Satisfying Conclusion

Whew! A little reprieve with good baseball to finish out the weekend. How refreshing!

The Tribe followed a crummy 4-game losing streak that included bad pitching, bad fielding and bad hitting with two games that had none of that mess. It stands to reason that they would rise up behind Kluber but they also had it all locked up for our new after-Kluber starter - Carlos Carrasco!

In his last appearance, Carrasco went 4 innings after Tomlin's bad start and he gave up 3 earned runs on 6 hits. Today he buckled down and managed 5 AWESOME innings, only giving up 2 hits, no runs, no walks and striking out 4! We'll see how this pans out going forward, and if he can start giving some length but the initial trial looks promising. If you can, try to find some interviews with this guy. He seems to be a very hard worker, very eager to learn and to fix problems, and very much a team player. Also, he beaned one of the Royals in retaliation that one time, and got a 5-day suspension. Go Cookie!

No errors today or yesterday! Except we did lose David Murphy to injury at one point. And Nick Swisher, so...

Everyone seems very excited about Jose Ramirez's fielding at shortstop. I can't imagine that everyone has plain forgotten Asdrubal's majesty out there, for at least 4 or 5 years. I'm hoping they are just happy to see some talent out there after Asdrubal's talent wore out. I'm sort of guessing we won't see Omar-/Asdrubal-level talent until Lindor is here, but Ramirez does have plenty big shoes to fill...and a plenty big role to keep to himself as long as possible!

Jason Kipnis has found IT and now is as good a time as any! While he was shut out on Saturday, today he went 3 for 5 giving him 13 hits in his last 10 games. He also stole another base today and hustled home all 3 times he got on!

Jose Ramirez had himself a game yesterday, hitting in the #8 spot. He basically won the game for the Tribe, getting his first major league home run! He went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI - which is 2/3 of the total score. He also stole a base! Today he was up in the #2 spot and managed to go 1 for 3, but it was more of a defensive show for him today than yesterday.

Brantley (.324) had a game to match Ramirez yesterday! Or, er, was it the other way around? He also went 3 for 4 and also got a homer! His 17th, of course - not his first. Today he was "on rest" as DH (because this lineup cannot function without him) and went 1 for 3, but managed 2 RBI thanks to a sac fly. He also was intentionally walked, because they're not completely stupid in New York.

Carlos Santana was shut out yesterday and today. Rut ro...

Goooooomes! No homer for him today but he did go 2 for 3 with 2 RBI today! That's half the team's RBI! Unfortunately, his hitting streak ended at 13 yesterday. I am not positive but I think that's either the team's best this year or tied with it. But he was back on the hit horse today!

Chisenhall didn't hit today, but he did yesterday. And is still hovering around .300 at .292. Please, Lonnie, PLEEEEEASE get it figured out again!

Hey, welcome Zach Walters and Tyler Holt! Can't wait to make pictures for you!

Tyler Holt!

It excites me that you're here because Swisher is gone, but also I'm happy to see as soon as possible if our trades had any merit. Immediate payoff, please!

Speaking of immediate payoff, Chris Dickerson! Well uh, no exclamation point. After his hot start with us, he's fair-to-middlin' now, batting just .243 with only 4 hits in his last 10 games. Nevertheless, he is a handsome man.

Raburn came in for Swisher yesterday and will continue to act as right fielder, I guess, until Swisher gets back. It pains me to say it but his average is below Swisher's. However, he does have half the at-bats of Swisher so he's got that to cling on to. He can only get better from here!

Now that I look at it, we've got a pretty beat-up lineup. Lots of shuffling and substituting. We need Kipnis, Brantley, Santana and Gomes to SHINE right now and hope that everyone follows suit around them. If Chisenhall can also get on that track then this team is not going to be easy to beat! They need to get their heads together before we face Baltimore next weekend. Scary!

Ok so Monday is an off day (it's also Jack's birthday!) and after that there will be a 2-game series at home versus the DBacks. Which I think I might actually attend....hmm...

Tuesday will be House versus RHP 4.09. Definitely need to take advantage of these 2 games and the miserable year the DBacks are having. So - see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"I've never seen an umpire look up at the scoreboard operator with such disdain!"
- Tom Hamilton

"Not many cab drivers are sitting in those seats."
- Tom Hamilton on the atmosphere in New Yankee Stadium where lower seats are so expensive

"I bet someone in the marketing department is like 'Uh oh...well we've got to give away these suckers.'"
- Tom Hamilton on the non-Yankee-blue cowboy hat giveaway

"It's amazing how much better your club looks when you get good starting pitching."
- Tom Hamilton

Don't Call It A Comeback

Because it wasn't! Ha!

They did come back from a 10-2 deficit to make it a manageable 10-6, but it was too little too late, I guess. I had some hope in that last inning, that maybe they'd at least get a few and make it a reasonable 10-9 but no. Swisher, yaknow?

And even with the comeback, and even if it was 10-9, it's still a big ol' L.

Twelve hits, though!

Kipnis went 2 for 4, which you really love to see because the Kid's gotta grind it out for this team to win. He got a very exciting leadoff double to start the game and we all thought good things were coming! But it didn't happen. He's got 6 hits in his last 3 games, though. He also had an error because...that bug is back.

Aviles was back in the 2-hole today. He just went 1 for 5.

Brantley (.320) was back after leaving yesterday's game with an injury. But he tells us it's not a real injury and we should just calm down. Unfortunately he messed up his hitting streak by taking away some of his at-bats yesterday but today he was back with a DOUBLE and also 2 walks...one of them for an RBI!

That 7th inning was pretty tight, with Brantley walking in a run and 'Los busting out a 2-run double. In fact he busted out of a slump by going 3 for 5 today! Oh man but does he suddenly look crappy at first. He was King Shit for a minute there. I almost wonder if the Bro is giving him some sort of bad Bro vibes since he's been relegated to a wandering outfielder.

Creepy Bro Stank Eye

David Murphy is still hot! Because I told my brother to pick up Chisenhall over him for fantasy, of course. Murph's got a 6-game hitting streak with 14 hits in his last 10 games and 7 RBI. Tonight he got 2 more RBI, because everyone was looking a little down and needed a bit of a pick-me-up. Nice try, Murphy and Jesus, but it still wasn't enough.

Chris Dickerson didn't get any hits but he did steal a catch from Swisher in the outfield. I laughed.

Roberto Perez is showing himself to be pretty solid, as they let him catch pretty regularly now to switch out Gomes. One must take good care of their Gomes if one wants their Gomes to last! Robby went 2-4 and came in to score a run.

Oh, Trevor Bauer started. Not his best start but he didn't have good defense behind him. He got 5 earned runs but should have been fewer ER for him if they had given Jeter an error instead of a hit on a dropped ball. I still like the kid, though. He's doing better with us than he was with AZ. It's like we're taming a wild stallion. Slowly!

So I dunno, a lot of people are jumping ship right now. Just prepping for the inevitable "statistically out of the race" announcement. Well, I guess if you're jumping ship because of that you weren't firmly on our boat to begin with.

OH!! I am totally stoked about the Progressive Field improvements, though! It really makes me sad that I can't get to more games. This summer has been awful for getting to games because I'm broke and my dog is sick, so even if I could/should afford to go, it's hard to get someone to stay with the dog. Next year circumstances might change - in that my parents can stay with the dog - so I hope to get there and experience all of the AWESOME!!! I am excited to see how the new bullpens look in person. Also very happy about the ballpark meeting the street at street level. What would be MOST exciting is more fans in the stands! Cool!

Tomorrow is more Yankees and it's a 1:05 game, to totally mess up your day. But it's Corey Kluber so everything will be GRRRRRREAT! If anyone is going to stop this losing skid for us, it's the Klubot. Now if we could only have all of tonight's bats, none of tonight's errors and 100% Kluber you know we've got it on lockdown.

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"If I'm Carlos Santana I'm swinging on this pitch if it's anywhere near home plate."
- Tom Hamilton on Santana's at-bat in the first

"Bellino says 'You bat, I'll ump.'"
- Tom Hamilton

"There are small countries whose governments have been overthrown in the time it has taken to play this first inning."
- Tom Hamilton

"Well folks I hope you packed a sandwich. We're going to be here a while."
- Tom Hamilton

"Since Derek Jeter's mom is the scorer tonight, he was credited with a hit instead of an error."
- Tom Hamilton

"Josh Tomlin is Charlie Nagy Junior."
- Tom Hamilton

New Guys! Old Guys! Everybody Looks Good!

Whew! What a day! I literally spent 5 hours glued to Twitter tweeting about Corey Kluber. My bad, if anyone was offended by that. I at least tried to be fun. I am pretty sure my 270 followers are just looking for Tribe tweets so hopefully I was safe spamming about the Tribe.

