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

Everybody's Back!

Don't get too excited - I don't mean Yan Gomes or Josh Tomlin. I mean *I* am back from a few days of craziness, and the Tribe is back from a long run in Loser Town. Here we are!

I was at the Tribe game last night representing #TribeLive. I kind of don't know what the deal was. I Tweeted like a maniac all night and used the hashtag with every Tweet and hung out in the little #TribeLive exclusive section but all I got was one RT by the Indians. Don't get me wrong - free tickets and Fun Money are way awesome. But I some how feel shafted...?

Anyway, all is forgiven. Tribe got a WIN today! BOOM!

Danny Salazar was the starter, and he did NOT have a quality start but he held those Royals to just 4 runs so that's something. He went 6 innings too, and struck out 7! This is all pretty good, considering that the Royals' team batting average is .302. Damn, that is scary! But Salazar kept it rollin, didn't walk anyone, only gave up one homer. Did everything he could to keep that lineup in check while, hopefully, his team rallied around him.

Zach McAllister came out for his "long relief" role and nailed it! He went 2 full innings with nary a peep from those Royals (well, one hit). He struck out 3! And to follow him up in the "opposite of last night" relief story, Cody Allen came in and got out with only one run scored! Hey buddy! He gave up a double and a single to right but I'll be damned if we didn't have a 3-run cushion for him to lean on. Winning!!

The big news of the night was offense! And Kipnis! And Robby Perez!!!!

Jason Kipnis had his biggest hit of the season thus far, with a 3-run homer in the 3rd. Three runs on one hit, guys! Do you remember that? Kind of funny because it was the Grand Slam Payoff inning and he was one short of a grand slam but I think we can all appreciate the sacrifice that the "loser" of that game made, eh? Kipnis also got an RBI infield ground-out to give him 4 RBI in the game. By the way - Kipnis hasn't had a homer since July 31 of 2014. Woah! Let's hope this is the first of many more!

So proud of my cousin!

Nobody else at the top of the lineup did anything today (NOT EVEN MICHAEL BRANTLEY) which sort of boggles my mind, considering we got so many runs. Carlos Santana walked 3 times, though! Last time he did that was Sept 24 of 2014 - against KC. Now you know.

Good Guy David Murphy got himself a hit today, because that is what he was designated to do.

Jerry Sands got designated for assignment today, by the way. As much as we loved him, turns out we didn't need him. I mean we did but he didn't fit in. Needed bullpen arms more.

Chisenhall got a hit. A double, even. That put him on base for when Roberto Perez got an RBI double. And then Perez was on base when Bourn doubled! It was SCHWEEEEEEET!!!

Perez wasn't done, though. He got himself a solo homer in the 8th. He also had a single in the 3rd and walked, so the kid catcher went 3 for 3 tonight with 2 RBI! Any thing to do with Yan Gomes showing up in the dugout for today's game? I still think Perez looks like a thug. And I love it.

Last but not least is Michael Bourn - our leadoff man who bats ninth! Dude had 3 hits in the last 3 series but has had 4 in these last 3 games! Today he went 2 for 4 with that RBI double, and came in two score twice because Jason Kipnis is so great. I don't know if you noticed but I am always trying to be up on Bourn, because he can really be consistent in the leadoff spot. Francona moving him to the end of the order was a nice kick in the pants, it seems. Even Bourn admitted he was "in a funk." If he's a good veteran ballplayer he will take this opportunity to turn himself around and it looks like he already is! Keep it up, Bourn!!

Tomorrow's game goes back to regular starting time at 7:10. What do you think about the 6:10 start? On one hand it's nice to get the game over with early enough for bed (for kids) but on the other hand it sure takes up your whole evening. With the 7:10 start I have 2 hours after work to get the dogs walked, go to the gym and scrounge up dinner before the game. Then again if I was going to the game and had a family with me, I wouldn't have to worry about dinner. I can see the reasoning behind the early start but all in all, I prefer 7:10.

Now, if we're in a different time zone then I'd prefer their fans suffer with earlier start times to make my life easier, thanks! :)

Anyway, Thursday is 7:10 in Cleveland versus the Blue Jays. Man, I am jazzed to go to another game already! But not so fast...my parents are already sick of dog-sitting for me this week. I gotta space it out.

The dogs clearly can sit themselves.

Our starter will be TJ House. Keep your comments to yourself. Theirs will be a LHP 4.43, so at least we've got that going for us. Possible to win two in a row? You betcha!

See you there!

Sorry, no Radio Chatter tonight. Sometimes my head just isn't in it!!

The Legend of #Jerry Sands

Wow, it was a long one tonight! In fact, today's 4:16 game was three minutes shy of the longest 9-inning game ever played at Progressive Field. The Tribe didn't win but the length can be attributed to them never giving up!

Kluber was our man today, which is exciting every time it happens! Wooohoo! Kluber day! He had one heck of a rough day, though. Only gave up 2 runs but the first run was a homer by the leadoff man. Owch... The next run was also in the first inning, goshdarn Victor Martinez hit into a double play and yet STILL managed to get an RBI. Being that he's Kluber, he got himself a reboot between innings and came back to go run-free through the 7th! Klube had 10 strikeouts today, which is more than he had his first game. Excelling already! They let him come in for the 7th (with a 1-run lead!) and ultimately throw 107 pitches. He got the first guy to strike out and that was it for Kluber, leaving with still a chance to get the win.

