Golfgate

Oh my. Tom Hamilton loves to talk about ballplayers who are great guys. He also loves to talk about how incompetent umpires are. The final of his top three things to harp on is baseball players who do dumb things. Tonight topic of Hammy's ranting was Boston pitcher Josh Beckett who apparently is being raked over the coals in the overly-dramatic Boston sports press for golfing the day after he missed a start. Golfgate! Adding to the fun of that tidbit was a revelation last October that Beckett and other Red Sox pitchers were eating fried chicken and drinking beer on the bullpen bench. Hamilton was beside himself - it was almost as good as Milton Bradley doing something stupid!

Anyway, Josh Beckett was supposed to be proving himself tonight but - nope. He proved that the Indians could hit him all over the park. I had told my friend who was attending the game that I'd listen for him yelling "CHOOOO!!" in the crowd but I couldn't hear a thing over all of the "Boooo!!" for Beckett.

Derek Lowe - ex-Red Sox - didn't seem to get noticed by the rabid fans. Neither did Damon. Lowe gave up 9 hits but only 2 runs. His WHIP is not low that's for sure but he's tied for the league lead in wins! There's definitely something to an old pitcher that knows how to get himself out of shit.

Man, poor Tony Sipp. Gave up another run today, a homer, in just 2/3 innings of work. I was pondering Kevin Slowey coming up to take his shot but 1) He's a righty to Sipp's lefty and 2) He's pitching just under 6 ERA. Yeep.

But that's all right. We've got Joe Smith, VinnieP52 and the soon-to-be-famous Nick Hagadone. My brother says he's not on anyone's team in his fantasy league. I am going to make a suggestion that maybe you should pick him up. His ERA is .87, guys, over 10 innings. And he's pitching more often. Get him while he's not!

Johnny Damon is killing me, y'all. Just killing me. I keep trying to give him chances but we did NOT hire him to hit .171 for us. He's been in the AL for like a million years. He's got a no-pressure position in the field. He should be able to hit the ball. He's not. Well tonight he did yay, 1 for 5.

Kipnis, after having a great last-couple-weeks has cooled off a bit. But he was doin' his thing tonight! He went 2 for 5 with a single and a solo homer. He leads the team in homers! A measly 6 homers but still, he's tops. Let's hope the guys we're paying to hit homers get the message that if the JK Kid can do it, indeed they can too.

Asdrubal is still on a tear, going 2 for 4 tonight with a double, single and hit-by-pitch. His average is .343 now with 16 hits in his last 10 games. I think he might be 7th in the AL right now. He stole a base tonight and it was only his second of the year - once again, I thought he had more. I guess I am just giving him credit for EVERYTHING!

Travis Hafner and Carlos Santana were shut down today. Well Hafner with a walk and Santana with a nice sac fly. But there were a lot of hits today and none of them came from guys #4 and #5!

Choo, on the other hand, was dialed in. He went 1 for 3 with a double, 2 walks and scoring 2 runs. That's 8 hits in the last 8 games if you're counting. And right now for Choo, a walk's as good as a hit. Especially if he's going to be on base for...

Michael Brantley! Dude went 4 for 5 today with TWO doubles! I think that's his best game since...well let's see, the last time he got 4 hits in a game was July 8, 2011 but even then he had SIX at-bats and no doubles. He's still streaky right now - this was his first hit in 3 games - but he's hitting way better than uh that other guy who's often leadoff. So we know what Brantley can do, and we know he can still do it - let's hope he keeps DOING IT!

Kotchman didn't get a hit today (awww) but he did go 0-2, with getting hit by a pitch and a RBI sac fly. We had 2 sac flies tonight which seems like a rarity this year. If guys can start figuring THAT out, it'd be a nice balance between 2-out hits and leaving the bases loaded with 1 out.

Supermanahan! He went deep tonight, which is not what we usually see (his 3rd). And you KNOW he did it with guys on base. He ended up going 2 for 4 with 2 RBI. Guess what? His average is back up to .300! He also was involved in 8 outs. At one point, it was 6 in a row. Hit it to Jack! Hit it to Jack!

