It's a Beautiful Day for Baseball - Let's Play Two.

Thanks, Ernie Banks. I agree. Even though it's September I'm still feeling the rush of excitement from baseball. Perhaps it is me getting all I can from the game before it goes to sleep (in Cleveland) for 6 months, but it truly is a treat to have a double-header today. I was in the mood for it!

The Tribe didn't win by the long ball today. In fact, there were NO homers for our guys today even tho Shelley and Kipnis and Santana were in. We still managed to score 8!

Also, while our strikeout count wasn't happy (7), the Twins left with 13 K's and had 8 LOB. See how that loses ballgames?

David Huff had quite a turnaround after his last game. His previous game was nasty when he gave up 9 runs to Seattle. My uncle was making fun of me because I said Huff was good. I should have said "good" with air quotes and said he was streaky. Because he is.

After just going 2 2/3 Monday, Huff went 5 2/3 today only giving up 2 runs and had SEVEN strikeouts. Those are Ubaldo numbers right there.

He didn't get the win, though, because we were tied when he left. Putnam came in and looked good striking out a guy to finish the inning, then he hit Rivera and gave up a single. He eventually settled down and got the next guy to line out then struck out the rest.

Frank Herman came in and actually pitched 2 innings - which is great on a double-header day - and struck out 3.

Jason Donald started the afternoon game at short today and continued to hit well. He only went 1 for 4 but that gives him 13 hits in his last 10 games. He worked hard for his single today, too, beating a close play for an infield single!

Kipnis had a phenomenal game. Makes me think Asdrubal would have too if he were batting behind Kipnis! Kipnis himself went 2 for 3 with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored. His batting average is hovering up around .300 at .294. He's also got 19 RBI in just 32 games!

Pronk was in this afternoon game. Must be that Thome is in the night game. That's weird that we have such a platoon of designated hitters. Just before we got Thome we had none! Travis went 1 for 3 and scored 2.

Shelley Duncan! He got back on his shiny horse today and made a crazy awesome catch in the 2nd, reminiscent of his "famous" catches in Texas.

Again!

He also scored our first 3 (and thus winning!) runs with a 2-run double in the 1st and then a sac fly in the 6th to start our huge 6-run rally. Rock!

LaPorta got in on the act today, getting an RBI double after Shelley's double. It was his 5th RBI in 4 games. Then Hannhan and Fukudome came in with RBI singles after that! Getting it done, small-ball style!

Fuky wasn't slated to play but he had to come in and relieve Trevor Crowe who re-injured his shoulder in the 1st inning while in the field. Manny says Crowe is OUT for the rest of the season. Dammit...No word yet on Twitter from @tcrowe4 but be sure you send him good wishes because I am sure he is BUMMED beyond belief.

Great game this afternoon, with a lot of well-timed hitting. Granted it all came at once but it sure was a lot at once! I can't wait to see what tonight brings, how about you?

Tonight is the TRIUMPHANT RETURN of Mitch Talbot. Heya! He'll be facing another youngin in Scott Diamond. Perhaps a high-scoring game? I'd be up for that.

As long as we win.

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"We all know how good the 90s teams were, but they never hit wall-scraping home runs. There was never any doubt about it."
- Tom Hamilton

"Those two schools could play marbles and pack the house."
- Tom Hamilton on OSU and Michigan

"When you break in with Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, I guess that is a sign you're going to have a heck of a run in baseball.
- Tom Hamilton on Mike Hegan's career

"I think when Kirk Gibson tells you to do something, you do it."
- Mike Hegan

"Right now Liriano's body language would tell you he would like to be anywhere but the mound."
- Tom Hamilton just before we scored 6 off Liriano

"That's the thing about Matt LaPorta. He shows those signs every once in a while where you go 'wow.'"
- Mike Hegan

"Ron Gardenhier heading to the mound to choke Liriano."
- Tom Hamilton

"Carlos Santana is looking for a 96-mile-per-hour fastball that he can send out to the Bob Feller statue."
- Tom Hamilton on Santana's at-bat in the 6-run 6th

"GOT HIM! Or no...I guess not."
"You trying to get out of here?"
"Four-thirty mass at the cathedral."
- Tom Hamilton and Mike Hegan on Hamilton's missed call in the 8th

Just Shelley Duncan

Nothing really happened in the ball game today. Just 6 hits, 1 run. Ten whole strikeouts. The other team got 8 runs. Typical September night in Texas I guess.

