Start of Something Great? Yet?

Hey hey! Everybody Hits today! Thirteen hits and 9 RBI for the Tribe today. Against the ROYALS, man! Wahoo!

This is the Tribe team that Sports Illustrated was talking about, by the way. Great hitting one through nine, a strong starter and competent relievers. This is the Tribe on paper, now realized.

If only, Dear Lord, we can have these guys more than once every 10 games. Is this possible???

Carrasco was the starter tonight, and he didn't have some amazing game but he did have a Quality Start. He went 7 innings giving up just 3 runs and striking out 6. Actually I couldn't believe he only struck out 6! I think they were saying he was getting over an illness too? (like Bauer) Anyway he was perfectly good and got his 4th win out of it. It was his longest start of the season. Against the Royals!

Zep and McAllister came in and did a fine, boring job of pitching the 8th and 9th inning. So boring - no hits, no runs, 3 strikeouts between them. Ho-hum. BALLGAME!

New lineup today - Kipnis, SANTANA, Brantley, Raburn, Moss, Swisher, Aviles, Chisenhall, Catcher (Hayes). No Bourn but he is available for pinch running and hitting, which he did today.

So, how did it go?

Well, they ran the starter out of the game after just one inning, 6 hits and 4 runs scored. Kipnis got 2 hits (including a double) and an RBI, while Santana got a hit, a walk and came in to score 2 runs. Brantley took forever to get himself a hit but finally did get one and came in to score a run. Raburn didn't get a homer but he got an RBI double. So yeah - that 1-through-4 works PRETTY WELL for me!!

Brandon Moss WHAAAAAAT?! Dude is really looking to being a producer for us. Nice to have him tucked in there behind Raburn. Tonight he went 2 for 5 with 3 RBI and 2 runs scored. He got his 7th double, behind Raburn's 8th and his 5th homer. Sploosh! Right in to the fountain!  His average is way up to .241, which seems like nothing but he spent SEVERAL games with it at .000. So yeah - quite a recovery for him!

Handsome Mike Aviles had a nice game there, filling in at short. He went 3 for 4 with an RBI and 2 runs scored. Nothing fancy with him - no extra bases or anything. But dude is still out there grinding away and he's got a .288 average to show for it!

Chisenhall and Hayes rounded out the bottom of the lineup, each with a hit and an RBI. Make Lonnie's a double!

I don't know what else to say other than...let's see more of this! We know they can play like this - but why not every night? Beating the previous-year's league champs and the second best team in the league really counts for something. Doing it two days in a row in their home stadium counts for a LOT!

Tomorrow is Kluber. Dude doesn't have any wins yet!! Someone pointed out on Twitter the other day that his April numbers were pretty much the same last year - if not identical. So he does have ample time to get back to Cy Young form. Of course you can't get a win if you have no run support. So let's hope they get some for the Klubot!

It's an afternoon game - 2:10 to be exact. So don't forget! Klubes goes against RHP 2.10. Nice little ERA dude but we like righties!

See you there!

Draft Day!

Just kidding. My Twitter feed was seriously more NFL Draft yesterday than Tribe game, and I only follow people who tweet about the Tribe! Even today it was Draft-heavy despite it being the later rounds the big Tribe win.

Then again I do follow Bernie Kosar and he is clearly excited about everything related to football, every day. So I can't really complain when he is going on and on about the Draft.

But WOW! What a Tribe game! Soooo many hits and - so many RUNS! Runs, y'all! Like when someone is on base and someone else hits the ball and they come in to score. IT'S A THING!

First off is the pitchers, as per our usual. Carrasco was the man on the hill today, and to my dismay he didn't have a quality start. He went 6 innings and gave up 4 runs. But he can't be amazing every game, guys, which is why we will need people to SCORE RUNS from time to time. Which they did today. See how easy that is?! Carrasco did strike out 6.

Atchison, McAllister and Allen finished out the game with one inning a piece. No relief runs! No relief runs! Allen did give up a double in the 9th, but I'm beginning to think that that is how closers work. At least in Cleveland. It's like how cassata cake works differently in Cleveland.

Ok, maybe a bad analogy because Cleveland cassata cake is superior to other cassata cakes, while Cleveland-style closing (giving up hits, giving up runs, losing games) is clearly not the better option.

WHAT I AM SAYING IS THAT IT IS DIFFERENT.

But whatever - they didn't give up any runs, and Carrasco's 4 runs allowed were already OLD NEWS by the 4th inning!

Oh yeah and it's our first EVERYBODY HITS game! And four guys got two hits. There were three home runs! And NINE RUNS SCORED!

Kipnis is still feeling good in the top spot, it seems, because today he led off the Indians' half of the first with a homer! He got another hit too, but no more RBI. Seems like he's been hitting a ton lately but no streak at the moment. But it does seem like when Kipnis is hot, the rest of the team follows behind him.

Aviles was in at short today and in true Goon fashion, he stepped up with 2 hits including an RBI double which was just a double on replay. But still a legit double that sent a man home! Aviles ended up scoring on both his hits. Once again - always a part of things!

Michael Brantley is still amazing and everyone should love him like they do Lebron. THEY HAVE THE SAME NUMBER, PEOPLE. Today he went 2 for 5 with his first homer of the year (a 2-run shot) and a single. No strikeouts. Fact: Brantley is the only player right now with more than 60 at-bats (64) and fewer than 4 strikeouts (3). His average is .341!

Carlos Santana didn't walk tonight. What's up with that?! Just one hit. He still leads the league in walks though. Ha!

Brandon Moss sure is on the team now, huh?! He started soooo painfully slow but now he's up to a respectable .238 and climbing every day! Today he had a huuuge 2-RBI double in the 3rd inning to bring the Tribe within one run of the Jays! That's 14 RBI for him in his last 10 games!

And Ryan Raburn? Sheeeeeet. He is so hot now that he was intentionally walked after Moss's double! He definitely has days where he gets no hitting done - alongside all his teammates - but dude had 2 more hits tonight giving him 11 hits in his last 10 games. He's batting .342! Not bad for the guy that no one really cared about having on our team this year.

Lonnie seems to be coming around! Both at the plate and in the field. Is May the month of Lonnie? No particular reason to feel that way - I always just feel like Lonnie is just about to crack it open! Today he went 1 for 3 with a single, an RBI and a run scored. And no errors! Golf clap.

Brett Hayes was not doing anything of note, other than being our third-string catcher. Then he snuck up on everyone and hit a goddamn 3-run homer today! BOOM!!! So that's two homers for Hayes, who hit a total of 2 homers from 2012-2014. Secret weapon!!

Bourn is still at the bottom of the lineup, working out whatever. Today he got on base with a single in the 4th, then tried to come home on Aviles' double and really almost got there, and slid on his face, and was called safe. Except the replay showed he was out. Sigh. Let's hope he didn't hurt his dang face! The good news was that in the next at-bat, Brantley hit a 2-run homer. HA HA BASEBALL!!!

The Tribe had 9 runs on 13 hits today! Great just like last Friday! Now let's hope we have a better Saturday and Sunday than last week...it could be our month, guys!!

Tomorrow it's a 4:10 game with Kluber going against an RHP. Kluber is going to be f'n mad at himself so he is going to throw everything fast and not give up any runs. So all our guys need to do at the plate is one or two runs. Got that?!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Carlos Carrasco has been on thin ice this inning, and finally the Blue Jays push him through that ice."
- Tom Hamilton

Happy Hammy Day!

It's Tom Hamilton's 25th anniversary as the voice of the Indians! Don't forget to treat yourself to a swell new tee for the occasion. I'm so old I remember when Hammy was "the new guy" but still he's been one of the voices of my Tribe since I was 10. I just loved him and Herb Score together. Herb was so...Herb and Tom was so radio. I love how Hammy's calls have become iconic. It always makes me laugh when Hammy is away and people complain about how bad Jim Rosenhaus is but in reality, Jim Rosenhaus is just fine. He sounds like everyone else in the league. His only "problem" is that everyone in Cleveland is used to Tom Hamilton!

I hope he's got 25 more years in him. If Cleveland can't have championships, at least we can have guys like Hammy who make every game seem like it's the most exciting game in the world!

Oh yeah so today on Hammy Day - Everybody Hits! I don't know how accurate my scale is over there on the right but if it is accurate then this is only the SECOND TIME this year that there's been a hit in every spot, 1-9! No foolin! And, get this - everybody SCORED too! Fun!

It was almost inconsequential that Danny Salazar had a great game, being that he could have given up 11 runs and we still would have been ok. But he didn't - he gave up just 1 run in his 6 full innings! Four strikeouts, 3 walks and just 4 hits.

Since it was 12-2 by the time Salazar was done, they tried out some new arms. The Boy Pitcher Kyle Crockett came in for 2/3 of an inning. He gave up 2 hits before Terry got bored with him and brought in the other new guy, Austin Adams. Adams finished up the 7th and pitched the 8th as well, giving up just one hit and striking out 1.

Carlos Carrasco finished it up and it wasn't his best showing. Once again, he had an 11-run lead but after ALL THAT it was kind of a bummer to see him give up a run on 2 hits to make it just a 10-run lead. Everyone was ready for the game to be OVER and for the party to begin!

David Murphy took the prize tonight for Pure Hitness! He went 4 for 4 against his former team/hometown team! He got 2 RBI and came in to score 2 runs, and 2 of hit hits were doubles. No LOB for him! I also hear tell that he went after a ball and ripped his pants - even though we were up 12-1. What a good guy! Six hits in the last 2 game for Murphy...locked in?

Next on tonight's awesome scale is, of course, Michael Brantley (.320). He went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI and a run scored. Five hits for him in his last 2 games. What did I say about last night being the beginning of a new hit streak? WHAT DID I SAY?!

