Did You Know We Got 11 Hits Today?

Totally - 11 hits, just one walk but only two runs scored! Even two of those hits were doubles and still only one scored. I guess the Miami pitchers today were just in to getting in and out of jams?

Scott Kazmir did well, with a quality start - 6 innings, 2 hits and no runs. It took him 102 pitches, though. He's gotta get that number down but whatever - he's looking great compared to his last outing (5 innings, 4 runs). He may have had a bit of a rocky time but in his last 4 games, just that previous one was bad. The others, and today, were all shut outs.

Speaking of shut-outs, this was the Tribe's league-leading 15th shutout today!

Shaw came in for the 7th and struck out the side - but gave up 2 hits inbetween. heh. Joe Smith was out there in the 8th, all Smith-like, striking out 2 and giving up no hits or runs!

Chris Perez settled back down from Friday where he got himself into a jam (and out of one). Today he had a 1-2-3 inning which has become the rule instead of the exception since the All-Star break. RAEG!!!

So almost everyone hit today. Can you guess who didn't hit? Nope - it wasn't the pitcher! Scott Kazmir got himself a single, yo! No, it was actually Raburn! Red hot Ryan Raburn finally had a day off!

Bourn was speedy as heck again today. First he beat out an infield hit for a single, and then he saved Perez's bacon by flying through that football-field-of-an-outfield to make a Web Gem in the 9th.

Aviles was checking out the view from the top of the order, taking over the 2-spot as Swisher was having a bro-nap on his day off. He ended up with a double, going 1 for 5, and coming home to score!

Kipnis was up and at 'em - he went 1 for 2 with a walk. He hit a successful sac bunt in the 8th to move Aviles over to 3rd, which allowed him to score on a single.

Michael Brantley, who was up next with a runner on third and 2 outs, well he did what Michael Brantley does and totally got an RBI single. TOTALLY. That was the second and clinching run of the game!

After that was Yan Gomes getting his 3rd hit of the day. He went 3 for 4 and came around to score but didn't get an RBI. If you're wondering how many hits Yan Gomes has had in the last 7 games, well the answer is 14. FOURTEEN HITS IN HIS LAST SEVEN GAMES.

Do you think he's giving pep talks to Mark Reynolds? After being Sucky McSuckerson for a while, he's got 3 hits in his last 3 games. Today he had an in-any-other-park homer that was a double in the record books. And it wasn't just that one hit, he also got a singles, going 2 for 4 on the day. Let's see an amazing August, Reynolds!

Chisenhall was down in his 8-hole and he was effective today - 1 for 3 with the team's first RBI! He got an RBI single in the 2nd. He also laid down a sac bunt in the 7th, but no one could do anything to help the runner the rest of the way.

The only guy to hit in the 9-spot was Scott Kazmir, who hit a 98 MPH fastball for a single in the 5th. No one else hit in the 5th tho, boo! Also, no one else got hits in the 9-spot - neither Giambi nor Swisher could hack it.

I will admit - it was awful hard work to beat these stupid Marlins 2 out of 3 this weekend. But maybe it was due to the dancing girls. And the incredibly large outfield. I think the Indians hit at least 4 home runs!

We did take 9 out of 10 in this 3-series run against crummy teams. And 1 more before that. Unfortunately, the Tigers are doing just as well. Booooo!

Tomorrow is our big chance to finally gain some ground on those kitties. The first of a 4-game series against the Tigers. Ack, I can't believe I scheduled something for Thursday night! Let's hope the party winds down early (Oh, friends with kids - excellent, it'll be over by the 3rd inning!)

We're still firmly 3 games behind the Tigers in the division. How long has it been - 3 months like that? Argh! Could you imagine if we won 4 games? That'd put us 1 game AHEAD of them. (Even if we lose all 4, we're still .5 ahead of the Royals, by the way.)

It'll be Corey Kluber versus RHP 2.59. Totally do-able - most of our guys are hitting over .300 against this dude in the last 5 years. They definitely have to strike early on in the series to get some wins in before it's Scherzer time. Good planning on Tito's part that most of our guys were benched today for rest time.

I'm nervous. I had a hard time concentrating at work during the Detroit series last year too. Weird, right?

Well, nah - not weird. Baseball.

Radio Chatter:
"The excitement here when they announced to the crowd was about the same as when they pass the collection plate on Sunday morning."
- Tom Hamilton on the pre-game festivities in Miami, honoring the 2003 World Series

"Giancarlo Stanton must wonder 'Why do they hate me?'"
- Tom Hamilton on Miami trading most of their team but Stanton

"How does he go through a metal detector at the airport? Don't the magnets suck the metal out of his face?"
- Tom Hamilton on Dennis Rodman

"All we know is that the Tigers have been able to take advantage of a guy who has been caught cheating, for 110 games."
- Tom Hamilton on Jhonny Peralta

The problem for Cubans trying to get over to the United States...well, it seems it started with Hymen Roth 'This is the business we have chosen,' in Godfather II. He had a heck of a welcome when he got to Miami."
- Tom Hamilton is running out of things to say about Miami

Not Scrapping - Winning!

Yesterday I was all:

It's going to take a lot of muscle to either make it an easy win or get yet another scraped-together win.

Looks like today they did the former - FINALLY! I've been waiting all series for the Tribe to just sweep these silly White Sox off their feet and it seemed like today was the day!

Masterson and Brantley were actually the weak spots in today's game. No I am not kidding! Masterson only went 6 2/3 and Brantley got shut out at the plate. Two of our best guys had a less-than-stellar game and we still whomped those Sox. Holla!

Masterson was only like 85% ace today. Ha! He went those 6 2/3 innings, striking out "only" 7 and giving up "as many as" one run. Five hits and 3 walks. I think he did more than his part though - heck, it was a quality start! I feel icky even entertaining the thought that I feel like he's letting us down if he doesn't go 8. Hehehe...

So what next? Next was Oh No Not Rich Hill, who we might have to re-christen something like Ok So Rich Hill. He's been doing all right lately at least taking care of lefty-lefty matchups when he's brought in for that. Since the starters are going longer the staff is able to be more selective about who pitches where and not leave Hill out there longer than his welcome. Strangely enough, they had him out there to get the last out in the 7th AND back in the 8th to complete the inning. And you know what happened?

Nothing happened. Hill didn't give up any runs. Not even any hits, my friends. And in fact, Rich Hill struck out 2. Did he finally figure out "his thing"? Because, that is what we need to cruise through the rest of this season. Less "Oh No" and more "All Right!"

Joe Smith came in for the 9th and let nothing get by, like we are always to expect with Joe Smith but don't always get anymore. So hooray for classic Smith!

Bourney was out today so we were graced with Extra Stubbs (you know, extra at-bats when you hit first.) Go extra Stubbs! He went 3 for 4 with a walk and came in to score 2 runs - and he amazingly didn't steal any bases even though he was out there 4 times! It must have been one of those games where stolen bases would have been...uncivilized.

Swisher, 1 for 5.

So, Ryan Raburn was in today, playing right field and batting in the 3rd spot, the Kipnis spot. Man, that guy is so good...

He's so good he went 3 for 4 with 2 home runs and 4 RBI today, okay Gene Rayburn?! When not getting RBI from his home runs, he was getting one on a single with 2 on.

So Raburn has 9 RBI in his last 6 games with 9 hits. Woah - he's batting .283, too! His last 6 games were over 10 days, too, so he's definitely been playing more. Play him if it means wins!

Man, Asdrubal is just the pits lately. He did get an RBI on a sac fly today and that says a lot - get work done for the team!

Carlos Santana had another bomb-diggity day. He went 3 for 4...no RBI but he did come in to score a run! He's got 13 hits over his last 10 games, and 6 in this series - even after being shut down in the first game!

Yan Gomes went 2 for 3, because he got hit by a pitch and hit two singles. He extended his hitting streak to 5! No RBI or runs for him, though - Raburn took nearly everything himself today! 

You know who did get an RBI, tho? Mark Reynolds! Hey Mark Reynolds! I totally want that guy to do well, if just to spite my uncle who wasn't even an asshole about telling me how disappointing Reynolds was in Arizona. He was just telling me, in a nonchalant way. And now I'm all "OMG I HOPE MARK REYNOLDS PROVES YOU ALL WRONG!" Of course, he's kind of not proving anyone wrong except for the fact that he's not hitting 40 homers and striking out the rest of the time like everyone said he would. No, man, he's popping out! Wheeeee...

Anyway, he got himself an RBI single today. A single, guys, not a homer. Way to prove them wrong!

Mike Aviles was in the 9 spot today, being that Drew Stubbs was needed elsewhere (in a flash!) He went 1 for 4, because he's always solid, that Mike Aviles.

So there you have it - the Tribe took not one but TWO 4-game series from the White Sox this season. And Masterson has 4 wins against the team this year too, with a .85 ERA. That's crazypants....

Speaking of pitching: Frank Herrmann reports that he played catch today for the first time in 5 months. Josh Tomlin has been hanging around the Tribe clubhouse. Vinnie Pestano was sent to Columbus the day after "Spider-Vinnie" blew up and I got a ton of new Twitter followers.