Klubes totally didn't win, either. They kept saying he was in first place but I think by the end of it he was in second place. And that didn't even matter because he was 4th overall.

But, in the wake of all of this LeBron talk and constant yammering about Not Baseball, it was fun to turn our attentions to baseball for a whole day. Especially when, soon, we'll be 4 days without it. (In Cleveland. Of course we can watch the ASG and whatnot)

Everyone was blown away by the hands-on tweeting of starter TJ House, who spent a couple hours re-tweeting #VoteKluber tweets, and doing some of his own. I mean, Vinnie Pestano was in there with us too but it was super special to have House reaching out to fans like that on the day he was slated to start! Of course we were also worried that maybe he was going to affect his performance but really what you want out of your sports teams is reaching out to the fans, right? It's why we haven't run Swisher out of town yet.

Anyway, TJ House didn't fare as well on the mound as he did on Twitter. Whoops! He only lasted 4 2/3 innings. Not so much because he gave up 3 runs but because he threw 94 pitches in that time and despite his manly beard he is only a sprout. He gave up 8 hits and 2 walks, and found himself having to work out of a lot of jams. Still dig him, though. Not like he imploded or anything!

Here's his #VoteKluber Vine (with a little Vinnie Bomb):


It took 5 relievers to finish out the game, which is pretty rough because they had the extra innings yesterday. But they were pretty solid giving up just 3 hits between them and no runs. Back to no runs for that bullpen yaaaaaas!

Vinnie got to come in early instead of late, so that was nice. Little Kyle Crockett was in there too. Carrasco, Atchison and Hagadone followed. Hagadone had a nice 9th. After giving up a single the boys had a sweet double play behind him, and that final out was a strikeout whose final pitch seemed to go 4 different directions before landing in the catcher's glove. BALLGAME!

The offense kept trying to get going all through the game, but nothing happened for keeps until the 7th inning. They did get 5 hits and 3 walks in those first 6 innings but nothing came of it. Once again, not stringing things together.

However, in that 7th inning it was one string after another!

Kipnis was HAWT again today, this time going 3 for 4 with 2 more steals and 2 runs scored. That's 7 hits for him in the 3 games since Jason Kipnis Bobblehead Day! Also 5 stolen bases, woah. Seems like he's very focused/determined to start stealing more now. Dirtbag!

Asdrubal had a night!! He got 3 hits last night but tonight he got three RBI as in a 3-RBI triple! He also walked, got a single and came in to score a run. Only 2 LOB for him tonight. The people are singing his praises once again!

Michael Brantley (.327) is just amazing and we love him. He went 2 for 4 tonight, extending his hitting streak to 7. He's got 17 hits in the last 10 games, and has only had one 0-for game in the month of July. Also, he is featured in a science book:

Not really Brantley but....right??

Santana was almost left out of things today but in the 8th he let loose with a 2-run homer! That's 8 hits for his last 8 games, as well as 4 total RBI. Not really out there with a huge average like we like to see but boy isn't it nice to have him reliable again? Instead of reliably unreliable.

The Chiz Kid is kind of limping along lately, huh? His average has dipped 20 points in 10 games. Tonight he went 1 for 4 with a walk. HOWEVER - he finally is qualified! This means he's had at least 3.1 plate appearances for every game the team has played. With at least 4 or 5 PA each game he should be able to keep ahead of the qualification even if he has one day off a week.

Since he's qualified, he and Brantley are now both in the top 10 in the league for batting average. I saw a quick graphic today saying that it's the first time two Indians since blah blah blah but I totally didn't catch the statistic! If anyone knows, let me know! But check out this list of the top 10. Those are some BIG NAMES!! And our boys right in the middle. So proud!

Poor David Murphy. The Lord did not want him hitting again today. He was the only Indian not to hit. But he did make a topical Kluber Vine:



So check it out - Chris Dickerson is on his 4th game with us and he went 3 for 4 tonight, giving him a total of 7 hits in 4 games! Woah nelly! It seems like we got ourselves another "washed up" gem from the minors! He had some kind of injury that sent him there and he just never came back to the Pirates, until they traded him to us for cash. And geez - SO FAR SO GOOD!!! We seriously have a glut of outfielders this year. Blessed!

Speaking of blessed, today was the first Major League game for catcher Roberto Perez. He's come up through our minors system, from Kinston to Akron to Columbus where he's been hitting .305. According to Jim Rosenhaus, they swapped out George Kottaras for him because he's much better at throwing guys out. Ah well, Kottaras, we hardly knew ye.

Here's Perez:

He's from Puerto Rico. He doesn't really look like a Roberto, does he? Looks more like a Robby. In fact he looks a lot like the one kid I grew up with named Robby. A bit of a badass in him for sure. Exhibit B:

Superman shirt pic.twitter.com/MDT2OTFD0A
— Roberto Perez (@robebo23) April 7, 2014

But whatever he goes by,  hopefully it's always followed by "Cleveland Indians"! Perez not only got his first hit tonight, he also got his first home run! He's only got 8 in the minors so it's not like he's a big hitter but right now he is! Unfortunately for him, I guess, his homer was the result of a review and a reversal. So all he got was a call of an RBI double from Tom Hamilton, and then several minutes later "It's a home run!" (Which interrupted Rosie and caught me by surprise!) He'll have to have an asterisk next to it in his mind - first home run, first home run with proper radio call.

If he does well and Santana keeps doing well at first, well then we might have things all figured out for the Indians! With as little Swisher as possible!

So, split series with Yankees! Still a little bit under .500 but I think we're primed and ready to face those White Sox (stupid Chris Sale and his stupid Twitter fans!) and end up in a good spot going in to the ASG.

Tomorrow is a 7:05 game with everyone's favorite person at the moment, Corey Kluber, versus RHP 4.31. Wow, it could be another blowout! Would be great if Klubes could give us a 7- or 8-inning start (or 9, NOT PICKY) and save that bullpen that's seen a lot of innings these past couple days. He owes us all now!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Tito says players don't seem to be so strong anymore..."
- Tom Hamilton on Tito's interpretation of the inconsistent play in the MLB lately

"When was the last time you saw a major league pitcher catch a popup? Usually the infielders are in there screaming 'get out of the way!' But Pestano says 'Hey, I'm an athlete.'"
- Tom Hamilton

"Are you here all week? Should we tip our waitstaff on our way out?"
- Jim Rosenhaus thinks Tom Hamilton is a real comedian

"That's one of those games - you didn't get beat, you lost it."
- Tom Hamilton on Wednesday's game

"Boy that was like he took an uppercut from Mike Tyson."
- Tom Hamilton on the umpire being hit in the 8th

"Joe Girardi is saying to Miller 'Well, you're going to have to take one for the team.'"
- Tom Hamilton on the Yankees leaving their reliever in

Ugh - Yankees

Well, they tried to get back to .500 today! They fought hard for 14 innings and in the end, it just didn't happen.

Stupid Mark Teixeira. Stupid Jacoby Ellsbury. Stupid DEREK JETER.

Josh Tomlin and his hair put up 7 innings, which rocks, but he let 4 runs go in that time. Two homers to Teixeira! He struck out 5, and kept the hits down to 8 - with no walks! But 4 was enough to tie it and wear us down over 5 extra innings.

They had to use 6 relievers tonight over 7 innings (5 extra). Atchison, Shaw, Allen, Axford, Zep, Pestano. They combined for EIGHT strikeouts! Ichiro struck out 3 times on the night, and their shortstop Ryan struck out 4. Golden Sombrero! They gave up 4 hits and 3 walks but kept getting out of it. Solid as usual.

In the end, it was Vinnie who gave up the homer to stupid Ellsbury, and that was enough to win. Oh Vinnie!!

The offense wasn't very helpful tonight, though. Twelve hits and 11 LOB! Wat?! At one point they had the bases loaded after 3 walks, with 1 out and...well, we didn't win.

Both Kipnis and Cabrera were UP tonight! Two more hits for Kipnis at leadoff, and Cabrera followed up with 3 hits of his own! Both came around to score once. Unfortunately, no RBI for those guys.

I'm totally diggin' Brantley-Santana-Chisenhall. Aren't you? Feels like a super power trio! And when Kipnis and Cabrera are on their upswings that is one HOT half of the order!

Erm, well, except today when Kipnis and Cabrera got 5 hits and Brantley-Santana-Chisenhall left 4-3-5 on base. Oops!

Brantley and Santana did have the patience today. They each got a hit, but they also each walked. Santana twice. Chisenhall didn't get a hit but a FC or something drove in a run.

Brantley totally almost won the game, along with some aggressive baserunning by Kipnis but...well, Cleveland. Someone made a spectacular catch.

Nick Swisher still plays for the Indians.