Next is Lonnie Chisenhall (.309) who just HAD to do something big in this game. He had to! It was his 10th homer in the 6th inning that pushed him over the edge! He went 2 for 5 on the night with "just" the one RBI. Lonnie got 11 homers last year in his 94 at-bats. He's got 10 now, and I believe 96 at-bats. That's kind of interesting considering how we are viewing this year as "his" year but it just goes to show that we're being wowed by his consistency (er, by what used to be his consistency) and not just by his power. Now, if only this were the start of a great month for him, too...

Mike Aviles also got 2 hits, and went 2 for 4. Actually, I might have put him ahead of Lonnie Baseball because he got THREE RBI. All 3 of them on singles! That's our Aviles, in there making things happen. After the game he was interviewed by Hammy and was asked "Do you like to play short stop?" or something and Aviles said "I like to play. Just stop at that much." Love that guy!!

Carlos SAAAAAANTANA! He only went 1 for 3 tonight, meaning of course he walked twice. Interesting fact: His batting average and slugging were higher in July than in June (and both months absolutely trounced April and May)...but his on-base percentage in June was slightly higher than July. He wasn't hitting as much yet in June but he got his "eyes" back and started walking more than he had in the spring. There you have it! He got an RBI and scored a run tonight, giving him 13 RBI in his last 10 games.

Kipnis, Swisher, Gomes and Raburn each got hits tonight as well. And, as mentioned before, they all came in to score at least once.

Jose Ramirez, Tyler Holt and Roberto Perez all came in to the game in position player relief once the win was secured. None of them got a hit. But that was 5 young boys on the team for the Tribe tonight. Wow it feels...interesting.

In other news, Asdrubal had a nice play tonight at second for the Nationals. And this happened:

Why baseball is best: 2nite in Phills-Nats game: Roberto Hernandez (aka Fausto Carmona) got Asdrubal Cabrera to line out to Grady Sizemore.
— Bob DiBiasio (@BDbaseball6) August 2, 2014

Some sort of Circle of Life, there.

Tomorrow is the Jim Thome Statue game. Meh. It'll be another young man, TJ House, up there against RHP 8.54. What? Wow, bring extra money for snacks it's going to be another long one! Do you think they can "Everybody Hits" two nights in a row after taking 3 months off? We'll see!

See you there!

I don't have any Radio Chatter tonight, but here's a celebration of Hammy's career that was compiled last year (and it's part 2!) Check out other videos by the guy who put this one up - he's Hammy's biggest fan!

If They Don't Win It's A Shame

I mean, come on already, bullpen! You are comically bad! And it's not just Oh No Not Rich Hill this time it is Cody Allen and Joe Smith. Joe Smith! SMH y'all.

But hey, the offense was totally on fire today and they didn't give up even after the bullpen gave up all their hard work. And all of Corey Kluber's hard work.

Ok maybe 3 runs in 6 innings isn't Kazmir-level hard work but he did ok. He had 2 errors behind him (well, one in front of him, as he was responsible for one). And he only gave up 1 earned run in the first 5 innings, then the other 2 in the 6th before he was canned.

Cody Allen, damn dude. That guy is one of our money men and he blew it today with 2 runs in 2/3 of an inning. Know who had to save him? Oh No Not Rich Hill! Luckilly he only needed 1 out and managed to do that without giving up any more runs. Well done, Rich Hill.

But then it was Joe Smith's turn, and he must have been doing nothing but eating Cheetohs and playing MLB 2013 since his last appearance on July 19, because he was totally not himself today. Well maybe he was 2013 Joe Smith but definitely not 2012. Two hits and a hit batsman equalled 2 runs for ol' Joe.

Then, get this - Chris Perez comes in and pitches not one but TWO 1-2-3 innings. In a row! Yeah in one game! Dude can't even do that over 4 nights most of the time. He must have been rarin' to go! The meat of the order, too. Outstanding!

Covering the 11th was Bryan Shaw, who got the win. He gave up a bunt single but that was it. So SOME guys in our bullpen really stepped up and looked great today. But half of them...yeesh. They let a 4-run lead go!

Never fear - our offense got even more hits than yesterday. Today they got 18 hits and 11 runs!

Michael Bourn  only got one hit today and it was a single, but it was damn good. Turned in to 2 RBI! He also got an RBI ground out earlier in the game, for a total of 3 RBI on the night. He did get caught stealing though. Is it because everyone expects him to steal??

Swisher is still in the 2-hole and he put his stupid self to use by getting a homer in the first. Go bro.

Kipnis got out of whatever funk he was in in Seattle (1 for 12) and kicked some butt today, with 2 hits including his 25th double! Oddly enough, he neither scored not got an RBI.

Asdrubal has warmed up to the cleanup spot, I think. Today he went 3 for 6 with a double, a run and an RBI! He is .500 over his last 3 games!

Santana was the last one to get a hit today and it was a big one! He helped keep the 11th alive, following up Asdrubal's single, and he was on base when the big magic occurred. Santana went 1 for 4 with 2 walks.

The big magic was Ryan Raburn! He's so good...

He's so good that people put up signs in their garages that say "Parking for [ethnicity] Only - And Ryan Raburn."

Comin' out of nowhere to get the walkoff 3-run homer in the 11th! Yeah buddy! I guess not out of nowher e- did you know he's got the 4th highest average on the team? He does. But he's not a qualifier, at only 58 games. But he was a pretty awesome choice for DH tonight!

Check out how happy this made Brad Mills:

Woohoo!

Raburn went 2 for 6 with 3 RBI.

Hey Cousin Michael, how you doin?

Hey.

How's the hittin? Oh - 3 for 4 tonight with 2 runs scored? Not bad, cuz! A 4-game hitting streak, too? Any outfield assists today? Two? Well one on the books and one that 'los dropped?

You're pretty awesome, Cousin Michael. Who's your awesome friend?

It's Mike Aviles! Today playing the role of 3rd baseman, and the guy batting 8th that nobody expects to do anything. Except people who know Mike Aviles! He went 3 for 5 today, his second 3-hit game in a month (ok it's been almost exactly a month but he got in under the wire!) He came around to score twice, too.

Drew Stubbs was getting in to the RBI act today too, with 2 RBI of his own. He had a bases-loaded single. He was also at the plate when there was a wild pitch to score a run in the 2nd, so let's give him that too!

 So the Tribe has scored 21 runs in their last two games, and even though they only scored 3 runs in the game before that they did get 11 hits. They had 13 hits yesterday and 18 more today. Wow. Glad we have some recourse against the awful, awful bullpen.

CC Lee was sent down, by the way. We're back to Oh No Not Rich Hill, Good Job Cody Allen, Vinnie Cringe Pestano, Uh Albers? Shaw?, What Happened Joe Smith? and Chris Perez. Lord help us!

Tomorrow is another 7:05 game - gonna be crazy cool with Justin Masterson versus special guest star RHP 2.86. Will he put an end to our current bat-crazy? Will Masterson have another ace-ly game? We gotta tune in to find out!

No Radio Chatter today, even though Tom Hamilton was back. I was outside enjoying the weather with my dog, listening to the radio. It was crazy nice out!

Another good one tomorrow - see you there!

That...Was A Lot Of Baseball!

So are you still awake? Did you catch it all? About 9 hours of Indians baseball today. It was completely different than our last traditional double header, which was about 6 hours long. Oh yeah and in the last double header we scored just one run in those 18 innings. Know how many we scored today? 28. Twenty eight runs.

The first game almost seemed like batting practice! Especially in the first inning where the White Sox were just smacking Trevor Bauer all over the diamond. He gave up 6 hits and one walk, resulting in 5 runs, in just 2/3 of an inning. Notice he only walked one. Uh...go you?

Francona made the call - the very difficult call - to take Bauer out and start bringing out the bullpen guys. Hard call because A) You don't want to start using them in the first inning of the first game of a double header, yowza! and B) They kind of suck. He had to decide if Bauer was going to suck more than the bullpen. Turns out he made the right call. The bullpen did suck, but technically they did suck less because although they also gave up 5 runs, they did it over more innings.

Bauer did face the press like a man after the game, and gave a very mature (or egotistical) interview.

Matt Albers actually was pretty good. He went the longest, finishing out the first then pitching the second and third. He only gave up 2 hits and no runs.

Bryan Shaw, who used to have a reputation for not sucking, came in for the 5th and gave up 3 runs. Of course, the Indians already had scored 14 of their own runs by now, so it wasn't that big of a deal - THIS TIME.

Cody Allen, who hasn't given up a run in a while, gave up a homer to score one of Shaw's guys and one of his own. Then he came back for the 6th and gave up another one. No!

Thankfully the Tribe got some more insurance runs in the 7th and 8th, giving Smith, Pestano and Perez a lead they couldn't blow. Not having any pressure to do well - they all did well. Smith gave up a walk and Pestano 2 hits, but that was it for the three of them.

And Chris Perez, back from the DL, had a 1-2-3 inning. I kid you not - Chris Perez had a 1-2-3 inning. When was the last time he did that? Well it was only May 17, 4 appearances ago, but he's only done it 5 times in 18 appearances this year. Here's to many more!

So everybody hit today in the first game! It's kind of inevitable when you get 19 runs. The team amassed 21 hits and 9 walks. They had 8 doubles, a triple and a homer. There were 12 2-out RBIs. Only one guy had a single-hit game, and only one guy didn't get any RBI.

The White Sox brought in a position player, Casper Wells, to pitch in the 9th. He's the only pitcher who didn't give up a run. Ha!

Reynolds was the only guy with one hit, but he did walk twice and come around to score twice. Asdrubal, back for his second game, didn't get any RBI but he did go 3 for 7!

Ryan Raburn made an appearance and got 4 RBI. Nick Swisher and Lonnie Chisenhall each got 2 hits. Drew Stubbs was batting leadoff and got 2 hits AND an outfield assist!