Oh, except Shelley Duncan did this. And then he did this! You gotta watch those videos because they are not only good catches but he also makes a "OMG did I just catch that ball?!" face after each one! Hilarious! He not only had those clip-worth catches but he had a similar one before those and one more after!

Did I do that?

Good job saving a few runs there bud, but Huff wouldn't last much longer, keeping the balls in the park. He gave up 3 homers and 8 runs in the 4th. But 5 of those runs were un-earned because Chisenhall made an error on the third out, so the RBI single and grand slam that he gave up next didn't count as earned runs. Yay?

Durbin, Hermann and Hagadone came in for relief. Nick Hagadone had a much better night tonight than last night, so that's good.

I guess there's more that went on, other than Shelley Duncan flying around left field.

The aforementioned Lonnie Chisenhall recouped ONE of those un-earned runs he caused by hitting a solo homer. He's actually got a 7-game hitting streak with 4 home runs in those 7 games!

Trevor Crowe got his first extra-base hit of the year, a double.

"The old guard" Fukudome, Thome and Santana got hits but just singles, and they didn't amount to anything.

One more night against Texas and then we get out of that heat and head for the worst team in baseball! Yeah!

Tomorrow is Fausto versus a guy who hasn't done very well lately so we've got that going for us. Maybe they'll throw Chris Perez up there just to get him an inning or so. We need us some Pure Rage!

Back to normal time, which is to say normal for Texas time. 8:05 - see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Duncan probably has some paint on the back of that jersey!"
- Tom Hamilton after Duncan's second wall-crashing catch

"David Huff isn't fooling anyone tonight. But [Duncan] is saving his bacon out there."
- Tom Hamilton

"Well it only got up to the mid-90s today and that's actually newsworthy."
- Tom Hamilton's comments on the weather

There We Go, Boys!

The youngins were out in full force today. Even - dare I say it? - LUIS VALBUENA!

Five out of our nine batters today spent most of their year in Columbus. Actually, six of 10 if you could Carrera coming in for Duncan. Those 5 guys got 11 hits between them with NO strikeouts. They only got 3 RBI but they scored 6 of our 7 runs.

The only guy who didn't get a hit is the only guy who's been super consistent for us since he joined the team, and that is Fukudome. He lead off but he did walk twice so in his position a walk is as good as a hit!

As per usual, we'll start with pitching. Today we had Ubaldo! And he did a nice job. Just 2 runs in 6 innings. He walked a lot (5) but kept his hits to just 3 so it was good yet not too tense.

Smith, Judy and Durbin followed up. Smith was back to his old self, Judy had a 1-2-3 inning and while Durbin struggled to finish off the game, his 1 run didn't cost us.

Jason Donald was batting second today and is back to rockin' at the plate, going 2 for 5 today and raising his average to .295. Good call putting him in at short...Asdrubal is still done and not doing us too many favors at the plate. I'd rather give Donald a chance to get some swings than have Asdrubal ground out on the first pitch of every appearance.

Santana's been pretty slow lately. He's second behind Asdrubal in terms of at-bats. But he gets more days off than Asdrubal, so he was in today along with Sweet Lou and LaPorta was on the bench. Santana snapped an 0-for-20 run today with a 2-out, 2-RBI double in the 8th! It's nice to say we didn't need the extra runs but it was even nicer to see Santana put out. He's got a few bad at-bats to make up for this year!

Hafner went 1 for 4 today. Oh yeah - Hafner was in today! He's trying to prove that he doesn't need surgery on his foot in the off-season. He'll be platooning with Thome at DH for the remainder of the season, which isn't bad because Thome can't play every day anyway and we've got quite a heavy schedule coming up. Here's a good article about Hafner and his injury and his contract. Good luck, Pronk!

Shelley Duncan was actually not The Man today. He was just a regular old player, going 1 for 4 just like Hafner. I guess he's taking a break from shaking hands and kissing babies to just be a regular player for a moment!

Lonnie Chisenhall found himself on base twice AND scoring twice today! Even though he's the cheese in a Columbus meat sandwich. No wait maybe he's the meat...Valbuena is the cheese.

So Luis Valbuena got a home run today. He actually went 3 for 5, adding 50 points to his batting average. Huh.

I wanted to honor Trevor Crowe's breakout game today but I couldn't do that because of Valbuena being equally as good (or better) so I can at least be angry at Valbuena about that mess. Grrrr Valbuena!

Hey Trevor Crowe! After not hitting for a couple of games, then walking a couple times last game, he finally went 3 for 4 today with one RBI and 2 runs. You'd think his average would be like .700 but not really. He stole a base, too! And got thrown out at home but...we can blame that on Steve Smith perhaps.