David Murphy got a hit, and had a nice play in the outfield. Yan Gomes didn't hit but he also didn't error so that's good.

Chris Dickerson! He's played 3 games with us now and is batting .364 - that's even better than Kottaras numbers! Dickerson went 2 for 6 tonight but it was a bummer that he didn't get an RBI and no one hit him in.

Despite the loss after all that time, it was a fun game with all those extra innings. It's fun to be on the edge of your seat - sometimes!

Tomorrow is one more game against these Stankees, and TOMORROW is Jeter Day. For some reason I thought it was today. A 7:05 start, TJ House versus RHP 4.01. Not a problem, right?

I'll actually be missing my first game of the season tomorrow! A friend has extra tickets to a thing. Tomorrow woulda been a good day for extra innings! But oh well...at least it's the end of the Yankee fan infestation.

See you there! (After the show)

A Good Day For Flying

Hey! I'm back! For now, at least. Still dealing with a sick dog and a sick me but this is the first time in a while that I've found myself awake after a game in a few weeks.

Plus - how exciting was this game?!?! And it wasn't even because of Kluber or Chisenhall!

Trevor Bauer OWNED IT today. He owned it because several of his pitches bounced in front of the plate, but he still went 7 innings. He still threw 112 pitches. He still didn't give up any home runs and the FOUR hits he did give up were just singles! It took a long time - he only struck out 6 - but he did it! Bauer Outage!

Bryan Shaw came in for a beautiful 8th - no hits, no runs, one strikeout - and then Cody Allen came in for an even more-perfect save (TWO strikeouts)! Allen has 10 saves now, one more than John Axford. Still not our "closer" I guess but who CARES?? What's in a name? All it means is that fewer people pick him up to be their Fantasy closer.

So, since we been gone, Michael Bourn is hurt again. His hamstring disengaged again or something, and he's out for a while. Suuuuucks, because he was doing really great! And also because Nyjer Morgan is still only halfway through his stint on the 60-day DL.

Now Brantley is in center (uh, no problem) and Murphy et al are in right. They picked up a dude named Dickerson from Pittsburgh for left. No opinion on him yet, although I think his coming in somehow lost us Kottaras and that's not cool. This Dickerson guy owes us some homers!

Jason Kipnis is the leadoff man now and he's feelin' it. Or he's feelin' Jason Kipnis Bobblehead night.

20,000 "Yankee fans" are not feeling it.

He went 2 for 4 tonight in that top spot, and stole TWO bases. He's been pretty steady in the last 10 games - going up and down as the rest of the team does. But it seemed especially potent tonight!

Asdrubal...I guess he was wearing a Brazil soccer jersey today. Is that how the World Cup works? Once your team (Venezuela) is out, you pick your next fave? Brazil didn't work out too well for him, either. Also, he went 0-fer tonight. Sigh. He's been like Kipnis, keeping his average tight over the last 10 games but not hitting when the rest of the team isn't either.

Michael Brantley (.328) is getting there! And by "there" I mean the elusive .330 that I keep imagining him having! Of course, no one will know of this except for me and my dog and the 4 people who may have read about it here, but it's our goal! Today's key term is "five-tool player" as Brantley hit for power (his 14th home run) and had the speed to get two doubles, and leads the league in outfield assists (didn't get one today but this weekend he did), is great at chasing down balls and oh yeah - .328. He also looks good in a fedora.

How about Carlos Santana, huh? He's steady over .200. Maybe not as much over .200 as we'd like but he's back to hitting regularly and for power. He's got a lot of ground to make up! Speaking of ground have you seen him on the field lately? He's been at first a bit and he had one HECK of a game the other night, flinging himself around and making important plays. They say it's because he did so much third base work that with the bigger glove at first and stuff, it's easier. He only went 1 for 4 tonight and did strike out twice but still I'm glad he's with us!

Lonnie Baseball has cooled off a bit but he is still our every-day dude and I'm LOVIN it! The average is coming down down down after being up in the stratosphere, but as he gets closer to qualifying (maybe this week?) he is still way up there. HE has the elusive .330! Let's hope it doesn't slide too much further down, though - today he was 1 for 3 with a walk. He also made his 12th error which....yeep!

Murphy went 1 for 4, and that Dickerson dude went 1 for 3 and has a .400 batting average so far.

Gomes made his 11th error, which sucks because after an atrocious start he has been rock-solid on the field lately. I just tried to give you some cool stats after reading BaseballReference.com but I am way too lame for them. His fielding % is .985. Sounds good right? But I guess it can't be too good if you have 11 errors. And there are like 15 columns of other stats. He's got a 37% caught stealing % so that's not too bad. It's towards the top in the league, I believe.

So this pitcher they faced tonight, Tanaka, was 10-0 against teams he'd faced for the first time. Now he's 10-1. He also had not given up more than 4 earned runs in a game this year. Now he's given up 5. Dude came in with a 2.27 ERA and now it's 2.51. BOOM!! Tribe still likes those good pitchers! (Except when they totally, totally don't).

I guess tomorrow is Derek Jeter day at the Prog. That really upsets me so I won't talk about it. However, I guess Key Bank is giving everyone K signs to remind everyone to #VoteKluber. Did you vote? They need one more guy for each ASG squad, and Kluber is on their list of possibilities. You can go here and vote a bazillion times. You can also text "A2" to 89269 to vote for the Klubot. And on Thursday, between 10 AM and 4 PM, you can Tweet the hell out of #VoteKluber for a final push!

The Rockies are asking that since you are there and since it's easy, would you please #VoteMorneau too? They came up with the clever #ClevelandRox hashtag, which I do like. I've been voting for Morneau by default (I'm not text voting, just voting online) so the Rockies sent me a coupon good for 33% off tickets to some upcoming Rockies/Twins game in Minnesota. Cool?

If you #VoteKluber at least 28 times on the MLB site, you get entered into some contest and can meet Klubes so that's cool. Right?

Speaking of Twitter, in my blog absence I've been doing a lot more tweeting and following people on Twitter. I finally got myself a good list of people I like to follow during games - a fun group! And a lot more followers, since the Indians have re-tweeted me a few times. If you like my blog and do the Twitter, come follow me (@positivetribe) and check out all the people I follow during games. I do some photos and say some fun stuff. Always positive! (There's a NegativeTribe out there now....mhmm)

So yeah, tomorrow, 7:05 again at Progressive Field. It'll be game 3 of 4 against those dudes. It'll be Tomlin and his hair against a newcomer named McCarthy. RHP! Let's hope for lots of runs!

No Radio Chatter tonight. Give me a break! Check out this awesome Facebook post, though:

Post by Tom Hamilton has the Best Home Run call in all of Baseball.

We Got Ourselves A Roll!

Four games, boffins! Four games in a row where we had somewhat decent pitching and scored RUNS and then won a game! Imagine that! Wahoo!

Wonder how that chicken is faring? He's probably got his own office in the clubhouse by now! (He has his own Twitter account, dontchaknow)

Kluber was the starter and he didn't have his best game, because they had him on a short leash just coming off the DL. 64 pitches. He only lasted 5, so no quality start. He did strike out 5 in those 5 innings, plus only walked one. He gave up 2 runs - the second run was a walk he left on base when he exited in the 6th.

Then started the parade of...everyone! Hill, Pestano (Hi, Vinnie!), Hagadone, Shaw, Zep, Carrasco. I have no idea which one of those guys was here on August 30 and which just came back in September. But it's good they were all sitting around waiting for a chance to pitch, because the team needed Kluber and he needed someone to fill in some pitches for him. So pitch they did!

Hill gave up that one run on Kluber's walk. He didn't make it out of the 6th inning, either. Next up was Vinnie who uhm...welp, he needs some more work. Hagadone finished the inning, getting the third out.

Then were the "old hats" Shaw, Zep and finishing with Carrasco. They all pitched matchups, and the three of them only gave up 1 hit between them. Only 1 strikeout but whatever. The game was won!

The team was back to hitting like they had been the last 2 games. Eleven hits, three of them doubles, two of them home runs. And they were running wild on the bases with FOUR stolen bases! This all added up to NINE runs! Cool!

Indians are 3-0 with an average of 7.7 runs per game since the first appearance of the #RallyChicken.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) September 8, 2013

Although, hasn't the chicken been around as the newly-returned Raburn? He is analogous to the chicken.

Almost everyone hit today except....Drew Stubbs! It's a shame, but he can't be awesome all the time otherwise he would not be holding down #9 and probably also not on our team. Get 'em next time, Stubbs!

Seems like the Bro is pumped about college football season, and he's ready to start hitting again! Swish went 2 for 4 with an RBI double and a solo homer. We can't really get into the post season without him doing that stuff, so I will call a truce and root root root for the homeboy all through September!