Would be fun to have all those boys back in September, wouldn't it? It would. I feel like Vinnie is out battling cancer or something, and we're rooting for him to pull through so he can finish the season with the team. Come on, Vinnie! We all believe in you!

So tomorrow the team is in Miami and I wish I could watch the games on TV because I think the Miami stadium is crazy. There's a fish tank, and dancing girls, and I think a pool. Aye aye aye! Jason Kipnis reports on Twitter right now (around 11 PM Eastern) that they're at a steakhouse that brought them a plate of complimentary bacon as a starter. What?

So yeah, tomorrow is Ubaldo versus  RHP 2.71. Whatever - we got this!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"The Indians and Royals have a great chance today [to gain ground] - the Tigers aren't playing!"
- Jim Rosenhaus

"I tell you what, the game needs more umpires like John Hershbeck."
- Tom Hamilton

Anyone But Chen

Oh Bruce Chen, how you do give us fits! It would appear that the Royals have the best pen in baseball - when the pen includes Bruce Chen. When he starts, it's a big ol' relief to get to their bullpen and the Tribe can smack them around like [insert your own joke here, you misogynist!]

But forget Bruce Chen making his first start of the year - how about that Kluber? He was back to the form that impressed us a few weeks back, and not only pitched an 8-inning shutout but also got himself out of some amazing jams. You gotta love jams - it's what brings excitement to a pitcher's duel!

Kluber only gave up 3 hits and 3 walks, while striking out EIGHT. His biggest jam came in the 5th when he gave up a triple and then walked two. Bases loaded no out. Woah! It seemed like forever but he got the next two on a strikeout and then a comebacker to the mound.

Kluber had a sort of rough 8th too, so after 2 outs with 1 on, and Kluber over 100 pitches, they brought in Joe Smith to end the inning. He got it done! Well done, reliever who didn't give up an inherited runner!

Cody Allen came in for the 9th and it was a bit of a white knuckler. We were on our feet after 2 outs (Oh yeah, I was at the game!) but then there was a single (with 1 man already on). Then a walk. Bases loaded. Oh lordy!!! A questionable call of a ball on what should have been strike 3! Then - ballgame! Dyson struck out. Woohoo!

The win was all Kluber's and Allen got the save.

Well there was some help due to some acrobatics by Asdrubal at short. He didn't get any hits today but he had some super Asdrubal-y plays at short to take away infield hits. One play didn't get an out, but it was spectacular-looking - catching a grounder by spinning on his butt just in the outfield grass then throwing from his butt all the way to first. He missed the guy by a step!

I didn't have OMG ASDRUBAL!! with me today - I didn't want to encumber my ability to eat all I could eat. I think Asdrubal understood.

As I said, Chen really had us stymied so there wasn't much hitting in the first 6 innings. Just a walk by Aviles and a double by Santana was all the baserunners we had. Then once Chen was gone - lookout!

Kipnis started it off with a phat single to left and was followed by Dick Swisher with a single to left of his own. Then Santana punched one in to center and Kipnis was hell on the base path, totally avoiding the tag at home just by dipping his shoulder down! Do you think the Kid saw that play in slow motion or something?

That was just the beginning of the excitement. With 2 men on, next up was Mark Reynolds. Our DH, the power hitting guy. Here's what happened:

It was pretty awesome! His bunt was exactly like that at the end of Major League, except it didn't score a run and he didn't almost have a heart attack getting to first and it wasn't an important game. But his bunt looked exactly like Roger Dorn's.

And nobody expected it!

So after that, Willie Mays Ha - I mean, Michael Bourn came up to pinch hit. He'd been benched for a normal off day. Michael Bourn is pretty solid as a starter - who knew he'd be rockin' off the bench?! He got a 2-run double!

So that was all the excitement, right there in the 7th inning. They did a number on 2 guys from the Kansas City pen but that was about it. It was good that they got their runs when they did! And even better that our pitchers held on to that lead.

Short run-down of my experience at today's game: The Club All-You-Can-Eat seats are 10x better than the regular-people ones, at merely 4x the price. The food is just SO much better. Several kinds of pizza, nachos with different salsas, pretzels with different toppings, ice cream, hot dogs and sausages with several toppings, sno-cones, pop, some kind of plated-up food (it's different for every series, today it was Kansas City pork sandwiches and fixins), and today they had "triple berry pizza" which was a big hit. There was about to be a riot when it was announced that it was gone but they made more. Huzzah! Although I don't know if they made it on the right crust or if they always make dessert pizza with seasoned pizza dough. But I had the Pierre's people scoop some ice cream on it and it was all good.

The seats are good too. Nice and wide, and padded, and a good view, hanging over the first base line. I'm glad I used the 3D Seating Chart to check out my tickets before I bought because not being too familiar with the Club Seats, it made it easier to picture where I'd be.

The fans were really demure, too. Not as many people standing in my section when there was reason to stand. But they also weren't chatty or drunk so that's good.

The ballpark was fairly packed - 24k - but probably slightly short for Dollar Dogs AND fireworks. Perhaps everyone is out of town on a fabulous summer vacation? Fireworks were cool, lots of swirly bits which is what you want when it's disco themed!

No Radio Chatter tonight because I was at the game. But guess what? The Tribe won't be on TV tomorrow so you have to listen to the radio! Aren't you excited?! Dig out your Walkman and go mow the lawn!

It'll be Kazmir versus RHP 4.12. My friend and I think that the starters are all going to kick it up a notch now that Salazar is clearly in the hunt for their jobs. If you can't go 7 then GO HOME!! Should be another good one, with another good crowd. Give-away and fireworks again!

It's at 7:05 - see you there!

That...Was A Lot Of Baseball!

So are you still awake? Did you catch it all? About 9 hours of Indians baseball today. It was completely different than our last traditional double header, which was about 6 hours long. Oh yeah and in the last double header we scored just one run in those 18 innings. Know how many we scored today? 28. Twenty eight runs.

The first game almost seemed like batting practice! Especially in the first inning where the White Sox were just smacking Trevor Bauer all over the diamond. He gave up 6 hits and one walk, resulting in 5 runs, in just 2/3 of an inning. Notice he only walked one. Uh...go you?

Francona made the call - the very difficult call - to take Bauer out and start bringing out the bullpen guys. Hard call because A) You don't want to start using them in the first inning of the first game of a double header, yowza! and B) They kind of suck. He had to decide if Bauer was going to suck more than the bullpen. Turns out he made the right call. The bullpen did suck, but technically they did suck less because although they also gave up 5 runs, they did it over more innings.

Bauer did face the press like a man after the game, and gave a very mature (or egotistical) interview.

Matt Albers actually was pretty good. He went the longest, finishing out the first then pitching the second and third. He only gave up 2 hits and no runs.

Bryan Shaw, who used to have a reputation for not sucking, came in for the 5th and gave up 3 runs. Of course, the Indians already had scored 14 of their own runs by now, so it wasn't that big of a deal - THIS TIME.

Cody Allen, who hasn't given up a run in a while, gave up a homer to score one of Shaw's guys and one of his own. Then he came back for the 6th and gave up another one. No!

Thankfully the Tribe got some more insurance runs in the 7th and 8th, giving Smith, Pestano and Perez a lead they couldn't blow. Not having any pressure to do well - they all did well. Smith gave up a walk and Pestano 2 hits, but that was it for the three of them.

And Chris Perez, back from the DL, had a 1-2-3 inning. I kid you not - Chris Perez had a 1-2-3 inning. When was the last time he did that? Well it was only May 17, 4 appearances ago, but he's only done it 5 times in 18 appearances this year. Here's to many more!

So everybody hit today in the first game! It's kind of inevitable when you get 19 runs. The team amassed 21 hits and 9 walks. They had 8 doubles, a triple and a homer. There were 12 2-out RBIs. Only one guy had a single-hit game, and only one guy didn't get any RBI.

The White Sox brought in a position player, Casper Wells, to pitch in the 9th. He's the only pitcher who didn't give up a run. Ha!

Reynolds was the only guy with one hit, but he did walk twice and come around to score twice. Asdrubal, back for his second game, didn't get any RBI but he did go 3 for 7!

Ryan Raburn made an appearance and got 4 RBI. Nick Swisher and Lonnie Chisenhall each got 2 hits. Drew Stubbs was batting leadoff and got 2 hits AND an outfield assist!

I'm not going to go over everyone's stuff - there's so many hits, it'd be boring! But I am going to talk about Jason Kipnis now.

He went 3 for 4 with 3 walks. His 3 hits were doubles and he got 2 RBI and 4 runs scored.

• Leads the team in runs
• Leads the team in hits
• Leads the team in doubles
• Leads the team in triples
• Leads the team in RBI
• Leads the team in stolen bases
• Leads the team in average (qualifiers)
• Leads the team in slugging (qualifiers)
• Leads the team in OBPS (qualifiers)

In the last 30 days, he's:

• Third in the league in hits
• Second in the league in doubles
• Tied for first in the league in RBI
• Tied for third in the league in stolen bases
• Second in the league in average
• Second in the league in OBP
• Second in the league in slugging
• Second in the league in OBPS

He also ripped his pants today and had a big Band-Aid on his arm, because he plays so darn hard. I've been waiting all year for the Kid to get good and he has not disappointed us! It is going to be SO exciting to watch him the rest of this season!!

