Your Friend, Jeanmar

So here's the deal with this game tonight. First of Jake Peavy is pretty awesome (how do we keep seeing awesome pitchers?) and last time we saw him he threw a 3-hit shut out against us.

Jeanmar Gomez is also pretty awesome, but in a different way. He gave up 2 runs in the first inning and kept going. Then he gave up 6 more in the fourth inning and STILL kept going. Because by that point, with the way Peavy was pitching, we were going to be winning this game. So we needed a guy to pitch a bunch of innings and save our bullpen for our trip to Boston. So Jeanmar Gomez said "Si" and gave us 6 2/3 and doubled his ERA.

Don't forget he's also the guy who beaned a Royal batter in retaliation and got thrown out and served a suspension and everything. He's like your best little buddy in the bullpen.

Sort of like Jeanmar

Jairo Asencio came in to finish it off tonight and he was lights out for 2 1/3 innings. That's a relief. PUN!

How ever good Peavy was, we still tagged him for 7 hits and a walk. They just weren't...grouped. What do you expect with no Hannahan?

Asdrubal got a hit tonight going 1 for 4 with his 10th double and keeping his average sky-high at .337. Hafner got a hit AND a walk (grrr...cold weather? Is this going to be a real thing?) but he's still technically "struggling at the plate" I think.

Santana got a hit and Choo is silently getting back to his real self with 7 hits in his last 7 games. Plus he's still pretty awesome in the field. Between him and Kotchman the right side is locked down!

Speaking of CASEY KOTCHMAN how about that guy, huh?? Dude's got 9 hits in his last 10 games, tonight going 2 for 3 with a walk. His average is JUST SHY OF .200! Seriously - 10 days ago he was just shy of .150. If HE turns around then really Casey Kotchman is the total package.

Jason Donald got a hit, but also got an error. Meh that guy. I mean I guess I can't give him too much shit because Hannahan has played most of the season so he's not getting much work at third but...meh that guy.

That's really all there was to this game. Good on Jeanmar, Kotchman hits. End.

Looking forward to the Boston series tomorrow just because I'm ready to see some new teams. And Boston's just not that formidable anymore, so it's always nice to just roll over those chumps. It'll be some sort of "Return of Johnny Damon" thing too I bet. Huh huh.

A little later, at 7:10 PM. Big Derek Lowe! See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"He said he can roll out of bed on Christmas morning and throw strikes. That's how ready this guy is."
- Jim Rosenhaus on Jake Peavy

"Manny Acta says 'I hate to do this to Jeanmar Gomez but tonight he's got to take one for the team...'"
- Tom Hamilton

"Meanwhile Peavy has turned the clock back to 2007."
- Tom Hamilton

"Oh for the love of Pete, throw the ball! Peavy is up 8-0 and playing games with Santana."
- Tom Hamilton

"You have a 7-run lead. If Robin Ventura can't trust you in this situation, he can't trust you in any other situation."
- Tom Hamilton

At Least They Homered?

I think having Johnny Damon on the bench lit a fire under Shelley Duncan. He must be in fear for his job so he's back to hitting like a champ. Or, he doesn't like hitting in Cleveland.

Whatever the case, Duncan went 2 for 3 today with a walk, 2 runs and a RBI. In the form of a home run. The team's first home run since April 17! I guess that's some sort of slump record. Most games w/o a homer since the Angels went 14 in 2003? Man I totally pulled that trivia out of my very tired butt so it's probably not exactly true. Perhaps maybe close.

Also having a great night tonight was...Jason Kipnis! He went 3 for 4 tonight with an RBI. Dude has 15 hits in his last 10 games! Not sure why he was down at #7 while Donald (.184) was #2 but Kipnis sure did complement Duncan and the #8 guy - Aaron Cunningham - who is the only other guy to get a hit! Yay Aaron Cunningham!

The only other highlight of the game was Jairo Asencio's 2 1/3 innings where he struck out 2 and didn't give up any hits. Our man from Columbus Nick Hagadone came in for the 9th and he did great, keeping his ERA at 1.69.

Otherwise...I dunno, I don't wanna talk about it. Ubaldo Jiminez makes me mad and when we do poorly on defense it makes me really sad. Especially when Asdrubal makes an error.

