When Pronk is Pronky...

And Santana is Supernatural, and Asdrubal is Drooby, and Choo is Choosy, and Grady is Speedy and our pitchers are on their games...well that is 2011 Indians Baseball and that is what we had tonight.

It probably also helps when 38,548 fans + Carlos Baerga are in the stands.

Josh Tomlin has given up 6 runs in each of his last 3 starts. Tonight? One. It was a legit run, after a double. No errors, no homers. Followed up with an inning-ending double play. He went 6.2 innings and struck out 5. Those are the stats he was throwing up all through April and May, before those last 3 starts. You like?

Pestano comes in to face 4, strikes out 2 and grounds out 2. Our man Sipp shows up in the 9th (no Rage?) and faces 3... "And that's your ballgame, folks!" says Jim Rosenhaus, who is filling in for the vacationing Tom Hamilton.

But, we weren't worried about our #BullpenMafia.

We HAVE been worried about Carlos Santana, who got bumped down to 8th tonight. Perhaps the presence of some other big-hitting occasional first-baseman lit a fire under his ass or something, because he got a solo homer. And then a single and another single, that time for an RBI.

That other big-hitting occasional first-baseman I mentioned is Travis Hafner who was batting DH in the 4-spot today for the first time in a month. His first 2 at-bats were ground outs. Sigh. Then a walk. Whee? Then there was this in the 8th which was awesome and looked like a home run, if nothing else his swing was classic Pronk so you should totally watch it.That scored one, then Cord Phelps showed up to pinch run, and he scored so that was just awesome.

I will not fail to mention Asdrubal, who got a double early on, then got a single in that awesome 8th and came around to score.

Choo walked twice - nice! And had an assist at 2nd, which is his 10th assist this season (14 last season) and he's 2 ahead of all other outfielders right now.

Grady looked good walking in the 1-spot, and even better out in centerfield. I hear he made a great Grady-ish catch in the 9th but MLB.com doesn't feel it clip-worthy, so I'll just have to take Rosenhaus's word for it. (Update: They posted a clip as I was finishing up writing. It WAS a great catch!)

Hannahan switch from 3rd to 1st after LaPorta got hurt (sprained ankle, no break, so far so good) and he did all right there. Not sure why they didn't bring in Sweet Lou and put Santana at 1st...but I'm sure Manny knows.

So we seemed to have all of our pieces and parts tonight. Pitching, batting, fielding, Baerga. Is this all due to Pronk's return? I guess I don't care what it's due to. LOVE IT! So nice to see the huge crowd there, which I hope is duplicated all weekend.

Oh yeah and beating Pittsburgh? Priceless (to which Pittsburghians say "Youns still follow baseball?")

Tomorrow night is our new favorite starter, Carlos "Cookie" Carrasco against a guy who's "record continues to be deceiving because of a lack of run support and blown saves." Hmm...so, we can pitch like that. Can we beat that?

See you then!

Radio Chatter:
"The Indians as a team hitting .500 with the bases loaded."
- Jim Rosenhaus

"I called it the Yake. Yacobs field, that's how I remember it."
- Carlos Baerga

"He has my name so that is why he had to hit a home run today."
- Carlos Baerga on Carlos Santana's home run

"Michael Brantley...stay with it! He's hitting it as hard as he can but has nothing to show for it so far."
- Jim Rosenhaus

"I used to have to write in 'Mike Hegan' 300 times each season."
"I got 301 votes. Three-hundred from you and one from my wife."
- Jim Rosenhaus and Mike Hegan on All-Star voting

"Wood putting the drama back in to the intentional walk."
- Jim Rosenhaus on Tim Wood's sort of wild intentional balls

"All the ingredients that made this team so successful earlier in the season were on display tonight."
- Jim Rosenhaus

The Red Sox Are 0-4

Three exciting things to top off tonight:

1. The Red Sox are 0-4. According to some stat that Hamilton read, no team has ever won (or been in...?) the World Series after starting the season 0-4. Off-the-wall stat but there you go.