So here's a weird and random thing for today. Someone on the message board I frequent was asking for help identifying furniture from a photo in an online article. I found the original article online - an interview with German director Jan Schmidt-Garre accompanied by photos from his sleekly-decorated home in Berlin. I'm scrolling through the photos and I see these:

FvF Productions

FvF Productions

What? Look closer - that "painting" is real, folks. Dude is either a baseball fan, a CLEVELAND baseball fan, or a fan of ironic American iconography. Fucking rad, tho.

I was so blown away, I tweeted it. Retweet me!

So nice to smash the BoSox. Especially that dupe Beckett. Tomorrow is the newly-outstanding Jiminez against Clay Buchholz who has a 9.09 ERA. Ha ha! It'll be so fun if we can get another 8 or more tomorrow.

See you then!!

Radio Chatter:
"Boston, Massachusetts, home of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and the movie Good Will Hunting. In recognition of that, Rosie, our engineer Mike and I are going to Hahvad to beat up some smaht guys."
- Tom Hamilton

"Beckett is struggling, and the natives are getting restless."
- Tom Hamilton with regards to Golfgate

"All Josh Beckett needs to do to finish this off is order some fried chicken and beer!"
- Tom Hamilton after Beckett is taken out, with regards to...Chicken Gate?

"Hannahan's like a hockey goalie."
- Jim Rosenhaus

"What if Paul Revere would have switched allegances from Boston and gone to the Yankees like Johnny Damon?"
- Tom Hamilton

"You know what? Dave always had a good time with Herb and I. Don't be afraid to look in the mirror."
- Tom Hamilton to Jim Rosenhaus regarding Dave, the crabby engineer

"Had they not had the replay you would have told everyone how you caught it."
- Tom Hamilton on Jim Rosenhaus shown ducking a foul ball on a replay

Your Friend, Jeanmar

So here's the deal with this game tonight. First of Jake Peavy is pretty awesome (how do we keep seeing awesome pitchers?) and last time we saw him he threw a 3-hit shut out against us.

Jeanmar Gomez is also pretty awesome, but in a different way. He gave up 2 runs in the first inning and kept going. Then he gave up 6 more in the fourth inning and STILL kept going. Because by that point, with the way Peavy was pitching, we were going to be winning this game. So we needed a guy to pitch a bunch of innings and save our bullpen for our trip to Boston. So Jeanmar Gomez said "Si" and gave us 6 2/3 and doubled his ERA.

Don't forget he's also the guy who beaned a Royal batter in retaliation and got thrown out and served a suspension and everything. He's like your best little buddy in the bullpen.

Sort of like Jeanmar

Jairo Asencio came in to finish it off tonight and he was lights out for 2 1/3 innings. That's a relief. PUN!

How ever good Peavy was, we still tagged him for 7 hits and a walk. They just weren't...grouped. What do you expect with no Hannahan?

Asdrubal got a hit tonight going 1 for 4 with his 10th double and keeping his average sky-high at .337. Hafner got a hit AND a walk (grrr...cold weather? Is this going to be a real thing?) but he's still technically "struggling at the plate" I think.

Santana got a hit and Choo is silently getting back to his real self with 7 hits in his last 7 games. Plus he's still pretty awesome in the field. Between him and Kotchman the right side is locked down!

Speaking of CASEY KOTCHMAN how about that guy, huh?? Dude's got 9 hits in his last 10 games, tonight going 2 for 3 with a walk. His average is JUST SHY OF .200! Seriously - 10 days ago he was just shy of .150. If HE turns around then really Casey Kotchman is the total package.

Jason Donald got a hit, but also got an error. Meh that guy. I mean I guess I can't give him too much shit because Hannahan has played most of the season so he's not getting much work at third but...meh that guy.

That's really all there was to this game. Good on Jeanmar, Kotchman hits. End.

Looking forward to the Boston series tomorrow just because I'm ready to see some new teams. And Boston's just not that formidable anymore, so it's always nice to just roll over those chumps. It'll be some sort of "Return of Johnny Damon" thing too I bet. Huh huh.

