Windians!

I'm not even going to TELL you again how awesome Asdrubal Cabrera is. You MUST know by now, right?

I hope you're not sitting around thinking "boy, if only our 'star' players were in the lineup then we could have a shot at beating the Red Sox..." BUT NOW YOU KNOW! Our star players are already here! Tell your friends!

Some numbers for Asdrubal just for tonight: 10th home run, 10th double, 33rd and 34th RBI, 8 hits in his last 9 at-bats, .312 batting average,  2 stolen bases in the last 2 games.

The Indians have beat the Red Sox 4 out of 4 this year. The Red Sox are the "hottest team in America" coming in to tonight, winning 8 of their last 9. They moved from last place to 2nd since we last saw them in April to 2nd.

The Indians, at 30-15, are the best team in baseball. The only team in the AL with a winning percentage over .600.

What do we think about all this, Lillian D. from Washington D.C.?

Wahooooooo!

Michael Brantley, what a STUD! (Still nicknamed Dr. Smooth...) How much do we love this guy batting first? Yes, we still love Grady with ALL OUR HEARTS! But he is not here and Brantley is and Brantley is getting hits when it matters. Almost half of his hits have come with two outs, cleaning up after the end of the order and also getting on for Asdrubal and Choo to get him in. And if he's down in the 6- or 7-spot when Grady comes back? Just as valuable.

Man that'll be great when we get Grady back, and Hafner back.


Kearns is getting back into a groove like I said he would. Just needed some more at-bats. He's got 8 hits in the last 10 games. Exactly what we need to see from guys filling in.

How's this for a cool call? Acta got tossed out of the game for arguing a call in the 8th. In the bottom of the 8th, after Hannahan got a hit, replacement-manager-and-bench-coach Tim Tolman put Everett in to pinch run. Everett is slightly faster than Hannahan. Everett comes around to score - barely. Slightly faster than Hannahan would. Even our COACHING lineup is deep!

Justin Masterson! Gave us 7.2 innings, three strikeouts, a fancy-assed catch on the mound and even was involved in a controversial play at first (that got Acta tossed).

Nice group pitching effort in the 8th. Masterson, Raffi and Smith combined to get the Red Sox 1-5 hitters. Smith got the W.

Chris Perez, and his beard, got Carl Crawford to ground in to a DP to end the game in the 9th. Carl Crawford is a speedy mofo and has not grounded into a double play in 180 at bats. Save #13 for Perez.

That double play was a great one by Dos Cabreras. Orlando looked spectacular again tonight. Everyone doing their part...

Even the great crowd out there tonight, honest. It truly sounded like a Tribe game instead of an away game like it usually is when Boston is in town. And sitting in the rain? YOU GUYS ROCK! Obviously I did not make it to the game...I'm sort of stuck here with my dog when there's a storm. The dog did great tonight during the storm, by the way. She must be inspired by good baseball! Perhaps Hammy and Hegan soothe her? Or, I finally got the Xanax dosed correctly.

I knew it was going to be a good night when I felt a drop of rain the minute I was done mowing the lawn. It was serendipity.

Oh hey, did you know the game was on national TV tonight, on ESPN2? (Blacked out in CLE, of course). Yeah...basically everyone on the east coast now knows how serious we are. SERIOUS AS A HEART ATTACK!

Tomorrow is going to be dicey, facing Josh. Beckett. But we're on fire, we've got the wind at our backs. If we win tomorrow it will be a thing of beauty. I can't WAIT!!! It's supposed to be rainy but think good thoughts. Too bad ESPN2 won't be there again - I have a feeling they played a part in keeping this one going.

See you tomorrow!

Radio Chatter:
"He is having an MVP-type season."
- Tom Hamilton after Asdrubal's 6th hit in a row

"It's amazing how much velocity Asdrubal Cabrera gets on a throw with both feet off the ground."
- Tom Hamilton

"Clay Buchholz tonight acts like he gets paid by the hour."
- Tom Hamilton on the Red Sox pitcher's slowness

"How about that? If Jack stays on the bag, it's a tie ballgame."
- Mike Hegan after Hannahan caught stealing and Kearns' double in the 5th

"One of the Boston folks was saying tonight that the Red Sox would give anything to get Justin Masterson back."
- Tom Hamilton

"We've not seen Manny Acta this upset in all his time with the Indians."
- Tom Hamilton after Acta got thrown out in the 8th

"What a job by Masterson. He gets a standing ovation and he should."
- Tom Hamilton on Masterson's exit

"That wind, howling out towards right field. That makes everyone a home-run-hitter if you hit it out to right field."
- Tom Hamilton

"Welp, no such thing as a routine 9th inning."
- Tom Hamilton

Quite a Welcome for Alex White

I bet you thought I was going to have a clever joke in the title about Albuquerque.  You were wrong. Actually I wanted to have some sort of awesome quote from A Clockwork Orange but that didn't work out welly-well. I went with vanilla title.