Except, the best bullpen in baseball was doing their impression of the worst bullpen in baseball, I think. Something went horribly wrong because it took 6 of them to give up 7 runs and ruin everyone's night. Zep - who came in that first night in Houston to throw one pitch and end the inning with a double play - came in tonight and did't even get one out before leaving the game with 2 earned runs under his belt.

Shaw gave up 3 hits and a run, and then Atchison finally stopped the bleeding to finish up the 7th.

Anthony Swarzak made up for his bad outing by having a good outing, leaving things exactly as he found them (no hits, no walks, no runs).

The Tribe had it all tied up going in to the 9th (woohoo!) when Cody Allen came in and just fucked everything. That's what happened, he fucked everything. Three runs. His ERA is now 21.60. So he's got to live with that.

The Boy Pitcher Kyle Crockett, who had heretofore been squeaky clean, also came in and gave up a run because all the older boys were doing it.

Tigers won it 9-6, that was the final of the game. Remember Kluber left when it was 3-2 Tribe.

Michael Brantley was out today, which makes everyone sad. Especially Michael Brantley. But we also want him to be as healthy as possible for as many games as possible so we'll all bite the proverbial bullet for now and see what these other guys can do without him.

They did manage to score 6 runs! And they came back from losing twice! And mostly it was due to Jerry Sands!

Jerry Whonow? Jerry Sands, you guys!

Jerry Sands came to us from Tampa Bay where he was recovering from wrist surgery. He only averaged .190 with them in 2014 and then .268 with the Durham Bulls. Then we brought him here and he had a great spring with 2 homers and 7 RBI, batting .304. Everyone wanted to see him in the lineup (right handed bat!) and since we were facing a lefty today well there Jerry was.

I mean - THERE JERRY WAS!!!

Jerry Sands went 3 for 4 today in his debut with the Indians, knocking in 4 runs and bringing the Tribe ahead of the Tigers once and then tied with the Tigers his second time.

Cleveland is currently in love with Jerry Sands (he plays right field, by the way) and even Progressive Field was getting in to it by leading the chants of "JER-RY! JER-RY!" Aren't we all so lucky his name isn't "Ron"?

Other batters to contribute today were Mike Aviles - who went 1 for 4 with a hit and a walk. He came around to score both times. Jason Kipnis who totally, totally is back, went 2 for 5 today to extend his hitting streak to 5 games. Also those two guys teamed up in the 9th inning with 2 outs to score a run. Cuz they got HEART!

Carlos Santana went 1 for 3 because he walked twice. Oddly enough he doesn't lead the league in walks yet (he has 6 to Ryan Hanigan's (BOS) 7) but he has walked in every game but one so he'll be at the top in no time!

Yan Gomes. Caught another guy stealing today. Then he got hurt while doin' his job in the 9th. And I don't mean protecting the plate I just mean keeping his foot on the plate while a guy comes running in. The guy was out, for what it's worth. But now Yan is scheduled for surgery on Monday. YUCK!!

Hooray for Roberto Perez and his decent start but Yan will be SORELY missed. And we might need to get rid of #Jerry to bring up a backup catcher!!! NOOOOO!!

Tomorrow is the last time we see those Tigers until...the end of the month. Whomp whomp. Tomorrow we really got to show them what we're made of. I wonder who will come up for Gomes?

It'll be TJ House's first start versus a LHP who also has no games yet this year. Let's see how our lefty does against this crazy Tiger lineup. Don't forget that Victor got hurt during this game, so he might be out too.

It's a 1:10 start - see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"That banned substance is not in something you buy at GNC."
- Tom Hamilton on how a player wonders how an illegal drug got in his system

"Most people didn't know who Jerry Sands was prior to yesterday's introductions. He could be the city's favorite son with one swing of the bat."
- Tom Hamilton

"Twitter aught to have a new name, call it 'Apology'. Every time someone says anything, the next day they issue an apology."
- Tom Hamilton

"Only in baseball can these scripts be written."
- Tom Hamilton on Jerry Sands

Not a Picasso, but Still Priceless

Are you pumped yet?! Three games into the season and the pitching staff is already DOMINATING, threatening stuff like no-hitters every night and racking up the strikeouts. The offense has four homers, three doubles and a triple. No errors. Is your mind BLOWN?!

The Tribe didn't completely dominate Houston, like you would expect any team to do. But you gotta hand it to Houston - that Keuchel guy and Altuve are both the Real Deal.

Trevor Bauer was our man on the hill today. Since the kid is so tightly wound, it took him a few innings to stop working so hard and settle into just making outs. He had 81 pitches by the end of the 4th. Still no hits and no runs, but 4 walks. In the 5th and 6th he was cruising, and he left the game after 6 with a career-high ELEVEN strikeouts and no hits. Looks like they've tamed the Bauer Tiger, don't you think? Arizona was happy to get rid of him because his crazy mindset couldn't be zoned in to a Real MLB Pitcher. But the Indians know Crazy, so it was nothing for them to put him straight. And here he is, winning games and taking names!