Gomes "only" had one hit tonight, after having two multi-hit games in a row. But he totally walked twice so he was 1 for 2, and he came in to score twice!

OMG ASDRUBAL!!! OMG OMG!! I was walking around my backyard, moving stuff from the fire pit to the garage (quite a distance). I had set the radio down and didn't want to carry it back to the pit to get my next handful of stuff. But Asdrubal was up and I was like "Well, whatever, I'll take it." So I took the radio and got all the way back to the pit and BAM! Homer! Totally, totally cool! And I had to run back up to the house (empty handed) and go post on Facebook about the homer (so my friends would know, you know? Right?) and then get back to work. I LOVE BASEBALL!!

He also turned 2 double plays with Kipnis and Swish.

God DAMN, Ryan Raburn!! YOU ARE SO GOOD!!!

He's so good that your grandma knitted him a 12-foot ___________!

Bases loaded 3-run double? YES PLEASE! Raburn had been quite for a while, but in is last two games before his injury he went 1 for 3 with 2 RBI - a 2-RBI homer - and 1 for 3 with an RBI (with 5 days inbetween!) Then he was gone for like 2 weeks. In the 2 games he's played since he's been back, a total of 2 hits and FIVE RBI!! Clutch? Cluck?

Not to be left out (on the bench), Aviles went 2 for 4 himself. No runs or RBI for him but that's 4 hits for the Goon Squad today!

Oh yeah - how do you like this shit from GVArtwork?

Post by GVARTWORK.COM.

Move over #BullpenMafia! The #GoonSquad is here! That's like one of the most badass pics I've seen this year. Buy that damn shirt!!! We need you, Goon Squad!

And Matt Carson too, apparently. They keep shoehorning him in to games. Today he was 1 for 1. All right.

I'm feeling a lot better about stuff right now, looking at the rest of the schedules and seeing some life from the guys we were supposed to count on for life this year. I hope to Og that Asdrubal is at the beginning of a thing, and Swisher has a firm foothold on a thing. We need it. Boy, do we need it.

Tomorrow the game is at the same time as the first Browns game, which you're used to I'm sure. My deal is that I listen to the baseball on the radio and watch football on TV. This works out well for me because my dog is afraid of referee whistles (srsly) and also there's no Bernie Kosar so who cares what the announcers are saying? Closed captioning, bitches.

It'll be Salazar versus Dice-K. Cool, right? It's at 1:05 - see you there!

No Radio Chatter today. I was having a perfect summer night beside a fire with my radio, not sitting in front of a screen taking notes!

Scott Kazmir is History!

Well I just wrote a big awesome post but Blogger ate it, and I don't have time to re do it, so oh well.

Summary:

Kazmir: Not "history" I mean "making history." Made some strikeout history against the team that brought him up on the farm.

Swisher: Grand slam. Buying fireworks for Sept 21. No kidding.

Santana: Second in league in walks, behind Mike Trout. 

Gomes: Hitting .300. Another double!

Stubbs: Two stolen bases, back up to ~.240.

Future: Swisher says they will "scratch and claw to the playoffs" and I say they need to roll over the Mets, Astros, White Sox and Twins and boldly MARCH to the playoffs!

Tomorrow: Salazar versus Dice-K. They were in Columbus together.

Spider Vinnie: Back in Cleveland. Hooray!

Tomorrow's game is at 6:05 - don't forget! See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"A 15 foot wall takes a home run away from a guy like Yan Gomes."
- Tom Hamilton

"We're only going to give you scores of games that matter right now. If you want to know how Boston or Toronto is doing, you'll have to go to your laptop."
- Tom Hamilton

"A grand slam to left for Nick Swisher! And this baby is over!"
- Tom Hamilton

A Glimmer of Good?

First thing's first: Chris Perez is being investigated after a pound of pot was sent to his house via the US mail. My stance on this is no way can Chris Perez be that stupid as to have a pound of pot delivered to his house in the mail. But then again I was fully convinced that there was no way Anthony Wiener would tweet a picture of his junk to his mistress and I was 100% wrong there, so obviously I am a poor judge of the character of public figures, so I'm just gonna keep mum.

Although I am getting a laugh out of Pure Rage's new alter-ego, Pure Mellow. Well played!

After this scandal broke this morning they did play a baseball game in the Bronx. It was in fact a losing game but IMHO there was a glimmer of hope to it. The Tribe showed a little bit of fight, a smidge of moxy. Plus, Yan Gomes.

Corey Kluber was like Kazmir and Masterson before him - one crummy inning and that was enough to do him in. He started off with a crummy inning that resulted in no earned runs on his record when Cano got on base with an error and Hafner crushed a 2-run blast (ugh!) The next inning he gave up 4 hits and a walk, resulting in 4 runs. He was lucky to get out of it with a double play at the end. But, after that? No more walks, 8 strikeouts, no more runs and just 2 more hits. He was 1-2-3ing his way all the way through to the 6th inning. His ERA is up over 4.5 now but he made a valiant recovery - I'm not worried.

Matt Langwell came in to start the 7th and walked a guy on 4 pitches and then was done. Oops!

Rich Hill had to come in for Langwell and HE walked 2 guys too. His ERA is 8.10. Of course he intentionally walked Teixeira and then didn't care if he walked Hafner so those were sort of good moves. If you're going to sacrifice a guy just to throw some balls, Rich Hill is a good pick.

Joe Smith was the hero and  came in with the bases loaded and 2 out in the 7th to get Vernon Wells to pop out. His ERA is .93. Of course it is!!

Vinnie P came out for the 9th down 2 runs, and to be honest he looked a little shaky to start. First he gives up a single to the ghost of Ichiro Suzuki, then throws a wild pitch, and I'm sure everyone was looking to see if his arm came out of its socket. It didn't, and then he got the next 3 out with a pop-up and 2 strikeouts. Someone on Twitter said that Vinnie seems to be 85% back and I agree. Eighty-five percent of Vinnie is still pretty good.

Our guys weren't hitting that much today - they had 7 hits (over 7 players) and 9 strikeouts (over 7 players). Does CC Sabathia not walk guys? Because the Tribe only mustered 1 walk today.

Michael Bourn went 1 for 4. He also had an error in the first inning which led to the 2-run homer by Hafner. It's pretty jarring to see him have two goofs in 2 weeks - remember how he just had a ball pop out of his glove and over the wall? - but also see some of the crazy good stuff he's doing in the field around those goofs. This is actually his first error of the year and I guess if you can vividly describe each gaffe a player makes in 2 months of play, the player isn't doing so bad.

Kipnis got a hit today but it didn't seem like it was supposed to be a hit. It bounced off an infielder in to the outfield. But hey, it was a hit AND an RBI so we'll take it. I just wish he'd get legit again.

Swisher is the DH and one of the guys who didn't get a hit. He's leaving New York with zero hits in 3 games and also leaving without New York feeling one bit jealous of Cleveland as Hafner finishes up with 2 hits and 3 RBI. Meh.

Santana, Aviles and Brantley all went 1 for 4. All three of them are hitting over .280. Pretty cool!

Guess who almost saved the day today?!

Yan swatted one out in the 7th with one on, bringing the Tribe to within 2! Four home runs and 12 RBI in his last 10 games! Plus there's no doubt he talked Kluber down after the 2nd and was partially responsible for the scoreless rest of the game, right? More Yan please!

Drew Stubbs remains "back", now with a 3-game hitting streak. You gotta believe that with your #9 guy doing "this well" that a team has the ability to do well over-all. Of course that just intensifies your frustration when they are NOT doing well but keep repeating "It's only June..."

Sadly, we've lost for a second time against a Cy Young Award winner, and it's our last time to face him. But otherwise...t's only June.

Tomorrow we get a day off and then it's off to Deeeee-troit for some fun with the Kitties on Friday. It'll be Ubaldo versus RHP 3.70. The guys will be refreshed and ready to win! I think today was a good indicator that the team might be on an upswing and ready to get back to their old selves. It'll happen soon, I promise!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Ex-Cleveland-Indians, every single one of them, seem to always have a monster game against the Tribe."
- Tom Hamilton on Hafner's homer

"It's like everyone's gone to the Brandon Philips school of destroying Indians pitching."
- Jim Rosenhaus

"Can't you raise your right hand? If it's that hard to do, it's time to retire."
- Tom Hamilton on the slow and subtle home plate umpire

"One dollar won't even get you ketchup here at the new Yankee Stadium."
- Tom Hamilton

And Now - 1000 Words On Hot Dogs

I told my friend that it's getting sort of hard to write these blog posts during this losing streak. Not just because we're losing, but nothing too exciting is happening. He asked me if I had done a thorough review of hot dogs yet and I said no, but that sounds like a good idea.
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Here's the deal with hot dogs at Progressive Field: there are two main kinds. There are the $3 hot dogs, which are the same as the $1 hot dogs on Dollar Dog nights. Then there are some huge hot dogs, I think 1/4 lb, which are $5 or $5.50. The cheap dogs are also what you're going to find in the "All You Can Eat Seats." As far as I know, you can get the bigger dogs anywhere you can get hot dogs, but I may be wrong. I usually shoot for the bigger concession stands that have everything.