Let's hope this trend continues for Crowe! And, what the heck - Valbuena, too! I wouldn't mind going into the fall thinking we had this awesome other guy on our team.

Sweet Lou was doing well bringing up the rear today. He went 1 for 3 with a walk, a run and 2 RBI. In fact, it was him who drove all those sprouts (Valbuena, Crowe) in in the 2nd inning, effectively winning the game at that time with his 8th double.

I've been haunted by Lou and his smile ever since he waved to me last Tuesday. There's something about him...I don't know. I've re-created this moment the best I can, for all to share. Perhaps you will be mesmerized too:

"Hey Lou Marson!" "Hey back atcha, fan!"

Did you notice they took the standings off the front page at Indians.com? They did it a while ago. We're still a half game behind Chicago if you were wondering.

No baseball tomorrow and then baseball EVERY DAY UNTIL THE LAST DAY!!! And, two of those days we have 2 games!

So rest up, fill your tank, do your laundry and get your grocery shopping done TOMORROW because it's the last time you'll be free for the next 16 days after that. Yeeeee-haw!

Tuesday at 8:05 in Texas, by the way. Masterson versus the nearly-identical-recorded Harrison and we have a chance to play spoiler in the AL West. Wicked!

PS: We won on a Sunday! Giggidy!

Radio Chater:
"Not very often are you playing major league games and basically guys are on rehab assignments. That usually happens in the minor leagues."
- Tom Hamilton

"I don't know what else they want from him. It's not his fault they're at where they're at."
- Tom Hamilton on Alexi Ramirez's frustrations with Chicago

"Ozzie Gullien doesn't even pat Will Ohman on the back. Just says 'gimme the ball.'"
- Tom Hamilton on the exit of the Chicago pitcher in the 6th

"A lot of the folks have departed. They're going downtown to have something to cheer about, hopefully joining a Bears tailgate party."
- Tom Hamilton in the 9th

That's What I'm Talkin' 'bout!

Nice bit of baseball going on in Chicago tonight. Especially by the Indians!

Jeamnar Gomez had a lovely lovely start tonight, giving up only 2 runs and pitching 6 innings with 3 strikeouts. The kind of thing you want to see from, say, guys who are not just up out of Columbus.

Good thing he only gave up 2 because Smith is into giving up runs lately (albeit just 1 tonight) and we're also giving Nick Hagadone a chance to show his stuff and you never know how that's going to work out (tonight - one run and one hit in one inning but he also struck out 1!)

Very nice hits-to-LOB ratio today with 11 hits and 6 LOB. We did have 10 strikeouts and maybe that helped us not leave too many on base (they never got there - HA!) but, 8 runs? Yeah, I'll take it!

Fukudome was leading off today. I haven't been keeping up with what's going on with Grady. But, he wasn't starting tonight.

That's ok because FUKUDOME STILL ROCKS! Isn't it awesome to have a trade like that go so well? His 2 hits tonight has him surpassing Asdrubal as the team's best "qualifying" hitter (awwww Asdrubal!) and gives him 2 more RBI. They like to say how he's gotten more RBI with us this year than the Cubs and well...it's true!

He shoulda had a 3rd hit tonight but it was caught on a stupid good play. Or really a poor play in which the player got lucky at the end.

Jason Donald is back to being hot, which is pretty cool. He's got 11 hits over 10 games, close to Fuku!

OMG Shelley Duncan are you for real?! Two more hits today! No homers, but a double so that's cool. He's not a "qualifier" (3 at-bats for every game the team has played) but Duncan's up there at the top of the Tribe for slugging and OPS. Right up there with Asdrubal, Hafner and Santana.

Boy I just looked at the stats for our team and you know how many "qualifiers" we have? Just 3 - Asdrubal, Santana and Brantley. Brantley will end up about 35 at-bats short of qualifying by the end of the season, too. Now, most other teams only have 5-7 qualifiers but we'll only end up with 1/3 of that. Yikes!

But, we can at least have fun with the new guys while everyone convalesces. For example - Lonnie Chisenhall! Where did this dude come from?! He's having a Shelley Duncan sort of week with one homer on Wednesday with 2 RBI, and TWO more homers today with 4 RBI! But, he had an error because he's not Jack Hannahan. But, his new batting sure as hell does help ease the pain!

Sweet Lou, my new best friend, raised that batting average tonight by going 2 for 4. He also stole a base. Yeah he did!