The Boy Pitcher Kyle Crockett came in for the 7th. Remember him?

Yeah after a partial season with the Tribe last year he's totally in the bullpen for real now! Anyway Crockett had It in him today, as did all the men who came before him, and he smoked the 7th inning with just one walk and two strikeouts.

Next was Scott Atchison - 16 years Crockett's senior - who also faced 4 batters and added one more to the K count (16 in all). Once that was over, everyone was like "OMG WE CAN'T NOT SAY IT ANYMORE! NO HITTER!" It's been 34 years since the Tribe has had a no-hitter. Seriously? The last one was Barker's perfect game in 1981.

Kluber came a little close yesterday but the Tribe as a team came even closer today. Nobody but nobody wanted to see Nick Hagadone in there for the 9th - and you can bet especially Nick Hagadone didn't want to see it - but there he was. Indians Twitter collectively counted to "One!" when there was one out. But there was no "Two!" as Hagadone gave up a homer to the next batter. LULZ

Terry Francona was having none of it tho. He was like "I'm here to win games from now to October, not fuck around with my bullpen to get you guys free Domino-nos pizza." (Hugely paraphrased) He's right. He's always right. Trust in Tito.

A ninth-inning homer didn't matter one skosh, anyway, because our bats finally woke up! In fact, as a consolation prize for missing the free Domino's we get 50% off Papa John's. Tribe5 - don't forget!

Bourn is back! He got two hits today, doubling up his total from yesterday and hitting like a lead-off man should. I don't know why people hate him so much. Is it just because he has a tendency to get hurt? Because everyone on our team seems to be hurt all the time (SEE: Michael Brantley) and we don't count them out. Bourn is at least good when he is in! Unlike some charlatans who are like "oh I'll just play on two bad knees, even if it means I'm awful. At least I try, right?" Bourn is just all right with me and I think we all need to love him!

People are diggin' Jose Ramirez in the two-hole, but I dunno if he is going to be hitting for power maybe he needs to move on down the line! JoRa went 2 for 4 today with a walk and a solo homer. Nice! Also they seem to think he's the second coming of Omar. I think he's great, no doubt, but I honestly am saddened by the complete disregard for Asdrubal's amazing years. I am almost wondering if Asdrubal had a crappy personality or something, which is why Tom Hamilton gives him zero respect now that he's gone. But, whatever - JoRa is our man with the moves now!

Who was ready for the big return of Jason Kipnis? Me me me!!! But with trepidation, right? Because how many times have we heard that guys are "back" from injuries but never quite the same? It feels like a crapshoot as a fan! But you KNOW we can trust in Kipnis, and the JK Kid is not disappointing! Today he had a darn TRIPLE, as well as an RBI single to go 2 for 4. And he's batting .333. Brantley numbers, yo!

Carlos Santana didn't follow up his birthday homer with any homers today, or even hits. But he used his good eye and got on base via two walks. I also heard a snippet of him saying something extremely wise - Houston is a good home-run park and that kind of sucks because when you get to the plate you just try to hit home runs. He's smarter than the average bear!

Oh Brandon Moss...some day you will come around and be the Brandon Moss we paid for. Any minute now. Aaaaaaany minute...

Did you see Yan Gomes' awesome play at the plate? He got a double in the 2nd inning and then came around to score on a single to right. He was pretty much a dead duck by the time he was 50 feet down the third-base line, but he faked to the right then swerved to the left and TOTALLY got around catcher Hank Conger! Conger is a bit of a boob and Yan Gomes is The World's Best Catcher so it makes me wonder how far in advance Yan planned that one. He was probably on second watching ol' Hank fumble around back there thinking "that guy won't be hard to cross up." He was right!

David Murphy got a hit today, as was expected of him. Nothing came of it, though. Same for Lonnie Chisenhall, who was also real-error- and virtual-error-free today!

Roberto Perez was the catcher today and he went 2 for 4 with a homer and 2 RBI. How awesome is it when your BACKUP catcher is so awesome? We had this "problem" with Santana and Gomes and now look what we have with them. It'll be interesting to see how much they use Perez since Gomes is so amazing as a catcher. Also interesting to see if the kid can keep it up when coming off the bench. Excited to watch it unfold!

Tomorrow is the HOME OPENER! YAAAAY! I think the home opener is a weird thing because the whole city is abuzz about it, and the game gets sold out, and then 2 weeks later you can't even find a Tribe game on at a bar anywhere. Kind of like how Christmas is a big deal for everyone but the other 364 days a year everyone's an atheist.

But, whatever. I have at least one friend who's going. I hope he sends me pics! And of course the game will be on WKYC - it may possibly be the last game I see on TV this year (I don't see any other games scheduled for WKYC yet). Plus I get off work early (I'm the boss so I set the rules!) and who doesn't love that??