That was a FUN 4 hours of baseball! Did anyone see all that coming after we were down 5-0 in the first? Not me! I thought it'd end up like 7-5 Indians or something. Not 19-10!!

After that was a rain delay I think. I honestly don't know, I fell asleep when there were 17 runs (it's been a long week). Good thing I got a nap in, though, because there was a lot more baseball to go!

The second game was crazy as well but in a totally different way. Carlos Carrasco was hot and cold, with a couple of 1-2-3 innings but ultimately he gave up 6 runs in just under 6 innings. But, he was totally a trooper about it, realizing that he absolutely had to stay as long as possible being that Bauer totally burnt through the bullpen. Six runs was enough, though - I'm glad they took him out when they did - even though it meant Oh No Not Rich Hill.

Carrasco actually only gave up 4 runs, and Hill gave up 2 more for him, because that's the kind of guy Rich Hill is. I wonder what his ERA would be if they gave him all of the earned runs that scored while he was on the mound? His ERA actually went DOWN today even though the score went UP by 2 when he was on the mount. Yes it did.

Matt Langwell came in and coughed and sputtered his way through the 8th. Baptism by fire, I guess. He gave up 2 more runs and generally didn't look good, having to throw 31 pitches.

However - the White Sox closer, who is very good, came in for the 9th and we had him throw 33 pitches, of which we scored 4 runs! That was just enough to win the game!

The Tribe had started off hot, no doubt carrying over the batting from the first game. They scored 4 runs in the first. But - that was it until the 6th, where they managed to score just one more. They finally got their second wind in that 9th and pulled it out. UNBELIEVEABLE!

They had just two prior 9th-inning wins this year, the second one coming just the other day in Baltimore. Now it seems to be becoming a "thing."

Michael Bourn had been sitting out the first game, and that was a good move because in the second game he was running his ass off out there in center. He caught a lot of stuff that regular-speed guys might have missed. Not only that but he went 3 for 5 on the night, scoring 2 runs and with 1 RBI.

Mark Reynolds was both a hero and a hindrance tonight. Hero because he hit a loooooong solo homer in the 6th to actually put us within 1 run. It was his first homer since June 15, by the way. But he also was a hindrance because in the 8th he got picked off when he shouldn't have and most likely would have scored the tying run. I dunno, he was trying too hard or something. Try less hard next time!

So, kind of ironically, I spent the morning reading 3 blog posts about how frustrating Nick Swisher is. My favorite, just for the title, was Red Right 88's "You're From Ohio? Don't Care!" Man, I wish I came up with that line hahaha There was also the more pleasant post on Waiting For Next Year, and one by England Tribe who doesn't have to see Swisher's face as much since he's not here.

Anyway I was all hot and bothered and commenting and Tweeting "Yeah! Eff Swisher!" and what does he do today? He goes 2 for 4 in the first game, then in the second game he flashes some leather and ultimately wins the dang thing on a 9th inning homer. I hope he was at least as surprised as we were!

The comeback does owe a lot to the whole lineup. Seven guys batted in that 9th inning, and they got 3 runs to tie it before Swisher sealed the deal. Raburn led it off with a single, then Asdrubal - pinch hitting for Stubbs - followed it up with a right-field single, advancing Raburn to third. Bourn got an RBI and moved Asdrubal to third, and then he scored on a wild pitch! Giambi - pinch hitting for Aviles, in his first appearance on the day - got Bourn to third and then Kipnis sacrificed him home. All that set up, and ready to go to the 9th inning all tied up after Swisher struck out and -

Come on, now...

Hey! He didn't strike out! Nor did he pop out, ground out or anything. Home run. Yay Swisher. Now, do that more.

Pretty good stuff to start off a road trip 5-1, wouldn't you say? We're already halfway done and are guaranteed to be .500 or better!

Tomorrow (uh, well in 12.5 hours) we face the White Sox again and I can't wait to bang those guys around some more. It'll be Ubaldo versus RHP 4.57 which is almost exactly the same ERA as Ubaldo's. Hopefully the White Sox are just as tired as our team is and it'll be another fun matchup where we score a ton of runs.

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"This game so far has been like your neighborhood little league game. No one is involved but the pitcher and the batters."
- Tom Hamilton

"If Trevor Bauer can't learn to control his fastball he'll never pitch at the big league level."
- Tom Hamilton

"well if there was a nightmarish scenario going in to this double header - this is it."
- Tom Hamilton on the first inning

"If Bauer makes another mistake here it'll be 8-nothing and you can go cut the grass."
- Tom Hamilton

"Viciedo looked like he was carrying the Stanley Cup under one arm as he chugged towards the line in left."
- Tom Hamilton

"On the day when they score 5 runs in the first inning, the best pitching staff in the American League at home gives it up in the second inning."
- Tom Hamilton

"Those who are not wearing shirts have Stanley Cups painted on their chests, and can hardly stand."
- Tom Hamilton on spotting the Stanley Cup parade revelers

"Wherever the Indians play nowadays, rain is falling."
- Tom Hamilton

"When you have 28 hits and 12 walks all of a sudden you have a ballgame that's a marathon."
- Tom Hamilton

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

Did that seem like our easiest game in forever, or what? Not like when we won 13-0 or 19-6 or whatever, but after all of these hard-fought won and lost games in the past month this was just a nice cakewalk for our team.

Kazmir had a leisurely day in the park, throwing only 95 pitches over 7 innings, and just one run scored. Quality start, old chap! He struck out 7 and didn't walk a one. This is all hella better than his last 3 starts, where he gave up a total of 13 runs. Our starters are just killing it this week!

In for crossing the "t"s and dotting the "i"s was Joe Smith and Vinnie Pestano. Great choice for a Friday night! (26,442 there for hot dogs) Interestingly, there was only one strikeout between the two of them tonight but even though they had a 4-run lead, no runs were given up either. In fact, they both had 1-2-3 innings. How sweet it is!

The batters are definitely stirring up. Bourn had his first 2-hit game in 10 days. Finally! And that's how we scored 5 runs! (Not really - he only got one run and no RBI)

Aviles had an off night, going 0 for 3, but Kipnis did not crumble at the plate when faced with the bases juiced. Nay, our man Kipnis overcame his seemingly temporary fear of Men In Scoring Position and hit himself a 2-run single in the 7th! And lo, there was much rejoicing! The kid also had a sac fly RBI, and is slowly creeping up on Aviles as being the team helper robot.

Santana was shut down today. Two games in a row with no hits.

Ooooooh....

Michael "Son of Mickey" Brantley was back in town, though. After his two homers last night he was still making stuff happen tonight with a double and then came around to score.

Mark Reynolds was trying to make stuff happen - he's the one who got Brantley home - but he made himself look silly after getting a legit double but walking away from the base when he thought he was out (he wasn't). But, according to him he actually was out, the ump was just in a bad spot. He did end up looking bad though. Poor guy:

However! There was redemption! Later on he hit a single and stopped himself at first, then was able to come around to score in the inning. And, he also walked so he went 2 for 3 tonight. Bravo!

Hey! Lonnie Chisenhall got a hit! Hootie hoo! And Yan Gomes didn't. Wow.

Drew Stubbs was being chased by Bourn again today. He went 1 for 2 with a walk and both scored a run and got an RBI. Still hovering around the .240 mark, as usual. Love that Stubbs!

Tomorrow is the much-anticipated return of THE KLUBE, Corey Kluber, versus RHP 3.23. And it's going to be on FOX and there's going to be a lot more hits and it's going to be awesome!

No Radio Chatter tonight - Tom Hamilton off watching his son play. I think Nick, at Mahoning Valley maybe? (Too many talented kids in that family to keep track of!) Jim Rosenhaus was joined by Tim Belcher, and John Hart AND Carlos Baerga. Crowded in the booth!

Anyway, gonna be a great Saturday night. See you there!

Helloooooooooooooooo Brantley!

The Tribe was getting shut down hardcore today by the Royals' starter, who has an ERA of over 4 and is not very good. They had nothing but a walk until the 5th when BOOM! Brantley breaks a no-hit streak with his 3rd home run.

In the meantime, Masterson was busy giving up 9 hits but holding the Royals to just one run. Almost like those starters are really proving to work well under pressure. Perhaps...preferably under pressure? It sort of makes for more exciting baseball, that's for sure! Is it a conspiracy?

Masterson ended up with a quality start, going 6 1/3 innings only walking 2 and striking out 8 again! That's 71 strikeouts over the last 68 innings!

What's nice is that he left with a runner on base and Bryan Shaw didn't let the runner score. Hey, that's new! (No, actually, Bryan Shaw is the best of the new guys...)

Joe Smith came in for the 9th and gave up another run. Dangit, Joe Smith! You do not give up runs! His ERA is a crazy (for him) 1.78 right now. But I guess he's just following the footsteps of the other Tribe closers - if he's got some runs to give up, he will.

All told, the three guys gave up 3 runs. The bullpen will be WELL rested after the off day tomorrow!