If it's Dollar Dog night, or you're buying hot dogs for kids then the cheaper dogs are a no-brainer. They're no different than gas station dogs but they get the job done. Plus, you're really just there for the Stadium Mustard anyway - who cares what goes on underneath it?

Now, if you are a person of substantial size (ie a Clevelander) then you will enjoy the bigger dog much more. There's a lot of hot dog there. And you can taste it around the mustard, which is fine, cuz it's good. If you have been waiting since lunch you can probably manage 2 dogs and some fries (should I do another post all about the fries? The fries are awesome!) If you're a normal-sized person, perhaps visiting from out of town, one big dog will do you. But get the fries too.

One issue I have with the big dogs is that they are super freaking hot. I've had to take them apart and eat them bunless when I'm being good and watching my carbs (best and possibly only low-carb treat at the ballpark!) and they burn my fingers. When I get them in a bun, of course they don't burn my fingers but even after a walk from the concession stand to the condiment bar to my seat they're still blazing hot! This makes me unhappy because as much as I like eating hot dogs, I like cheering for the Tribe even more and that's hard to do with a tray of hot dogs on my lap. I gotta hold on to the napkins, and keep drinking pop, and make sure I don't get ketchup all over my jersey. It totally impedes on my clapping ability (and I have a wicked good clap). So it sucks to have to go slow and not burn my mouth on these damn big hot dogs. It also sucks to go fast and burn my mouth on the damn big hot dogs. It's one of the only bad things about dinner at the ballpark!

These hot hot dogs do beat the cheap dogs at the All You Can Eat stands, which in my experience are cold by the end of the game. Boo!

Unfortunately the hot dog vendors that come to the seats only sell the cheap dogs. If you would like to have the very baseball experience of having someone sell you a hot dog from an insulated box while you sit at your seat, then by all means get those cheap dogs. There's definitely something special about that - so special that they send around the hot dog guys in the old timey vendor outfits and everything. Unfortunately I don't think they squirt your condiments for you anymore but in reality I think that saves everyone some trouble.

You actually have more hot dog options at The Prog, including the foot-long hot dog. These are sold in the stands by vendors (with the funny outfits) and according to this site they're also at a fancy hot dog concession stand that sells veggie dogs and mega condiments. I've never seen this stand, but to be honest my friends and I are generally not trawling for food (we find stuff and eat it. End of story.) I'll have to look for it next time I'm out there, though, as the foot-long guys don't come to every section.

The foot-longs are pretty good. They seem like more than just double the cheapo dogs. I was prepared to be unimpressed but by the time I was done with the one I had (from a vendor, noless!) I was like "huh, that was worth it!" I don't remember the price on those, it's been a while, but I know they still have them for sure. If you see a vendor come by and you're wanting a hot dog - try a foot-long!

Of course there's tons of other food at The Prog and I've written about it before, as I try it, but I always come back to the hot dog. I don't know if our hot dogs are anything to write home about but the Indians do have the best mustard in the big leagues (™ maybe?) which I never, ever eat at home (although I think every NE Ohio fridge has a bottle, just in case, from that one time you had a bbq at your house) but I make a beeline for it at every game.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention The Hot Dogs in my report - and I mean the hot dogs that race in the Hot Dog Derby.

These hot dogs.

 I'm a big fan of Mustard, myself. Never trusted that dang cheating Ketchup. I'm ambivalent about onion - I'll cheer for her if Mustard is out of the race. I've been known to give Ketchup some sass if I see him walking around the park. One time he did something rude to me, I forget what. Like a hand gesture or punched my arm or something. I will admit it was pretty hilarious to be heckled by a hot dog. I'm very excited that I have a Mustard magnet on my fridge now! Some day I might even buy myself a Mustard doll.

My best friend that I go to games with is a big fan of Ketchup. Odd - we are politically opposed as well. Does the cheating Ketchup appeal to the Right and the sideways-hat-wearin' Mustard appeal to the Left? Hmm. That is a question bigger than us all! However I WOULD like to know why the hot dogs that represent Cleveland includes a bright YELLOW Mustard. I don't think I can ever take them truly seriously until Mustard gets some soul.
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There you have it - my treatise on hot dogs at Progressive Field. Widely researched and poorly executed but research is on-going.

As for today's game against the Yankees - how about that Drew Stubbs? He broke a no-hit streak last night then came in tonight to go 2 for 3 with a 3-run homer! He got 2 of the team's 3 hits and all of the team's RBI for the night. Oh yeah and he's not too shabby in the field, either!

Oh and how about that Nick Hagadone? Coming in with bases loaded and 1 out and I bet you were all holding your breath (like I was) and then he gets Robinson Cano, of all people, to hit in to a double play. Wow!

No word on where you can buy the BROHIO shirt yet. It's definitely getting a lot of attention, according to the blog's stats. As soon as I figure out where you can buy it I'll post a link. Damn the burgeoning custom soft tee manufacturing market in Cleveland! They make one-off tees like nobody's business! Of course now I'm already on to wondering what shirts these were that Mark Reynolds and friend were wearing in the clubhouse today. Did the mullet barber bring them? What do they say? Don't worry, boffins - I'm on the case. I Tweeted Kipnis for us!

Tomorrow's an afternoon game in New York, a 1:05 start. It'll be Kluber versus LHP 3.71. A Cy Young Award winner - our favorite!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Those folks...they don't want to take a chance on bruising their hands while clapping, or getting a sore throat from screaming."
- Tom Hamilton on subdued Yankee fans in the expensive seats

"The only thing that A-Rod likes more than himself is money."
- Tom Hamilton

"Fans here fully expect someday to see Derek Jeter walk across the East River."
- Tom Hamilton

"When you're down 4, you don't think there's anything cheap about a home run."
- Tom Hamilton about Stubbs hitting a "cheap" homer

"Terry Francona went to Nick Hagadone and said 'Look kid, I still believe in ya. Now prove me right.' And boy did he!"
- Tom Hamilton

BROHIO

Let's just go over good stuff from tonight's game:

1. Nick Swisher has a t-shirt that says "BROHIO" and "S'up bro?" on the back with the Block C. As far as I know, you can't buy it. (Update: You sort of can buy it now. Read here.)

Yes he does.

2. Justin Masterson didn't do as poorly as his line would suggest. Yes, yes - 7 runs, 9 hits, 2 homers, only 5 strikeouts. But from what I could tell by listening, it wasn't so much Masterson doing poorly as the Yankees doing well. They like to talk about pitchers "laboring" when they're looking bad, but no one was saying Justin was laboring, or looking off or just not sharp. When I heard Mark Teixeria was going to be in the game my first thought was "oh no." I was right. That guy always seems to rock out against us and today was no exception. According to the score, he is the guy who won the game.

3. It wasn't our bullpen who lost the game! Cody Allen and Joe Smith are stars! Allen had another scoreless, hitless [two-thirds of an] inning and Joe Smith is pitching with an ERA under 1 again!

4. Michael Bourn! Dude went 3 for 5 tonight and is batting .312 now. He doesn't seem to be leveling off as the season progresses and he gets more ABs under his belt. He's just getting hotter!

5. Aviles was called on to start for Kipnis, and it was no big thing. In fact he did better than Kipnis has been doing (although Kipnis does have a streak, but of single hits) going 2 for 4 on the night with an RBI. And since he's super talented he went over to SS when Asdrubal went down. Enough talk of that.

6. Is Carlos Santana on his way back up? Yesterday with 3 hits and today 2 more including a 2-out, 2-run double to tie the game!

7. Drew Stubbs broke a 5-game, 16-at-bat no-hit streak with a double! And since he is so friggin' fast, he snuck around to score with ease!

8. We're only 1 game out of first place. It's only June 3.


So, see? It's not all doom and gloom, BROS. There was good baseball tonight! Except for the bad parts, which caused us to lose. That's baseball!

