The Quiet Assassin

What is UP, Corey Kluber?! I've seen some good pitching performances so far this summer (Masterson's game against the Yankees in the first game of the double header comes to mind), and I've seen some complete games but I don't know if I've seen a performance this year as....courageous? ...as Kluber's outing today!

Hey Washington...

First off the guy was facing Stephen Strasburg who is like the only guy to play for the Nationals that anyone outside of "the corridor" knows. He's their ace, and he pitched like one today, only giving up 1 hit to our lineup in 5 innings (he's just back from the DL).

Well, Kluber went 8 innings and while he gave up 7 hits, he struck out 8 (twice as many as Strasburg) and walked NONE. Strasburg gave up a run and 4 walks to our guys.

It's not like Kluber was mowing them down, either - and thus comes the courageous part. Only half of his innings went 1-2-3 (where he did, in fact, mow down EIGHT guys).

In the 6th he had 2 on with no out, and nearly at 100 pitches. He got out of that.

In the 7th he had the bases loaded with no outs and already past 100 pitches and he got out of that!! Wow - one of the best moments of the 2013 season thus far!

The boys made three double plays behind him, but also made two errors (Johnny Mac...ouch!) There actually would have been FOUR double plays if one hadn't been botched. Kluber pitched right through that nonsense.

Speaking of the guys behind him - they took out Swisher due to his sore arm or whatever, put Reynolds at first and John McDonald at third, just like I said they should. This didn't turn out so well, performance-wise but let's give these guys a minute to settle in at their new corners. 'n stuff.

Swisher is handing out more BROHIO shirts. Not to us, though. Just to the people in the expensive seats that have waiters (seriously, those seats have waiters. And padding.)

It was so awesome to see Kluber come out in the 8th, with 102 pitches already. You just don't see that too much anymore!  Here's a nice video wrap-up of his day.

Kluber's last outing was also 8 innings, and over 100 pitches (104). This time he had more strikeouts, fewer walks and no runs.

We got the minor-league Kluber for Jake Westbrook. You like?

Vinnie came in for the 9th and he looked kind of stressed out, but he got it done on just 11 pitches, 1 walk and no hits. Let's hope this is one of many nice closes for him!

On the other side of things today, Strasburg had our guys handcuffed too but we chased him out after 5.

Kipnis kept up his hitting streak and is now at 10 games, with 16 hits and 8 RBI. Today he went 1 for 1, because he walked twice and also had what was basically the game-clenching sac fly. He also scored what was the game-winning run after a walk, a steal and advancement on a throwing error. The Kid is making stuff happen - big time!!

Yan Gomes got a hit today and he got his first career stolen base! Hey!

In case anybody is confused that SB next to my name it actually means stolen base, it's not a typo.
— Yan Gomes (@Yan_AGomes) June 17, 2013

Santana's RBI single was for his 30th RBI, and Kipnis's sac fly was for his 34th RBI.

Michael Bourn is the other guy who got a hit, and it was a double!

Really great outing today in front of a fair number of fans - 21k. A little low for Father's Day, or so I thought, but maybe everyone was staying home to watch the game with their dad like I was? No Radio Chatter today - I was watching on TV. But kudos to the TV broadcasters for today's blog title!

I can hardly wait til tomorrow, now! I love looking forward to great baseball!

Tomorrow we start a series against the Royals, who are sneaking up behind us in the standings. It'll be Carlos "Cookie" Carrasco versus RHP 2.79. Let's hope Carrasco is over his nerves and can pitch inside again. Maybe he'll pick up some momentum from his bullpen brethern's great starts as of late. It's crucial that something good happens, though - we're just a half game ahead of the Royals.

Can't wait! See you there!

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

So Nice, I Listened Twice!

I was hanging with my nieces today during the game instead of sitting here glued to my screen, watching Gameday between reading Buzzfeed pictorials (my favorites are animals and retros!) But my brother was kind enough to let me carry around his iPad with AtBat on it, like a radio. Kind of funny because at the moment I don't have a portable radio at home per se - I have my radio plugged in to avoid having to buy batteries. So being able to bring the radio with me around the house was all kinds of neat. It's like I was visiting from 1937!

My younger niece doesn't talk yet but she kept pointing to the iPod and saying "ball?" Heck yeah little girl - that's the ballgame! My brother gave the older one a blow-up light sabre, which she sort of managed to use as a light sabre, but really she wanted me to play baseball with her. The younger one thought we were playing rugby and ran off with the ball. Fun times!

Anyway so I listened to the game with one ear and heard the finale during post-bedtime adult time but I was so happy that it was a nice winning game with some hits and good pitching that I decided to listen to the whole thing again when I got home. Ballgame!