Trevor Crowe still hasn't gotten a hit, so his average remains at .000. He DID walk today, not once but twice, and turned both of those into runs. And he stole a base. So, you GO, little brother!

Zeke was batting 9th today, so we're back to having 2 leadoff guys. Except he was in a super slump, something like 2 for 26 after being fairly consistent. Well today he got 2 hits and one of them was a double (his 7th) and he got 2 RBI. His second hit was a FC double or something...where he fell down turning the corner around first. Look at the video, I thought it was pretty scary watching his legs bend like that. I really really hope he's all right. Because this trend of players being hurt is just NOT FUN.

But the game itself was pretty fun tonight, with lots of hits and lots of runs. All from weird people too. 'Cuz it looks like Asdrubal is done at the plate and Santana is perhaps back to forgetting not to move his foot around. And Thome wasn't even in. At least we got Fukudome!

Tomorrow is 4:10 PM if you can stand it. I know for me it'll cross over with some plans (mom's all turning 60 and stuff) so you might not get my post until later.

But you know I'll be there eventually. See you then!

Radio Chatter:
"I guess the White Sox are celebrating St. Patrick's Day in September today."
- Tom Hamilton on the White Sox green uniforms

"Jack Hannahan didn't open the door, he kicked it down."
- Tom Hamilton on Hannahan's entrance into the team this year

"this is a night when somebody in the marketing department ran out of ideas. [...] How much green beer was consumed at that meeting?"
- Tom Hamilton again on the green uniforms

"I wouldn't know what goes on at 3 in the morning, except for when I have to get a cab to go get Rosie."
- Tom Hamilton on having fun in Chicago late at night

"You're saying there are some things you miss about Winterhaven?"
"Well I miss the Super Wal-Mart, since Wal-Mart is one of our sponsors. I also miss driving down the street and seeing a denture maker on every corner, and a chiropractor across the street."
- Jim Rosenhaus and Tom Hamilton on the former Indians Spring Training site

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Losing Baseball

I've come to my own understanding that the Indians are out of the playoff race by now. I think we all sort of come to that understanding on our own terms - usually days or weeks before math confirms it for us. I felt it stirring a little bit ago, but after today, I'm fully on board.

It's ok though, because I feel really free now. I can go back to the excitement I felt last season while we lingered in the basement and played snippets of amazing baseball. And the excitement I felt in the beginning of this season watching new guys and their new talents unfold. It's once again not about wondering what the same old guys will be doing each game but wondering which new or old - or even older - guy will prove the hero. If only for a moment.

Today's momentary hero was Shelley Duncan, who actually was the hero of the entire game. Not Justin Masterson who has been steady on as the ace all season. He gave up 4 runs. But Shelley Duncan, who I believe has been back and forth from Columbus 5 times this season, got 4 runs in the form of two 2-run homers. Off Justin Verlander.

Yeah, really.

Verlander - who is hopefully going to win the Cy Young Award and possibly even the MVP - has now given up 22 home runs this year, which is sort of middle-of-the-pack as far as homers go (of the top 10 innings-pitched pitchers in the AL, Masterson leads with 7 HR and now Verlander is last with 22). However, Duncan's second home run pushed him over the top as far as Verlander's own home-runs-per-season record, previously at 21. Heynow!

Oh yeah he also got a third hit, going 3 for 4 on the day, because he is amazing! Guess who I am going to try to get to sign the foul ball that I caught (er, collected) and he hit? Shelley Duncan is who!

That's the kind of little junk you can be totally excited about when free of the yoke that is playoff contention.

And, how about Trevor Crowe?! @tcrowe4 has been on Twitter for AGES, posting from all the exotic locales to which he travels as a player on the Columbus Clippers and cheering on his big brothers up north. I had no idea he was coming to the bigs today but there he was! It was like my neighbor was suddenly drafted to play left field or something!

Little Brother didn't do anything at the plate, but he laid it out in center field getting his starchy new uniform all grassy. Yeah buddy!

Oddly enough today's other hero at the plate was our once-exciting rookie and now "ugh, Hannhan is hurt?" replacement 3rd baseman Lonnie Chisenhall. After being seriously oogy at the plate for about 3 weeks now, he belted one off Phil Coke in the 7th to bring us back to within 1 of actually beating the Tigers.

Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Our usually-two-runs starter relinquished 4, and one more with the help of the fielders (I won't mention which of the above heroes committed that error...) and our usually-no-runs #bullpenmafia gave up 3 runs over 4 guys in 3 innings.