The Tribe will be facing off with the Tigers at 4:10 (festivities start at 3, though). Zach McAllister will go against a RHP (whew!) This team has always been dynamite at home so I expect BIG things tomorrow. Can't WAIT!!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"This is shades of your 12-year-old Little League game. The pitcher and catcher are the only guys involved."
- Tom Hamilton on Bauer's first inning

"if it was Pitt in the 1980s, they were cheating. The coach was Jackie Sherrill and he went to the bank in a mask."
- Tom Hamilton muses on the 1987 Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston

"Here comes Evan Gatiss, the human air-conditioning unit."
- Tom Hamilton

"It's not a Picasso but it's still priceless."
- Tom Hamilton on the "messy" pitching that still resulted in a 1-hitter

Satisfying Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tyler Holt!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don't Call It A Comeback

Because it wasn't! Ha!

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

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

Twelve hits, though!

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

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

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

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

Creepy Bro Stank Eye

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you there!

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

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

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

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

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

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

He's Gone

Well, Asdrubal's gone. He got traded to the Nationals for an infielder named Zach Walters.

Asdrubal Cabrera sitting outside #Indians clubhouse after being traded to #Nationals. #MLB pic.twitter.com/SrwFVgpjmL
— Brian Dulik (@BrianDulik) July 31, 2014

I was upset with the loss of Masterson, as a Tribe fan. As the self-proclaimed #1 fan of Asdrubal, I'm pretty crushed.

But, my Tribe-fan-ness overcomes my Asdrubal-fan-ness and realizes that while he was full of the razzle-dazzle early on, he was streaky. And this year he was downright frustrating. In fact, he was bad. Even when he wasn't hitting, I still loved him as a SS. But 14 errors this year at SS and a lot of bad hitting?

Let me put it this way...I am most saddened by the circumstances that led to this being the reality. I wish Asdrubal well - I hope he finds his spark again and amazes a new set of fans.

Officially retired.

So after Asdrubal was traded away, there was a baseball game.

Zach McAllister was the starter. He's still not really that great. Pretty lucky that Kluber went the whole way last night because ZMac only managed 3 1/3 innings today and to try to win this series, Tito threw 6 more guys out there after him.

McAllister gave up 4 runs in his 3 1/3 innings and struck out none. Geez! Everyone but Carrasco and Allen showed up after that, and everyone did well with strikeouts here and there a couple hits. Until we were tied, and Bryan Shaw gave up a walk then a homer. What?? Does Bryan Shaw do that??

I guess he does now.

The offense made up one run, and got a hit in the 9th that looked promising...but it didn't happen.

It was nice to see the team batting and scoring behind their struggling starter, though! You don't HAVE to have 5 perfect starters if your offense can overcome any crap with runs. They almost did today but it just wasn't enough.

Kipnis had a rare great night tonight! He went 2 for 5 with a double and a 2-run homer! Cool! Kid has not been "on it" at all lately. Maybe this is a turn-around?

Jose Ramirez is taking over at short and in the 2nd spot in the order. He's definitely fast, that's for sure. Although he could steal on occasion, Asdrubal was never known for his speed. In the 7th inning, he got a single then scampered to 2nd on a passed ball. Then his speed let him score from second on a single by Santana. It'll be interesting to see what kind of difference his speed makes!

After being silenced this series so far, Michael Brantley (.316) had a nice night, going 2 for 3 with 2 hits and 2 walks. I'd say "of course he got a double" but in fact he got a triple! And an RBI, of course. Start of a new streak, we hope?

And, holy hot Carlos Santana! Before tonight he'd only gotten 1 hit in the series, then tonight he got 2 hits and 2 RBI! And what's kinda cool is that he didn't get any extra bases, and one of his RBI was a sac fly. Shows he's well-rounded, right?

Ugh, Lonnie Chisenhall. We are all waiting for your return, son. We're here.

After a pretty crummy June where he hit only .185, David Murphy is back "for sure" finishing off July with .280 worth of hitting under his belt. Tonight he went 2 for 4, but unfortunately had no one to hit in and no one to hit him in. Bummer!

Gomes cooled off a smidge and only went 1 for 4 himself. Dickerson left the game at some point, after a crazy throw. I don't remember the official line on his injury but dang - it is getting lethal out there in the Tribe outfield!

Good thing we have Aviles, who can and will play anywhere. He went 0 for 3 with a walk and a run scored. Because he's always in on things!

Crummy kind of game today. I was glad to see at least a couple Twerps sad to see Cabby go and hoping the team would win one for him. Didn't happen, though. It was a good start, but they just couldn't pull it out this time.

Tomorrow is Tom Hamilton's 25th anniversary celebration! Not sure if I'll be able to catch any of that. Well maybe they'll throw it up on line at some point.

The Tribe will be hosting the Rangers at 7:05. It'll be Salazar versus a RHP so new that his ERA is 1.50. The Mighty Rangers are awful this year, by the way. They are just under .400. They are worse than the Astros, who are just over .400.

So, maybe we can have a fun blowout win on Tom Hamilton day. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"If he's in long relief for the post season, Kate Upton will dump him like yesterday's garbage."
- Tom Hamilton on Kate Upton

The Chris Dickerson Show With Special Guest Carlos Santana

Chris Dickerson is the real deal. It's like he's so appreciative of being picked up by a new team that he can't help but be awesome. Yes he failed to hit on Friday but he more than made up for it by getting the only two runs of the first 8 innings of the second game by way of the home run. Two home runs!

