.

The Marlins Catch Us

Well we knew this was going to be a bit of a yawner today. And it being the 21st game in 20 days as well as a Sunday, there was a pretty good chance that our Tribe wasn't going to fare well, and they didn't.

I was at least excited to be able to catch a game on TV. Last weekend I missed both games, and I missed the game on Saturday too. Today I was all "I will come help you later, AFTER the game." And I sat there with my dog and my iPod Touch and we watched it for free in glorious over-the-air HD.

So that was an awesome thing about today's game. That I got to see it. And 23,000 people saw it live. I wonder if Chris Perez cares?

There's a bit more to the Perez saga if you didn't see for yourself. Nobody's mad at him, I guess. Not in the Indians organization. Hell if people come to the park just to boo him I think the organization would be happy. Not sure how Rage would feel but he might throw 98 MPH.

Back to the issue at hand. Derek Lowe still looks good but today we couldn't put up the numbers on the offensive side to help him out. Well we ultimately did but his buddies in the bullpen weren't as razor-sharp as they've been known to be. Lowe gave up just 2 earned runs in 6 innings, striking out 2. He "only" had 14 ground-outs this time. His ERA is just .01 higher than Verlander and he's in a 5-way tie for most wins. Way to go Lowe!

After Lowe was my new favorite Hagadone and he seemed a little weary out there. He ended up giving up a run on 2 hits and a walk, at a time when we really couldn't afford to give up a run. Jeremy Accardo, who was beautiful the last 2 times we saw him, gave up TWO runs in the 8th on 2 hits and a walk. Aye aye aye!

Nobody gave up any homers, tho!

This Josh Johnson fella kept us pretty silent most of the afternoon (as did, I think, the afternoon sun). We only got 7 hits and 3 walks, scoring only 3.

Choo will not be silenced and increased his streak to 8 games by getting a hit and walking twice. He stole second but alas, he did not come around to score.

Kipnis, Cabrera and Hafner were all shut out completely. Not even a walk between them! Or a sacrifice! What's up with Kipnis, huh? He was hot as hell the first 3 games of the month, in Chicago. He cooled down to nary a peep lately.

Santana got a hit and went 1 for 4. Did you know he's kept the same batting average - .261 - since Friday? How weird is that. Oh, he got switched over to catcher later in the game and he threw someone out at 2nd. He's had a GREAT weekend for caught stealing! I see he's already caught 9 this year and he had a total of 18 last year.

The second half of the lineup was actually the "hot" half. Brantley and Damon both got hits, going 1 for 4. Damon almost hit a homer but he didn't. He did do this, to which Shelley Duncan replied:

My replacement? Wut?

Brantley came around to score twice and stole a base. Damon came around to score too. So there was that.

The day belonged to LOPEZ, tho! Dude went 3 for 4 today with two doubles and 2 of the team's 3 RBI. He's getting to be as fun and reliable as our man Hannahan down there. I wonder if we can get Lopez to catch and he can be the backup catcher instead of Marson? I loves me some Sweet Lou but he can't get a hit this year. He also had a little running error which maaaaay have lost us a run or two. But really I chalk that up to not baserunning every day. Heck I wouldn't have slid there either.

Casey Kotchman, on the other hand, is "red hot" (not really) and good enough to pinch hit for Marson in the 7th. In the 9th, he got a fielder's choice RBI. Rock on, Kotchman!

Tomorrow the guys get their first day off since April 30. Yeep. I'm going to the game Tuesday or Wednesday. I want to go Tuesday since Wednesday is Dollar Dog Night and they won't need my ass filling a  seat as much as they will Tuesday. But Tuesday it's supposed to rain, and it rained the last time I took all my friends to see the Tigers so like...I should probably go Wednesday. Argh.

Everyone have a nice day off tomorrow! Tuesday night is Ubaldo versus Porcello. I don't know if I want to see Ubaldo, either (I've already seen him!) although Wednesday is Fister and I don't want to see HIM. I should just go to both. Maybe I will just go by myself!

Anyway see you Tuesday, boffins! Have a nice day off!

Radio Chatter:
"Reyes was given part of South Beach to sign with the Marlins."
- Tom Hamilton

"We normally look forward to 12 donuts on Sunday. Here we are the, Indians in first place and Brian Hoffer shows up with a box of 6 donuts."
- Tom Hamilton on the injustice of it all

"Rosie I gotta believe the Indians will find some more at-bats for Lopez even when Jack Hannahan gets back."
- Tom Hamilton knows the score

"This isn't Detroit so the radar readings are pretty accurate."
- Tom Hamilton

"The problem with Ramirez is you never know which guy will show up. The guy who's one of the best players in the game or the guy who says 'Eh do I really feel like playing today?'"
- Tom Hamilton on Hanley Ramirez

"Again the schedule maker flunked geography many years ago."
- Tom Hamilton still not a fan of the schedule

Get Lowe

Awesome game! Everything just came together - pitching, hitting - and we were rewarded heartily.