Re-listening to the game was kind of funny because it slowly dawned on me that not much really happened and it really was a pitcher's duel. There were a few tense moments with bases loaded for both teams, but that was about it! Although, it was a nice time listening to the build-up to the final run. And, I had bought snacks.

Masterson threw 10 strikeouts today, which is 2 fewer than his record of 12. He's still looking good! And this time his line is showing it, unlike his last outing where he looked good, technically, but still gave up 4 runs. He went 7 innings today and only gave up 1 run, on a bases-loaded wild pitch. Our starting pitchers have really been tight over these last 3 wins, which is exactly what the doctor ordered for a team that is trying their darndest to hit their way out of this wet paper bag we call a slump.

Masterson was lucky to be followed up by Cody Allen and Joe Smith, two of the most sure relievers we've got. They threw 25 pitches between them over 2 innings, with 3 strikeouts. It would have been an absolute f'n shame if someone had come in and gave up a homer after Masterson's performance - so kudos to the big guys for doing exactly what we needed!

The Tribe only got 7 hits and 4 walks. They loaded the bases in the 6th on 3 walks - and nothing happened! Then they did it again in the 8th, this time with singles - and still nothing happened! The big downer in both of those bases-loaded situations was Mark Reynolds. Remember that guy who was hitting 460' homers and leading the league? He's not quite leading the league in strikeouts yet but he sure is leading the team. Sigh. Let's hope that he follows his teammates up out of this FUNK and we can get back to laughing at the teams that gave up on Reynolds because he struck out too damn much.

The big winners tonight were: Ryan Raburn, Jason Kipnis and Drew Stubbs.

Ryan Raburn got himself a solo homer today to tie the game! Did you know that he's got 3 homers in his last 5 games? And 5 RBI too.

By the way, I just realized I have no idea what Ryan Raburn looks like. LMGTFM....

From espn.go.com

There you go. He looks like Typical White Baseball Player #3271. Although from this angle he looks more..."specific." Kind of like my friend Chuck D. (not that Chuck D., I mean Typical White Guy #93, Chuck):

The guys tried their hands at getting runners on the bases one more time in the 9th, with the score tied at 1 (thanks to Raburn!) Still doin' fine at number nine was Drew Stubbs, who extended his little hitting streak to 3 games with a single. He's got 9 hits in his last 10 games, yaknow. Next up was Bourn, who got a single and Stubbs was off running on the pitch so he made it to third. And you know, with those two on base, it's just off to the races time.

Jason Kipnis was up with 2 on and 1 out. Unlike all of the Reynoldses before him, he would not be defeated! He had already had two hits on the night, by the way - a double and a single. That gives him an 8-game hitting streak with 13 hits over those games! Thirteen! He's also got 6 RBI over those 8 games now too, because he hit a grounder that the first baseman was lucky to snag and then throw home.

Except it looks like he didn't expect Stubbs to be flying home. His throw looked a little soft. Stubbs said post-game that he was just going to go on anything because whatever happened, Bourn would be on 3rd behind him so we'd have another shot (Bourn had stolen 2nd, by the way). Anyway, the first baseman threw to Kurt Suzuki at home, who is merely fulfilling the position of "catcher" in a literal sense in that he is there to catch the ball and no more. Suzuki couldn't tag Stubbs and...ballgame!



That was the Tribe's 6th walkoff win of the year! Not only am I excited that they won - now 3 in a row, AND finally got a win off Gio Gonzalez - but I'm extra excited that there were over 30,000 in attendance to watch it. And they got fireworks and dollar dogs. Hopefully now those people will be as myopic about baseball as Clevelanders tend to be and come back thinking "Hey, they are winners! Let's go to another game!"

Tomorrow is more fireworks and Kipnis jersey day. What a run-up for the Kid! Let's hope he makes it 9 games in a row, and maybe something in the way of the cycle, huh? The game is going to be on Fox (national TV? Not sure, actually...) so the whole world (or at least the non-cable-having part of the broadcast area) will be able to see all of the Kipnis love in the stands.

It's a 7:15 game with Scott Kazmir (solid!) facing RHP 2.00. Ooooh....we like a guy who's good, right? 

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Third base coach Brad Mills...if he gets any further away from the action, he'll have to buy a ticket."
- Tom Hamilton

"You kind of figured it would be that kind of a game tonight."
- Tom Hamilton on Masterson versus Gonzalez

"One mistake could decide this game tonight."
- Tom Hamilton

"He would not do well playing poker."
- Tom Hamilton on Gio Gonzalez

"...he was much more selective. Now it looks like he's trying to hit every pitch ten miles, and has really expanded his strike zone."
- Tom Hamilton on the changes in Reynolds