A little later, at 7:10 PM. Big Derek Lowe! See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"He said he can roll out of bed on Christmas morning and throw strikes. That's how ready this guy is."
- Jim Rosenhaus on Jake Peavy

"Manny Acta says 'I hate to do this to Jeanmar Gomez but tonight he's got to take one for the team...'"
- Tom Hamilton

"Meanwhile Peavy has turned the clock back to 2007."
- Tom Hamilton

"Oh for the love of Pete, throw the ball! Peavy is up 8-0 and playing games with Santana."
- Tom Hamilton

"You have a 7-run lead. If Robin Ventura can't trust you in this situation, he can't trust you in any other situation."
- Tom Hamilton

Nick Hagadone Is Your Daddy

How about that guy? Brought up in late April for our west coast trip and kept on the roster (Lopez eventually went down) and has pitched 9 1/3 innings since then and given up just 1 run giving him an ERA of .96. And tonight? Struck out the side. The side including Adam Dunn who, according to all accounts, does not suck anymore.

Fact: Did you know that Hagadone's birthday is New Year's Day? I bet you will think about that next New Year's Day.

Carlos Santana! He's creepin' up towards .300, tonight going 2 for 3 with 2 walks. He almost decapitated John Danks with a two-out, two-RBI double, which is no easy feat because that guy is nearly invisible when sideways. Santana also stole a base and I was surprised to hear it was his first. Seems like he's been doing everything this year.

Speaking of creeping averages, Casey Kotchman is feeling a groove. He's no longer "Oh, Kotchman's up..." he's more like "Ok Casey, do it again!" He went 2 for 4 tonight and he will soon - SOON! - be batting over .200!

Jack Hannahan also had a nice night going 2 for 4. Unfortunately he didn't have people to bat in, otherwise who know he may have gone 4-4 out of pressure! His average is hovering under .300 at .289.

Otherwise it wasn't really the best game for us. Danks really had our number and conversely Masterson was NOT the hot stuff I was predicting him to be and Perez fell off the wagon. But they were saying on the radio yesterday that Perez was sort of begging to not have to pitch yesterday so I'm wondering if that carried over til today too?

Josh Hamilton hit 4 home runs tonight in Baltimore. I guess Rocky Colavito hit 4 in Baltimore once too. Curse of the Rock weighing on us tonight?

Lulz! Just kidding! Hitting and pitching sucked!

I had a crummy day today and couldn't focus on the baseball so I didn't get any Radio Chatter quotes. Sorry about that. I listened to the whole game but nothing really jumped out at me - maybe it wasn't even my fault, maybe Hammy and Rosie didn't say anything worth noting!

Hopefully everyone got their sillies out tonight, and tomorrow can get back to winning. Honestly it was a decent game since they showed the ability to come back. It just started and ended poorly. The bit in the middle? Awesome!

Tomorrow is Jeanmar against Jake Peavy. Let's hope Jeanmar stays on the same track he's been on. Another 7:05 game - see you there!

What Ended Up Being A Fun Evening

Ooooh that was a tough one! We had our "B" team in, as it were. The score stayed close, then there was a rain delay, then it was tied up. Would there be extra innings? Would we have to delve in to our bullpen? WOULD TONY SIPP SUCK?!

No, yes, no. Yay!

Tomlin was great! He went 7 1/3 innings. Not a complete game bu even better than McAllister did this afternoon, and 7 1/3 was great! He bested his personal strikeout record with 8 and only walked 2 and gave up 2 runs on 5 hits. He was ready to leave in the 8th, and who wouldn't have been? Cuz it was pouring rain and he'd given us 104 pitches. Oddly enough, he didn't get the win.

Wheeler came in and the umps were like "Uh...him? How about a rain delay?" and there was a rain delay for like an hour and a half, in which time Joe Smith got his shit together and said "Put me in, coach!" and then came in and gave up Tomlin's second run. But then he got Dunn to ground out and if you recall, Adam Dunn Does Not Suck Anymore so that wasn't too shabby.