Alex White gave up 2 homers today, in the 4th. Scott Cabrera is not surprised. Alex White also takes the field to Billy Squire's "The Stroke". He is TOTALLY going to fit in here! But, seriously, he did great in his first major league start - especially with his whole family AND the entire Tarheel Baseball staff in attendance. Two runs but only on six hits, four strikeouts and only four walks. Fits right in, for real.

Our bullpen got the full stretch tonight, first with the "planned" Smith and Pestano in the 7th and 8th, and Chris Perez capping off the 9th. Only, our lineup didn't catch fire tonight so we had to figure out what was on the other side of the door and the answer is Rafael Perez (still gave up no runs) in the 10th and 11th, and Sipp in the 12th and 13th. Not bad to have 5 guys come out and give up no runs!

Hannahan was impressive at third today, picking up a sa-weet out from a bare-handed grab. He tried to make such a grab last night and almost did it (this was while coming across the middle of the diamond, tho) and tonight he actually almost bobbled it, but instead he looked like a great third baseman and got Miguel Cabrera out at first. Hammy and Hegan threw out the term "Gold Glove" after that one but...rly? Being from Cleveland I don't quite know what a Gold Glove third baseman looks like, so maybe I just don't get it. But, Gold Glove level or not, he's top quality for Cleveland PLUS he bats so we'll keep him!

Santana was looking like a first baseman today too AND he got his 5th home run, tying Asdrubal to lead the team. Santana was at first because both Grady and Hafner were out today. Hafner is still nursing the sore ankle but Acta said he was available to pinch hit, and will probably be back Monday.

Grady had off today because he is supposed to have a break after every 3rd game, and he had actually gone 4 games. So there was no choice but to let him sit.

But it's cool, because there wasn't much going on in the outfield and we've got Michael Brantley to fill Grady's other important role as lead-off man.

Brantley did his duty by getting 3 hits in the game (.297!) including a hit to lead off the 13th, and then drew a wild throw to first putting him on second. This of course gave our Bunter Of The Year Asdrubal Cabrera a chance to bunt him to 3rd, which is what happened. Choo, who is getting scarier (to other teams) every day got intentionally walked and guess what? So did Santana who is super scary to the Tigers right now.


Now you've got the bases loaded and really, if you look at the rest of our lineup, you have not done yourself any favors. Any of those guys can get a hit at any time. ESPECIALLY Orlando Cabrera. He's a veteran, he's gotten some key hits for us today. ESTE ES UNO DE DOS CABRERAS! 

And well, if you managed to get out Orlando Cabrera, Jack Hannahan would have figured it out.

So, another walk-off win for the Tribe. Really fun baseball these last two nights, even though it was sort of low-scoring and/or intermittent scoring. I had a great time, how about you?! Playing for that 18th April win and to gain a whole game over a team in the standings, all that stuff really adds to the excitement.

Speaking of excitement, you MUST check out this Facebook page, Tom Hamilton has the Best Home Run call in all of Baseball. Dude caps all of Hammy's home run calls and puts them on Facebook. It's the best audio clip Facebook page ever in the history of audio clip Facebook pages (do others exist?) I watched the video of Santana's walk off grand slam about 5 times on MLB.com last night but then today I watched Hamilton's version another 5 times. Goosebumps!

Speaking of MLB.com, you might think that I work for MLB.com or shill for them or get some sort of kickback for mentioning them but I actually don't. I guess maybe I am just a fan of Web sites that deliver fresh content and stuff. I don't know...I like it. I don't get money from them but if I did, you bet I'd be talking about them three times as much! Will blog for free swag!

Did anyone check out the John Adams (patron saint of The Positive Tribe) stuff at the game today? The Defend Cleveland Show reported that there were indeed drum lines present and he threw out the first pitch. Here's a picture of the only mention of it on Twitter. I would like to know more, tho. Tried to get someone to go to the game with me today...actually tried two someones...and failed. Did you know that John Adams has only missed 37 games (Wikipedia says 34..?) since 1973? I am pretty happy that so many people came out to see the game (25k plus) on John Adams day because seriously people, if he can come EVERY DAY then we can come out more often. We can even take turns.