Here, we'll give you a soundtrack for this post (it's the song "Get Low" by Lil' Jon):

Derek Lowe - the old man pitcher we got courtesy of Atlanta, who paid us $10mm to take him off their hands, pitched a complete game shutout today. He had 18 ground-ball outs and NO strikeouts in just 127 pitches. Out-fucking-standing! He got his 6th win and is tied for the league lead.

It all seemed so easy for him today too. The weather was perfect for baseball, the Twins aren't very good and Target field is a "neutral" park for hitting. Lowe was all "Yeah, I can do this" and then he did it.

Our batters didn't let Lowe down (they never do) just in case he needed some help.

Choo was leading off for the second game in a row and he had it going on! He went 2 for 4 with a home run, a double and a walk. So far after 2 games he's just about the most successful leadoff man we've had this year! Let's hope his momentum stays built up when he finally faces a lefty as leadoff.

Of all the awesome hitting we had today, Jason Kipnis was not a part of it. Pretty weird, as he was doing the bulk of our good getting-on-base last week. Today he went 0 for 5.

OMG! Asdrubal got his 4th homer of the year and went 2 for 5 with 2 RBI. Following up Choo's and Asdrubal's homers in the 5th was a third solo shot by Santana! He must have been feeling good today as DH, because Santana got me that multi-hit game I've been asking for and went 2 for 4 with a homer and a double just like Choo. We should all be more like Choo!

Michael Brantley is diggin' the second half of the lineup it seems. He also had a multi-hit game with his second triple of the year, going 2 for 4. And he got a steal!

After him came Jose Lopez, who's filling in at 3rd while Jack Hannahan rests his back.  I think if Jack's going to get hurt, doing it while we play the Twins is an excellent plan. I feel like Lopez could be a pretty great addition to our lineup if he has a chance to play. Unfortunately our infield is pretty awesome with the bats, and we've got Duncan, Donald and Santana able to cover 3rd and 1st. So I don't know how or where Lopez would fit, but he could hit if he fit. Otherwise he's sort of wasting away on the bench. He came in and went 1 for 4 today, so at least he's contributing!

Johnny Damon was also in this game.

Casey Kotchman! FINALLY up over .202, going 1 for 3 with a walk today! That one hit was a 2-out RBI single, too! We might have to start calling him "Old Reliable."

Poor Lou Marson - not enough playing time, he forgets how to bat. He went 0 for 4 today with a strikeout and is still batting under .100.

We ended the game having scored 5 runs for Derek Lowe, which is 4 more than he needed but nobody doesn't like insurance runs. And it was the first time we'd had 3 homers in a game since [I forget the statistic. 2008?]!!!

Tomorrow the team is back in town against Seattle, against whom we're already 2-1 this season and Felix Hernandez against whom we're already 1-0!! Of course Ubaldo is pitching so this could either go well, or go horribly, horribly wrong.

Oh well - we've got the next 27 hours to revel in Lowe's great game and our big, big bats. See you then!

Radio Chatter:
"You look at this Twins lineup and you go 'Huh? Who are these guys?'"
- Tom Hamilton

"You know Damon is struggling when you see he's only walked twice."
- Tom Hamilton

"Boy the Indians could play a 1-game series and they still wouldn't miss King Felix."
- Tom Hamilton

"After a while, seeing that blue jersey...the Indians would wear polka-dotted pants with it if they thought it would make them win."
- Tom Hamilton does not like the blue jerseys

"Manny Acta looks like a genius, huh?"
- Jim Rosenhaus after Choo's home run

"How do you think Atlanta feels? 'We're paying ten million dollars to have him win in Cleveland?'"
- Tom Hamilton on Derek Lowe

Golfgate

Oh my. Tom Hamilton loves to talk about ballplayers who are great guys. He also loves to talk about how incompetent umpires are. The final of his top three things to harp on is baseball players who do dumb things. Tonight topic of Hammy's ranting was Boston pitcher Josh Beckett who apparently is being raked over the coals in the overly-dramatic Boston sports press for golfing the day after he missed a start. Golfgate! Adding to the fun of that tidbit was a revelation last October that Beckett and other Red Sox pitchers were eating fried chicken and drinking beer on the bullpen bench. Hamilton was beside himself - it was almost as good as Milton Bradley doing something stupid!

Anyway, Josh Beckett was supposed to be proving himself tonight but - nope. He proved that the Indians could hit him all over the park. I had told my friend who was attending the game that I'd listen for him yelling "CHOOOO!!" in the crowd but I couldn't hear a thing over all of the "Boooo!!" for Beckett.