I'm not going to go over everyone's stuff - there's so many hits, it'd be boring! But I am going to talk about Jason Kipnis now.

He went 3 for 4 with 3 walks. His 3 hits were doubles and he got 2 RBI and 4 runs scored.

• Leads the team in runs
• Leads the team in hits
• Leads the team in doubles
• Leads the team in triples
• Leads the team in RBI
• Leads the team in stolen bases
• Leads the team in average (qualifiers)
• Leads the team in slugging (qualifiers)
• Leads the team in OBPS (qualifiers)

In the last 30 days, he's:

• Third in the league in hits
• Second in the league in doubles
• Tied for first in the league in RBI
• Tied for third in the league in stolen bases
• Second in the league in average
• Second in the league in OBP
• Second in the league in slugging
• Second in the league in OBPS

He also ripped his pants today and had a big Band-Aid on his arm, because he plays so darn hard. I've been waiting all year for the Kid to get good and he has not disappointed us! It is going to be SO exciting to watch him the rest of this season!!

That was a FUN 4 hours of baseball! Did anyone see all that coming after we were down 5-0 in the first? Not me! I thought it'd end up like 7-5 Indians or something. Not 19-10!!

After that was a rain delay I think. I honestly don't know, I fell asleep when there were 17 runs (it's been a long week). Good thing I got a nap in, though, because there was a lot more baseball to go!

The second game was crazy as well but in a totally different way. Carlos Carrasco was hot and cold, with a couple of 1-2-3 innings but ultimately he gave up 6 runs in just under 6 innings. But, he was totally a trooper about it, realizing that he absolutely had to stay as long as possible being that Bauer totally burnt through the bullpen. Six runs was enough, though - I'm glad they took him out when they did - even though it meant Oh No Not Rich Hill.

Carrasco actually only gave up 4 runs, and Hill gave up 2 more for him, because that's the kind of guy Rich Hill is. I wonder what his ERA would be if they gave him all of the earned runs that scored while he was on the mound? His ERA actually went DOWN today even though the score went UP by 2 when he was on the mount. Yes it did.

Matt Langwell came in and coughed and sputtered his way through the 8th. Baptism by fire, I guess. He gave up 2 more runs and generally didn't look good, having to throw 31 pitches.

However - the White Sox closer, who is very good, came in for the 9th and we had him throw 33 pitches, of which we scored 4 runs! That was just enough to win the game!

The Tribe had started off hot, no doubt carrying over the batting from the first game. They scored 4 runs in the first. But - that was it until the 6th, where they managed to score just one more. They finally got their second wind in that 9th and pulled it out. UNBELIEVEABLE!

They had just two prior 9th-inning wins this year, the second one coming just the other day in Baltimore. Now it seems to be becoming a "thing."

Michael Bourn had been sitting out the first game, and that was a good move because in the second game he was running his ass off out there in center. He caught a lot of stuff that regular-speed guys might have missed. Not only that but he went 3 for 5 on the night, scoring 2 runs and with 1 RBI.

Mark Reynolds was both a hero and a hindrance tonight. Hero because he hit a loooooong solo homer in the 6th to actually put us within 1 run. It was his first homer since June 15, by the way. But he also was a hindrance because in the 8th he got picked off when he shouldn't have and most likely would have scored the tying run. I dunno, he was trying too hard or something. Try less hard next time!

So, kind of ironically, I spent the morning reading 3 blog posts about how frustrating Nick Swisher is. My favorite, just for the title, was Red Right 88's "You're From Ohio? Don't Care!" Man, I wish I came up with that line hahaha There was also the more pleasant post on Waiting For Next Year, and one by England Tribe who doesn't have to see Swisher's face as much since he's not here.

Anyway I was all hot and bothered and commenting and Tweeting "Yeah! Eff Swisher!" and what does he do today? He goes 2 for 4 in the first game, then in the second game he flashes some leather and ultimately wins the dang thing on a 9th inning homer. I hope he was at least as surprised as we were!

The comeback does owe a lot to the whole lineup. Seven guys batted in that 9th inning, and they got 3 runs to tie it before Swisher sealed the deal. Raburn led it off with a single, then Asdrubal - pinch hitting for Stubbs - followed it up with a right-field single, advancing Raburn to third. Bourn got an RBI and moved Asdrubal to third, and then he scored on a wild pitch! Giambi - pinch hitting for Aviles, in his first appearance on the day - got Bourn to third and then Kipnis sacrificed him home. All that set up, and ready to go to the 9th inning all tied up after Swisher struck out and -

Come on, now...

Hey! He didn't strike out! Nor did he pop out, ground out or anything. Home run. Yay Swisher. Now, do that more.

Pretty good stuff to start off a road trip 5-1, wouldn't you say? We're already halfway done and are guaranteed to be .500 or better!

Tomorrow (uh, well in 12.5 hours) we face the White Sox again and I can't wait to bang those guys around some more. It'll be Ubaldo versus RHP 4.57 which is almost exactly the same ERA as Ubaldo's. Hopefully the White Sox are just as tired as our team is and it'll be another fun matchup where we score a ton of runs.

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"This game so far has been like your neighborhood little league game. No one is involved but the pitcher and the batters."
- Tom Hamilton

"If Trevor Bauer can't learn to control his fastball he'll never pitch at the big league level."
- Tom Hamilton

"well if there was a nightmarish scenario going in to this double header - this is it."
- Tom Hamilton on the first inning

"If Bauer makes another mistake here it'll be 8-nothing and you can go cut the grass."
- Tom Hamilton

"Viciedo looked like he was carrying the Stanley Cup under one arm as he chugged towards the line in left."
- Tom Hamilton

"On the day when they score 5 runs in the first inning, the best pitching staff in the American League at home gives it up in the second inning."
- Tom Hamilton

"Those who are not wearing shirts have Stanley Cups painted on their chests, and can hardly stand."
- Tom Hamilton on spotting the Stanley Cup parade revelers

"Wherever the Indians play nowadays, rain is falling."
- Tom Hamilton

"When you have 28 hits and 12 walks all of a sudden you have a ballgame that's a marathon."
- Tom Hamilton

Colón Blow

I totally didn't expect this today, did you? With the way they've been struggling for runs against the A's, and Colón having a good last start, I didn't expect them to win (50/50 chance), let alone score NINE runs - six of 'em off Colón!

But that's totally what happened! One thing we totally did see coming was three homers, right?

So that's uhm...I've lost count here. Winning 10 of our last 11, a 4-game sweep, 4 in a row won, and now we're up to 5-5 on day games! Sorry, no tally for Meryl Masterson - she's just the sweetie of the night game. Edit: I also just remembered - this is the 5th of 6 Cy Young Award winners we've beaten this year (R.A. Dickey, Roy Halladay, David Price, Cliff Lee, Bartolo Colón. The only one who beat us was Jake Peavey.)

How about that Scott Kazmir, huh? He's 2 and 1 now, going a full 6 innings today for a quality start and striking out TEN in the process. Wow, man - he was just merciless today, with everything in the low 90s except when he threw a changeup or slider that probably looked like it was traveling backwards at 80 MPH.

How do you feel about starting pitching now? I think it's very, very surprisingly good! I hope they are able to keep this up all season!

Matt Albers came in for the 7th and he didn't look as hot. He started off looking good, striking out the first two, walking a guy then getting a ground out. But they brought him back for the 8th and he was sort of bewildered. A walk, two singles, a run scored and then another walk before Albers was excused. Huh.

Cody Allen came in to get all 3 outs to end the 8th, two strikeouts and a ground out. Scott Barnes was given a shot to finish it out. How'd it go? It went well! Barnes got 2 outs, then a walk then finished it off himself by catching a line drive. Ballgame!

Cousin Michael is back over .300 again! Today he went 2 for 5, including a leadoff single which I think really set the tone for the game.

After Brantley was Kipnis who put his first at-bat in to outer space with a homer! Yeah Kip! He got the first 2 RBI for the team, and then came around again in the 2nd inning to hit a sac fly and get his 3rd RBI. That's 11 RBI for the kid in his last 10 games. That's exactly what we need from our #2 hitter!

Asdrubal hasn't been looking so swell at the plate again. Not sure what's up with that. Today he did get a double, though, going 1 for 3. They took him out in the later innings because we were up by so much and Aviles didn't do anything either.

Swisher, on the other hand, is having fun launching balls on this homestand! He went 1 for 3 today with a homer and that's his 3rd home run in 6 games!

Jason Giambi is having fun playing his old team. Yesterday he got the 2 hits and today he got an RBI single to score Cabrera after his double. So that's 3 hits and 3 RBI for him in just 2 games!

Mark Reynolds made sure that no one noticed Santana was out today. Dude got his league-leading 11th home run today, and it was for 2 RBI. He also came around to score earlier in the game after a leadoff double in the 2nd. I dunno what goes on in Cleveland that is making him so much better than before, but this guy is just all over the place for us. He's hungry like the wolf!

The Chiz Kid quietly got some stuff done today. He hit a towering fly out in his first time up, almost over the wall but not quite. Then his next at-bat he got a single. Later on he reached on a throwing error, because he's super fast. You forget that he's super fast!

Yan "Yanimal" Gomes of course got a hit today. He didn't throw anyone out, though. He got an RBI double to start off the scoring in that 3-run 2nd inning, then reached third on a throwing error, and came around to score on Stubbs' single that followed.

Stubbs is getting back up there, now hitting .264 after going 2 for 4 today. He seems pretty comfortable in center field, too. I bet Swisher will be happy to have Bourn back in center and Stubbs in right, though. If Swish is doing this well at bat all "tired out" from right field, though, imagine how he'll do while rested!

Bourn is supposed to be back for the upcoming Detroit series, at least on the bench. So you'll have a bench with Bourn, Aviles, Gomes and Giambi - not bad! 

