Matthew "Matt" Reese Carson (born July 1, 1981) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball. He is 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) and weighs 200 pounds (91 kg).
Carson joined the Tribe in spring training but went right to Columbus from Arizona. Carson is 32 and he's been in the minors since 2002, except for 46 games with Oakland across 2009 and 2010, and 26 games in Minnesota last year. The Indians brought him up in September, along with bringing over Kubel from the D-Backs.
Prior to playing professionally, he attended Yucaipa High School and then Brigham Young University (BYU).
Matt Carson has appeared in 11 games now since September 1, with 8 at-bats and only one start. He has gotten 7 hits in his 8 at-bats, with 3 RBI. Tonight's hit and subsequent RBI were - as far as Cleveland's concerned - his most important of his career!!
Have a look:
How freaking awesome was that? On one hand, you don't expect some perpetual minor leaguer to be the one guy who can get a team of highly-paid professionals a win against the worst team in all of baseball...but, what ever! I will TAKE it! And I will praise Matt Carson! And I will look forward to seeing him through the rest of September and on through October!!!
I was at the game tonight. Veeeeeeerrrrry cool atmosphere! I was perched atop the bleachers, between a group of "dudes" and this old guy. The old guy (totally did not get his name) said he hadn't been to a game since 1995 when he won a playoff lottery. He heard on the radio that tickets were $10, and he doesn't have a computer so he came to the box office to get his ticket earlier that day. I had the radio in one ear but I had a nice time watching the game with him. He was excited - hooting and hollering and waving his arms along with me! He was really having a ball! And just because he hadn't been to a game in so long doesn't mean he wasn't up with the team - he knew his stuff.
Funny that the guy was there with me, really. My own grandpa (that's him at the right [during the 2013 season]) hadn't been to a game in that long either, and he passed away before I could convince him to come to another. And while this guy reminded me of a grandpa he didn't remind me of my grandpa. He actually reminded me of my best friend's grandpa! But it was still nice.
Also when I went to give him high 5's with my big paws, I honestly thought I was going to snap his hands right off his wrists.
Dude said he might come back for more games. How fun!!
Like I said, the crowd was awesome. Lots and lots of cheering and clapping - in all the right places! Not just clapping for clapping's sake, but clapping when something laudable was happening. Or we wanted it to happen. Even John Adams was inspired and threw in some extra drumming while the Tribe was pitching, and when we didn't have runners in scoring position.
Just 12,607 at the game tonight but it sure as heck felt like a full boat! A ton of people left after the 10th inning, though, which I found weird because I assumed everyone who was there tonight was a pretty diehard fan. But, whatever...I don't know how they live their lives!
Ubaldo was just aces again tonight, for the 4th time in a row in September! It was his 6th quality start in a row, today going 7 innings with 1 earned run and striking out NINE. He's only walked 3 batters in his last 4 starts - none of them today.
After that performance, and the team just not being able to score any dang runs, we really needed the bullpen to be on their best behavior. Of course, we saw the best of the bullpen too - Smith and Perez for the 8th and 9th, then Allen for the 10th and Shaw for the 11th. No messing around with Hagadone or Hill, no sir! Smith was flawless. Perez had us hiding behind our hats with the bases loaded and only 1 out, but he ended up striking out the side. Allen and Shaw were great too. Nobody gave up any runs!
The guys looked great in the field today, which is important both because they weren't scoring any runs and they looked awful the last two games. So now at least we know they are serious about defense.
The offense bit was weird because they did get 12 hits and walked 4 times. But hardly anyone was getting to second base! (Ooh la la)
Poor Michael Bourn...used to be if it was coming up in the late innings and Bourn didn't have a hit, I could say "Michael Bourn doesn't ever not get a hit!" and he'd come up with a double or something. Not today - he struck out 3 times and ultimately went 0 for 5.
Swisher was large and in charge today! He went 4 for 4 before they pulled him in a slick move to have some speed on the bases after he got a double in the 8th. Francona said it wasn't too hard of a decision because he got all his hits right-handed and they were done with lefty pitchers. Swish also had a couple nice plays at first as well.
Kipnis finally had a bit of a stir today! He went 2 for 5 and he's the guy that got the RBI that kept us going for 10 innings! He also had a sweet catch, running in to shallow center with his back to the plate and making the play in the 7th. Get hot? Please?
Carlos Santana was trying too hard today for real. He left 3 men on. But he did get a walk, because he is extremely good at walking.
Yan Gomes is just amazing. Utterly unbelievable that he is here with us! Today he caught a guy stealing and also picked off a very fast pinch runner at second. BEHOLD! He's so friggin cool, isn't he? On top of that he went 2 for 5 on the night and was the one who came in to score the winning run. Wanna hear something weird, though? He left 4 men on base! Huh!
OMG what was Asdrubal doing today? He went 2 for 5 and both hits were dribblers down the 3rd base line that were too soft to go foul. Like, he meant to hit them over the fence but the ball hit his bat wrong so they just meandered over to 3rd instead and they were so slow that Asdrubal beat them out. I mean, really! It was pretty weird! He was not really looking good otherwise but hey he got more hits than most guys. Home runs to follow!
Michael Brantley went 1 for 4. I forgot to mention last night, in my haste, that he was keeping up my wish for him to ride out the season with a 13-game hitting streak. Good news - he's up to 4! He did leave a sour taste in my mouth when he tried to steal after his one hit today and failed quite miserably, but you know, he can't carry this team guys!
Poor Mike Aviles...he really really sucks right now. Like 0 for 22 or some nonsense. And the guy is such a team player, like Kipnis. You know it's killing him! He went 0 for 3 today and so did our man Stubbs, who is also taking a turn for the worse. This needs fixing by October!!
Then there was Matt Carson, who you've now heard of. He was in hitting for Stubbs in the 9 position when he changed the world!
Hey, I bought my Goon Squad tee today! They had them at the big Team Shop. I wasn't sure if I wanted a Rally Chicken or a Goon Squad but they made the decision for me by only having one. They had a lot of really great-looking shirts in stock, by the way - not just GVArtwork ones. They had a really nice red Progressive Field shirt but I can't find it online. Didn't catch the brand.
Just to be fair - and just because I friggin' love the local tee shop gear - here's links to Fresh Brewed Tees, CLE Clothing, Homage tees and Eastbay (not local but some nice-looking stuff).
To wrap up - nice night at the park, great weather and great crowd, happy to spend time with an old guy, Ubaldo is the bomb, Yan Gomes right? and now we all know who Matt Carson is!!
Tomorrow is these Astros again and they are going to be gunning for us even harder just because they think they can beat us. Not a chance! Let's just hope we can get to their pitchers, dangit!
It'll be McAllister versus LHP 2.98. Don't be scared! He still plays for the Astros (102 losses thus far). Perhaps it'll be a case of doing well against good guys after sucking against a bad guy. Right?
There's always Matt Carson!
See you there!