Derek Lowe - ex-Red Sox - didn't seem to get noticed by the rabid fans. Neither did Damon. Lowe gave up 9 hits but only 2 runs. His WHIP is not low that's for sure but he's tied for the league lead in wins! There's definitely something to an old pitcher that knows how to get himself out of shit.

Man, poor Tony Sipp. Gave up another run today, a homer, in just 2/3 innings of work. I was pondering Kevin Slowey coming up to take his shot but 1) He's a righty to Sipp's lefty and 2) He's pitching just under 6 ERA. Yeep.

But that's all right. We've got Joe Smith, VinnieP52 and the soon-to-be-famous Nick Hagadone. My brother says he's not on anyone's team in his fantasy league. I am going to make a suggestion that maybe you should pick him up. His ERA is .87, guys, over 10 innings. And he's pitching more often. Get him while he's not!

Johnny Damon is killing me, y'all. Just killing me. I keep trying to give him chances but we did NOT hire him to hit .171 for us. He's been in the AL for like a million years. He's got a no-pressure position in the field. He should be able to hit the ball. He's not. Well tonight he did yay, 1 for 5.

Kipnis, after having a great last-couple-weeks has cooled off a bit. But he was doin' his thing tonight! He went 2 for 5 with a single and a solo homer. He leads the team in homers! A measly 6 homers but still, he's tops. Let's hope the guys we're paying to hit homers get the message that if the JK Kid can do it, indeed they can too.

Asdrubal is still on a tear, going 2 for 4 tonight with a double, single and hit-by-pitch. His average is .343 now with 16 hits in his last 10 games. I think he might be 7th in the AL right now. He stole a base tonight and it was only his second of the year - once again, I thought he had more. I guess I am just giving him credit for EVERYTHING!

Travis Hafner and Carlos Santana were shut down today. Well Hafner with a walk and Santana with a nice sac fly. But there were a lot of hits today and none of them came from guys #4 and #5!

Choo, on the other hand, was dialed in. He went 1 for 3 with a double, 2 walks and scoring 2 runs. That's 8 hits in the last 8 games if you're counting. And right now for Choo, a walk's as good as a hit. Especially if he's going to be on base for...

Michael Brantley! Dude went 4 for 5 today with TWO doubles! I think that's his best game since...well let's see, the last time he got 4 hits in a game was July 8, 2011 but even then he had SIX at-bats and no doubles. He's still streaky right now - this was his first hit in 3 games - but he's hitting way better than uh that other guy who's often leadoff. So we know what Brantley can do, and we know he can still do it - let's hope he keeps DOING IT!

Kotchman didn't get a hit today (awww) but he did go 0-2, with getting hit by a pitch and a RBI sac fly. We had 2 sac flies tonight which seems like a rarity this year. If guys can start figuring THAT out, it'd be a nice balance between 2-out hits and leaving the bases loaded with 1 out.

Supermanahan! He went deep tonight, which is not what we usually see (his 3rd). And you KNOW he did it with guys on base. He ended up going 2 for 4 with 2 RBI. Guess what? His average is back up to .300! He also was involved in 8 outs. At one point, it was 6 in a row. Hit it to Jack! Hit it to Jack!

So here's a weird and random thing for today. Someone on the message board I frequent was asking for help identifying furniture from a photo in an online article. I found the original article online - an interview with German director Jan Schmidt-Garre accompanied by photos from his sleekly-decorated home in Berlin. I'm scrolling through the photos and I see these:

FvF Productions

FvF Productions

What? Look closer - that "painting" is real, folks. Dude is either a baseball fan, a CLEVELAND baseball fan, or a fan of ironic American iconography. Fucking rad, tho.

I was so blown away, I tweeted it. Retweet me!

So nice to smash the BoSox. Especially that dupe Beckett. Tomorrow is the newly-outstanding Jiminez against Clay Buchholz who has a 9.09 ERA. Ha ha! It'll be so fun if we can get another 8 or more tomorrow.

See you then!!

Radio Chatter:
"Boston, Massachusetts, home of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and the movie Good Will Hunting. In recognition of that, Rosie, our engineer Mike and I are going to Hahvad to beat up some smaht guys."
- Tom Hamilton

"Beckett is struggling, and the natives are getting restless."
- Tom Hamilton with regards to Golfgate

"All Josh Beckett needs to do to finish this off is order some fried chicken and beer!"
- Tom Hamilton after Beckett is taken out, with regards to...Chicken Gate?

"Hannahan's like a hockey goalie."
- Jim Rosenhaus

"What if Paul Revere would have switched allegances from Boston and gone to the Yankees like Johnny Damon?"
- Tom Hamilton

"You know what? Dave always had a good time with Herb and I. Don't be afraid to look in the mirror."
- Tom Hamilton to Jim Rosenhaus regarding Dave, the crabby engineer

"Had they not had the replay you would have told everyone how you caught it."
- Tom Hamilton on Jim Rosenhaus shown ducking a foul ball on a replay