I'm really excited about and impressed by the team's hitting today. It wasn't just homers (although they had that!) and it wasn't just errors. Clutch hitting and doubles, and getting on base. Any little thing we can take in to Detroit is going to help, and the momentum of a game where "Everybody Hits!" is hopefully going to take them far this weekend.

And of course, the luck of Meryl!

Is it really luck at this point?

Tomorrow night is Corey Kluber versus RHP 3.43. Surely a RHP we had no problem rolling over in 2012. I can't wait to see what this lineup does to the Motor City Kitties!

7:08 start (seriously) See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Colon is listed at 5'11", 267 pounds. That was a couple of cheeseburgers ago."
- Tom Hamilton

"Day baseball still works."
- Tom Hamilton

"When you think sports at Duke University you probably think of Mike Krzyzewski. When you see their baseball facility...you continue to think of Mike Krzyzewski."
- Tom Hamilton says Duke has an awful baseball facility

"Here's a question - if it is Bauer starting the second game, will he have time to do his extensive warm up routine between games? It takes about 45 minutes."
"That's a good question. [...] Unless he's out on 9th street throwing down to 12th street."
- Jim Rosenhaus and Tom Hamilton

"Last year the Oakland A's were baseball's Cinderella story. [...] This year, too many bunions - the slipper doesn't fit."
- Tom Hamilton

"Everybody needs to take a chill pill and focus on the people who are here and not those who aren't coming."
- Tom Hamilton

B-Squad Beauty

Man, I knew today was going to be an awesome game! Just about as much baseball as we had in Saturday and Sunday's games but with our team coming out ahead. Thirteen runs, 21 hits, and guess what? Only 4 of those hits were for extra bases. Wow!

Our B-Squad was out in full force today. Hannahan is out for real now, and it's not his back. So they brought up Lonnie Chisenhall to fill the gap (because Jason Donald is not so good). So once they came to their senses and took Damon out, we only had 4 "original" players in the lineup. In fact, it went so far as to have our C-Squad catcher start today.

But it wasn't bad at all! In fast,  thanks to Aaron Cunningham coming in for Johnny Damon, Everybody Hits today!

Josh Tomlin was back for the first time in 3 weeks and he didn't miss one beat. In three of his six starts, he had given up 4 earned runs (and fewer in the other 3). How many did he give up today? 4. He struck out an average of 4.5 per game in his first six starts. How many did he strike out today? 4. He walked 2 guys in each of his last 3 starts. How many did he walk today? 2. Little guy is totally predictable and compared to some of our other starters, that's a welcome trait!

The bullpen was on it today, too. We were treated to the full "A-Squad" there - Hagadone, Smith, Pestano, Perez. They took care of the final 4 innings for Josh and struck out 4. They did give up 3 hits and 1 run but whatever. Our bats had it goin on.

Perez, who had 25k on their feet today, got so excited he almost did a faceplant to go along with his inverted fist pump. Says @ChrisPerez54 "Word is they caught that sniper that tried to take me out...Great win today..Our offense was great." His alter ego, @PureRage_Perez said "Good thing no one got in the way of that fist pump. Would have caused decapitation."

Perez also said in an after-game interview "With all that crap I've been talking I've got to back it up." Yeah buddy!

So who was in our lineup today? CHOOOO was in our lineup today! Leading the charge of the youngsters by going 1 for 4 with a walk, and of course scoring a run.

Cousin Michael Brantley is now in the 2-spot and he's got a 7-game hitting streak. Did you notice? I'd give him 7 smileys for that but that's pretty lame even for me. We'll give him one and make it out of a seven. :-7 Anyway, he went 1 for 3 with a walk and TWO runs. And a stolen base. And an RBI. This is the Michael Brantley I was looking forward to seeing this year. If he needs to be hidden in the 2-spot to get it done then good, let's put him there.

Shining in the 3-spot is Jason Kipnis who cannot be stopped! Except for when he was stopped last week but now he cannot be stopped! He went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI and 2 runs and a stolen base. Did you realize he leads the team in steals? You'd think it'd be Brantley (8) or Choo (7). Nope, it's Kipnis - who even after a little slump (more like a dip) is also leading in hits, runs, homers and RBI. He's also second to Asdrubal in average and if he keeps it up he'll be over .300 by the end of the week, too. I am fully prepared to worship this man this summer. I might even treat myself to a "We Are All Kipnises" t-shirt. Can we work on the Katniss meme a bit too? No?

Lopez was hitting cleanup today. He was in for Hannahan, who came back for a game, so they moved Lopez to DH. But then Hannahan actually did hurt himself (calf) so Lopez is back at 3rd. Clearly not Supermanahan on the field but passable, but he is excelling at the plate. He's got 11 hits in his last 10 games and went 2 for 4 today! Those 2 hits yielded 3 RBI, even! He did make a baserunning blunder, again, I guess. He tried to extend a hit to a double after hitting it to Alex Gordon, which you don't really do. He's (Gordon) like Choo in that regard. But he did get a RBI before getting out. Then later on he got to first on an error and a run scored so it's all good in the hood for LOPEZ!

Kotchman, who hits fifth, is the only other original or "A-Squad" guy in the final lineup today. And, being that he's old reliable Casey Kotchman, he got a hit today and went 1 for 4. He even went so far as to give us an RBI!

And that is all for guys with major league careers. But even then, heck - Hammy pointed out today that Kipnis doesn't even have 90 MLB games (84) under his belt!

Oh yeah there was Johnny Damon but cooler heads prevailed and Aaron Cunningham with his 40-points-higher .192 average came in to bat in the 7th and got a single.

Batting 7th was your favorite and mine - Lonnie Chisenhall! Chosen-hall? Chisen-halelujah? Chisen-hell-yeah? Three pitches in to his first at-bat and he hits a homer!!!! How cool is that? I actually had been listening to the game with a house full of people and everyone but me stepped outside the moment that it happened. I thought maybe I had imagined it, so I had to text my friend to confirmed. He said it was cool and he was "really pumped" to hear Chisenhall was in the lineup. Yeah me too! He's hitting .324 in the minors and doesn't have any "never been in the Bigs  before" hurdles to get over so let's hope he's IN!

Luke Carlin is our 3rd string catcher. I was really interested in what this guy was all about. Records say he's 31 and has been in the minors since 2002. He has always been with Cleveland and even did a few (6) games with us in 2010. He's also got a mohawk brewin':

Well so far since coming in to last night's game he's gone 3 for 6, or 2 for 4 today, with a run. Better than Lou? Well I don't know about that just yet. Acta says Sweet Lou is back tomorrow - he had to get stitches in his mouth (!!!) after being hit yesterday. But I bet we see some more Luke this summer!

Rounding out the 9 today was Juan Diaz at short. He's no Asdrubal but he's not a complete disappointment like maybe some other acquisitions made this year have been. Diaz was not an acquisition this year but you know what I mean. He in fact came from AA Akron just to cover for Asdrubal! What an honor. He wasn't even hitting that well in Akron, just .232. I wonder who our SS is in Colum...Oh, Jason Donald. Ok.

So I wonder how long these Wunderkinds can keep it up? It's been a fun few games with them doing a great job keeping our minds off the loss of Hafner, Cabrera, Santana and Hannahan. I was pretty spot-on when I mused to my friends last Wednesday at the Tigers' game before Johnny Damon popped out that "there are a hundred kids in the minors right now who could get a hit in this situation but we have to put up with Johnny Damon." How is it, though, that we have 5 kids from the minors - one from AA ball even - actively playing on our team and scoring runs, and we still have Johnny Damon?

I should start a second blog for those thoughts. The Frustrated Tribe.

Anyway, tomorrow is going to be even more awesome because it's Masterson versus some kid making his second start with an ERA of over 13. Everyone that is left is loose and having fun, just getting around the bases and making runs out of whatever they can.

It's a 7:05 start. Can't wait! See you there!

PS: Hope you all did some memorializing on this Memorial Day. Don't forget - 

Radio Chatter:

"So much for pressing. He may have been in spring training, but he looked pretty relaxed right there."
- Tom Hamilton on Lonnie Chisenhall's homer

"Tom Hamilton with the South Pole Elf on this Memorial Day. He's an angry elf."
- Tom Hamilton is making fun of Jim Rosenhaus for some untold reason

"I wonder if the first thing ownership said to Jack Zduriencik is 'Never make another trade with the Cleveland Indians.'"
- Tom Hamilton on the acquisition of Juan Diaz and Ezequiel Carerra from Seattle

"He was not a free agent per se, but the Twins said 'You are now!'"
- Tom Hamilton on Minnesota getting rid of Jose Mijares

"Perez is a strike-throwing machine. It seems like he's never pitching from behing the batter."
- Tom Hamilton

Brought to you by Instagram

Did anyone notice that it looked as if the camera shot from the outfield, both yesterday and today, was brought to you by Instagram? Seriously, it was like this. Like someone put some sort of retro hipster filter over the camera. But it turns out they have the main outfield camera bay over the outfield fountains and - surprise - it was windy in KC this weekend so the cameras were constantly being sprayed with water. Not sure what that's all about - can anyone in KC tell us whether or not this is a usual occurrence? Why would they set it up that way?

Sorry for the late post. Most of my posts have come quite late this season but also all but one of the games has come at a weird (non-7:05) time. So I have to listen to the game and then get stuff done before I have time to sit down. That and a big Sunday win has left me energized and wanting to do stuff! If you recall most of last year's Sunday games were snoozers and losers. But today's game with all of its runs ... instead of making me want to take a nap, I did a bunch of stuff. I just now got done doing stuff!

I did stuff like clean the kitchen, mow the lawn, do laundry. I also went to pick up food at B Spot and stopped at Trader Joe's, where I spotted a Melt tattoo in the wild. I'd never seen one of them before! I felt so very Cleveland, especially wearing my #13 Cabrera t-shirt. A couple of the workers stopped me to ask about the game and I was excited to be able to say that we won. Although I was a little disappointed in both of them as one guy asked where I got an "old-school Melky shirt" and the other said "too bad it's not 1995!" I guess, though, it was still all very Cleveland of them.