As I said, hitting was non-existent until the 5th inning, but they ended up with 6 runs on 7 hits.

Michael Bourn has a 4-game hitting streak - albeit with just 4 hits over those 4 games - but he's also got 4 runs scored. Oh and 3 of those 4 hits have been doubles (including tonight) - and the third hit, last night, pretty much was a double, the outfielder just got lucky. He also walked today so he came in to score twice. Probably because the rest of the top of the lineup is hot hot hot!

Aviles is setting in at the second spot and tonight he got a biiiiiig RBI single. "Big" as in it hit the wall and stuff. He started off the scoring in the 3-run 6th, and came around to score himself. Later in the 7th he got a sac fly to score Stubbs. He leads the team in sac flies with 5, and also has a sac bunt. He actually was about to bunt today when he hit that tower over Gordon's head. Sneaky!

Kipnis was back on track today, after being shut out Monday, breaking his streak. Yesterday he got a hit and then today he officially started a new streak at 2! He went 1 for 2 on the night with 2 walks. His average has jumped 20 points in 10 games!

Tonight was totally the Michael Brantley show! He had been on an 0 for 11 slide with just 9 hits in 50 at-bats in June. He has always been our "Mr. Reliable" and was doing well for a bit after his pop talked to him in May, but he was slumping again. I think I heard tell that Mickey visited with him again today, or maybe it was just speculated that he did, because Brantley got not one but TWO homers today!

Enough to make Mickey smile!

I didn't realize this but Brantley only got 6 homers total last year. I coulda swore he had more but nope, just 6. Well now he's already got 4! He got 3 RBI off them today, too. Do you think this is the beginning of another upward swing for Cousin Michael? A little over half the season left for him to climb to .333...

We're still waiting on Reynolds, who both shaved his beard (I'm not sure when) and got a hit today. But more importantly he was showing Kotchman-like skill over at first, snagging not one but two improbable line drives!

Speaking of waiting - still no Nick Swisher. However, the BROHIO shirt is gaining momentum. Now they're not just available for people sitting in the Mercedes dealer seats behind the dugout, but the Indians offered up 100 shirts for the first 100 people to buy tickets in section 117 (up in the right field corner). If they type in "brohio" as a code. What a weird thing, huh? Why not just sell these shirts, Indians?!

Whatever, though. If you want a Brohio shirt, buy a ticket for the Friday, June 21 game in section 117 and use the code "brohio."

Also, have you seen this? The Indians 3D seating chart. What will they think of next??

I forgot to mention that Lonnie Chisenhall came back yesterday, after hitting .390 in the minors. He did not get a hit. He did not get a hit today, either. Man, I thought that kid would be hitting over .300 legit this year! Can't seem to hit his way nowhere.

Drew Stubbs, in the meantime, is still holding down the fort there at 9th. He's got 10 hits in his last 10 games. He went 1 for 4 today and came in to score!

So that's 3 series wins in a row, plus another full game over the Royals for 2nd place, and also the Tigers got trounced 13-3 by the Orioles today so we gained a full game on them too. Well done, all around!

Tomorrow's an off day and then we take on the Twins at home. Dollar dogs, fireworks AND Brohio shirts! What a night!

It'll be Kazmir versus RHP 3.26. Hey, Chisenhall is 1 for 2 off this guy with a homer! Maybe it'll be his lucky day.

I'm excited for another great series, are you? See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"When Rosie and I go golfing we meet a whole lot of people, usually because we're in their back yards."
- Tom Hamilton on the joys of slicing out of bounds

"The roof has literally caved in on them."
- Tom Hamilton after the Royals lost the lead

"You go to Comerica Park sometimes and you're like 'Good lord, how much juice have they added to this gun?'"
- Tom Hamilton on pitch speeds at Comerica Park

"If you come to a ballgame as a child and sit in a suite, you're spoiled for life."
- Tom Hamilton's non-sequitor of the night

Bullpen Woes

It was a rough, rough battle. The guy who came out on top was Carlos Carrasco. Unfortunately the rest of his team - especially the bullpen - totally brought him crashing down.

Carrasco was done with his suspension (did you miss him?) and his main issue was being afraid to pitch inside. You gotta pitch inside if you're going to pitch more than an inning. Otherwise, everyone would get bored. Oh, and get hits too. Could he do it? He also had a problem with being easily flustered. Could he get out of jams?

Yes and yes!

Carrasco ended up going 7 1/3 innings with just 4 hits and ONE walk. Not sure why they pulled him after just 90 pitches - either they thought he'd lose his cool, or they're taking it easy since he technically was on the DL - but they did pull him with a runner on. And then Carrasco ended up having an earned run because some doofus from the bullpen gave up a double. Boo!

But Carrasco really looked good and confident, which is in line with how he was throwing in the minors before he came back up. He almost halved his ERA with this outing. He gave up just as many hits and earned runs as superstar pitcher James Shields, who didn't make it as many innings as Carrasco did.

I really look forward to Carrasco proving himself again (and again!) After Kluber's and Masterson's performances lately - wow, we could have a pretty scary rotation!

Except we've got dudes like Bryan Shaw and Rich Hill, who have not been consistent for us. Well Shaw has been inconsistent (usually good but losing his stuff lately). Hill has been evenly bad all season. It's a crying shame that you can't use Allen, Smith and Pestano every day!

Shaw came in and gave up that double that scored Carrasco's guy, tying the game at 1. Then he came in for the 9th and got 2 guys on base. So Rich Hill came in. I swear, that must have been the only guy remotely available for miles around, because...Rich Hill? Not the guy you want with 2 on and no outs and tied at one. David Lough hit a bunt to the mound and Rich Hill fell over trying to get it. Bases loaded. Yeah.

Then Matt Albers came in, and he's all right I guess. Better than Hill, that's for sure. He's only given up 2 runs in his last 10 appearances. Today, though, he threw a wild pitch with the bases loaded and scored one of Hill's guys. Aye caramba!

Even though our guys only mustered to score 1 run today, and left a whole heap of guys on base, it's still a game that was lost by the bullpen. There were two tough starters and an even tougher KC bullpen. It was our bullpen's game to give up - and they did.

Bourn managed to get a hit today - a big double off the wall in the 9th. He also walked twice - but oddly enough did not steal anything.

Aviles was up batting second today (I thought Francona was a guy who never messed with lineups?) and he got a hit. However, moving to third must have blown Kipnis' mind because not only did he end his hitting streak today (stopped at 10) but he choked and died with runners in scoring position - twice! And left 7 guys on base. Holy COW!!! The Kid sure has taken a huge fall.

Maybe it's got something to do with this weird article from the Akron Beacon Journal today. Is it just me or is that a poorly-written article? Perhaps I've forgotten how to read.

Kipnis is lucky we can blame the loss on the bullpen, otherwise it'd be all on his shoulders!

Santana was lookin' good, though. He got his second home run in 3 games, and it was the team's only run scored! Not for lack of trying but it was the only one.

A little glimmer of hope today from Mark Reynolds? He went 2 for 4 - and stole a base! And as usual, we say it's always nice when Reynolds gets little hits. That means he's not swinging for the fences every time, and can help out the team by just being on base.

The Tribe's in 3rd place now but whatever, it is STILL still only June. Although I heard today that Max Scherzer won his 10th game and Chris Davis hit his howevermany-th home run. Yeesh.

Tomorrow is more of the same, with Ubaldo facing RHP 2.74. Can Ubaldo go the distance, to keep us from having to see the bullpen at all? Is that asking too much? I'm not sure what's going on with this team anymore so something like that could totally happen, much to our surprise!

No Radio Chatter tonight, again. Wow, I'm slipping. But I'm trying to earn money so I'm doing all sort of hustling on the side while I listen to the game. No time to stop and write stuff down!

You'll just have to tune in to hear stuff yourself! ;)

You Gotta Admit - It Was Fun!

Games like tonight's game were why this blog was started. It's the sort of game that you can't look at the final score to know if it was a good day or not. You have to look at the big picture, the things that got us to the final score.

Yes, pitching was unfortunate today, to say the least. Middle relief was ok. Fielding left us a little sad but how exciting was it to come back from a 5-0 deficit to get the lead?! All of it on 2 outs, mind you. Oh yeah and we got 2 homers and 6 runs off a dude who has an ERA around 2.

One thing we can all say tonight - at least we're not Alex Cobb.

Scott Kazmir wasn't too good today. Definitely his worst game of the season - 2 2/3 innings with 5 runs - but he had a similarly bad one a month ago too. Inbetween he had an 8-inning, 1-run game so...what's up? He wasn't getting hit left and right tonight. He only gave up 4 hits for those 5 runs! But that was 3 homers alongside 4 walks so....control problems much?

The middle relievers did well tonight. Albers came in to finish off the third once someone decided that whatever was going on was silly. He struck out the last batter, and then had a boring 4th inning despite Aviles committing an error.

Bryan Shaw came in to finish the 5th for Albers and got a double play. He had an uneventful 6th...once again, despite Mike Aviles committing another error. WTF, Aviles??

Cody Allen pitched the 7th with no homers and no errors. Wahoo!