I am really honestly stoked about Shelley both hitting and hitting a home run. So that made the long wait worth it. I also appreciated the long wait! 9 PM is pretty nice for a starting time - it gives me enough time to go to the gym, take a shower and eat dinner before the game starts. And it's over by midnight, so that's cool.

I'm glad we had baseball today too. Because two days without is just unbearable!

We're back with the White Sox tomorrow and good news - Ubaldo Jiminez will not be starting! Neither will Chris Sale! It's Josh Tomlin and his facial hair against Philip Humber who, as it turns out, is not as great as his two-starts-ago-no-hitter would have lead you to believe. He gave up 3 homers and 9 earned runs in 5 innings. GIGGITY!

So we'll try again tomorrow at 8:10 PM, and it'll be a lot better. Maybe you'll all get to see Johnny Damon play, you Damon-lovers.

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Donald has a swing like a guy who is going to hit 35 home runs this year. He's a line-drive hitter and is not going to be hitting 35 home runs."
- Tom Hamilton

"How in the world can you play a baseball game with the smoke so thick nobody can see a pop up on the infield?"
- Tom Hamilton is furious

"It isn't Jiminez's fault we're losing, it's Rosie's."
- Tom Hamilton commenting on the score since Jim Rosenhaus took over

"I tell you what, the Indians are playing defense today like it's the first day of spring training."
- Tom Hamilton as Santana misses a popup

Who Are These Guys?

So Ubaldo Jiminez still is no good. To be honest he's never been good for us. We know good - we've got Justin Masterson. We even know good-with-bad-streaks - we've got Roberto Hernandez. Jiminez seems to be consistently bad. But not blow-out bad just too-many-runs bad. And if he's not giving up too many runs, he's not going enough innings because he put a lot of guys on base and happened to get them out before they scored.

Plus there's the "ok he's going to be good this week!" anticipation of our big purchase from last year and then it never happens. I think that makes him even more frustrating. If he was just some dude who ended up on our roster or came up through the minors we could easily forget him every 5 days. But he came to us wrapped in a package of high hopes and so far he's not been living up to the hype (however small the hype was before we found him on our team.)

Le sigh.

So there was that - Ubaldo giving up 4 runs - which was no fun. But this was the Royals and we are the Indians and it is only natural that we're going to come back and the Royals are going to implode. That's at least the story for the 2012 Indians and Royals. HOWEVER, in the history of the Central, the story is that the Royals will beat us even if they are the worst team in baseball. Welcome to history!

Wheeler and Perez did fine in the 7th and 8th and Asencio blew the barn door open and gave up 4 runs in the 9th, giving up a 3-run and 1-run homers.

Wasn't just Asencio and Jiminez today, tho. Well ultimately it was Asencio but before he gave up all them runs, our batters did a lot of failing to get on base.

Nobody had a multi-hit game today and we only had 3 walks which is super unusual for this team. We totally owned Luke Hochevar and today he owned us!

Asdrubal got a hit and he's still up over .300. He and Santana both got one hit and one walk.

PRONK is still the man. Dude got a double and a RBI and reached on a fielder's choice. I can't tell if his OBP is under .500 now or not (stats not updated) but whatever, he's still streaking and doing what he came here to do.

Jack Hannahan was shut down today. Isn't that weird? Surely he'll get 'em tomorrow...

Casey Kotchman got hit by a pitch and I sort of cheered. I'm sorry that I sort of cheered, Casey. Do you think he maybe cheered, too? He is batting .143.

Aaron Cunningham! With an RBI single! Now is his chance to get some live batting practice in while Choo is out (hopefully having a 24/7 hamstring massage). Who knows - maybe he's good? I think we've got 3 games to find out.

I think the cool weather is starting to get guys down or something. They need a bit of a woo-ha moment here. Yeah we won yesterday but not by nearly as much as we should have. And today we did the same thing only it bit us in the butt.

The Tribe does pretty well in afternoon games (that aren't on Sundays) so maybe Josh Tomlin can get it done. He can if the bats get to swingin' and guys start connecting with the ball. Or heck - if they get back to walking more.