Going back to yesterday's game for a moment - here's a nice montage that the Tom Hamilton Has The Best Home Run Call in Baseball Facebook page put together of yesterday's scuffles. Great job!

Ok so today's game. Ubaldo was being all Fausto (anyone can be Fausto, it seems) and randomly sucking after a great previous game. Sucking badly. No command, just throwing things. He gave up 9 hits and 4 earned runs in 5 innings. He did show his professionalism by getting himself out of some jams and not just giving up 15 runs like Fausto might have done.

I can't remember off the top of my head what Fausto's real name is and I keep wanting to call him Robert California. But he's not Robert California, this guy is.

Jiminez did strike out 5. So there's that.

After Jiminez was the bullpen (NOT THE BULLPEN!) and they did all right for themselves.

No, just kidding. They gave up 3 more runs. But we were winning by like 10 the whole game or something so it was ok.

Dan Wheeler, who is new (but older than me so really, old) was good. And Tony Sipp was NOT BAD - brought that 18 ERA down to 13.5! Raffy Perez and Asencio gave up those 3 runs so whatever.

At least we didn't have to bring in our center fielder to pitch like the Royals did. Both teams had used-up bullpens but apparently the Royals weren't interested in using theirs any more in the 9th. So they brought in Match Maier and he now has a better ERA than most of our pen.

Let's get on to the WINNING, shall we?

I think we had our best hits/LOB ratio today with 15 hits, 7 walks and only 7 LOB. People just kept getting on and then getting in.

Brantley is officially "back" and "hot." He went 3 for 6 today and now his average is a resuscitate-able .206. He got a double, he got 2 RBI,  and he was there for when Asdrubal wanted to get hits with him. In fact he hustled his ass off in the 3rd inning and got on base by a step, then we went on to score 6 runs with 2 outs because MICHAEL BRANTLEY ROCKS YOUR FACE!

'Droobs only went 1/5 today and so did the Choo, but Choo got another 2-run double (batting in our heroes Brantley and Cabrera!) and also did not get hit by any balls or start any fights. Progress!

Hafner was the DH today and he was jonesin' to get in on this hit train because dude went 3 for 4 with an RBI and a homer and 2 runs scored. So wonderful to see him out there hitting, not just Thome-ing it trying to get a homer or nothing. He got 2 singles and a walk alongside his homer - that's amazingfruit for a DH!

Shelley Duncaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!! Dude was lights out in the field, lights out at the plate. He went 1 for 3 with THREE walks. The other team has his number now no doubt. "This guy he hits homers!" And then he hit a homer! And then they walked him a bunch. He was so hot that they put Cunningham in for Choo instead of Duncan.

Casey Kotchman, who got a homer and a stolen base yesterday got a homer and a stolen base today. Kotchman has a total of 11 stolen bases in the Majors from 2004 to 2011. Now in 7 games with the Tribe he's got TWO! As for homers, he went between 7 and 14 in all his previous years, so having 2 already for us is also fantastic. Let's hope he keeps this up and perhaps we'll never speak of Matt LaPorta again.

Jason Kipnis was the last guy to make it to our Everybody Hits playground today. Although he did walk in that big 6-run 3rd inning so that was something. What was REALLY something was his 3rd home run of the year in the 8th inning, going back-to-back with Kotchman. On the first pitch too. On the radio side Hamilton hardly had a second to stop praising Kotchman and on the TV side Rick Manning was so caught up in everything he called the dude Choo.

I decided we must start something comparing Kipnis to Katniss (the main character in the current hit movie-book The Hunger Games) but I couldn't really come up with anything, not being familiar with The Hunger Games. But I know she is an archer (NPR tells me that archery is very popular now because of the movie!) and I know Kipnis holds his bat flat, so how about this?

They follow the same lines? Ugh, I suck at starting exciting trends.

Jack Hannahan was in the game today and got a hit. He also did not commit any errors (seriously - how does Jack Hannahan already have 5 errors?! WHAT IS GOING ON?!) He also did not try to beat anyone up so that is good.

Sweet Lou did not get to throw anyone out today. He also probably thinks Jiminez sucks pretty bad. He did get a hit which was an RBI double and then he himself came around to score so I think that's a pretty kickass day for Lou!


So today we got 15 hits, 7 walks and 13 runs. Four home runs and three doubles. Do you want to see who leads the league the majors in walks? Here I show you:

You might also be interested to see who is tied for first in the Majors with home runs. And see who we're tied with.

If you have a short memory that is the 2011 AL Champion Rangers and the 2011 World Champion Cardinals and the 2012 Cleveland Indians tied for first in home runs.

So now we're at .500, we're leading the league in walks and homers and we just swept a series. Travis Hafner hit a home run that was the first home run to end up in the restaurant at Kaufman Stadium. We set a franchise record with 8 runs scored in each of our first 3 away games. There was also some other record about winning the first 3 away games I believe, but Bart Swain is so fast in getting new crazy statistics out there that I can't always remember each of them.

We're starting to have real fun now, not just the sort of fun I have when I'm home alone with the radio (heynow!) I mean fun that everyone can share about the Indians, not just the negative nellies. Hits! Runs! Scores! Fights! They have it all!

They won't be having it all in Cleveland for 10 more days. In the meantime we're going to have to put up with 10:05 starts from the west coast. Last year we had a pretty amazing west coast trip, getting some wins or at least working real hard against some at-the-time fantastic teams. Let's hope we do it again!

Next game isn't until Tuesday night, 10:10 against the Mariners. Hope you had a nice weekend and see you then!

Radio Chatter:
"It's like he and Lou Marson met each other 30 seconds before the game."
- Tom Hamilton on Jiminez seemingly not getting Marson's calls

"At least this weekend will quiet the critics."

- Tom Hamilton

"Ubaldo Jiminez is not missing any bats today."

- Tom Hamilton

"The royal fans, Rosie, their patience has worn thin. And it's only their first home stand."

- Tom Hamilton

"I forgot were in Kansas city. Eric Hosmer has been given a double. Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus and he is the official scorer."

- Tom Hamilton

"...hell go to second on I difference. But knowing this scorekeeper it's probably three stolen bases." 

- Tom Hamilton

Thugs and Thumps

What's with all the hitting and the fighting, boys? On the one hand it makes me feel bad, like as a team we're like a frustrated pre-teen and are acting out because it's the only way we know how. On the other hand - I love a good fight. Apparently, so does Jack Hannahan!

Not cool when we lose our pitcher (who we shouldn't have lost) and our prize third-baseman due to fighting. Lucky for us we had another starter sitting around needing to have some work today in his schedule anyway. Luck o' the Irish, eh Jack?!

Jeanmar Gomez was doing ok, whatever, when he left. He did his thing tho and hit a guy after Choo got hit in the third (he was sent over the edge because the pitcher was the same who broke his hand thus breaking his season in 2011). There's some confusion over whether or not the benches were warned but Gomez was ejected the second he hit Moustakas in the back to lead off the bottom of the 3rd. Tom Hamilton is all pro-beaning now so high-fives all around for Gomez. Acta got tossed too and we got to see Sandy Alomar's managerial skills!

Josh Tomlin was just hanging around in the bullpen, tending to his facial hair, when they were called to finish the 3rd and do some long relief. But he didn't do too good. Neither did his un-facial-haired buddies that relieved after him. It took the scruffy Asencio and the "Brawny" Chris Perez to close it out and hold down the fort while the hitters tried their best to overcome extra innings. Again.

I was all excited yesterday for our stunning hitting but I knew it could possibly be a fluke. Also while it was exciting it was really just one inning. Today we added on to that idea by having not only one exciting scoring inning, but three more innings in which we scored.

All in all we got 14 hits, 11 runs, 6 walks, 2 homers, a triple and 4 doubles. Everybody hit tonight! THAT is some exciting baseball! Now, the Royals might have a rickety starting rotation and a too-big outfield but whatever it took for us to get some juice in our bats, now was the time for it to come.

Michael Brantley got a hit tonight, adding on to his out-of-slumpness from yesterday. He got himself a triple! This of course excited/ignited Asdrubal who promptly smacked Brantley in, starting off a 5-run streak for us in the 3rd. Asdrubal went on to get 2 more hits and raised his batting average back to "OMG!" levels.

Choo actually had a rough night, with being hit and then the fight. He was being "not Choo'd but boo'd" during his at-bats. But guess who won the game with his first hit of the night, a 2-run double in the 10th? Well it was CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Santana was nice and patient at the plate today. He ended up going 2 for 4 with 2 walks and 2 RBI.

Duncan - hitting over .300 - was platooned with Cunningham. Shelley went 1 for 3. Cunningham struck out.  So there's that.

This is awful (for me) but I couldn't help but think of this Kids in the Hall sketch any time Lopez was up to bat tonight. Which is strange because 1) Lopez is a very common name in baseball with 5 current players 2) I didn't think of this a month ago when we got the guy. But you should watch the sketch and then we can start "a thing" and maybe it will be funny. Or if nothing else you'll at least share my pain. LOPEZ!

Get it? The sketch actually goes on longer, in 4 parts. Anyway, our Jose Lopez did more of what we brought him along to do and that is to hit. He's appeared twice and gotten two hits. LOPEZ!

You know who hit homers today? It was not Asdrubal or Santana. It was Kotchman and Kipnis. And you know who stole a base? Kotchman. I think Kotchman is going to be our new Casey Blake. Except good in the field. People who casually follow the Tribe will be all "Who is that guy? I like him" and we'll all nod in agreement.