In case you didn't know, we hate the Red Sox probably more than we hate the Yankees. Everybody but Yankee fans hate the Yankees.

Although if you go to Progressive Field on a night when we play the Red Sox, you would think that everyone in Cleveland was a Red Sox fan. It's surreal. Since this is a positive blog, I won't go in to how the Red Sox fans in Cleveland almost ruined my 30th birthday. I think I'm finally over it.

2. I taught my baby niece how to say "CHOOOO!" and it's just precious. She was not getting it at all (it sounded more like...tea?) until she finally just blurted it out. Way to go, baby!

Homework for all of you with kids: Teach your kid to say "CHOOOO!" Next up - Asdrubal.

Speaking of Asdrubal, I did not catch his tattoo even though I actually was watching on a DVR today. I'm pretty sure it's two names, probably his wife and kid. Will get it.

Also speaking of Asdrubal - his "magic pearls" are gone. They were gone last year too I think. Let's hope they weren't protecting his bones from being broken.

Choo has quite the necklace now. I don't know what the heck it's made out of...but I did notice he took it off by his final at-bat.

3. Another solid start (7 innings, 1 run) by our starter. This time it was our 4th man, Josh Tomlin. That's ALL we need - solid starters. And then the "Firsarter" Chris Perez closing it down, getting Big Poopy to fly out. Just need that sort of stuff. Our bats can't help but be red-hot.

Ok maybe not red-hot but we are hitting for sure. All we needed were 2 runs and we got 3...thanks to Hafner, O. Cabrera and Hannahan.

HAFNER! How about that guy? Man I bet the Indians' marketing team is pissed right now. They did all that work last year to bury Pronk and Pronville to replace it with the Choo-Choo Train and the players have turned the tables so far. OOPS!

Feels so good to have Hafner back and doing it right, tho, for real.

I didn't catch too much defense today (see: baby niece) but I did see a big CHOOOO put out at the plate. Of course, they had to bring up a similar putout from last year (Choo to Santana, against the Red Sox) in which Santana seemed to have been killed but it was "only" his knee and half of the remaining televisions in Cleveland Fandom were turned off for the rest of the season.

On the post-game show right now, Bob Frantz is asking people why they aren't coming to the games. So far I haven't been happy with anyone's answer. Everyone is bitching that there's no "marquee players." Well so what? Are you only going to pay attention once we have a Gold Glover or a HR King? How about coming to see some BASEBALL?

This is baseball, folks. This is young guys, this is low-paid guys, this is guys without rings, guys without commercials, guys without slogans on t-shirts (erm, mostly). This is Cleveland. This team right here is what represents Cleveland and its fans. No kings, no one leader. A TEAM.

It's gonna be a great season. I promise.

Radio Chatter:
"It wasn't easy but Chris Perez notches save number one here in 2011. And the Red Sox are winless after four."
- Tom Hamilton

Glad to be getting ChiSox out of the way early

Welcome back, Pronk!! Dude didn't really show up until the end of spring, but his production during the first two games has been classic Hafner. Actually come to think of it, more like a newer dignified Hafner who gets base hits and homers instead of strikeouts and homers.

More excellence from Jack Hannahan! Only one hit but two RBI and another fantastic grab in the field, saving at least two runs.

Starter Carlos Carrasco had a rough start but managed to give six innings, something always needed in this organization. We also got our first glimpse of Chris Perez this season, and he didn't give up any runs in one inning of work.

Have you seen the new Indians commercials, "The Ball" and "What If?"? Very well done. I've watched them about a dozen times each. They've been playing the commercials during the games. Not sure if they're on the board at the game or what. I do know that they made special radio versions which is really great - get some Herb Score and Tom Hamilton in there. They give me chills, really.

Radio Chatter:
"Bob Uecker says that [Chicago pitcher] Chris Sale is so thin that you can see his wallet from the front."
- Tom Hamilton