Sipp was the only guy left, I think, so he had to come in for the 9th. He got the first 2 outs then walked Konerko (not a bad idea) and then gave up an omg-that-was-almost-a-home-run to Tyler Flowers before striking him out. WHEW! Sipp's ERA is now down to 8, woohoo!

So Brantley was back up top tonight and he went 1 for 4, so he had a pretty good day, comparatively. Kipnis, who had gotten shut down this afternoon for the first time in 10 games, got his hit and also went 1 for 4. Both guys had RBIs which isn't bad considering we only had 3 total.

Speaking of 3 - Asdrubal went 3 for 3 with a walk. YES HE DID!!! So he's got 14 hits and 7 walks in the last 10 games. Know what his average is? It's .356 is what it is!!! He's 7th in the league and it's LEGIT!! WOOOHOO!

Santana was at first tonight and he wasn't too bad in the field, to be honest. He went 1 for 3 with a walk and is up to .250.

Lou Marson was behind the plate and his average is lower than Kotchman. Lower than dirt. Seriously bad. But he walked and then stole second, allowing him to score the tying run in the 5th!

Also showing up this evening from the "B" bench was former "B"-bencher-cum-"A"-bencher Shelley Duncan who was at the plate with two on in the 8th. If I had the game on TV I may have looked away. I believe in Shelley in April, I'm afraid of what he might do in May.

Fear no more!!! He got an RBI double is what he did and as it turns out he won the game! There was much rejoicing and a loud clap from me which freaked out my dog who was just coming down from being freaked out by thunder.

So our "B" team - Marson and Duncan - contributed mightily tonight. Our bullpen didn't let us down tonight. Everyone was tight again tonight and basically we did what it took to get the job done. Oh and Asdrubal is the best ever!

We've got 2 more against these White Sox at 7:05 on the next two days. Tomorrow is Masterson and I have a feeling he's going to have one of those games where we're all "That is why he's our first starter!" I just know it.

I love this roll we're on. See you tomorrow!

Radio Chatter:
"This is a guy with 3 walks in 16 at-bats, and that walk became a mortal sin for Eric Stults."
- Tom Hamilton on Lou Marson

"I'm sure the umpires wish one team had an 8-run lead right now. Then it'd be easier to pull the tarp out, wait a bit, and say 'Goodnight, everybody.'"
- Tom Hamilton

"We need Betsy Kling to call the clubhouse and tell them they're lining up the dogs and cats 2-by-2."
- Tom Hamilton

"Look, you don't need to say nice stuff about Jerry Crab just because he's the coach of your son's little league team. You want Nathan to hit third..."
"I'm just saying... [...] But if he hits third that's good too."
- Tom Hamilton and Jim Rosenhaus

"Well this isn't baseball now this is just survival."
- Tom Hamilton on the rain

A Fun Afternoon

Was anyone else bummed as the clouds rolled in this morning? I mean, I don't see any spots in the schedule to make up a make-up game and according to my browser add-on, there's rain forecasted the next two days (and tonight!) so today's game HAD to happen. And it had to happen in a fairly reasonable time so the guys could rest between games.

There was only a half hour delay at the start, where fans listening in on WTAM got to listen to the a "sports" reporter from the News Herald who only likes Indians baseball when they win. Great representative of Cleveland sports right there. Thank god after all that we got to have our baseball!

Zach McAllister was brought up as our 26th man, a rule the Union came up with that if there's a make-up game then you can bring an extra guy up without having to send someone down. Very nice rule, keeps rotations from getting out of whack (because they no doubt got out of whack enough by having a rainout.)

McAllister came in 4 times last year, the first two times giving up 2 and then 8 runs in less than 8 innings of work. He came back in September and gave up 2 more but then shut out Detroit, ending his season with an ERA over 6 in the Majors but only 3.32 in the Minors. He already had 3 wins in the Minors this year so he was called upon to fill the gap and give us a quality start, preserving the bullpen.