Then the sad part happened. Joe Smith gave up a homer. JOE SMITH!! He's still pitching under 2.0 (1.48) but it was his 3rd homer given up this season - second this month! He gave it up to a dude who was pinch hitting, has a sub-.200 average and only one other homer this year. Ouch!

Continuing the sadness was when Vinnie came in for the 9th and also gave up a homer. It was to a dude with a dang mullet who had no other homers in the MLB. It was the go-ahead homer, that came after Swisher and Kipnis committed an error on the 3rd out. Oh-Em-Gee is all I got to say about that. Well, I will also say :(

There actually were some nice plays in the field today. Brantley beat out the speedy Bourn to snag one in center. Swisher had a good stretch at first for a critical out. Unfortunately there was no going over the wall to bring back home runs, and that's what we needed most!

Bourn went 0 for 5 which totally blows because Aviles was before him and he was hot stuff (at the plate, at least). He almost won the game. Tom Hamilton thought he won the game. He didn't win the game. That sucked.

Kipnis, on the other hand, is still red hot, baby! Kid's got a 9-game hitting streak now with 15 hits in those games. Two hits for him tonight with an RBI, a run and a walk. Oh man what I wouldn't give for Asdrubal to be on his heels right now...but, reports say it'll be soon enough!

Swisher got an RBI tonight but still fuck 'em. Not enough. Why did Kipnis get caught stealing and picked off today? Cuz he knows Swisher isn't going to move him up. Looks like Swish is hurt now too, which might be good. Let the old man sit while the quieter old man, John McDonald, plays third and Reynolds or Santana plays first. Good grief.

He did give a bunch of people the coveted Brohio shirts. Still not for sale, but at least these people don't hate him too much:

Cousin Michael had a huuuuuuuuuuuuge hit today, a 2-out, 2-run double in the 5th that was the tying and go-ahead run. Sweet!

Don't you forget about me.

Santana and Reynolds went deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! Santana hasn't hit one since May 22 and Reynolds not since the 29th. Back-to-back, too, just like the good old days (May). Three strikeouts between them though, tsk!

Fun fact: Reynolds played college ball in Virginia with Ryan Zimmerman, who also homered tonight. Dude's got a measly 8 to Reynolds' 14, though.

Despite his 2 fielding errors (which ended up not being quite as critical as Swisher's error), Aviles was making a difference at the plate today. He went 3 for 4 and came in to score twice. Two of those hits were doubles!

So all in all, despite the disappointments, there was a lot of excitement here. How often has the team climbed back from a huge deficit in the past 2 or 3 weeks? Not often at all. This game would have been a lot less disappointing to everyone if it came at the end of the 8-game losing streak. Everyone would be all "Showed a lot of promise! Now next time we're going to win for real!" Instead since it came after 3 wins, it was more of a letdown.

I think it was a great game for anyone who went to the game today, though! Lots of excitement, a Kipnis jersey (sadly, only for 1/3 of the crowd), awesome weather and fireworks! Shout out to dedicated reader @RobFelt and my friend Dan and his fam who got to go. I was happy at home with my TV and radio, though! I got to see a terrific mullet up close.

Tomorrow is Kluber versus RHP 2.54. Kluber's coming off a good game while the opposing pitcher is coming off the DL, so that's pretty cool. The weather might be wonky so be prepared for a possible long day. It's Father's Day, tho, so you'll have an excuse to spend extra time with your dad, enjoying the Rain Delay memories with Bob DiBiasio. Or golf highlights.

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Wait til you get to be our age. You go to brush your teeth and your teeth hurt. Oh, to be 29 again!"
- Tom Hamilton on Kazmir complaining about aches with age 

"Tonight they've been like a possum, they only come out at night. Meaning they only come out with two outs."

- Tom Hamilton reaching for a metaphor

"I wish baseball would come up with a team error."

- Tom Hamilton after Swisher's missed ball error in the 9th

Fought The Law And The Law Won

Scott Kazmir looked ok. Just one run shy of a quality start (a run that Hagadone gave up for him). I mean the way the whole team is playing, he could have looked worse.

For example he could have looked like Hagadone or Allen who both gave up runs in the 7th inning.What the...?

Vinnie Pestano at least had an uneventful 8th. Kind of creepy how we're not really missing our closer right now, huh? I guess if nothing else, all of this is good for Chris Perez who's not going to lose his job any time soon because there's no chance for anyone to go out there and show everyone they're better at closing than Perez.

Jumping on the mug shot bandwagon yo!

Nobody on the team is hitting over .300 right now. Granted, .300 is a tall order the longer the season wears on but dammit I liked looking at those.

Swisher got a hit today but he's got to be batting at like .280 for me to get over it.

Santana - he made me happy today. Well when he wasn't making me upset, being bad at playing first base. But it was really really cool for him to get a 2-out, bases-loaded double. That was, like, one of the biggest highlights of the past 8 games. Didn't win the game or anything but it was sweet as heck.

Mark Reynolds muffed a play, and made Tom Hamilton super mad. Then later he had a play that made Tom Hamilton sound like he was going to declare Reynolds the best third baseman ever. It was pretty sweet, he was hopping around like a circus flea! No hits for Reynolds, tho.

The Tribe had an awesome and weird double play that did get two outs (as opposed to the previously mentioned Reynolds play that didn't).

Sigh.

Hey, they signed John MacDonald today. Not sure why, since we've got a great utility infielder and some dudes who should come up to play SS while Asdrubal's out, and an every day 2nd baseman but...Johnny Mac! He hasn't played with us since 2004?? Seems like we traded him 3 years ago! His batting average is slightly above average but his fielding is around 100%. Huh.

They're talking on Extra Innings now about whether or not this is a slump or this is a bad team. This is not a bad team. No way is this a bad team. This is a good team playing extremely poorly right now and it's frustrating as heck. Are they going to be playing this poorly all season? They might. Because this is Cleveland, they might.

But hey, at least there's over 3 months of baseball left. Whatever that means, it definitely means we've got a lot more baseball to listen to and really that's what it's all about.

I'm rambling. It's bedtime. Tomorrow is at 8:05 again, Kluber versus LHP 2.82. It's raining cats and dogs outside.

See you there.

Radio Chatter:
"The fastball is still the best pitch there is."
- Tom Hamilton

"Carlos Santana is a great hitter but boy, where do you play him? Really, Santana is a DH."
- Tom Hamilton

"Can you imagine what the inside of those heads smells like in a month or so?"
- Tom Hamilton on the racing Texas icons

"No wonder the Rangers do so well in this ballpark, when Santa Claus is the scorekeeper."
- Tom Hamilton on an error going as a single

"You can't win in this park scoring only 3 runs. Not going to happen. You score 5 runs in this ballpark and you're going to be on the edge of your seat thinking that's enough."
- Tom Hamilton

Did Somebody Say WISH?

Giambi Jambi

I can't believe no one has made a Giambi Jambi image before (aside from this false start) but here you have it. I made a wish today at the ballpark, that Jason Giambi wouldn't be so terrible, and he granted my wish by getting a huge 3-run homer that ultimately won the game. It was indeed the thing I least expected - my reaction was all:

The secret word is "GONE!"

I'm still not a huge fan of the dude but my friend pointed out that we've got to trust Terry Francona and that's true - he's forgotten more about baseball than I'll ever know. So if Terry Francona puts in Jason Giambi instead of Gomes or Aviles or his mom, then we've got to assume that Jason Giambi is not as bad as I think he is and he can do stuff like what he did tonight all the time.

Tonight's real hero wasn't Giambi though, I don't think. It was Justin Masterson who dug deep and held those hot-hitting Reds to just 1 run in 6 innings. They got the bases loaded in the 6th with no outs and they got NO RUNS off him. That's right! No runs on bases loaded with no outs! All they got from him was a solo homer in the first. Masterson left with 7 strikeouts and just 4 hits. Tom Hamilton wondered if getting out of that inning would be a turning point for the team - perhaps!!

We got to see all the best on the mound today. After Masterson was Cody Allen who had a 1-2-3 inning, striking out 2. Then was Joe Smith, who had to face the middle of that Reds order and did so with aplomb, striking out Votto and then getting a ground out and a fly out after Phillips singled.

Then came Vinnie, who is set up for quite a show now that he's the official temporary closer. Not only does he still sprint out of the pen but they play a video montage of him being awesome and he warms up to Pantera's "Walk" which can only be described as "fuckin' a." It really pumps up the crowd but dang was that a tense 3 outs. Would he be ok? Can he get over 90 MPH? I'll admit that I was watching his warmup intensely and his last two warmup pitches were cr-ap. I think he scared himself, really.

He ended up doing just fine though - and I think sort of surprising himself. Well first he gave up a solo homer which just sucked. But the guy straightened himself up and threw nothing over 91 MPH - twice he threw under 80! - and got the next 3 guys out to end the game. I'm pretty sure all 18,000 of us breathed a collective sigh of relief. Vinnie is back! (or at least good enough)

Gotta work on that propensity for our closers to give up homers but hey if you're going to start somewhere, I'll give a solo homer in a 5-1 game. Work that out for next time though, yeesh.