That was the second game, of course on my mind at the moment. But let's roll it back to the first game...

The first game was like smooth sailing, being that Kluber had the ball for the good guys and some kid throwing his first MLB game had the ball for the other guys. Yeah, there was a few innings wasted while they figured the kid out but during that time Kluber was just like "PITCH. PITCH. PITCH." And then when the Tribe finally managed to score in the 5th he just kept going.

And before you knew it, it was the 9th inning and he had thrown 114 pitches, struck out 10, walked just 1 and given up just 2 runs. There were 2 outs, and in deference to the run he just gave up and then the man on second from a double, Klubot was turned off for the night. Bryan Shaw came in to get that last guy. That was the ballgame.

Ok, maybe there was more to the ballgame, like chasing that new kid off the mound after 5 innings and 3 earned runs. Then hitting their bullpen for 3 more. And not even seeing Albequerque!

While the homer carried Friday's game and Saturday night's game, the afternoon game was about 10 singles and 5 walks. The 5th inning saw 5 hits and 3 runs!

Kipnis kept it up, going 2 for 5 with 2 more RBI. And even Asdrubal did things, going 1 for 5 and thus giving him 12 hits in his last 10 games. Yes, 9 strikeouts, yes yes. But he has 2 RBI in 2 games!

Brantley (.327) got the game's first hit and that was all for him. Just 1 for 5 in this game. Santana - who I didn't even realize was back to being slumpy (but Hammy and Rosie can't stop talking about it) at least got on base with 2 walks. Chiz upped his league-leading road average by getting TWO more hits in the afternoon game, plus a walk and a run scored.

Gomes and Swisher both had doubles. Gomes had an awesome game going 3 for 4, and since David Murphy went 2 for 2, Gomes came around to score 3 times!

Raburn was in the 9-hole, but that didn't go as well as we thought. He came up at 0 for 4.

So this afternoon's game was kind of a walk in the park, lead by Corey Kluber. I just got an awesome mental image of all that.

The night game was Zach McAllister stretching his legs before getting on the bus to Columbus, versus Cy Young Award Winner Max Scherzer. Not so much a walk in the park.

McAllister was like Bauer on Friday, in that at one point he looked awful and it seemed like we couldn't possibly win the game if he threw one pitch more...then he went on to pitch 3 1/3 more innings and only gave up 1 run in total, on 3 hits with 6 strikeouts. Oh. Well - good job, ZMac!

Axford was next and he provided some un-needed intensity with a wild pitch. But then the next two guys struck out and it was over for another day.

Atchison was next and somehow he gave up a run! It was the go-ahead run so that wasn't cool. But there was still time left and we were facing the Tiger bullpen so really it was ok. Carlos Carrasco came out in the 8th to swiftly handle Miggy, Victor and the New Martinez and he was great! Strikeout, groundout, groundout. Atta boy, Cookie! I told you that guy is a team player.

Offense wasn't nearly as exciting in this game as it was in the first game. The Tribe only got 8 hits and 6 walks, which seems like a lot but they didn't all come together until the 9th. Before that, it was just 2 runs in 8 innings.

Kipnis kept his stuff up by going 0 for 2 - with THREE WALKS. He came in to score once. Asdrubal was out, so Aviles was the shortstop and second batter. He got a sneaky little bunt hit in the 3rd but nothing came of it.

Michael Brantley (.329) could only muster 2 for 4 with one double this evening. That gives him 7 hits and 3 runs scored during this series so far. Damn!

Carlos Santana, who had been getting ragged on all day by the radio guys, came up in the 9th with the bases loaded and got a 3-run double. I don't know what it is about that guy, but he keeps coming back to impress us! I know that I don't give two shits when Nick Swisher does the exact same thing (suddenly does something good to counter-act his awful average) but Nick Swisher is a $15mm pair of new sneakers and Santana we got at the thrift store 5 years ago and damn is he comfortable.

Anyway, I still love Carlos Santana. Even though he's frustrating. It seems like he's always the dumbass kid who occasionally does something magical and right.

Chisenhall quietly ended a 6-game hitting streak by going 0-4 this evening. But he and Brantley are still 4 and 5 on the batting chart.

Swisher still plays for the team, and Murphy went back to doing nothing. Poor Murph.

Roberto Perez was in the lineup, as promised. In only his second game with us, he hit a double! They put Asdrubal in to pinch run for him. I wonder what's up with that? Don't you think a 26-year-old should be able to run even if he's a catcher? But whatever, that's what they did. And he came around to score on Santana's game-winning double. Yee-haw! I wonder how much we'll see him? Maybe just once a week?

Oh yeah so....Chris Dickerson! Here he is, by the way:

And as an Indian:

So yeah, he didn't hit yesterday and he was out for the first game today, but then he made up for all of that this evening by going yard TWICE. You know who didn't get any home runs today? All of the Tigers! Not in either game. Not Miggy, not Victor, not New Martinez, not even little Rajai Davis who got his first of 2 homers of this year off the Tribe.