Little dude did his job! He pitched 6 innings giving up only 2 runs and striking out 5! Unfortunately his pitch count was over 100 when he left so we were going to use the bullpen. Also he and Santana had errors and that accounted for 2 un-earned runs. But awesome job for a kid brought up in to  a sort-of high pressure situation. He could have flaked right out and ruined the entire series for us. Great job, Zach!

Asencio hadn't worked in a while so he was called in to hopefully finish the game, with a 4-run lead. He rolled through the 7th and 8th but couldn't get anyone out in the 9th and gave up 2 runs before Nick Hagadone was brought in. Not sure why that guy's not being used more - I guess because of his age and green-ness. Because when we do use him he's been superb and had no problem finishing out the game with no more scoring!

Damon was silenced this afternoon. Ok. What is weird is that Kipnis was silenced too. Has he gotten himself on everyone's radar so that they know how to pitch to him now? He ended up going 0-4 with a walk and ending his hitting streak. I hope to see some awesome come the night game.

The rest of the order hit and thanks be to Og, Hafner AND Santana had multi-hit games!

Asdrubal went 1 for 3 with an RBI, keeping his average at .333. Unstoppable? We'll see!

Hafner went DEEP and it looked GOOD. He also had a triple, and my brother and I were speculating that since Hafner is not known for his speed, would his stand-up triple have been an in-the-park homer for, say, Brantley? But Hamilton and Rosenhaus (and Hafner himself) did note that he does have a "third gear" he can invoke when needed so his "chugging" turns in to "speeding" between second and third.

Santana had a double and a single and came around to score twice. Just what we need from him! We don't need him to be our homer-or-out guy.

Choo went 1 for 3 with one walk and he also came around to score both times, thanks to Michael Brantley! Brantley went 2 for 4 today with 3 of our 8 RBI! Still streaky, Michael but keep it up!

Also with 3 RBI today was...Kotchman! Dude is still hitting under .200 but whatever. He is AWESOME at first base. He was out on Saturday and Santana was at first and we dearly missed Kotchman there. So he can hit under .200 if he has to, just keep being awesome at first and keep having little sparks of goodness like this when you get 3 RBI or steal a base or something.

To round it out, Hannahan went 1 for 3 with a walk.

We only had 6 LOB today which is great for us, especially considering we had 10 hits and 4 walks. I guess we're 4 for 27 with bases loaded this year. That's crappy. Brantley was the one to bring us up to 4 today from 3 of 26.

Since we had our full good lineup this afternoon I wonder what's going to be going on in the second game. Marson and Duncan? Chicago is bringing up their version of McAllister in Eric Stults, a LHP, so we're sure to see Duncan at least. Our guy will be Tomlin and you know he's good for a W. I have a feeling it's gonna be another great game so see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"So much for struggling."
- Tom Hamilton after Hafner's bomb in the 2nd

"The lack of hitting with bases loaded has hit everyone on this team like a virus."
- Tom Hamilton

"This is Robin Ventura's worst nightmare. A day-night double header and your bullpen is in in the third inning."
- Tom Hamilton

"You're lucky I don't believe in Tweeting or else this picture would already be out there. [...] That's the difference between New Jersey and Wisconsin. When I was a kid we weren't allowed out of the house in just our underwear."
- Tom Hamilton lets the world know that Jim Rosenhaus is wearing an inapropriate, albeit comfy shirt

"While Travis Hafner is obviously no speed merchant, nobody hustles harder down the line."
- Tom Hamilton

Our 'U' Beats Their Yu For His First W!

It almost seems like we did the impossible. Ubaldo Jiminez got his shit together and we beat one of the league's best pitchers off whom we scored 4 runs.

It was really an amazing way to cap off an amazing series. If you've been scratching your head about this Trbe team wondering if they were for real or just lucky or or what, you probably got sold today. Like the last two games, everyone played a part in the wins (and even in the loss) and played it well. Now, let's hope we do this for the next 5 months!