Kipnis and Donald both got 2 hits tonight (as I mentioned, Kipnis homered) which is good because they always are cringe-y parts of the lineup for me. But on a day when Everybody Hits and Jack Hannahan is in the penalty box, well Everybody must include those boys.

Today's game was fun. I mean every game is fun when you're delusional like me but it was nice that our bats can now counter-act our bipolar bullpen. It was good hitting too, extra bases and stuff.

One thing we haven't mentioned but Acta has hit upon is even though the team is (was) not getting hits, we do lead the league in walks right now. So there is patience and choosiness. Now it's just a matter of properly executing a swing when the right pitch comes down the pike.

Tomorrow is 2:10 and once again on WKYC. Cool! I wonder who will get beaned? I wonder how big on an inning we can have? I hope Travis Hafner plays and I hope Brantley stays "hot"! Whatever happens I'm pretty sure it'll be another fun one. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"The Giants weren't going to trade you Tim Lincecum or Matt Cain. They'd give you Barry Zito but nobody wants him."
- Tom Hamilton

"I'm sure the relief pitchers are 'Oh for the love of pete...' [...] They are walking back like Sean Penn in Dead Man Walking."
- Tom Hamilton after the bench-clearing fight in the 3rd

"Little Timmy Collins is up throwing. I say 'little' because he's little."
- Tom Hamilton

"My lord is there a full moon tonight or what?"
- Tom Hamilton

"He's in agony but... Suck it up let's go. The Royals have had plenty of drama tonight but haven't paid the price."
- Tom Hamilton

"CASEY KOTCHMAN has a stolen base for the Indians! Something you would not have bet the mortgage on."
- Tom Hamilton

"The way this game is going, expect the unexpected. It's been a wacky wacky night."
- Tom Hammilton

"[The Royals] have played shallow all night long and they have gotten burned all night long."
- Tom Hamilton

"Suddenly Kauffman Stadium sounds like a Sunday morning cathedral."
- Tom Hamilton after Choo's tie-breaking double

"Boy Jason Donald has put the drama back onto the throw from third."
- Tom Hamilton

Everybody Hits!

I'm serious! Against a team that has beaten up on us for our last 8 meetings and each one of our guys ended up getting a hit tonight. Not only just the 9 but also pinch hitter Cord Phelps. In fact if their lineup wasn't so mind-blowingly awesome right now, we would have totally had a chance to win it!


In fact, had Gomez not given up 4 runs worth of homers - victory would have been ours!

Jeanmar Gomez really got schooled tonight, which is good for a young guy to experience. Perhaps a better experience if he did not give up 8 runs in 4 2/3 but ... he did strike out 5.

Durbin finished off the 5th and gave up a 9th run, then Hagadone and Putnam got some man-work done out there and had 2 scoreless innings between them. They have fresh arms for sure but all of the new guys seem to be shaping up all right. The three relievers struck out 5 together, so that's cool.

Fukudome lead off again and he went 1 for 5. He was red hot for a minute there but has been "slumping" lately. Kipnis and Santana also went 1 for 5.

Oh yeah, even though we went through a good portion of Detroit's bullpen - as a team they struck us out 13 times. Ouch!

Thome had a hot night tonight. Yeah he did! He ended up going 2 for 3 with an RBI and 2 runs scored. Guess how many strikeouts? NONE STRIKEOUTS! And as I said above, his replacement legs Cord Phelps got himself a last-minute double and a RUN too.

Nice job, 4-hole!

Shelley Duncan had an RBI double, so now he's got 22 hits and 23 RBI in the month of September. That's in just 25 games. HOLY CRAP SHELLEY DUNCAN!

I know, right?!

He also got on base due to a fielding error AND had a sweet catch in the 6th. It pains me that it's not a highlight clip, though, because Tom Hamilton made it sound great.

Lonnie Chisenhall is workin' it some more, playing for that job no doubt. He went 2 for 5 with an RBI and a run giving him 11 hits in his last 10 games.

Jason Donald is also singing for his supper with another hit tonight, a sweet 2-run single in the 6th. Can hit in the clutch? Do it!

Zeke and Sweet Lou were also-rans tonight in the race for Everybody Hits! but dangit, they did their parts and got their hits. Lou also went the extra mile and caught a guy stealing.

Stayin' in the game, fan!

So let's see...not winning tonight means we won't end up over .500. Winning tomorrow means we'll be at .500. If we lose and Chicago wins we'll be tied for second.

A win would be really awesome tomorrow night. As it would EVERY night but especially tomorrow. Last game, a couple things at stake.

Zach McAllister, no pressure. Hahahaha....I hope we get to see Pure Rage tomorrow. And of course Joe Smith. I think they should each pitch 3 innings what do you think? Yeah!

Last game, folks. 7:05, pending the weather. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"The Indians have NO...absolutely NO answer for Miguel Cabrera."
- Tom Hamilton

"Right now, Bob Feller in his heyday might have problems with this Tiger lineup the way they're hitting."
- Tom Hamilton

"That is a home run in any other park in all of baseball. American League, National League...that was 420 feet!"
- Mike Hegan on Santana's long fly out in the 4th

"Thirty-one thousand sitting back wishing tomorrow were Friday and the Tigers were at home."
- Tom Hamilton

"The Indians ought to seriously consider walking him every time. Even if the bases are loaded."
- Tom Hamilton after Miguel Cabrera's homer in the 6th

Milestones

It's pretty fitting that a game that started with Jim Thome and Omar Vizquel hugging at home plate (after exchanging lineup cards) ended with both Travis Hafner and Asdrubal Cabrera reaching milestones and breaking records. The new face of the Tribe? Absolutely.

Hafner got his 1,000th career hit tonight. A double. He hit that right after Asdrubal hit his 25th homer of the season, the most ever for an Indians' shortstop. Asdrubal also has the most RBI for an Indians' shortstop since Lou Boudreau in 1948 with 96 (Boudreau had 106).

It was a milestone game for me tonight too. Sort of - it was my 10th game. I think my previous record was 6 unless we ended up going to more games than I thought in the 80s.

It was the second time in history that the Indians have had 2 home runs to start the game at home. Last time was 1971, 40 years ago.

It was Asdrubal's second 5-RBI game of the year and guess what? I was at both! My friend OMG was only at one, sadly.

I made a call to add another game to Everybody Hits over there. I added it with an asterisk. Because the only guy who didn't hit (Hannahan) got 2 walks and came around to score 2 runs. So it's my blog and I put it up there. In the tradition of baseball, I gave it an asterisk!

After all of that milestoneage, I decided to walk all the way up 5 floors of the parking garage to get to my car. First (and last) time for that! BAM!

Where was I? Special game indeed. Let's get to the stats!

Jeanmar Gomez? Awesome! He's gone 5 and 2 this year with a 3.52 ERA so far. Tonight he only gave up 1 earned run and struck out 3 in 6 innings. Perfect, perfect outing for any of our starters, let alone our newest! He has gone 5-0 in his last 5 starts and in those 5 starts has given up 5 runs. Think we'll see that guy next year??

Joe Smith came in to handle the 7th, which was great because by then we were only leading by 3. Your reliever with a 1.82 ERA is exactly the guy you want to see in that instance.

Once we were leading by 7, it was time for Putnam and Kluber to stretch their arms. Guess what? They did AWESOME, with Putnam going 1-2-3 and Kluber walking two but striking out one. BALLGAME!

If you didn't hear, the game started with 2 home runs. First Fukudome knocked one out on his 2nd pitch then Kipnis followed up with one of his own. Fukudome has more homers, more RBI and fewer strikeouts than he did with Chicago this year, in 30 more games!

Fuku (or as Acta says "Fuky") ended up going 2 for 4 with 3 RBI, a walk and 2 runs. He also looked great out in the field, catching a fly from Adam Dunn who is not slated to get any more hits this year.

Kipnis hasn't gotten a homer in FOREVER (since before he got hurt) so it was great to see him go yard. Although he hasn't had a homer, he has gotten 14 hits in the 12 games since he's been back!

Asdrubal, Asdrubal, Asdrubal. Did not let me down! I showed up with my sign and dragged it aaaaalll the way up to the upper deck (which, as it turns out, does not have cupholders or even a practical place to lean a sign) and the usher at the front of the section said "Oh, you know he's out for the rest of the year?" I told her no way, but then I hadn't heard any news.

Yeah so she came an apologized to me for her misinformation about the 3rd inning. Heh.

Tonight he went 3 for 5 with 5 RBI and 1 run. No strikeouts. Some nice field play - although nothing TOO crazy... you can tell he's being a bit conservative with his body out there. GREAT night for me to be out there with OMG but section 457, in the upper deck above the plate? Not particularly good for camera exposure. Oh well, I think my section appreciated it. A bit.


This is 3 homers in a row for Asdrubal, too, having homered Monday, Tuesday and now tonight. He also has 12 RBI in his last 4 games. I am sure there is some sort of stat about that that involves Venezueleans and short stops but I am no statistician!

Also mentioned above was Hafner's 1000th hit. I don't think I've ever been in the building when a guy hits a milestone. That was really special for me, to be able to cheer for him like that. I really wish you could see the ovation (and we had 21k fans out there tonight!) but alas, MLB.com does not see fit to share it with you.

Hafner, by the way, looked just ducky running around the bases in the 6th (he got on on an FC) so Dr. Me says "Foot all healed! Look out, 2012!"

Carlos Santana did not want to be left out, so he got a hit. But it turns out he did get left out because he didn't get any RBI or score any runs or even get extra bases. He does have 10 hits in his last 10 games including 3 homers so....THERE!

Grady Sizemore, he got a hit.

LaPorta was making me nervous about getting a hit but he came through in the 6th AND it was an RBI hit. Regardless of that, he was a MONSTER in the field tonight. Not sure why there are no highlight videos of his stuff but I guess he was just doing his job. I think he saved a few runs for sure and just looked TIGHT out there.