Radio Chatter:
"There isn't a prettier ballpark than this one when it fills up like it did tonight. There's a new energy at the corner of Carnagie and Ontario."
- Tom Hamilton

"Looking at his jersey, he's got letters starting at his waist, going up and ending again at his waist."
- Tom Hamilton, commenting on Al Alburquerque

"He only weighs about a hundred pounds. [...] If his name was Saltalamacchia it would go all the way around his number. He only needs a few more letters."
- Mike Hegan's take on Alburquerque's name

"You're saying 'Why not go to Everett?' and it's because Jack Hannahan, against left handed pitching this year, is hitting .529."
- Tom Hamilton

"Jim Leyland, who normally has a cigarette going, has smoke coming out of his ears."
- Tom Hamilton on Brennan Boesch's first-pitch popup with a man at second in the 13th inning.

"...Unfortunately, April is over."
- Tom Hamilton

Supernatural

You know what I like best about this team? Better than the good pitching, better than the lightning fast outfield, better than the super cheap seats...?

I like that the whole team can hit. There is no soft spot, no downer in our lineup. Having 6 outs left in which to win a game seems like a lifetime. If someone just isn't feeling it, we've even got pinch hitters and benchers.

All night tonight I just knew that if we could get past this Scherzer fellow and see some new pitchers, our lineup would have no problem. Obviously Scherzer was golden, and Jeanmar Gomez was uhm...not so much. All our guys needed to do was get the guy to run up his pitch count, and get someone else in there and it was game over for the Tigers.

It was true. That's exactly what happened. Actually, we didn't have to get rid of Scherzer so much as tire him out. He was just around 100 pitches and had had a visit from Leyland when OMG ASDRUBAL! hit him out of the park and tied it at 5. Heynow!

Just to back up a bit...Jeanmar Gomez sort of sucked and so did Chad Durbin. Enough about that.

Even with 5 runs given up by those guys, we had some nice plays. Hannahan played some third base, remembering to take care of the runner going home in the 2nd. There were good plays on each side of second by Dos Cabreras. Who knows what the score would have been if we weren't playing a real game of baseball.

Ok so this time last year, we'd all have been turning off the TVs or maybe going to bed early. (Well not me but I am obviously insane) This year, tho...did everyone else feel it? A three-run deficit in the 6th, is that a big deal anymore?

Not when you have - dum da duuummm - SHELLEY DUNCAN! Remember him from last night from remembering him from the night before? He's been in for Hafner and has done something exciting every night. Tonight's exciting thing was a two-run single in the 6th to bring us within one.

But o noes - Durbin and Smith sort of gave up two more runs in the 7th. You GUYS! Stop it!

It's ok, tho. Because not everyone on our team had gotten a hit yet, and we hadn't hit any homers yet. Turns out these are things we've decided we really like to do lately. Especially with the home runs.

LaPorta goes long, then the aforementioned visit to the mound -> OMG ASDRUBAL! and now it's tied!

The real bullpen comes out - Vinne Pestano with his studly 0.90 ERA. Three up, three down. Orlando gets his hit, Brantley gets his hit. It wouldn't be a Tribe game lately if Brantley didn't get his hit, huh? It's .282, if you're wondering.

Chris Perez, our firestarter does his job and does it well in the 9th.

Then, dangit, it was time to get down to business. Three outs to get one run? No friggin' problem! If one guy gets on, it's a pretty safe bet someone will come up and get him in. Because we need it and because it matters. Because we need to break our record of 16 wins in April and we need to get our 57th walk-off win at Progressive field and Perez needs his first W and the season's biggest non-opening-day crowd NEEDS THIS WIN!!!

So Hannahan gets his hit, and Grady gets his hit (wow yeah, didn't hit until the 9th), and they put Asdrubal on because OBVIOUSLY HE IS A BEAST and now it's up to Santana. Well not totally up to Santana as there is just one out but you know what? Everyone else has gotten a hit thus far. And the bases are juiced. And everyone in Cleveland is about done praying to the altar of Carlos Santana because really he was going to save us if he could only heal up and it turned out that we didn't quite need him anyway.

Well now we needed him. We needed him to do something like get a walk or get a sacrifice fly. He needed to do it too because we all still remember a week or so ago when he froze up at the plate and watched 3 go by for an out instead of a hit. Something needed to happen and it sure would be nice if Carlos Santana could do it right here.

So, on 3 and 1 Manny Acta or maybe Sandy Alomar or even Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ gave him the green light and Carlos Santana ripped a grand fucking slam to right field and won the game, amen.

Here's the video. I wish you could hear Hamilton call it because it was a thing of beauty, but television will do. At least you get to see the celebration. I was cleaning my bedroom - because that's what cool people do on Friday nights - and I whooped and danced, yes I did. It's funny when you listen to games alone because there's no one around to hear you scream. All I could muster was a few texts of "AAAAAHHHH!" to Scott Cabrera, in hopes that I could perhaps share the joy with someone. Because my dog...well she is not a fan of the whooping and dancing.