Things must not have been right at Comerica for a home run today. Except for Chris Dickerson. Chris Dickerson who got two. We love you, man!

How cool is it that we came back from the break winning 3 straight against Detroit? The team is 3 games over .500. They're in second place, 4.5 games back. They're 1.5 games out of the Wild Card.

I guess we'll see Sunday when Tomlin takes on LHP 4.00. We're on the road against a lefty, where we perform better both at home and against righties.

If we can pull it out tomorrow, then it's the real deal. However it gets done, too. Real deal. If it's the real deal then get ready for a HECK of a second half!!!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"He's gotta realize there are 18 guys playing this game, not just him."
- Tom Hamilton on Miggy

"That would have been a home run in any park but here and Yellowstone."
- Tom Hamilton

"Both baserunners move up on a wild pitch. That might be an understatement."
- Jim Rosenhaus thinks it was a crazy weird wild pitch

"One good month out of four isn't what you can have."
- Tom Hamilton on Carlos Santana

"To decipher those boos...they're simply saying 'Rent, Joe. Don't buy.'"
- Tom Hamilton on the Detroit crowd's feelings about Joe Nathan

The First Day Of The Rest Of Our Season

Here's a song for you for tonight's big rivalry game post!


I just gotta laugh whenever it seems like there's a game where Everybody Hits, but not everybody hits, and instead of the odd-man-out being a lame-o like Swisher or a rando like Raburn, it's Chris Dickerson who is hitting .400 and has hit in every game he's played with us. Until tonight, of course.

But everyone else - wow! Fourteen hits tonight and 9 runs in a spectacular turnaround game, where one minute Tom Hamilton was saying how Trevor Bauer lost the ability to throw strikes and the next minute it's 7-3 Indians. I love it!

Bauer was our man on the hill tonight against Anibal Sanchez. There were rumblings wishing it was Kluber going against Sanchez but I like when Bauer goes opposite these big important guys. I think a huge part of his game is his ego and his need to prove himself and I think matchups like this are totally in his favor. He had a quality start tonight, going 6 innings and only giving up 3 runs. He struck out 5 in that time and got his first win on the road! He's 4-4 with an ERA of 3.89.

Our favorite trio of Atchison, Shaw and Allen came to finish out the game. They each had 2 baserunners but nothing came of them. No homers, no errors, nothing exciting but a double in the 9th. SHUT DOWN.

Speaking of shut down, the Tribe was shut down for 6 innings. There was much gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands. "This team!!" "They are no better than the first half!"

Actual Tribe fan

Then it was the 7th inning and hit, walk, hit - the bases were loaded with no outs. Would Swisher hit into a double play? Nope! A two-run double!

Pitching change. Would Raburn pop out to shallow right? Nope! An RBI double!

Pitching change. Al Albequerque, who has an 8.10 ERA versus the Indians this year. Now's our chance! Strikeout. Strikeout. Oh no!

Three-run homer Kipnis! Solo homer Asdrubal! Albequerque's ERA is now 11.25 versus the Indians this year!

Sad Albequerque

Michael Brantley singles again before the inning is over. He was the one who led off the inning with a single, anyway.

The Tribe goes on to score 2 more in the game. Kipnis with 2 homers, Asdrubal with one. I observed that Kipnis had 4 days no doubt at home with his mom, and suggested that perhaps his mom needs to be installed with the team. He hasn't hit one out since April 21!!

Brantley had said in a pre-game interview that the team definitely did not play up to their potential, and everybody needed to do better. So what does he do? Well he raises his average by .07 as a result of getting 4 hits, something he hasn't done yet this year [in a 9-inning game]. He also stole a base, got his 23rd double and came in to score twice. He probably would have thrown some guys out at the plate if the situation presented itself, but then again he did need to keep some stuff in his pocket for being better tomorrow.

How about that Raburn, huh? He used to be our secret weapon and the first half he was kind of a dirty little secret. He did get that homer against the Dodgers and came back with a hit against the Royals but he's just not the sure thing at the plate anymore. Tonight he went 2 for 3 AS a pinch hitter! Things look very good for us if things go very well for him the rest of the way.

We'll talk more about Swisher once he's consistently doing this stuff he did tonight. I'm not going to bite this good-game-here-and-there baloney. Put up, put ALL the way up, and then we'll talk.

When we have games like this, I'm reminded that this is the team I was waiting for in March, and the team I was pretty sure we were getting. Yes they were stifled by the starter but they both got to the starter and then super-got-to the relievers. If you're not good enough to clobber a good pitcher, be good enough to get him out of the game!

I don't know what is up with the lack of consistency. But I do know that this is the real team. The team where no one hits and runs don't score...that's the Bizarro Tribe.

Tomorrow is TWO games!! Oh man oh man! I am totally going to clean the heck out of my house and my garage during my 6 hours of baseball. I wrote it down so I can hold myself to it.

We'll get to see Roberto Perez catching. He told me on Twitter.