Jack Hannahan is the guy who didn't technically get a hit tonight. But like I said he walked twice and scored twice. Plus HE was a monster in the field tonight. Not only did he do a classic Hannahan bare-handed put-out from across the diamond, but he had another play where he flattened out on the line and stopped a ball from going through. He didn't get the batter at first but he still got a wild round of applause for that niceness!

Zeke was looking great tonight. He is so super-fast! He almost got a triple but Chicago whined about it and it ended up a ground-rule double. He also had a walk, a single and a stolen base, and came around to score every time he got out there! Zoom!

Such a great game tonight and I was so lucky to be there. It was reminiscent of the first game I went to with this very group of friends, exactly 4 months ago. On May 22 we saw Asdrubal get 5 RBI as we smacked the Reds 12-4. My friends and I also completely BAKED in the sun that day. Then I took them to a game in August where it poured rain and there was a 2-hour delay and then 14 innings of boring baseball. So this time I got the weather right AND the team had the bats going. So I'm hoping my friends will remember this all winter and want to go back next year!

We've got 4 games in 3 days against the Twins. It's gonna be AWESOME and we're gonna score tons of RUNS. Especially Asdrubal, and anyone else who wants to get in on the hit parade. And Shelley Duncan.

Speaking of which, I sent Shelley "his" picture tonight on Twitter. He was asking fans to sum up the season. I think that sums it up, don't you?

7:05 tomorrow night - see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Humber is the pure definition of a 6-inning guy."
- Tom Hamilton in the 6th, before we scored our 5-6-7 runs off Humber in the 6th and 7th

"You know what Ron Washington would say to that? 'That's the way baseball go.'"
- Jim Rosenhaus on the possible insanity that is the AL Wildcard

"It's an infield convention."
- Tom Hamilton in the 8th when there was a high pop-up above the pitcher's mound. Asdrubal took care of it.

"If the Mariners ever make another trade with the Indians, it may be after we're dead and gone."
- Tom Hamilton

"There was no drama when the month began for the Major League Baseball playoff races. None!"
- Tom Hamilton

"Any time you've got a shortstop with 25 homers and 90 RBI, look around and see how many shortstops there are that can do that."
- Tom Hamilton

Two Months of Sundays

The Indians haven't won on a Sunday since June 19 against the Pirates. If you didn't know, it didn't happen for us today either.

Although this is probably the most exciting Sunday game we've had since then. It's only the third time we scored 7 or more runs on a Sunday and the first time we've won or loss by 1 on a Sunday. The game was so riveting I even stayed awake for the entire thing. That's not usual for me on a Sunday.

Ubaldo, Ubaldo, Ubaldo. What is up, bro? Eight earned runs in 3 1/3? Just not cool. Good on you for manning up and coming out again in the 4th (only to give up one more run) but this team right now CANNOT handle a 7-run inning.

Good thing you had Joe Smith saying "yeah sure I can try to pitch a bunch of innings" and then going 2 2/3 scoreless. And then Vinnie and Sipp! to close the barn doors.

Today's comeback was probably our best since the opening day comeback where we also didn't win but scored a lot of runs despite our pitcher. It's an Everybody Hits day! Not bad - we've had 3 such days in the month of August after having none in July!

Brantley wasn't his usual self today, and only got one hit, but it was the biggest, baddest, best 2-run double I have ever seen. It spectacularly put us just 4 runs behind instead of 7 and all of a sudden the game looked reachable.

After the pitcher left, CHOOOO! singled and got Brantley to 3rd, extending his current hitting streak to 6. He's now got 12 hits in the 8 games since he's been back (today he went 2 for 5). AND, as they astutely pointed out on the radio, no doubt saved us a run or two just by being a threat in the outfield.

Today was definitely not Asdrubal's day, even though he went 2 for 3, walked twice and scored a run. He also snapped a little hitless streak for the weekend. In the second inning, Asdrubal hit a monster fly ball that he watched go foul. Well he sort of skipped a little down the base line and tried to "turn it" with his body. That obviously didn't help. It sure did piss of Rick Porcello, tho, who proceeded to throw a 92 MPH fastball at Asdrubal's butt.

Asdrubal didn't get hit but after a bit of conversation, both benches were warned. That's peachy keen, ump, but why the warning with no ejection? Hmmmmm?

Well actually it ended up ok because we totally have Porcello's number lately and in the next inning we got him for 5 runs.

However, later in the game something else didn't go right for Asdrubal. In the 4th inning, Austin Jackson went to steal second and Sweet Lou threw an absolutely perfect throw to get him out. And Jackson was clearly out on the replay - Asdrubal's glove, with the ball in it, was between Jackson's foot and the bag. But Jackson was called safe and stayed safe. Then he came around to score. And we lost by one run so...yeah.

Travis Hafner was not lookin' so good today. He hit himself twice in the foot while batting. When he finally did get on base late in the game, something went wrong in his foot/leg and he got tagged out between first and second, then hobbled to the dugout. Doesn't look good for ol' Pronk, no sir. I guess his foot/leg has been bothering him all year and today it...came to a head?

I was a little steamed when Lonnie Chisenhall came in for Hafner, being that Duncan had come up. But it turns out Shelley Duncan had a family emergency today and couldn't be in the game. Whew. Sucks for Shelley, hope it works out...anyway it made me GLAD to see Chisenhall and not VALBUENA. I think we really could have used Shelley today, tho.

Santana also extended his hitting streak to 6, going 1 for 4 with 2 walks and a big solo homer to start that awesome 4th inning. Although we really could have used him not striking out twice.

Both Fukudome and Jason Donald went 2 for 4 today, scoring runs and being an integral part of the order. Hannahan and Marson each went 1 for 3 as well, both with a walk, an RBI and a run scored. Nice stuff from the bottom, there.

Sweet Lou, who will hit when you let him, dammit, was replaced by LaPorta in the 9th and hit into a double play. I wonder if Lou said "SEE?!"

So the offense was actually quite good today, forcing the Detroit starter out after 4 2/3 and causing Leyland to bring in SIX relievers. If nothing else, we showed him that yeah you probably did need to pitch Verlander against us today. WUT WUT!

Defense was good as well, with some nice catches in the outfield and two double plays. Everything had a playoff vibe to it. And sitting there watching, the blood totally drained from my face as the 9th inning played out. It coulda happened...but it didn't.

So now we've got 4 at home against the Mariners who stiiiiiiink. Gotta kill that series, really. No reason not to, right?

We'll see you Monday at 7:05 and then Tuesday for two! Bring it on!

Radio Chatter:
"You can't win if the middle of the order is not producing."
- Tom Hamilton

"What a joke"
- Tom Hamilton's reaction to the benches being warned but Porcello not being ejected after throwing at Asdrubal

"Jiminez has taken the Indians out of this game in the blink of an eye."
- Tom Hamilton

"The natives here at Comerica park are getting restless."
- Mike Hegan after the Indians scored 5 to make it a 5-7 game

"That's a mile and a half away from home plate."
- Jim Rosenhaus on Victor Martinez's pop fly in 5th

"I wonder if Jim leyland feels this game slipping away?"
- Tom Hamilton


"This is a ballgame you've got to tie in order to win it."
- Mike Hegan


"It hit him in the back and Donald never been happier."
- Tom Hamilton after Jason Donald got hit on an 0-2 count

Can I Get a Kipnis?

Did you see what I did there? Don't forget "We Are All Kipnesses"!

After last night's epic snoozefest-win, today's game was all full of awesomess!

First there was Ubaldo Jiminez, who kicked ass and took names the first 3 innings, faltered a bit in the 4th and then ended up going EIGHT innings for us, totally saving the bullpen. Six strikeouts, only one walk and just those 3 hits. He was totally an ace and I can't wait to see him again!

Our new hero Frank Hermann came in to throw 9 goddamn pitches and shut 'em down in the 9th. Wahoo!!!

So, pitching rocked for the second night in a row. What of batting?

What of batting?!

First did you notice ---> Everybody Hits! Hell yeah! I was actually considering switching up the sidebar with something more abundant, such as "walk-off wins" (9 I think it is?) but now I am convinced there will be a lot more before the end of the season and we'll have smiley stars for everyone.

Not only did everyone hit but we got a season-high-tie 7 doubles tonight!

Zeke led off tonight and he got one of those doubles. A surprise bit of power off the right field wall. It was an RBI double and then he also came around to score...

...On Kipnis's 6th home run, which was his second hit of 5 for the night. Dude got a double, a homer and 3 singles. Three RBI and he scored 4 runs! He matches Asdrubal this year in 5-hit games and is the first Indian rookie to do it since 1952.

Wahoo again! I didn't know we had this big bat in the minors, or that he would accelerate so fast. Did you?

Asdrubal went 1 for 3 and got hit by a pitch. Then he left the game! Because he was gimpy where he got hit in the foot. But I'm pretty sure he's just going to ice it and be back tomorrow. Luckilly we could totally afford to lose him for a few innings tonight and replace him with Jason Donald.

Hafner went 2 for 4 with an RBI. His average is creeping back up to .300, sitting right now at .297. He got to leave a little early, too, and was replaced by LaPorta.

Santana was pretty sweet tonight, at the plate at least. He went 2 for 5 with a double, RBI and 2 runs scored. He wasn't so hot in the field, again, but at least he wasn't bumbling behind the plate.

Fukudome! Obviously got the elbow-nick of his career last night because he was absolutely on fire tonight. He went 3 for 5 with TWO doubles and an RBI. Hot stuff!

Oh man - Shelley Duncan! So glad he's still here, but only because he's not embarrassing me. He's being good! He was our last to get the "Everybody Hits" tonight but he pulled it out in the 6th with an RBI single! And he didn't get charged with an error when he missed a ball in the outfield. Go Dunc Tank!