We saw most of April and May what happens when we've got it all together - pitching, fielding, batting. Today we score a surprisingly high number of runs off Verlander and Co. (albeit only on 6 hits with most of the team going hitless) and the Tigers score a surprisingly high number off the pinnacle of our staff.

At least there was baseball today, and baseball they did play. My life is going to be much less complicated come September 29, but also a little bit empty.

No time to think about that now. There's more baseball tomorrow! David Huff is comin' to redeem himself at 8:10 in Chicago. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Boy he can hit a fastball a mile."
- Tom Hamilton on Shelley Duncan

"All that work to come back and, oh yeah, it's Verlander you're facing."
- Tom Hamilton welcomes back Trevor Crowe

"This just goes to show why I don't play poker. If I were a betting man, with these two pitching, what do you think the over/under would be? About five?"
- Mike Hegan on the inordinate number of runs in today's game

Dunc Tank

That's Shelley Duncan's nickname now I guess. It's what all the guys on the Twitter are calling him. I like it. I mean, it's no Hawkman (Nino from The Tribe Daily really wants it to be that) but it's more accessible.

Haha I was trying to find a picture of Shelley's hawk tattoo I found these two gems:
Classy: Yankee Shelley signs a Boston kid's autograph book "Red Sox suck!"
Is Shelley Duncan Wendell from The Simpsons? (with images)

Ahhh, I love that guy. Glad he's in Cleveland. His dad played here for a little while (remember when I bragged about my dad getting drunk at the Grog Shop with Dave Duncan in the 70s?) Plus, he's good to have around as a pinch hitter like we learned the other day.

Oh, yeah, Shelley hit a solo home run up into the upper deck at the Rogers Centre today. Only the 15th player to do so. You go! It's only his second homer this year - doesn't it seem like he has more? I guess he just hits a lot of long balls. He also got a single, going 2-for-4.

Hey guess who else got a hit? CHOOOOO! I asked a Korean friend to hook me up with some Korean for us to use to cheer him on and she says "Him-nae-yo!" which is "wishing him strength." She also suggested "Fighting!" which sounds super-awesome, so I hope we all use that too.

Then again I'm not hearing much "Dos Cabreras!" going on out there so I don't know how much pull this blog has.

Did you notice it was Memorial Day Hat Day today? I think the Blue Jays hats are quite striking when paired with their blue uniforms...but I also feel weird that they are wearing Memorial Day hats in Canada. But, turns out while they are for "September 11, July 4 and Memorial Day" they are also for Canada Day and are ultimately for the Welcome Back Veterans Fund. And now I feel all better about all that.

Check out what our rogue rookie outfielder Trevor Crowe (@tcrowe4) had to say on Twitter this evening:

I can say this after spending 2 solid months here getting to see and spend more time in Cleveland outside of ballpark. Cleveland Does Rock

 Good job, Trevor! Although I hope this doesn't mean you are busy not getting healthy...

That's all there really is to say today. Shelley Duncan rocks, Choo got a hit (oh, so did Santana) and tomorrow is Tuesday.

Man I just realized how un-positive my Radio Chatter is today. But when you disappoint Tom Hamilton you really get the Eeyore treatment. My brother and I were laughing about how tough it must be to be his kids. "Welp, I guess no one is going to be taking out the trash today. Mmm mmm mmm..."

Don't forget - 7:07 tomorrow with NO off days this week. Over 100 games to go yet. Thank God for baseball!

Update: You know, being wrapped up in this winning season, I almost forgot that this blog was about celebrating baseball and that doesn't always mean celebrating the Indians. Lots of times - and I mean lots of times - weird or interesting things happen during an Indians game that are not pro-Indians. Like that crazy almost-but-not perfect game last year.

Anyway, today Blue Jays starting pitcher Jo-Jo Reyes got his first win since 2008. To get this win he pitched a complete game and also only gave up one run. So, good for you Reyes. Whether you out-pitched the Indians or we out-swung ourselves, I'm glad something exciting happened in this game. Yay for baseball!

Radio Chatter:
"The Indians are not playing very good baseball right now. They're not hitting, they're not having quality pitching, and now their defense is opening up holes."
- Tom Hamilton

"Well I hope your barbecue is better then this ballgame. If not, it means somebody forgot to turn the meat."
- Tom Hamilton

"Boy this is why you think of baseball and you just shake your head sometimes. There are things like this that you just can't predict."
- Tom Hamilton

"If you haven't won a game in 3 years and have a 10-run lead, you deserve to finish it and be on the field to shake hands at the end."
- Tom Hamilton with regards to Jo-Jo Reyes