I was ready to be done with Jiminez after his last start. I was over waiting for "just one more start" for him to remember how to pitch. But if you think about it, he kind of hit bottom. There was no place for him to go but up. It seems like maybe someone finally told him "Dude, you suck" and he said "Someone help me" and some work was done and the pitcher we paid for showed up. Two hits, 6 strikeouts, 7 innings. Against Texas, the top-hitting team in the league.

I hope this means Jiminez has turned a corner. We can't compete this season without him. Let's hope today was the first of many amazing games to come!

Tony Sipp, on the other hand - he needs to have that same "someone help me" talk with the staff because he is just not getting it done. He is not SIPP! from last year he's "well I guess if everyone else is used up we'll throw in Tony for an inning, or at least as many outs as he can muster before the other team ties the game." He gave up two runs in 2/3 of an inning and was like a lost duckling out there until Pestano could come out and show him how shit gets done.

Chris Perez had me on the edge of my seat, but I was really excited that I had the game on TV today because he's great to watch. He's got confidence out the yin-yang. After the first batter got a hit between a lackadaisical Asdrubal and Kipnis, Perez turned around and asked his infielders "what the hell was that?" What the hell, indeed! And then he got Napoli to pop out and Beltre to fly out (on a titillating catch by Choo) then struck out the third guy LIKE HE DOES IT EVERY DAY. Very cool - are you as pumped as I am?! He is Kenny Powers!

Johnny Damon came through in a big way today. He was back in the leadoff spot. He started the game off with a single and in the 3rd he put one INSIDE THE SUN where Ian Kinsler couldn't find it. He then came around to score.

Kipnis had another amazing day, extending his hitting streak to 10 games, with 16 hits in those 10 games. Don't forget his 5 walks, 6 runs and 6 RBI in that time! Today he went 1 for 2 with two walks and a homer! For his efforts, he's now batting .300 and leads the team in RBI!

Asdrubal is still extremely relevant up there at #3. He's got 14 hits in the last 10 games, and got 2 more RBI today going 1 for 3. He leads our team with a .333 batting average and a .958 OPS (on-base plus slugging) which is towards the top of the league!

Something's up with Hafner. His batting average went from .327 to .253 in the last 10 games, where he's hit .147 over those games. He's not even hardly walking. What's up with that? Everyone remembers when he was On Base, Like a Boss just about a week ago, right? Please don't let it be the weather. It's fun to think that his North Dakota roots kept him supple during our cold April but that does not turn into an excuse for batting poorly in nice weather!

Santana's being choppy too. He didn't do anything today. Actually, he did catch Ubaldo pretty well. Seemed like at one point he talked the big guy off a ledge and guided him out of the inning. Do you think Latino players just speak to each other in Spanish or do they make an effort to speak English? I suspect the details are better told in Spanish.

Choo got a hit. Eh. He did have yet another great play in the outfield today, making that 4 great plays (three fantastic catches and a put-out) in one 3-game series. I won't complain about that! But I will be a little pouty over his lack of bat.

Brantley and Hannahan were silenced today. Maybe Brantley does need to be up top? I don't know. I'm glad I'm not the person who has to decide. Hannahan is hitting .600-something with men in scoring position. Not today tho.

Casey Kotchman! He did a thing today! Not only did he get a hit but he also stole a base. Because nobody expects Kotchman to steal a base. But look out, he's 3 for 3!

Very nice team effort today, and all weekend. I hope it carries us far because we've got a heavy schedule coming up - 16 games in the next 15 days. We've got TWO tomorrow, at 1:05 and 7:05. That'll be something else. A whole day of baseball! I'm getting all my chores done today so I can listen to baseball all day, unencumbered. Except of course for my job. I gotta work during the first game. Of course.

Anyway, see you tomorrow - twice! Roll tribe!