Chisenhall, another sprout with a double (all 3 of them got a double tonight, actually) and a multi-hit night going 2 for 4 with a run scored!

And last but not least....Sweet Lou. Back behind the plate where we want him, hitting .222, and he broke an 0-for-19 slide by hitting a double and then scoring a run. Woooooooo Looooouuuu!!!

So we got 18 hits and only 8 LOB. HOLY COW!

Now, if we can keep up this hitting craziness and Good Fausto shows up, we have a fighting chance against Verlander tomorrow. YOU HEARD ME!

The Tribe has won 13 in a row against the Tigers in Cleveland. Why should that change tomorrow?

Such a big game tho. We'll either be 1 behind them or 3 after tomorrow. I am so on edge, for real. Tomorrow is going to be such a long day. Oh yeah and I am waiting for my best friends' baby to be born (yeah that was the right punctuation - two friends' baby!) and he needs to get here fast because I don't think I can worry about him AND the Indians both at the same time.

All right everyone get some sleep and we'll all meet back here tomorrow at 7:05, aight?!

Radio Chatter:
"It'll take a triple to score Cabrera."
- Tom Hamilton on the slowness of Miguel Cabrera

"When was the last time that happened? Maybe when he was at Old Dominion."
- Tom Hamilton on the idea of Verlander being due for a bad outing

"Boy you can't understate the importance of finding a way to win that game last night."
- Tom Hamilton

"Wow it's 9:45. At this time last night we were in a rain delay."
- Tom Hamilton

"That'll get Dave Krepop digging through the archives to find out what rookie last had a 5-hit games for the Indians."
- Tom Hamilton after Kipnis' 5th hit

That Is That

Oh Fausto...You're sort of failing us here buddy. The guys gave you defense, run support. The bullpen did their jobs even though they'd been stretched lately.

You looked good too, for real. Then whatever switch is in your head flipped and that was the end of the ballgame.

Well, not actually the end of the ballgame because it did end up being close. And I guess it'd be tied if Raffy hadn't given up a run, but this is all on you Fausto.

Ok, admonishment over. On to the Positive!

EVERYBODY HITS! Did you see, added a new icon over on the right there! It's been over a month. The guys have been slowly creeping towards being able to have a high-hitting game and Cord Phelps clinched it in the 8th with 2 outs. Welcome to the club, Cord Phelps!

So, how about that Carlos Santana? HOT. STUFF! We thought he was coming out of a slump some time ago, around Memorial Day, but he never busted out. More like rolled out. But over the last 7 games he's had 10 hits, 5 RBI and 3 home runs. That's 3 home runs over the last 4 games.Three hits tonight including a solo home run.

Hard to tell if it's Hafner's influence or playing more at 1st. Whatever works though, huh?

Hey, Hafner...he got his 6th home run tonight! I can't believe how good that guy looks after coming off the DL twice. Both he and Grady looked good off their initial stints on the DL but Grady didn't have a second roll in him. Hafner, however, has barely missed a step! Look for the homer some time soon on Tom Hamilton has the Best Home Run call in all of Baseball but you know you also want to see it on the TV. BAM!

CHOOOOOOOOO! got a 2-run single!

Really happy with all the hitting tonight. Did you imagine this time last week that we'd be coming up on a 12-hit, 7-run game where everyone gets a hit? And Carlos Santana gets 3 hits? Well maybe if you are a follower of The Positive Tribe you of course think that we can play like this every game (rah! rah!) but there was a big question mark as to WHEN this time would come.

Tomorrow's going to be interesting. We're facing a guy who has a 2.81 ERA and 8 wins. And his name is impossible to pronounce. "Jhoulys Chacin" - I put it in quotes in case it's the name of a fictional character. He'll be facing Talbot who...well, let's hope we get some more hits and runs tomorrow yaaaaaay!

Radio Chatter:
"The most confused guy in the ballpark right now is Juan Nicasio."
- Mike Hegan on Santana's homer in the 4th

"He was cruising along and ran into a little bit of trouble, then BANG the roof caved in on him."
- Mike Hegan on Fausto's departure

"Florida has a new manager, who's an old manager. [...] Jack McKeon, the first year he managed in the big leagues, President Nixon was going through the Watergate scandal."
- Tom Hamilton on the hiring of interim manager Jack McKeon in Florida

"Manny Acta just loves the way Michael Brantley goes about his business."
- Tom Hamilton

"I have no idea what was wrong with it...wait, I do know. There was nothing wrong with it. [...] So if it's down the middle of the plate, it's a ball to Todd Helton."
- Tom Hamilton hating on umpire Gerry Davis

Royal Beating

Can a team carry the momentum of a fantastic walk-off win at home across two rain-outs and one time zone? Survey says yes!

So here's the low-down. KC starter Kyle Davies was not faring very well there in the first. He walked three guys and was pitching in the 80s (that's MPH) and they ended up taking him out due to injury. So Nate Adcock comes in for relief and gives up 2 runs in the form of Davies' baserunners (after less than an inning of work, dude gets the loss. Bummer.)

We score more off this kid in the next inning, and in comes Vin Mazzaro the guy who was slated to start for KC tomorrow.

Then we score 10 runs in the 4th off Mazzarro. His ERA went from 4.50 to 22.74. How do you even let a pitcher give up 10 in one inning? Three-run doubles will sneak up on you real quick. So, yeah, not a good outing for ol' Vin.

Remember way back in April when we played the Royals for first place? That seems like a lifetime ago, eh?

Their first baseman, Eric Hosmer, is really good. And that's all I have to say about the Royals.

So, on to THE TRIBE and the amazing things THE TRIBE did tonight, and wonderful wonderful BASEBALL being back after a long quiet weekend!

First off - everybody hits! Didja see, I added a new star over there -->

Twenty hits for our boys tonight, producing 19 runs. Two-out RBIs? Eleven. Runners left in scoring position? Only six.

Not only did everyone hit but one of our three pinch hitters hit. SHELLEY DUNCAN with a double!

I was pondering Friday night if Brantley's AVG would be up over .300 today, after the weekend. Well the weekend never happened but tonight he got two hits and four RBI, and walked twice, putting his AVG up to .304! Oh and remember how I said he was emulating Grady? He got his fourth homer tonight!

Asdrubal - got his 9th double and stole two bases! He got another RBI and still leads the team with 26!

You know what it means when everyone hits, right? It means that CHOOOOOO has a hit! As a matter of fact he's got TWOOOOO! Almost everything he hit tonight was long, but not quite long enough (before the game, Hammy and Rosie assured us that not much was leaving the park tonight.) He did manage a double, though,

Carlos Santana also hit AND stole a base! That bear is looking into every honey pot this year. He also moved over to play first when they brought Marson in to pinch for LaPorta (don't worry, just some extra playing time for the benchers). Santana also walked three times, which is super awesome for him because if he's not hitting and he's not walking well...you know the rest.

PRONK! Only one hit but he made it count - one of those aforementioned three-run doubles!

Orlando Cabrera was all "This is fun, guys!" and got three hits. And three RBI. I think the thing I miss most about not seeing the games on TV this season is seeing Orlando Cabrera having so much fun playing baseball. Seriously! Although we do get to see him in all those walk-off highlight videos. I think he just has a lot of fun getting hits, too. Anyway, three hits for "O-Cab" que es todos de cinco hits y cuatro carreras por Dos Cabreras! Sorry, Spanish lapse.

Next up, Travis Buck, who is up from Columbus in place of the injured Grady. On one hand...can you imagine what we'd be like if we had Grady up in that shit tonight? On the other hand, I am so very glad we can send our star player away for a time for maximum medical attention and get a premium player like Buck from our reserves. And then that guy comes up and is all three hits! Three runs! One RBI! Hi Cleveland glad I'm not in Oakland!

Matt LaPorta! What got in to that guy tonight? He was getting hot before the "break" and continued on tonight with four hits and 4 RBI. Two doubles! I hope he keeps it up - love seeing production down at the end of the order there.

Jack! Hannahan! Did you vote yet? He got a hit tonight too!

All right so that was our offense. How about our pitching? Well you know, Josh Tomlin - who was was actually about to pitch last night - was all "yeah ok I'll pitch tonight" and he did and he went 6 innings and gave up just five hits and one run and got the W. He only had 81 pitches but why "use up" a starter when you're up 17-1? As Trevor Crowe (@tcrowe4) put it "BREAKING NEWS.... You will Die! You will Pay Taxes! Josh Tomlin will give you 6 Strong Innings!" Yeah man, sounds good to me!

Germano. Durbin. Pestano. 0-0-0. Goodnight!

So anyway that was way fun, huh? Totally different than this walk-off stuff. Still fun to listen to all the way through! I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see how we'd score next. And, of course, waiting to see if everyone hits.

What do you think about this....if the Indians had been down 13-1 in the 4th, would you have gone to bed? Would you have called it over? How about 17-1? 19-1? I definitely would have stayed. I don't think 13 is too much for this team if we're facing the right kind of pitchers (as in, not the group we just got done facing). Maybe not 17 or 19, but we'd sure give them a run for their money. Remember Opening Day? We almost did that.

We won, KC lost, Detroit lost, Chicago lost, Minnesota is about to lose. How many games ahead do you need to be to be "running away" with your division??

Tomorrow's sadly our last game against these generous Royals this week. But then, we face the super-generous White Sox! Don't forget, all Central Time this week so see you tomorrow at 8:10 PM!

Radio Chatter:
"That may have been the longest trip to the mound ever."
- Jim Rosenhaus after Tom Hamilton took advantage of some down time to explain how Rosie's induction into the Buffalo Bisons Hall of Fame is starting to affect their jobs

"Not only have the horses left the barn, the barn has burned to the ground."
- Tom Hamilton on the 10-run inning

"You know you've had quite a night offensively when your number eight man in the batting order has been to the plate 6 times. It's like a softball game."
- Tom Hamilton