Our hitters got a lot done today on just 9 hits. And they only had 1 hit going in to the 4th inning. I thought it might be a boring game. I was wrong!

Boy were there a lot of Reds fans there tonight. Every time I sit in decent seats, I am surrounded by fans of the other team. I saw the Reds last year too, right behind the plate, surrounded by Reds fans. I didn't run into many of them when I was up in the mezzanine or in the upper deck! (This is the 4th time I've seen the Reds in Cleveland now). At least Reds fans seem pretty polite. And it's not as offensive to have so many of them there because you figure most of them are actually from Cincy or Columbus - unlike all of those Boston and New York fans who show up from Parma and Ashtabula.

Anyway, the hitters got off to a slow start but they cranked it up in the 4th, ending up with 9 hits.

Michael Bourn wasn't much of a difference-maker today, oddly enough. Yes he went 1 for 4 but it's to the point where I expect a lot more from him. A stolen base, multiple hits, a fantastic play in the field. Don't get me wrong, I am over the moon about this guy being on our team and the year he's having - but that's why I can be disappointed in a 1 for 4 game!

Kipnis is back to being out of it again. He went 0 for 3 with a walk. He was solid in the field, however - no bad throws or missed balls.

Asdrubal was a big difference maker today, though! He went 2 for 4 with one double, and came around to score both times he got on base. Of course, he did strike out  with the bases loaded in the 7th and that about killed me, but I take what I can get.

Some girls sitting next to us admired OMG ASDRUBAL!! today. The one said he was her favorite player. From what I've noticed, it seems like Asdrubal is turning in to a favorite amongst the ladies at The Prog, which is weird because he's a bit durpy looking. Although I don't put it past hardcore lady Tribe fans to swoon over a guy who plays as well as Droobs. You'll overlook inverted teeth for a guy who can turn an un-assisted triple play!

Swisher had a weird night. He committed a fielding error and also came up short while running the bases. But he ended up hitting really well, also going 2 for 4 like Asdrubal, with a run scored and an RBI double.

I've already told you about Giambi. I'm not going to gush too long. I made him a special graphic, all right?! Other than his big homer he also got a double, which would have been an RBI double had Swisher had the hustle. In fact, he almost hit another homer way past the right field pole, but on the wrong side. Oh, he also tried to steal third, got caught and ended the inning. So yeah.

I'm still waiting to be completely impressed by Giambi. I am only now slightly amused.

Carlos Santana was on base again today.

He went 1 for 3 with a single and a walk, but didn't get anywhere with them. He also hit a ball off his knee and it looked terrible. But this kid is made of rock, it seems.

Mark Reynolds has shaved his beard. He also got himself a solo homer in the 3rd to tie the game! He hasn't hit a homer for 10 days, and before that 10 more days. My friend and I are hoping that the beard shaving and homer combo signifies some resurgence of the guy who so impressed us in April. He's off to a good start!

Neither Brantley nor Stubbs got hits tonight, which is surprising because they are solid. Tonight it was all the middle of the order, really. Hopefully the bottom will be on board tomorrow!

I don't have anything interesting to tell you about food or the ballpark today. It was hot and sticky that's for sure. The announcer guy Ryan was wearing this shirt and we were coveting it, but not coveting it $35 worth. I don't think I like section 128, it's pretty hard to see the batter from way down the baseline. But hey, free tickets - they got the job done well enough!

Oh, I do have one interesting thing for you: Somebody must have wished that Trevor Bauer made another rap song, because he did. It's called "From The Gutter to the Grail" and you can listen to it here and read a little about it. I heard some of it at the game - I was all like "What is this?" but I didn't say anything out loud in case I was hearing things again. But it's real and it's stoopid!

Tomorrow is the final game in the Battle of Ohio. It'll be Kazmir versus RHP 3.08, at 7:05. I guess it's a sweep situation so - bring your brooms!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Well Tom, is it time to go to the Herb Score 'You never know what you'll see at a ballgame'?"
"Three doubles and one run scored! [...] When things are going bad, goofy things happen."
- Jim Rosenhaus and Tom Hamilton

"When was the last time you saw an inning where the first guy grounded out, and that was the only normal out?"
- Tom Hamilton on the weird bottom of the 5th

"I tell you what - it's not dark out but there must be a full moon."
- Tom Hamilton on the bases-loaded double play in the 6th

"You get the feeling that he's about ready to unload a bomb."
- Tom Hamilton's final words before Giambi's homer

"The Reds' scouting report must be 'Stay away from the fastball with these Indians.'"
- Tom Hamilton on the proliferation of curveballs

"Joe Smith has proven he's not a matchup guy. He'll get right handers out just as well as left handers."
- Tom Hamilton

"I don't know about you but my remote died one night, I had to get out of bed to change the channels. It is not an easy life on the road."
- Tom Hamilton

"Indians fans are not exactly sitting back."
- Tom Hamilton in the 9th after Paul's homer

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

You can't hold these guys down for too long, can you? After a crummy game versus Scherzer in Detroit, and then a good but losing game against Verlander, the Tribe brought Terry Francona back to the Boston and totally showed off what he can make them do.

Everybody hits today! And not just a few hits, either - we're talking 16 hits. Don't forget the 8 walks and 12 runs. Almost everyone got an RBI, even!

All of this without a single home run, too - only one of 3 times we've gotten 12 runs, 15+ hits and 8 walks since 1957. Sweet!

Zach McAllister started and at first he just looked so-so. Basically he was in line with the Red Sox starter, Ryan Dempster. Both were kind of getting worn out by the 3rd inning. It was the 3rd where McAllister gave up a 3-run homer to Big Poopi, allowing the Red Sox to get within 1 and to make the Indians' 4 runs in 3 innings look way less meaningful. But after that homer, man, McAllister was all like "no". He faced 9 more batters and got all of them out excepting one walk. He didn't end up with a quality start but he threw 96 pitches over 5 innings, so it was time to go. Also, by the 6th inning the Tribe had a 9-run lead so if there was a time to mess around with testing out bullpen arms, now was that time.

Cody Allen pitched the 6th and he was tight as heck. Two strikeouts and a popup. Guy's ERA is now 2.05!

Next was Scott Barnes, who joined the team directly from Columbus - meaning Nick Hagadone joined the Clippers directly from Detroit. Sounds good to me, man. Nick wasn't getting it done anymore. Barnes proved himself worthy tonight going 3 innings, striking out 4 and only giving up 2 hits. All of this in the rain, too. We don't get many guys going 3 innings out of the 'pen anymore, so that's pretty awesome. Save those arms, Barnes!

Tonight was only the second game I've watched on TV this season, the first being a yawner from Toronto. I tell you what was the most noticeable to me watching the game live - Michael Bourn is FAST. Not only does he break out of the box like a little point guard (backwards!) but he's also got it going on in center field. Check out this clip from tonight when he ran up on a line drive then hurled the ball back in to home to catch Jacoby Elsbury doubting him. I say that makes up for last night's outfield gaffe...at least half way - he did end up saving the pitcher one run on his ERA (due to the subsequent Ortiz homer).

Bourn went 3 for 6 at the plate with 1 run and 2 RBI! That gives him 13 hits in his last 7 games!

Kipnis wasn't having his best night, but he did get a hit. The Kid went 1 for 5 and struck out twice before being replaced by Cord Phelps (who did nothing either.)

Asdrubal was back to being a force tonight after an early retirement from last night's game. He went 2 for 5 with an RBI and 2 runs scored. He's got a tiny hitting streak going with 5 hits in his last 3 games. I think I heard mention of his son being at the game tonight (I read it on the closed captioning. I still can't not listen to the radio when there's a game one!) which I swear is a huge boost to Asdrubal! If you recall he came out of his last slump when Meyer made an appearance. Kind of sweet, I say!

Michael Brantley actually cooled off tonight, getting only one hit in 5 at-bats. He did walk once and came around to score both times he was on. He's still hitting over .300!

Carlos Santana had quite a night - and he didn't hit the ball out of the infield! His first hit was a bunt down the third base line that totally stayed foul. I'm guessing nobody expected it...not just because it was Santana but because he was the first batter in the inning! The Red Sox liked the way the ball stopped dead in the grass, so they tried the same thing later (also successfully). Santana ended up going 1 for 2 on the night, and came around to score 3 runs - because he walked 4 times! I guess the last Indian to do so was Grady Sizemore, like in 2009 or so.

Mark Reynolds is back! He saw that big expanse of Fenway Park and just wanted to drop baseballs in there. After going just 2 for 34 in his last 9 games, tonight he went 3 for 4 with 3 RBI and a run! AND they were all singles! It'd be pretty great if this were the end of Reynolds' slump. Right now, today. End it!

More Gomes today! Did you know he's hitting .311? Tonight he went 1 for 4 with a huge bases-loaded double to contribute to that 6-run 6th. That is the definition of clutch! [not technically the definition of clutch] He's got 7 RBI in his last 3 games!

Mike Aviles was in there contributing today. First off he's helping fill the Chisenhall-sized hole at third base and he's getting hits where Lonnie probably isn't. Aviles went 1 for 5 today, but also got a force-out RBI. The next time he was up he got a single, stole a base then came around to score.