Radio Chatter:
"Hamilton is looking for one he can hammer to Pennsylvania."
- Tom Hamilton

"UC Santa Barbara. That's another school where if you get on the dean's list you have incredible focus. If you've seen the students at UC Santa Barbara you know what I'm talking about."
- Tom Hamilton wishes they all could be California girls

"It's gotta be some kind of happy hour they put on when they put this thing together."
- Tom Hamilton on the MLB schedule

"Clouds are starting to roll in and Ian Kinsler is like 'Where were you 2 hours ago?'"
- Tom Hamilton on Kinsler losing the ball in the sun

Make Some Noise If You're With Me!

Awesome, awesome night at the ballfield! Well, except two things:

1. Before I left I mowed the lawn and was all hot and sweaty and the sun was shining. So for some reason I decided to dress as if my destination would be just as hot. Shorts, sandals, jersey over sleeveless shirt. Reality set in pretty quick by the time I got to my seat. It was 58 degrees at game time with 16 MPH winds. And extra innings!

2. I wanted to bring my "OMG ASDRUBAL!!!" sign but my tickets were borrowed season tickets. I didn't want to embarrass the owner, and I thought maybe it'd be more crowded and I didn't want to interrupt people around me. Turns out we weren't in a packed section. And it was right behind where the Tribe players come in to the dugout so Asdrubal would have seen the sign. Oh yeah and he made a ton of outs and went 4 for 5. So it was an epic signage failure on my part.

All of that aside, and the loss aside, it was AWESOME!

I didn't realize until yesterday that tonight was Chris Perez Replica Jersey night, so I was worried my friend and I would maybe be late and miss the give-away if we didn't hustle. With Friday's win, the good weather and it being a Saturday I was pretty sure there'd be a goodly crowd on hand. But everything worked out perfectly and we were able park,  get our jerseys, have a potty break and get to our seats in time for the Anthem. There were 21k fans tonight.

Those jerseys are actually quite quality apparel! I saw the Choo jerseys on a lot of fans last year and was impressed. These are the same except with The Plain Dealer on the sleeve. I love how they are adult XL too. Nobody is making any mistakes about the heartiness of us Clevelanders!

Speaking of size, I've been eating low carb and was wondering if I'd be eating at the park. I decided to go for bunless hot dogs. Not bad at all (I took the buns off myself) although I wouldn't be surprised if there were some snickers from surrounding fans. They are indeed jumbo beef hot dogs and can look quite, uh, provocative.

Since it was Chris Perez Replica Jersey day, we were treated to Chris-Perez-Themed intersitials between innings. They featured Perez on "My Bucket List" and it was almost as if they asked him live. "Uhh....dive the Great Barrier Reef? Climb Mount Kilimanjaro?  Visit Antarctica?" Can you imagine Perez climbing Kilimanjaro? As a closer he'd probably have some other guys carry him 19,000 feet then sprint up the last 300 feet, cough up some blood and plant a flag with his face on it. We'd probably all clap wildly for this feat of strength because this is exactly how we want our stud closer to be!

Another cool thing about the ballpark tonight was that they slipped a couple Beastie Boys tracks in there. The typical "Fight For Your Right" but also another that I can't remember but I think maybe "Whatcha Want." I thought that was pretty pro. The Mets did an entire game with Beastie songs, which was cool too, but other than the coincidence of the Rock Hall, there was no reason for our stadium to be paying homage to Adam Yauch but it would appear that they did.

Tonight's game didn't end favorably for us but honestly, it was almost as good as yesterday's. Tight pitching, tight defense and nice multi-hit batting.

Derek Lowe was the starter and man was it a wild ride from him. The two runs he gave up weren't even that big. The first run came in the second and it was due to an amalgamation of excuse-me swings and infield hits. The second was actually due to an outfield hit but it actually could have been worse, for more runs, if it weren't for Choo.

Otherwise, Lowe spent most of his 6 innings working out of jams. Texas got 9 hits and 2 walks. He had baserunners in every inning but the 3rd. It was definitely edge-of-the-seat stuff but you can't say the game was boring.

Hagadone came in for the 7th and came back in the 8th and only had 1 hit, keeping his ERA low and keeping him as one of my favorites out of the 'pen. Pestano pitched the 9th and was an absolute beast, striking out 2. The team couldn't bat us ahead so we had a 10th and 11th inning featuring Joe Smith. Not sure if he's meant to pitch two innings because he dropped one to Adrian Beltrae and well what the hell did you think would happen? It happened.