Tomorrow is more baseball. It'll be Scott Kazmir versus RHP 4.65. According to the MLB he is coming off the worst start of his career. Maybe we can change that for him and make it his second-worst start!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"People say 'We have a lot of injuries' but you're going to get a lot of injuries when your players are over 40 years old."
- Tom Hamilton

"You just created a visual that I'm not sure our fans are ready for."
- Jim Rosenhaus on Tom Hamilton's pondering 80-year-old Rockettes

"You knew that was coming...with two outs..."
- Jim Rosenhaus on Santana's 2-out RBI

"I'm no doctor, but when you're carried off the field you're headed for the DL."
- Tom Hamilton on Asdrubal Cabrera

"This guy literally looks like he could pitch another 10 years."
- Tom Hamilton on Mariano Rivera

2 Games, 5 Layers, 6 Hot Dogs and 1 Run

So I just got back from 5.5 hours of baseball! Well actually with the driving and parking and whatnot it was more like 7.5 hours. Who knew that a traditional double header would attract so many fans?? There were 23,299 there today which is 9k more than average and 3k more than Dollar Dog Night. Wow!

Well "Wow!" is not what I was saying while I was stuck in traffic on the way in and ultimately missing the first inning, but it did make me happy to see so many folks there. Actually it sort of made me suspicious. Why are Clevelanders able to not be at work at noon on a Monday and why were all of these kids out of school?

I can't answer for the kids (awesome parents, I suppose) but I have come to the conclusion that Cleveland is a second shift town and nobody is coming to the games because they're all at work. That's why noon games are so popular. So, the media can stop pondering the question and leave Cleveland alone. And no, I do not know who is covering first shift. Clearly not sports fans.

We had our seats up in the nosebleeds, the All You Can Eat seats. I thought it was a solid plan, being that we like the view from up there, and for $15 more than regular seats in the section we could eat all day. And while I had no problem eating $15 worth of food (I calculated I managed to down about $49 worth over 5 hours) the selection does sort of suck. It's the lowest of the low forms of food from the stadium - the cheapest nachos, the smallest drink cups, the dollar dogs - and you definitely get jealous as you watch people walk by with their ice cream cones and pizza and cotton candy. Granted you are totally free to buy all that stuff but then you can't smugly chow down on more free hot dogs. It skews your ratio of free food to paid ($15) food.

Anyway the whole situation is mentally exhausting, trying to make sure you eat enough. Perfect plan for when you have two games to sit through and need lunch and dinner, but otherwise - skip the All You Can Eat seats (unless someone gives you tickets to the Club version of this, which is a million times better and full of ice cream. Go get that!)

It was cold today - 44 degrees at noon and 47 degrees at the beginning of game 2. I planned ahead and wore 5 layers of shirts. An undershirt, my "We Are All Kipnises" tee, an Indians thermal shirt, my usual blank-back jersey and an Indians hoodie. I actually had to keep my hat on and hood up the entire time and wear heavy gloves for the first game. There was no sun anywhere in our section until about the 6th inning of the first game. Then it was weird because it was windy and cold but our faces and legs were hot from the sun beating down on them. I was able to take my gloves off (much better for my cheer ability) but I still stayed huddled up. My butt (my literal BUTT) was freezing!

So, we missed the first inning, since it took me too long to get downtown. Saw Kipnis's homer on the television as we ascended the escalator and that was that. No more runs for the Tribe in 17 more innings of baseball.

There were no runs for the Yankees in the first game so that was cool. Actually that was one of the few times I enjoyed a pitcher's duel, I think because Masterson looked so sharp. Any fan of this team wants desperately for Masterson to be able to come out and throw a complete-game no-hitter. That is exactly what he did and by about the 5th inning it was evident that whatever troubles he has been having his past few outings were straightened out - at least for today - and it was going to be lights-out for him. He struck out 9 and only walked 3, and held the Yankees to just 4 hits. Mid- to low-90s pitches with the occasional off speed. It only took him 118 pitches to finish the game, too.

Oh, Masterson did have a little help from his friends. Twice:



Ok, three times. No one would have won anything had it not been for Kipnis' home run!

Asdrubal had a good first game, uh, aside from the 2 strikeouts. He had those 2 nice plays and then a double. I had refreshed my sign just for this occasion, so I was happy to get to wave it about. Twice. Then I spilled some more pop on it.

Old

New

The first game only took 2 hours and 30 minutes. The second game did not start 20 minutes after the first ended, as promised. Instead it was 30 minutes. Didn't seem too bad! Especially since we finally had sunshine by then.

Trevor Bauer pitched the second game and I think he looked good. He did have a quality start going 6 2/3 innings and giving up only 2 earned runs. The Yankees did make him pitch a heckofalot though. He was past 100 by the time he left. Th first two innings were slow, but he roped in his pitch count in the 3rd and 4th, and had 1-2-3 innings for the 5th and 6th. It's nice to see that Bauer is progressing each time he pitches with us!

Nick Hagadone is going the opposite way. He struggled his last time out and today fared no better. He gave up 3 earned runs on just 3 hits and a walk. Three earned runs! I think we've got enough good stuff going on in our bullpen that Hagadone needs to be sent away (like Chisenhall was today) for a bit to figure things out.

Matt Albers finished up the 7th for everyone. Not until Mark Reynolds let a run score on a throwing error. But that inning ended and Albers came in for the 8th, giving up a single and throwing a wild pitch. Damn! The Bad was catching! They yanked him for David Huff...


Yeah, David Huff! I didn't even consider that he was still on our team. Apparently he's been in CBus throwing a 4.07 ERA and winning 3 games. Last year he finished the season with a 3.38 ERA and 6 appearances. I'm not sure what his role in our organization is since his appearances keep going down and his ERA stays relatively high. But today he faced 5 batters, striking the first 2 out and then finishing the 8th and 9th innings with no runs scored. Huh.

Nothing worth mentioning on the offensive side. Yes they got 5 hits but only went as far as 2 in one inning, then did poorly at bringing the runs home. Well, they did nothing in the way of bringing the runs home. Not sure what that means. I guess the weather and some exhaustion (I'll wait here while we all roll our eyes at the thought). I'm pretty tired and all I did was sit there!

Oh so the guy who shut us out in the second game, Vidal Nuno, was a 48th round draft pick by the Indians. And today was his first MLB start. We beat 6 Cy Young Award winners so far this year and just got beaten by a 48th round draft pick in his first start.

OMG BASEBALL!!!

Tomorrow is more baseball, if you can stand it! Off to the city of brotherly love to be harassed by Philly fans. It'll be our new favorite Scott Kazmir versus RHP 3.36. We ka-rushed the Phils in our last 2-game series, last week or whatever. This is another 2-game series, so it should be interesting. Anything will be more interesting than today's games! (And with fewer hot dogs)

See you there!

(No radio chatter...totally not going to listen to the archive of 5 hours of baseball where nothing happened)

Carlos Carrasco, Your Reputation Precedes You

Boy what a bummer of a game! A score of 14 to 1? I would wager to guess that not even the Yankees saw this one coming in what is considered by many to be an "off year" for them.

We'd like to blame all this on Carrasco and Myers' pitching but no way...I mean, the 14 runs and 5 home runs were all them, no doubt but it's not like the other side of the equation was the Tribe hitting for 13 runs. They didn't even get 10 hits.

It's pretty weird that the Indians are hitting and scoring in spurts. I don't know how much it has to do with the strength of opposing pitchers (no problem with David Price) or the weakness of our bats. But our bats aren't weak...all the time.

I just don't know.

First off though, Carlos Carrasco is back! In case you forgot, in 2011 he gave up a homer then threw at Billy Butler and was ejected. Then he went on the DL and had surgery so he didn't qualify to serve his suspension until he was healthy. He took those 5 days at the beginning of this season. I'm not exactly sure if he was to be part of the opening rotation or if he just happens to be part of it now because Kazmir is hurt but he is here now.

Except today he gave up a home run then threw at Kevin Youklis, at which point we all went "Heh..." and the umpire said "Yer outta here!" and Terry Francona said "Really?" and the umpire said "SRSLY!"

Carrasco had given up 7 runs by then, in the middle of the 4th inning.

For some reason 4th starter Brett Myers was hanging around the bullpen, sort of suspicious-like. Speculation is that they think he might miss his chance to pitch tomorrow if the weather is bad so they planned to throw him out there in relief anyway, since Carrasco clearly was not having an easy time anyway, and also since we seem to need relievers as our starters are uh...ineffective.

So Myers came in and he gave up 7 more runs. The end. At least we didn't use up any relievers?

Hmm what else happened? Oh yeah - we've got a glut of catchers overnight. Lou Marson must not have felt as good as he let on yesterday and he's on the 15-Day DL. Santana is day-to-day with his thumb contusion. Ryan Raburn I guess is not really our 3rd string catcher, so they brought up Yan Gomes and Omir Santos until further notice. They actually both played today - Gomes can play first base. And we saw a lot of both of them in spring training being that Santana was at the WBC.

Neither of them got a hit.

Drew Stubbs was leadoff tonight, with Michael Bourn having his first night off of the season. Stubbs picked up where Bourn left off and went 2 for 4 with a double!