Anyway, wish you were here. Or wish I was there. But at least I have my Hammy and that is pretty exciting.

Hey remember how I mentioned that I should do some sort of "thing" when everyone hits? I gotta do that thing now. I think I'll use stars from the Mario games, since Mario's coins are the Indians' choice for runs scored. Stars sort of make sense...

Also did you know that "Everybody hits!" is already a thing? It's a thing for Philadelphia. You can even get it on some underwear.

I'm not going to talk about "believing" or going/not going to games or anything anymore. Because if you don't get Indians baseball now, you never will. I'm just going to keep enjoying it and being happy that I picked this year to do this blog because damn, is this easy!

Remember an early start, 6:05, tomorrow. And it's John Adams Day (patron saint of The Positive Tribe), celebrating his 3000th game. So people better show up to honor the man. I might possibly go, but my only drum is a kid's drum. And I just noticed that one of the sticks is misplaced. I wonder, tho, if I own a pair of real drum sticks? I know I used to have some...IF ONLY I WERE STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL! Growing up sucks.

Anyway, try to go to the game if you can. If not, join us on the radio at 6. By "us" I mean the other people listening to the radio. I'll see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Is it that hard to let everyone know what the call is? Is his right arm that heavy?"
- Tom Hamilton

"Now, what in the world...why, in the month of April, should a team from the west coast play a team from Florida in a dome? It's not that hard to make the schedule. It's idiotic."
- Tom Hamilton

"Manny Acta's faith never has waivered on Santana. And never has a manager's faith had such a big return."
- Tom Hamilton

Bad Fausto Shows Up

I thought the deal was we always lost to the Royals, but I guess we always lose to the Twins too. Even when we're in first and they're in dead last. Oh well, we brought a little joy to the Twin Cities today.

I didn't get to listen to the game "live" today but after an Easter dinner and a nap, the audio for the game was available online on MLB.com. I was actually excited to use this feature, and was able to avoid the score by going through the MLB.com site.

A Gameday Audio subscription comes free when you become a member of the Tribe Fan Club, which costs $19.95/year. You also get 2 free tickets and 10% off at the team shop and your name on the scoreboard. They send you a picture of your name on the scoreboard, which is cool. There's also some other benefits with the fan club but I haven't used any of them. Anyway, you actually make money on the deal if you use the Gameday Audio and stuff.

One thing that sucks is that, at least in the Apple Store, if you want to get the MLB At Bat 2011 (which comes with Gameday Audio) you still have to pay $14.95 for the app, which includes Gameday Audio. So really you can end up paying for Gameday Audio twice.

Although, I guess paying $34.90 once a year and getting Gameday Audio and two free tickets is better than subscribing to cable. Plus - Tom Hamilton!

So, Grady got a hit and it was A-WAAAAAY BACK - a homer! Keeping his AVG at .391. Still just under 30 at-bats, so not quite legit yet but he is hitting...three doubles and two homers. Not bad! Brantley was batting 7th again as Orlando Cabrera was back in playing second base.

Asdrubal got a hit. A double! Apparently he was rockin' the short sleeves even though it was a cold one in Minnesota, 43 degrees at game time. It was in the 70's here...I was sweatin' my butt off at grandpa's house! (You know old people...no A/C in sight)

Here's a nice play from Dos Cabreras (I just made that up - do you think it will catch on?) I do believe Tom Hamilton said that Orlando "nearly killed" Asdrubal.

Hafner got a hit too - a rare infield hit. Rare for this year at least, as he has really be smackin' the ball for power.

Good news in the standings, tho - Kansas City lost yesterday and today (to Texas, who is tied with us for best record in the league so don't get all excited that K.C. might suck) so we're still a game-and-a-half ahead of them despite losing a game and missing a game.

Funny stuff, being in first place, huh? Always gotta be aware of what other teams are doing.

Happy Easter! Going to visit with my niece tomorrow. We'll see if I'm going to be watching the game or watching Sesame Street. I could enjoy either one equally, really. As long as I get my Hammy fix after-the-fact.

Radio Chatter:
"They got soft here in Minneapolis once they got the Metrodome. They didn't have to fight the blizzards to watch the Vikings at old Metropolitain Stadium. Nobody got softer than our engineer, Wayne."
- Tom Hamilton

"One thing stays consistent - the Indians can't get a left-handed hitter out."
- Tom Hamilton

"'Do you believe in miracles?' as Al Michaels once said. The Indians need one here."
- Tom Hamilton