@positivetribe yea
— Roberto Perez (@robebo23) July 19, 2014

It'll be Kluber against a newbie RHP at 1:08 and then McAllister's return against Scherzer at 7:08. Do we have the series won already?

Can't wait to see if they break the mold and come out swinging 3 games in a row! See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"If Max Scherzer had taken that contract they offered him last year, your Little Ceasar's Hot 'n Ready pizza would only have one pepperoni on it."
- Tom Hamilton on the owner of the Tigers also owning Little Ceasar's

"There's no way you're going to second guess him. You'd better swing the bat when Sanchez is on the hill."
- Tom Hamilton

"He went to the slider one time too many."
- Tom Hamilton on Kipnis' homer

"Dave Dombrowski's calling Texas right now saying 'Whatever you want for Soria, we'll pay it.'"
- Tom Hamilton

"That's a home run in every park in America, except Comerica."
- Tom Hamilton on a missed homer, by the Tigers

"Lance Diaz says 'Hey you haven't been up here long enough to point to any place on the plate and tell me what is low.'"
- Tom Hamilton on Eugenio Suarez

"Somewhere in the Tiger clubhouse, Anibal Sanchez is standing there with a beer in his hand, staring at the wall thinking 'What happened?'"
- Tom Hamilton

New Guys! Old Guys! Everybody Looks Good!

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not really Brantley but....right??

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

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

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

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



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

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

Here's Perez:

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you there!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ugh - Yankees

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nick Swisher still plays for the Indians.

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

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

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

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

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

See you there! (After the show)

A Good Day For Flying

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fish Slapped

Oh man, Mike Trout is so good! And I love good baseball players, just love 'em! You can't really hate on Mike Trout, can you? I don't know if he's an all-around good man like Torii Hunter but he doesn't seem to be a brat or anything. He's just a damn good baseball player. Like Lonnie, but with a sillier name.

Tribe just didn't have it today, period. Bad pitching from all FOUR pitchers, bad defense (Asdrubal's 13th error), lack of hitting (7 hits but 10 strikeouts). Blergh. Like everyone had their minds focused on Puppypalooza instead of baseball!

I'm not going to go over the pitching. I'll just leave this right here:

More like "ouch, man"

Although, it didn't matter how many runs those relievers relieved themselves of, because the batting wasn't there to overcome Tomlin's 6 runs. Sad trombone.

Did you know that Michael Brantley, the day after being named the MLB player of the week, is on the concussion DL? Yes he is. He so is.

So, it was all up to Lonnie tonight to be the offensive stud and after a 4-game/13-at-bat slump for him he is BACK and ON IT today!

Ride! Ride like the wind! Lonnie went 2 for 4 today with another homer!! He's got 7 on the year (same as Asdrubal, who has played more games) and needs just 5 more to bust his HR total of last year. So he's batting .368. Kinda sad. He needs 18 plate appearances to qualify yet too. Argh! Why isn't Lonnie just the best at everything yet???

He's getting there though! There will soon be Lonnination in the MLB.

No one else had a multi-hit game today, duh. Kipnis and Gomes got doubles. Kipnis got his in the 9th, when the Tribe was down 9-2 and there had just been a short rain delay, and the Angels brought in their closer to stretch his legs, and Kipnis hits a goddamn double. And then Santana hit the bloopiest of inflield bloops, and made it to first while Kipnis literally snuck around behind everyone to score. Grind! (Did you notice Carlos got another hit?)

David Murphy went 0-4 but he did get his team-leading 5th sac fly and his team-second 38th RBI. What a guy!

Raburn and Asdrubal teamed up for a put-out at the plate, but Asdrubal had another error so everyone hates him again. He did go 1 for 4 today tho!

Tomorrow is the final game of the series with these Angles. It's also free GV Artwork t-shirt day! Going to be 10,000 lucky fans that's for sure.

Post by GVARTWORK.COM.

It'll be a 7:10 game, Masty facing a LHP 3.05. Hmm...don't know what to make of that. I'm sure the shirts will make the whole thing exciting, regardless.

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"He wasn't wishing him a very happy early Christmas."
- Tom Hamilton on David Freese arguing with the umpire

"The Indians may not have known Shoemaker before tonight's game, but they'll remember him now. He's pitching a good one."
- Tom Hamilton

"Complaining about Mike Trout striking out more is like saying Kate Upton has a slight wrinkle on her shoulder."
- Tom Hamilton

"Are there beaches in Iraq? There's a lot of sand, I know that."
- Jim Rosenhaus

"They have put the plastic tarp over the mound in the bullpen, and put a stake in the ground with a sign in it 'Gone Fishing.'"
- Tom Hamilton says the game is over

"Does anyone even realize that it's 9-2 in the 9th inning?"
- Tom Hamilton isn't into it like you are!

"Either he is near-sighted and can't read the fingers of Hank Conger, or he just doesn't want to go back to his hotel."
- Tom Hamilton on the Angles' closer

Our Little Shining Stars

I don't have much to say about this game today, because I am running out of time. I'm participating in a garage sale on Saturday and OMG DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH TIME THAT TAKES??? It takes hours, days. It takes a lot of time. Especially when you're in the baby clothes racket. Anyway, I just have time for a few sentences.