Speaking of fast - remember when I was speaking of that? - Drew Stubbs is a fast mofo too!  I've been to a few track meets in my time (the literal use of "few") and the way Stubbs ran during his triple (buried here around :40) is the way those kids run foot races for trophies. Dude had a great night tonight, breaking an 0-for-10 skid with 2 doubles and a triple! He got 3 RBI and came in to score a run. His average is back up to exceptional-for-Stubbs range at .255.

Super-fun game today and what a great one to see on TV! Looks like the next one on broadcast won't be until June 28. I'll just have to do some more imagining.

Won't it be cool if every game is like this? I hope every game is not rained out. I guess the weather report is bleak in Boston from here on out. I thought the Pilgrims came to America to avoid the tyranny of British weather?! Note this - the Red Sox used 5 relievers tonight, in the cold and in the rain!

Tomorrow is Masterson versus RHP 3.31. No problem, right? I so look forward to seeing Masterson pitch nowadays. Don't forget he's a former Red Sox too, just like Francona. And Francona I'm sure had a ball beating his former team tonight!

Ok, sweet Caroline - we'll see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"There are no sacred cows in this ballclub."
- Tom Hamilton on the ribbing of Michael Bourn


"I tell you what folks, if you're having trouble going to sleep buy a video of Dempster pitching. It will zonk you right out."
- Tom Hamilton

"It's pretty safe to say that Yan Gomes is not going to see Columbus again until the Indians go there on the press tour."

- Tom Hamilton

Pluggin' Away

What a cool game today! Why was it cool? Chris Perez giving up the tying run in the 9th was far from cool, but the Tribe coming back to win it - with ease - was awesome! I love how even though the last play was close, it was inevitable that the good guys were going to win this one. Bases loaded and nobody out? The Mariners were DOOMED!

Plus there were a lot of hits in this game. Thirteen hits for the Tribe! Amazingly, the only guy who didn't get a hit was Santana (or Brantley, his pinch hitter). He's only not been on base in like 4 other games this year! Only one of our 5 runs today came from a home run, so it was a fun game of hits and runs. Old school!

Zach McAllister was the man today and he racked up another quality start, going 7 1/3 and only giving up 2 runs. Six of his 8 starts this year have been quality starts! If you recall in the beginning of the season a quality start wasn't that exciting because it meant there were up to 3 runs given up already and it was a monumental task for this lineup to overcome that deficit. Now the quality start is a point of pride again, even if the guy gives up 3, because it's apparently no problem for our offense! McAllister only struck out 1 in his 7 1/3 innings but also only walked one. The Mariners were just swinging away!

Rich Hill came in for the 8th and fared better than he did yesterday when he gave up a run on 2 hits and a walk. Today he did give up a hit but that was all.

Enter Chris Perez. Exit two home runs! The hell?? I know Perez will give up a run if he has a 2-run-plus lead to work with but - wow! He left with the score tied and get this - he still got the W! Hahaha! I thought after he got the first 2 guys out swiftly that maybe we were done with the theatrics from Perez and we could say he was all warmed up and settled in after missing so much Spring. Guess not! I can't wait until he becomes the solid saver we know and love.

Speaking of the Chris Perez we love, there were only 17.5k fans at the game today. On a giveaway day, in 77 degree weather, with the team winning like nobody's business. That's kind of crazy!

Michael Bourn went 2 for 5 today, so that busts my theory that he's flailing against lefties. He stole two bases too! Sweet. He's gone 5 for 10 in his last 2 games.

Jason Kipnis is still a shining star! Today he went 2 for 5 with an RBI, stole a base and came home to score the winning run. And how did that look?

He didn't mess up his helmet or anything this time! Kipnis has a 3-game hitting streak going. Not too exciting, until you consider that he's gotten 8 hits in those 3 games!

Asdrubal was in on the action big time today! He went 3 for 5 with a double and a run scored. He's got 12 doubles now and is tied with Santana for the team lead.

Swisher went 1 for 3 today, walking twice.

Mark Reynolds blasted himself back into relevance today after being kind of quiet for a bit here. He got his 12th homer, which ties him for first in the league (3 ways). He also got 3 RBI on the day - including the winning one - giving him 37 and putting him 3rd in the league. Other than the homer and the game-winning fielder's choice, his other hit was an RBI single which people who knew him as a ballplayer previously would never believe he could do. Well, believe it, Arizona - Reynolds gets hits all over the place now!

Mike Aviles was in left field today, because apparently he can and will play everywhere! Tom Hamilton said that Aviles was excited to play for Francona because when they were in Boston together, Francona let him make his outfield debut in a nationally-televised game against the Yankees. Obviously he didn't blow it up so Tito stuck him out there again today, to give Brantley a break. He ended up at 3rd, because he can. He also ended up going 2 for 4 on the day with a run scored after he hit a double!

Yan Gomes was in at catcher today. It's been a surprisingly long time - 5 days! Of course he got a hit today and scored a run, extending his little hitting streak to 4. He also threw out a guy stealing! I wonder if we'll see him tomorrow, too?

Drew Stubbs was holding down the end of the lineup today (or was he setting up the top of the lineup?) and went 0 for 2 with a walk and a sac bunt. Sad that he didn't get a hit out of that bunt but I'm sure he made it darn close!

Tomorrow is gonna be awesome, as we're taking on our 7th Cy Young Award winning pitcher of the year - Felix Hernandez! It'll be Justin Masterson versus the RHP 1.53. I hope our bats are ready and not in "Sunday" mode. Let's get it done!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"The next Dollar Dog night isn't until May 31. It'll take Sugardale that long to recover."
- Tom Hamilton

"One would suggest he wear the sunglasses because the 'block C' doesn't need them."
- Tom Hamilton on Santana wearing his sunglasses on his hat

"If you're a left hander and you're 4'8" they say you're stocky. If you're a right hander and you're 5'9" they say you'll never make it."
- Tom Hamilton

"One thing you know about an Eric Wedge ballclub - they will fight you until the 27th out."
- Tom Hamilton

Started From The Bottom Now We Here

This post is brought to you by Michael Brantley and rap artist Drake, whose song "Started From the Bottom" is Brantley's at-bat music. It's a fantastic backdrop for the party after today's game.

"Started from the bottom now the whole team here!" Where? First place, y'all!

So today's game, as a whole, was neither very gripping nor very tight. Jim Rosenhaus posited in the 9th that the team looked pretty sloppy in the first 7 or 8 innings, then got their stuff together just in time to pull it out at the end. And I think that's pretty important! You definitely want your team to be able to dominate through 9 innings but you REALLY want your team to be able to pick themselves up and dust themselves off after a rough 8 innings to come back and get that W after all!

Zach McAllister was the starter today, and he had a quality start! He went 6 innings and only gave up 2 earned runs. He struck out 5 and only walked 3! He did give up a homer but...well whatever. Quality start and only 2 earned runs against the best hitters in the game...LIKE!

They played more bullpen roulette again today and still that is totally fine with me. Match arms with bats, whatever. Plus it was cold so you gotta use who is ready, willing and able.

Bryan Shaw was back to being tight today and he went 2 innings without giving up one hit OR walking anyone! He's like our secret weapon - his ERA is 1.04! Those are #BullpenMafia numbers for sure!

Next was Joe Smith who did the setting up in the 9th (it was tied at this point...) and got himself the win. Do you know what his ERA is? It's .66 is what it is. POINT. SIX. SIX. He doesn't lead the league but he's like #4 for relievers. It's so freaking awesome to have guys in there to keep up where Vinnie left off, and be there to see-saw with Vinnie so as to not burn either one out.

Smith was awesome, with a 1-2-3 inning facing both Torii Hunter and Miggy. Like nothing! Ok not like nothing. He almost ------ himself in the --- throwing wide to 2nd after a come-backer to the mound. But Asdrubal is even more amazing than Smith and he took care of him BIG TIME.

The Tribe got the go-ahead run in the 10th, but Chris Perez didn't come out for the bottom of the 10th. According to reports he just didn't feel right and was honest about it (some weirdness in the shoulder). Team player or what?! Plus he knows we've got the bullpen to pull it off without him anyway, if we need to.

They brought out Rich Hill, who was a good choice I think. A veteran, you know? His task was to face Prince and V-Mart. He made them look like boring, every-day players just like Smith had done with the other two kitties.

With two outs, the Tigers pulled their lefty for a rightie and the Tribe followed suit. Cody Allen started slow then threw three 96-MPH strikes by the guy. BALLGAME!

The story of the bats today is not the most exciting. Only 5 guys got hits and 12 of them came up to bat. They did get 7 walks, though, three doubles and a stolen base!

Michael Brantley was back at the top spot, as the plan is to re-introduce Bourn slowly. Why rush it in May, right? Brantley went 2 for 4 with a walk today, giving him 4 hits in the series. He got the tying RBI in the 9th, because Michael Brantley never gives up! There were 2 out in the 9th and he was facing Valverde who had yet to give up a hit in 5 IP. Brantley was wearing shades and a pink necklace, and smacked one past Jhonny, as easy as you please.