Asdrubal still isn't doing much but he did pop his second homer off the season off Andy Pettitte! The batting average climbed 30 points!

Chisenhall came in to bat for Asdrubal, which we can do now because of good ol' Mike Aviles who moved from 3rd to SS. The Chiz Kid went 1 for 1 but...yeah.

Swisher was looking good tonight, going 2 for 3. Is this the start of something for the top of the order? That'd be nice - and needed!

No one else hit today except Mike Aviles. So, good job Mike Aviles? He also got an error, though. His second on the year! But I won't mention it since A-Cab got his second of the year yesterday and I failed to mention that.

Tomorrow's another day, y'all. We've still got 154 games left! I have no idea who's starting tomorrow. I guess McAllister against RHP (7.71). Looks like we can score some mad runs off that guy, right? No sweep!

I'll see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Believe it or not it wasn't CB Bucknor who had that blown call last night..."
- Tom Hamilton

"Then again, people who write about football are voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame, so who knows."
- Tom Hamilton on Andy Pettite's chances for the HOF

"Not a good sign when Lyle Overbay is hitting a home run off you, because he's not a home run hitter."
- Tom Hamilton

"Omir Santos must be saying 'I can't believe I'm in Cleveland!' He was signed February 9th to a minor league contract."
- Tom Hamilton

"Welp, these guys in the Yankee gray might not be paid as much as Jeter, Granderson, Teixeira and A-Rod, but they sure are swinging the bats like that quartet."
- Tom Hamilton

Can't Spell Ubaldo Without "U Bad"

Happy Home Opener everyone! Isn't it just awesome to see 42,000 people crammed into the stadium? How about Tom Hamilton in a tuxedo? Was someone you know, who works for Progressive, helping to hold the giant flag? Everybody's dad showed up and they let them pitch! Coverage on WTAM started early and it's the only day of the year when I'll listen to Mike Trivisonno for more than 2 minutes ("Hiroki Huroda? Huh? Is that some kind of beer?" hur dur durrrr), but there was also 92.3 The Fan to listen to and people were also downtown partying with 87.7 FM, too. People posting all over Facebook "Go Tribe!" I left work early! Terry Francona can't find the ballpark! What a day!

The team couldn't keep up with the demand to win but hey, they gave it a go. They weren't shut out like they've been a few times already. They came back from behind, they hit more homers and got some extra bases. Not too bad, really. Just...Ubaldo.

It's hard to deal with Ubaldo Jiminez anymore. I guess you could say the only thing he's consistent at is letting us down. Is it on us to not expect anything out of him and then be pleasantly surprised when he doesn't suck? But how are we supposed to not expect anything out of him when everyone who makes decisions for the team has decided that he's second best only to Justin Masterson? Why do they do this to us?

I think in order to keep this Positive I need to just not say anything about Ubaldo when he pitches other than to report that he pitched. Yeah, that sounds like a good new rule. I'll revisit it in June.

Matt Albers was the long reliever - er, middle reliever? The next guy. He went 1.2 innings and he gave up a home run too. Seeing him on TV it occurred to me that his nickname might be Fat Albers and Google says I'm right. It actually would be funnier if he was Ubaldo-shaped but alas, he's more Wickman. He hasn't impressed me yet but I'm not writing him off completely. He gave up that homer but that was it for runs.

Rich Hill came in for the 7th. Still not familiar with this dude either (he was in during the Toronto series) but of course I picture him as Rich Hall so that's kind of funny.

Not Rich Hill

What's not funny is that he gave up 3 runs. On the plus side, Cody Allen had a great 8th and Chris Perez was about to have a bad 9th but of course he got out of it because he's a stud! I liked the move where Santana muffed a pitch and it bounced over to the Tribe's dugout, with a man on 3rd. Santana was in no shape to run after the ball and Perez had the wherewithal to go fetch it before the dude scored.

Santana seems to be hurt, though. Contusion on his left thumb after he got hit with aforementioned pitch. Marson is back after being hit by a Tampa Bay outfielder, so we'll see how that plays out. Quick - who's our third-string catcher?! Ryan Raburn.

Don't worry Raburn, I got this.

So, pitching was abysmal today. No heroes until we got to the 8th and 9th innings and by then it was too late.

Travis Hafner played today. I was sort of surprised - I kind of figured he'd be a bencher over there or something. But they had a place for him and he went 2 for 3 with 4 RBI. Wut. Well whatever, good for him.

Michael Bourn is still on a roll...dude's got 11 hits in our first 7 games so far! He didn't steal any bases today for the hometown crowd but he had a nice play in the outfield and looked great running to first - he makes it close! Oh yeah and he got a triple off the wall!

I'm super stoked that Asdrubal, Kipnis and Swisher all got hits today at "the big game." Not so much because I see it as an indicator that they're about to break out (although...any day, boys!) but it's just nice to get the "test drivers" who showed up for the game today to see our stars doing stuff. Kipnis got a double! Everyone's batting over .100 now, hurrah!

I was really ready for Michael Brantley to kick some butt today, and he almost did but there was some good defense on the other end. Instead he went 1 for 5 with an RBI. He's still hitting over .300, though. Was hoping he'd rock it in front of his dad!

Harlem Shake Break!

Anyway, Santana did not get any extra bases before he left the game but he DID walk twice, going 1 for 2 on the afternoon. You know what that means right? Our scrappy little catcher is growing up! Now, let's just hope that his third ball-related injury in two days doesn't put him on the DL for very long...

Mark Reynolds was not disappointing today. He actually got a double, drove in a run and scored. He also hit two balls to the wall (heh) and made Tom Hamilton get extremely excited to call a home run. But, left field was where the wind was blowing in so they didn't get up and out. Only one strike out - a good day for Reynolds!

The Chiz Kid did not fare as well, going 0 for 3 with a walk and 2 strikeouts. Drew Stubbs didn't fare too well either, also going 0 for 3.

Mike Aviles came in to bat for Stubbs in the 8th and hit a homer! Good on ya, Mike Aviles! I really, really want that guy to be good, because I can't even remember the last time we had a quality utility guy. Who was our utility guy before anyway? LaPorta? I'd just be so excited if we can give one infielder off every day and not lose anything in the way of team batting average.

Hitting was somewhat weak today, compared to yesterday, but they stuck it out and managed to score 6 runs. Unfortunately our pitchers were basically tossing the ball over the fence so the bad guys scored 11. I don't think any of us have this team pegged yet so every day is going to be a new experience for a while.

Tomorrow is the Yankees again - the return of Carlos Carrasco versus LHP (1.13). Carrasco wasn't stellar last we saw him in 2011 but he started off ok before he had his surgery so perhaps he's better post-surgery. Also, he tried to take Billy Butler's head off in a grand retaliation and you gotta admit that's pretty awesome. He's got chutzpah, that's for sure. I wonder if Chris Perez wrote him letters while he was in rehab?

Anyway, more Yankee action in the Prog tomorrow at 7:05 (weather permitting) - See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Asdrubal Cabrera has the baseball gods smiling on him."
- Tom Hamilton after Asdrubal's shot in the first

"If he [Santana] gets one in his wheelhouse it'll be 5-3 in a hurry."
- Tom Hamilton

"Is it April 8th or October 8th?"
- Tom Hamilton commenting on the atmosphere downtown

"Ubaldo Jiminez must be in that third base dugout thinking 'the governor just called, I got a reprieve."
- Tom Hamilton after the Tribe tied it up

"It's 4-1 Travis hafner over the Indians."
- Tom Hamilton

"Jay Z Doesn't have it that bad. If someone like Cano leaves him, he still gets to go home to Beyonce every night."
- Tom Hamilton on Robinson Cano's new agent

"The team in Boston is acting like they all just got released from prison now that Bobby Valentine is gone."
- Tom Hamilton

"We've had all 4 seasons here today at Progressive Field."
- Tom Hamilton

"Tune in this season to hear the best of Rosie, now that beers are only four dollars."
- Tom Hamilton

"There's some idiot on the field ... He'll spend the night in jail. Somewhere some mother and father are saying 'Where did we go wrong?'"
- Tom Hamilton

Let's Play Two!

Good evening, boffins! What a whirlwind of a weekend for me! I managed to squeeze in two baseball games today as well as a trip to the airport, cleaning of my house and  a good long nap.

I wish I could make this post as long and entertaining as one would expect for a manufactured double header, but I ate cake for breakfast and cake for lunch and had some cake with my dinner so I have a raging headache. But, you know - cake!


HEY GUESS WHAT!!! The Indians won on Saturday! Pretty awesome because over 34,000 people showed up for that (and fireworks). From the sounds of it, there were about 16,000 Yankee fans. Sixteen thousand sad Yankee fans woohoo!