And those few sentences, like many sentences, will be about Michael Brantley (.313) and Jason Kipnis - our little shining stars in an otherwise barren sky over 3 days of baseball.

Despite the fact that there was no one around them to help them get home, our little stars got 4 hits between them, including a double (Brantley) and 2 RBI (Kipnis).

Brantley has a modest 4-game hitting streak, but with all the excitement over the-guy-who-was-strangley-left-out-today, no one noticed he has had 8 hits in those 4 games.

And Jason Kipnis, who came back on June 1, has played in every game since then and hit in every game but his first game back. That's a 10-game hitting streak for him with 14 hits and 9 RBI.

He also got a hair cut:


Those two weren't the only ones to hit today. For instance, Yan Gomes who sometimes elates us and sometimes leaves us hangin' got 2 hits today - elation! But he was REALLY left out there in the cold, because guess who is back and batting before him?? Yeah, him.

Raburn and Aviles got singles, and Santana of course got a walk. But there were just way too many holes tonight, too many guys stranded along with too many guys not on base at all. It was no good.

Tomlin was the pitcher by the way. He wasn't so good. Neither was Hagadone who was good for a minute but suddenly is not someone to look forward to. Carrasco, on the other hand, had another scoreless 2 innings. So that's neat.

Let's hope now that we're done with John Lester we can get back to humiliating the Red Sox! Onward and upward!!

Tomorrow it's another 7:05 game with our new-old favorite Justin Masterson on the mound against RHP 3.18. Hooray - rightie!

I'll see you there, while I'm tagging, tagging, tagging away...

Exhale

A little deflation after last night's big big win, but at least the Tribe didn't walk out of there empty-handed. They managed to get 5 runs off the tired starter and the reliever, but that wasn't enough to overcome the poor performance by Corey Kluber (I KNOW!!!!)

Klubot was out of juice today, for the second game in a row. The last game was a "gimme" since it was a rain delay. Not sure what his deal was today. Well I mean, 3 of his runs were un-earned so that's what that deal was. But 3 other runs in his 5 innings were all on him. Two of the runs were from the longball. He did strike out 5, but he still wasn't the dominant KLUBOT we've seen up to now. Maybe he was just too wound up! Ha!

Carrasco came in to do some more long relief and I think it really suits him. Just one hit in 1 2/3 innings. No strikeouts or anything but the name of the game is no runs.

Hagadone made another appearance and it didn't go so well for him. He came in and gave up a hit, then got the final out of an inning. Then he came in for the next inning and gave up a dang homer. Argh! Atchison came in for some batters, and he gave up a hit too before getting an out. Outman was next and - BOOM! Moustakas with a 2-run homer.

Yeah that is just a bad day all around when your starter isn't too hot, then your relievers give up runS. Multiple. And then your infield gives up 3 runs on an error.

The 17 runs got to them. They thought they were untouchable.

As for the offense...they were pretty abysmal all night, until the 8th and 9th.

Michael Bourn got his 1 hit tonight, for the 4th night in a row. Not really hot anymore but definitely, far from cold.

Asdrubal is back in the doghouse with everyone for his huge run-costing error today (his 11th!) And Lindor is just down the road, basking in the love of Rubber Ducks fans. Asdrubal did go 1 for 4 tonight with an RBI sac fly, so he had that going for him. But it wasn't 3 runs, and that's the price they had on his head.

Brantley (.307) was hit by a pitch twice! DO NOT BREAK BRANTLEY!! What the heck, KC? Anyway, so he went 1 for 3 with a double.

How 'bout that Kipnis?? He's got a 7-game hitting streak, with 11 hits and 7 RBI in that time. To add to last night's 4 RBI, he got 2 more tonight on a 2-out, 2-on double in the 8th - the team's first runs of the game! He came around to score, too. Scrappy!

Santana strung together 2 hits himself today. How do we feel about that?? He does have 6 hits and 4 walks in the 5 games he's been back so that's pretty good. Going to get hot going in to the break? Let's hope!

Yan Gomes went 0 for 4 tonight. Him and Cabrera are pretty neck-and-neck in their lack of consistency. But neither of them are having super long dry spells anymore.

The Chiz Kid Lonnie Baseball was once again on his game today, even though it took until the 7th. Everyone was like "Yay! He is as good as we think!!" when he got a double. And then he got a single in the 9th and it was party time again! All hail Lonnie Baseball!

My lame attempt to liken him to Johnny Football (and this weekend's TMZ pics of him floating on an inflatable swan)

Once we knew Lonnie was safe and still hitting, and the Tribe wasn't going to go home run-less, the rest of the game was much easier to digest. Raburn went 1 for 4 and Murphy went 1 for 3 with an RBI double. Not enough, but still - 50% off pizza!

Tomorrow is already shaping up to be better because there's a RHP on the mound. It'll be Trevor Bauer versus RHP 3.41. Beatable! Let's hope Bauer is feeling better than the rest of the bullpen right now, and we get the series split!

It'll be at 2:10 in the afternoon - don't forget! See you there!

Sorry no Radio Chatter tonight. I kept being away at critical funny moments.