Noon baseball tomorrow - see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"He's never mediocre. He's either lights out or the Indians tattoo him."
- Tom Hamilton on Luke Hochevar

"Jiminez...he's become Muhammed Ali. He keeps on doing the old rope-a-dope and gets it done."
- Tom Hamilton

"When you've lost 12 in a row you'd better pay attention to details. They may come back to bite you."
- Tom Hamilton on Hochevar pitching in the dirt

"Quintero's about a 50/50 guy behind the plate. He catches half of them and lets the other half go to the back stop."
- Tom Hamilton is still not a fan of the Royals' catcher

"I wonder if Willie Jenks has the plastic up in the Royals clubhouse? They may feel like spraying each other with champagne tonight."
- Tom Hamilton after the Royals score 7

Masterson of the Universe

So that game was double the fun, huh? It was two games - the one where Masterson pitched a spectacular 8 innings and was bolstered by 4 runs....and then the other one.

But wow, Justin Masterson! Eight innings, 10 strikeouts, 1 walk, 2 assists and only one earned run. And that was a homer to Jose Bautista who is going to hit a homer off you no matter who you are.

Masterson had a shaky spring (9.something ERA I think) but it just goes to show that you don't listen to the spring stats because they are not real. Whatever little bugs and cobwebs he was getting rid of while he was giving up runs this spring sure did the trick. Dude is now once again our MAN!

Also looking good in that first game were some guys we weren't sure of. First and foremost was Hannahan. Clearly he's the vacuum we want at third but can he hit? Three-run homer says yes. Also, is Michael Brantley back? He got one of tonight's hits so I says yes.

What about Casey Kotchman? (The guy I was about to call "the old man" but uhm he is 4 years younger than me) He did a smidge of situational hitting and got himself an RBI out. But more importantly he was a breath of fresh air for us at first base. He's definitely the guy we signed up for.

Shout out to Shelley Duncan who got a hit and was taken out of the game for Cunningham (who then made some nice and important plays out in left), but now Duncan is hitting .500.

Kipnis did not suck at second. Asdrubal had a couple of "wowzers" today. Watching Hannahan throw to Kotchman is like a thing of beauty. Totally excited for this infield. The weak spot is of course second base but since we got rid of Brandon Phillips all those years ago I think it is our burden to bear. That fella Jose Lopez seems sort of interchangeable with Kipnis at the moment so I hope they give him a go sometime.

Shin-Soo Choo almost got into a fight, which was awesome. It reminds me of the one and only time I saw a live hockey game and Brett Hull of all people started a fight. It was my lucky day! Neither of those fellas are known for their short tempers but GODDAMN DON'T THROW AT MY HEAD! Choo looked a little extra riled up today, running a few times when he shouldn't have. Hopefully he harnesses that energy into some crazy batting and throwing power and leaves the angry at the weight bench. Fighting!

How about that BULLPEN?! Other than that poor soul who now has a 40.5 ERA, and the new guy who got stretched too long at the end, everyone looked dynamite for 6 innings.  They got 6 strikeouts and didn't give up any runs until the unfortunate end. Pestano looked SUPER impressive and Tony Sipp, who faltered at the end of last season, was seriously back on track. Smith worked himself out of some jams and that new fella Jairo Asencio (if that's his real name!) was really not bad at all. A nice addition to the #BullpenMafia I say.

So I'm sure plenty of folks will find a lot to complain about but really, what's there to complain about? Ok maybe a lack of hitting but otherwise what's there to complain about? All right maybe our closer lost his shit but what else is there to complain about? NOTHING! Amazing starting pitching, great bullpen comeback and 2 extra hours of baseball. HURRAY!!

Oh and Jose Valverde, the AL's other awesome closer? He blew a save today too for the first time since 2010. It's not just us!

I will say that I'm glad we have a day off tomorrow to recuperate. All the excitement of opening day PLUS the excitement of 16 innings is just way too much for anyone to handle. Our boys need rest and so do I. So we'll see you Saturday afternoon at 1:05!

Radio Chatter:
"Some fan tried to catch that ball and it landed on his forehead."
"Fans don't have spring training time to get ready."
- Tom Hamilton and Jim Rosenhaus

"Boy if the Indians win and the Tigers lose, the Indians' magic number is..."
"I didn't want to go there but you went there!"
- Tom Hamilton and Jim Rosenhaus

"That was Justin Masterson showing the Indians hitters 'I don't know if it was intentional or not, but I'm here to protect you.'"
- Tom Hamilton

"That's how you know it's the Marlins. Do you think Major League Baseball would ever have the Yankees have that schedule?"
- Tom Hamilton on Miami's night game in Miami followed by a day game in Cincinnatti

"I don't think you've ever seen any big-boned yoga instructors."
- Tom Hamilton