Whatevs.

Jason Kipnis was pumped for today's game, too, after last night's performance when Acta's little Dirtbag got himself all dirty. In fact, he was on fire for today's game!


Seriously tho, he went 1 for 4 with TWO RBI which is half of the RBI gotten today!  His only hit was huge - a two-run double in the third. That gives the Kid 12 RBI in his last 10 games. Wow!

 Check out this pic of Kip and his mom:

Adorkable!

Does his mom totally look like your mom or what? Go midwestern moms!

OMG ASDRUBAL!! Did you watch his play yet? Him and Kipnis have been wowing us in the middle infield this weekend. They made TWO double plays today, even. Asdrubal went 1 for 4 with a walk, but he wasn't involved in any runs. No strikeouts, though! His one hit was a double in the 10th, and he did try to come around and score but it didn't happen.

It DID happen for Santana, though. Santana went 0 for 4 with a walk. I think that makes it something like 15 games in a row now for being on base? And 27 out of 30 games with him safe on base? He was intentionally walked today - I wonder if that counts the same as a regular walk when one talks about "on base"? (It is in fact a separate stat in one's stat line) Anyway he came in to score from second to WIN the game!

Ryan Raburn was in the game today and he sorely needed to do some damage at the plate to shut those stupid Tiger fans up. They were booing him! He got hit by a pitch and they cheered! Daym that's cold, Detroit.

Michael Bourn came in for Raburn in the 9th, and walked. And stole second. And scored the tying run! Hey, well done Michael Bourn!

Lonnie Chisenhall still isn't good right now. But he did give Mark Reynolds a chance to keep warm and keep rested on the bench all game then come in and get the game-winning RBI single in the 10th. So, well done Lonnie and well done Reynolds!

Reynolds was the only Indian wearing the pink cleats today. You can't really offset a beard with pink cleats. Nothing offsets a beard. The pink cleats did nothing to slow him down!

Hey, don't forget about Yanimal! Gomes was in at catcher today, which is maybe how the kid McAllister kept it together against this Tiger offense. Gomes also got 3 hits! One of them was a double, and the others were singles. He came across to score the first run of the game.

So that's it. All that little stuff added up to one big, big win! This is our 5th series win in a row, so they were saying, and that is some sort of record. But it's hard to say because 5 series ago we split with the Royals in a 4-game series, and 6 series ago we haven't finished with the White Sox yet. And what does it mean if we beat the Yankees tomorrow?

Nevermind, it doesn't matter. The Tribe is coming home from the road in first place! Tied for first, yes but first place with a record well over .500. I'M LOVIN IT!

So tomorrow is the traditional double header versus the Yankees, and I will be there! I got my tickets and I got "OMG ASDRUBAL!!" all tidied up with a fresh coat of paint. Look for me waaaaay up top in the All You Can Eat seats. Hmm maybe I need to fish out my dad's old binoculars?

The first game will be at noon, Masterson versus RHP 5.02 (as if!) The second game will be 20 minutes after the end of the first one, with special guest star Trevor Bauer versus some guy with only 3 innings of MLB work this year. Sweet!

Let's keep this #ROLLTRIBE going! See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"I don't know if Taco Bell is appropriate for a Mother's Day meal..."
- Tom Hamilton ribbing an engineer for taking the morning off

"Then the Tigers started winning and people don't miss Tiger Stadium anymore."
- Tom Hamilton

"You can start the runners - well they're not really runners, they're lumber-ers - because Victor Martinez will probably get the bat on the ball."
- Tom Hamilton on Miggy & Prince as runners

"Chisenhall was like 'You know what, if I get thrown out at third, I might have to keep running to Columbus.'"
- Tom Hamilton on Yan Gomes' single in the 7th

"He's got one of those builds that makes you go 'Hmm, I bet he eats bacon on a lot of sandwiches.'"
- Tom Hamilton on Joaquin Benoit

"Somebody's bullpen will be the difference here today."
- Tom Hamilton

"Allen's a guy that's got closer stuff."
- Tom Hamilton

Colón Blow

I totally didn't expect this today, did you? With the way they've been struggling for runs against the A's, and Colón having a good last start, I didn't expect them to win (50/50 chance), let alone score NINE runs - six of 'em off Colón!

But that's totally what happened! One thing we totally did see coming was three homers, right?

So that's uhm...I've lost count here. Winning 10 of our last 11, a 4-game sweep, 4 in a row won, and now we're up to 5-5 on day games! Sorry, no tally for Meryl Masterson - she's just the sweetie of the night game. Edit: I also just remembered - this is the 5th of 6 Cy Young Award winners we've beaten this year (R.A. Dickey, Roy Halladay, David Price, Cliff Lee, Bartolo Colón. The only one who beat us was Jake Peavey.)

How about that Scott Kazmir, huh? He's 2 and 1 now, going a full 6 innings today for a quality start and striking out TEN in the process. Wow, man - he was just merciless today, with everything in the low 90s except when he threw a changeup or slider that probably looked like it was traveling backwards at 80 MPH.

How do you feel about starting pitching now? I think it's very, very surprisingly good! I hope they are able to keep this up all season!

Matt Albers came in for the 7th and he didn't look as hot. He started off looking good, striking out the first two, walking a guy then getting a ground out. But they brought him back for the 8th and he was sort of bewildered. A walk, two singles, a run scored and then another walk before Albers was excused. Huh.

Cody Allen came in to get all 3 outs to end the 8th, two strikeouts and a ground out. Scott Barnes was given a shot to finish it out. How'd it go? It went well! Barnes got 2 outs, then a walk then finished it off himself by catching a line drive. Ballgame!

Cousin Michael is back over .300 again! Today he went 2 for 5, including a leadoff single which I think really set the tone for the game.

After Brantley was Kipnis who put his first at-bat in to outer space with a homer! Yeah Kip! He got the first 2 RBI for the team, and then came around again in the 2nd inning to hit a sac fly and get his 3rd RBI. That's 11 RBI for the kid in his last 10 games. That's exactly what we need from our #2 hitter!

Asdrubal hasn't been looking so swell at the plate again. Not sure what's up with that. Today he did get a double, though, going 1 for 3. They took him out in the later innings because we were up by so much and Aviles didn't do anything either.

Swisher, on the other hand, is having fun launching balls on this homestand! He went 1 for 3 today with a homer and that's his 3rd home run in 6 games!

Jason Giambi is having fun playing his old team. Yesterday he got the 2 hits and today he got an RBI single to score Cabrera after his double. So that's 3 hits and 3 RBI for him in just 2 games!

Mark Reynolds made sure that no one noticed Santana was out today. Dude got his league-leading 11th home run today, and it was for 2 RBI. He also came around to score earlier in the game after a leadoff double in the 2nd. I dunno what goes on in Cleveland that is making him so much better than before, but this guy is just all over the place for us. He's hungry like the wolf!

The Chiz Kid quietly got some stuff done today. He hit a towering fly out in his first time up, almost over the wall but not quite. Then his next at-bat he got a single. Later on he reached on a throwing error, because he's super fast. You forget that he's super fast!

Yan "Yanimal" Gomes of course got a hit today. He didn't throw anyone out, though. He got an RBI double to start off the scoring in that 3-run 2nd inning, then reached third on a throwing error, and came around to score on Stubbs' single that followed.

Stubbs is getting back up there, now hitting .264 after going 2 for 4 today. He seems pretty comfortable in center field, too. I bet Swisher will be happy to have Bourn back in center and Stubbs in right, though. If Swish is doing this well at bat all "tired out" from right field, though, imagine how he'll do while rested!

Bourn is supposed to be back for the upcoming Detroit series, at least on the bench. So you'll have a bench with Bourn, Aviles, Gomes and Giambi - not bad! 

I'm really excited about and impressed by the team's hitting today. It wasn't just homers (although they had that!) and it wasn't just errors. Clutch hitting and doubles, and getting on base. Any little thing we can take in to Detroit is going to help, and the momentum of a game where "Everybody Hits!" is hopefully going to take them far this weekend.

And of course, the luck of Meryl!

Is it really luck at this point?

Tomorrow night is Corey Kluber versus RHP 3.43. Surely a RHP we had no problem rolling over in 2012. I can't wait to see what this lineup does to the Motor City Kitties!

7:08 start (seriously) See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Colon is listed at 5'11", 267 pounds. That was a couple of cheeseburgers ago."
- Tom Hamilton

"Day baseball still works."
- Tom Hamilton

"When you think sports at Duke University you probably think of Mike Krzyzewski. When you see their baseball facility...you continue to think of Mike Krzyzewski."
- Tom Hamilton says Duke has an awful baseball facility

"Here's a question - if it is Bauer starting the second game, will he have time to do his extensive warm up routine between games? It takes about 45 minutes."
"That's a good question. [...] Unless he's out on 9th street throwing down to 12th street."
- Jim Rosenhaus and Tom Hamilton

"Last year the Oakland A's were baseball's Cinderella story. [...] This year, too many bunions - the slipper doesn't fit."
- Tom Hamilton

"Everybody needs to take a chill pill and focus on the people who are here and not those who aren't coming."
- Tom Hamilton