After a stint at the bottom of the lineup, Michael Brantley was back up top leading off. This inspired him to get 2 hits, including a double! Someone on the radio said he wasn't ever a very good leadoff man but I've never felt that. I think he is great - except when slumping. He went 2 for 5 tonight and scored a run. So there!

Kipnis was somehow confounded today. Texas just had Kipnis Magnets in their gloves because he nearly had two doubles and a single but ended up with just a single bounced over first base. He got the last laugh though because after that single he came around to score on a passed ball. PBTHTHTH!!

Tonight was Asdrubal's night, for sure. Last year at my first live game he went 5 for 5. At my last live game (when he was in the lineup) he went 4 for 4. Tonight he went 4 for 5. I AM MAGIC!!! He also had a hand in 9 outs. One more double and one more RBI, and dude is hitting .333. They saaaaaay that maybe, just maybe, he helped give away the game by not completing a double play after getting mowed down at second but my reaction at the time was "thank God he didn't go too far on that and break his arm." Seriously folks...he is not made of steel!

Derek Holland seemed to have everyone else's number. Santana, Hafner, Duncan, Hannahan - all shut out. Choo, coming off a big homer last night, only squeaked out one hit. Damon came in for Duncan at one point, with Choo on base, and 21,000 of us held our breath as he popped up to third. I couldn't find it in me to damn Damon to hell and tell him to go back East because, well, if Jack Hannahan can't figure out Texas pitching, who can?

Oh and Joe Nathan pitches for Texas now. Forgot about that cat. Cleveland will never be successful against him.

However much Texas shut us down, we shut them down right back. Josh Hamilton has only gotten 2 hits in 8 at-bats, and struck out twice. Michael Young came in to the game tonight batting .333 and went 0 for 5. Alberto Gonzales came in Friday batting .333 and has gone 0 for 6. Beltrae may have gotten to us today but he didn't do jack yesterday.

We're playing on par with this Texas juggernaut right now, and that's exciting and something to be proud of. I can't WAIT for tomorrow's "rubber match." It could possibly be an absolute nightmare - Yu Darvish with his .98 ERA against Ubaldo but if you haven't been paying attention, this is baseball and anything could happen. Nobody thought we'd win against Texas and then go extra innings, so it's entirely possible we could win Sunday.

Or not. But I'm gonna have fun seeing how we get there! Ooooh, and it's on WKYC, I can literally see it. Score!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"We have CB Buckner at the plate tonight so flip a coin, folks."
- Tom Hamilton is not a fan of CB Buckner

"You thought he was off the charts because he went to Lafayette."
"Thanks for getting that right tonight. I thought you were going to say Lehigh."
"That wouldn't be fair to Lehigh."
- Tom Hamilton and Jim Rosenhaus riffing on Rosenhaus's alma matter, and Pennsylvania

"You never see a ball hit that right field extension, and we've had it back-to-back nights."
- Tom Hamilton after Moreland hits one out there

"This has been one of those nights where the Indians haven't squared many balls up, but when they do Texas is right there to put them away."
- Tom Hamilton

"Now, Ian Kinsler knows a lot more about baserunning than I do - but why would you run with Josh Hamilton at the plate?"
- Tom Hamilton

"How about that? The baseball gods say to Jason Kipnis 'We owe you one.'"
- Tom Hamilton on Kipnis's single in the 8th after he was robbed earlier of two doubles

"Actually for CB Buckner he had fewer people arguing with him tonight. Usually by game's end every hitter and every pitcher has gotten mad at him. Tonight it's only been 5, maybe 6."
- Tom Hamilton, still not a fan

"You could say 'well they will pinch hit Gonzales' but no they won't, Beltrae is out with a hamstring injury. Now, Beltrae is in the on deck circle but it could just be a decoy by Ron Washington."
- Tom Hamilton is wrong