I got red and blue streaks put in my hair on Saturday morning, too. For the team! So far they have been 50% lucky.

Masterson pitched another classic Masterson game (as opposed to the new "typical Masterson" game). He went 6 2/3 innings and gave up one earned run and struck out 6. No homers given up to those clowns, either. Can we have this every 5 days from now to eternity, please?

As an extra treat, we got Pestano and Perez for the 8th and 9th (and extra Vinnie in the 7th). They were just there to stretch out their pitching ligaments and show the fans a good time, no doubt. Oh and to shut the Yankees down so we could have the win! Vinnie of course blew 'em away and Perez struck out 2 to end the ballgame. They faced the minimum 7 batters over their 2 1/3 innings. Gawd I love that!

Pitching was definitely the answer in this particular game because our batters had nothing going on whatsoever after the first inning. They got 4 hits, 2 walks and 2 hit-by-pitch on the day. But they managed to outscore the Yankees so - whatever!

The entire top of the order was stymied, hit-wise. But Kipnis got hit by a pitch to lead off our half of the first (Really? Really, this is a thing now? Two bad teams hitting each other? Fun times.) then Choo got a walk and then Cousin Michael was all "EMAGERD, SINKER!" and hit his first pitch out of the damn park and we scored three runs and there was much rejoicing yaaaay!

Then it was a real snooze-fest for 8 more innings. Well except for when Vinnie and Perez were pitching because they're just the bomb. But stuff happened like Hannahan got on base and Lou walked but then no one could get them in. Lou got a double but then got caught picking his nose, standing off the base so he never got to score. Zeke beat out an infield hit to get a single but nobody hit him in either.

So it was a good day for Masterson to be in charge.

We ended the losing streak at 9. Woohoo? Here's a nice short article about what Perez thinks about it, how Brantley is awesome and how Masterson hopes to be getting better.

On to Sunday's game!

Sunday it was Ubaldo's turn to be in charge and he did what Kuroda did on Saturday and gave up 3 runs early. Yeah, the Yankees didn't do much after that (just like we didn't on Saturday) but it was enough for them to get the win. Ubaldo only went 5 and did hold it to just those 3 runs while striking out 4. Once again he gave up tons of hits (8) and then worked himself out of jams.

Then Sipp came in and gave up a homer, so there's that. But you gotta hand it to our staff - over 3 games they only gave up 2 home runs to a team with a 195:127 homers-to-games ratio, that leads all of baseball by almost 30 home runs. Only one dude in their lineup had fewer than 10 home runs and that's the "new guy" Ichiro. Pretty good non-homer pitching this weekend then, I say!

Smith and Rogers handled the 7th, 8th and 9th with no problem. I still don't know what to make of Rogers. Often impressive but sometimes lets us down big time. Oh, they sent Frank Herrmann back down, if you didn't know. Not sure if I mentioned that but he's a "casualty" of LaPorta.

Jason Kipnis had a stellar day today, sort of out of nowhere. He's dang streaky right now that's for sure. Today he went 3 for 5 with a double and a run scored. And oh yeah - he stole 3 bases! Daddy's little dirtbag! I hope that means he's having fun out there (cuz you know he's always working hard, regardless) and can really end this season with the same force he had during the earlier months.

Asdrubal didn't get a hit but he was hit by a pitch (SRSLY?!) and then came around to score (nayh nayh!) on a 2-out, 2-RBI single by Santana. Faaaaaantastic! Sadly, that was about it for excitement today. Even the Yankee pitchers got tired of hitting our batters by this point.

Brantley went 1 for 4 and Hannahan went TWO for 4, but unfortunately he was by himself out there at the bottom of the order with no one to hit him in and no one for him to hit in. He did get a double, though, so there's that.

Those Athletics are coming to town for a 4-game series tomorrow. Hopefully they leave their asshole fans in California. The pitching matchup is Hernandez versus RHP (1.29). Don't let dude's 1.29 ERA fool you - this will be his second game since 2011. Hernandez's 6.75 ERA is a little goofy too - he had a good outing last time until he stopped having one. I think Monday's game could actually have a chance at being good. So - see you there!

Also, a shout out to Sweet T, Vienna's newest and biggest Tribe fan (possibly the first and only), who was sent off to her new home with a fantastic Slider "OH-IO" statue.

Can't wait to hear what your new Austrian co-workers think of America's past time!

Radio Chatter:
"Kipnis and Jeter chatting at second base. Kipnis says 'How's your head feel?' Jeter says 'How's your hip feel?'"
- Tom Hamilton on the guys discussing their beanings

"We are waiting and hoping that one of these days one of those marriage proposals blows up, on the giant video board. [...] I'd be something they'd never forget. And neither would we!"
- Tom Hamilton

"This has been an issue for Masterson all year. He can be unhittable [...] and just like that, lose it."
- Tom Hamilton

-------------
"Freddie Garcia [...] is now getting paid by the hour."
- Tom Hamilton on the slowness of Garcia

"Ninety five doesn't mean anything when it's down the middle of the plate."
- Tom Hamilton

"You could have a bucket of wings by the time Garcia makes this next pitch."
- Tom Hamilton after a BW3 commercial

"I know this is redundant but it's factual - the Indians can't count on anyone but Smith, Pestano and Perez."
- Tom Hamilton after Sipp gives up the homer

Blargh

Well if you noticed - and you probably didn't - I didn't cover the game from Wednesday afternoon. I listened to it, and I actually watched the second half on TV, but afterwards I just sort of ate some ice cream and took a nap and watched Real Housewives. It was that kind of day.

Wednesday was our 8th loss in a row. It wasn't a blowout, it wasn't even that bad. Zach McAllister had a non-bad game even.  It just wasn't good enough.

Today's game wasn't a blowout either, and it wasn't that bad. It just also wasn't good enough.

Kluber did well for himself, going 5 innings and only giving up 1 run. He did his worst in the first (like usual) but it was only 1-run bad - not like, say, 10-run bad. He struck out SIX! That's the most strikeouts any Tribe pitcher has had in quite a while!

Sipp was in for the 6th and he wasn't bad, either!

One guy had a bad inning and it was - get ready for it - Cody Allen! No shit, Mr. 12 Scoreless Innings had his first run scored on him, and then another (as it was a 2-run homer) and that was it, we lost the game.

Esmil Rogers and Chris Perez pitched the 8th and 9th well. Cody Allen!! Can you believe it?!

Only 6 hits and 2 walks today.

OMG ASDRUBAL!!! #14 for the man! He likes to hit them at home I think. Ok maybe not - I just looked it up he's 8 at home and 6 away. He DOES like to hit them rightie, though. He's hit 11 right and only 3 left. He went 1 for 3 today.

Our man Santana had a 2-hit game, as instructed. But the lack of Kipnising and Chooing and even Asdrubaling meant nothing came of his 2 hits.

We did have guys on 2nd (Brantley, 1 for 3) and 3rd (Santana) with no outs in the 9th, only down by 2. And well, take it away Negative Tribe "Fan":

Typical Indians! Two on and nobody out and goddamn LaPorta is up and of course that dumbass strikes out. Then they put in Ezequiel Carrera to pinch hit like he's going to do anything but all he can do is pop out. I don't know why the hell they walked that old man Kotchman, like he was going to hurt them, but they did. Probably because they knew Hannahan was going to ground out and that's exactly what happened. Go Browns!

So that's how the ninth inning went. At least there were fireworks after, right? And 28,000 people got to see THE NEW YORK YANKEES!!

There's no Radio Chatter tonight because for one, I was busy doing chores during the game (the volleyball net doesn't put itself up), and also watching the Browns game during the game (I can't get enough of Bernie Kosar. Seriously.) Also since we were playing CC and the Yankees, there was very little talk about the Indians and very much gushing about CC - who threw at Asdrubal (and missed) because Kluber beaned Jeter in the head earlier - and what an amazing teammate he is. And Derek Jeter, the best ambassador for baseball and a first-ballot HOF shoo-in. And Nick Swisher who doesn't stop smiling. Start spreadin' the news! Somebody got treated to a steak dinner with CC on the off day...

Anyway, so no Radio Chatter today. Not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow because I'm throwing a going-away-party and then taking the away-ee to the airport the next day and I'm thinking maybe from 7 PM tomorrow to 7PM Sunday might all be a blur. We'll see if I get Saturday and Sunday's games in or not.

You probably won't notice, as you've probably moved on, which is OK just as long as you're not bitching about it.

Tomorrow is Justin Masterson versus RHP (2.96). Great googly moogly...that doesn't sound too good. All we can hope for is that Justin throws a gem, and everyone enjoys the special Saturday night fireworks.

See you...sometime!