"It Got Up Outta Here"

Hell yeah it did, Michael Bourn! His first walkoff homer of his career, and not only was it a good fast swing but it was also a good fast sprint around the bases to meet his teammates at home. What a great way to end a Sunday!

The team didn't have one of their best hitting days, to be honest. But they hit enough and pitched well enough to get more runs than the other guys. And that how baseball go.

Josh Tomlin was our man today, and he got himself out of the game with 100 pitches and 3 earned runs by the end of the 6th. He did strike out 8 in that time, contributing to a total of 38 strikeouts this weekend of the NL's least-strikey-outey team. Sounds almost like a little competition they had going! Not the length the team was surely looking for with Tomlin, but hopefully it's not a trent.

Outman came in to finish the 6th, right after Tomlin's 100th pitch. Then it was Bryan Shaw who awkwardly gave up the tying run, even though his ERA was a measly 1.37 when he came in. The one thing we learned from the Rockies this weekend is that they never give up!

Zep came in to uneventfully finish the 8th, and then Old Man Atchison mowed 'em down in the 9th with three strikeouts (er, and a double).

Michael Bourn is hitting .288! He's not quite a qualifier yet (3.1 plate appearances * total games, or 176) but he's got 160 at-bats (can't find PA stats) so he'll be there soon. He's rockin' a 5-game hitting streak right now, and he's up at the top there with Brantley and Chiz as far as hitting goes! Nyjer who?

But still, he'll never be Michael Brantley (.307), right? Oh my glob, how amazing is it that we've got him locked down under contract?!?! Today he went 2 for 4, re-starting his home hit streak again at one. One of his hits was an RBI single, and the other a double. Both times he came around to score. Great!

Other than Bourn and Brantley, no one else got any extra base hits. Winding down from the last 2 games, I guess.

Giambi walked in a run, which is always great! Later on Raburn came up to bat for him, and he got a hit! Nothing came of it but any Raburn hit right now is a hit in the right direction.

David Murphy wanted a grand slam, but he followed up Giambi's walk with a sac fly RBI. Save all the glory for Bourn. What a good guy!

Mike Aviles is ramping it back up, going 2 for 4 today with a stolen base. He was on base when Bourn got his homer, too. Always in the middle of things! Speaking of the middle of things....Lonnie went hitless today but he did get a sac fly RBI. Of course!

George Kottaras was back today, and I wasn't paying close enough attention so I thought he was the one who got the walkoff homer and I was thisclose to declaring him the best Indian ever to play in Cleveland! But he didn't get that homer, and in fact he was hitless in the game. But he did walk twice, and that made him 0 for 1 on the day, and he's batting .500. So, you are still welcome here, George Kottaras!!

The next game will be against those stupid Red Sox so the stands should be full and stuff. Although the weather will be iffy...I wonder how it'll pan out? 7:05 is the start time and THE GAME WILL BE ON WKYC!!! So all of you antenna-heads out there, tune in!

It'll be Justin Masterson versus RHP 3.61. The bats definitely need to get back to Friday & Saturday form if they're to pull this one out - don't count on Masterson keeping the score low. But now that our leadoff man is our home run hero, anything is possible!

See you there!

No Radio Chatter today but my house is super clean. 

All Caught Up!

I don't know what happened but I kept running in to roadblocks from being able to listen to Friday's and Saturday's game. I mean, I know what happened - I was out - but what happened that suddenly made me so popular?

Friday was Eddie Izzard at the Palace and man - if you haven't been out to Playhouse Square lately, go there! You can actually get dinner beforehand and drinks after at a variety of places. And there's an outdoor chandelier!

I tried to listen to Friday's game on Saturday but I got halfway through and it was time for Saturday's game. Then I fell asleep. Then I went to my friend's birthday cookout. Life is so complicated!

But I did get Saturday's game listened to, and half of Friday's and it's pretty cool - they didn't need me to win!

Friday was Kluber's game, and anyone can tell you that he doesn't need any help. He keeps slowly and quietly matching and breaking pitching records. According to Jordan Bastian:

Kluber's name now resides alongside some of the all-time great arms in Cleveland's long and storied history. With his 12 strikeouts on Friday, Kluber joined Dennis Eckersley (1976), Bob Feller (eight times), Sam McDowell (eight times) and Herb Score (1956) as the only pitchers over the past 100 years to strike out at least 60 batters in a single calendar month.

So there's that - 12 strikeouts, and a record alongside 4 of the biggest names in Tribe pitching history. How's that make you feel, Klube?

He pitched 7 1/3 on Friday so he just needed a little tidying afterwards from Zep (1 strikeout) and Cody Allen (2 strikeouts). They made it look easy!

Saturday was Trevor Bauer and he is proving to be the real deal now. He had a quality start with 6 innings, 2 earned runs and 8 strikeouts.

The Indians struck out the Rockies 26 times on Friday and Saturday, while the Rockies only struck out the Indians 10 times. Are the Rockies a high strike-out team? Actually, no - they are last in the NL for strikeouts (meaning they have the fewest). The Indians are third last in the AL for strikeouts, but 28th overall. Now you know.

Anyway, so, Scott Atchison - something happened cuz he gave up a homer then 2 guys got on so he left with 1/3 of an inning and 1 run scored. But then Josh Outman came in and on one pitch gave up a 3-run homer so Atchison got 2 more runs tacked on and Outman one. They had to bring in Bryan Shaw to save that mess, and then also pitch the 8th. And he did and it was good.

Cody Allen was all fancy closer today, coming in with just a 1-run lead. He walked one guy but the other 3 went quietly. Ballgame!

The offense was back to doing their thing, getting 21 hits and 12 runs (half price pizza RIGHT NOW!! And tomorrow) in these two games! After going a bunch of games without extra-base hits, the team had 3 doubles and a homer Friday night, and 2 more homers on Saturday! Even with all of those hits, neither game was an "everybody hits" game. Ha!

Michael Bourn had ended his little hitting streak the other day in Chicago, but he's back hitting again and put up 3 hits in these 2 games. He's got 16 hits over his last 10 games, in fact! No stolen bases, but he is hitting .288 so that's cool. Stay healthy, man!

OMG ASDRUBAL!!! I think I have missed all but one of Asdrubal's homers this year. Weird, right? I mean, he only has 4....but still, I think I missed 3 of them. Friday he got a 2-run jobby, and went 1 for 4 on the night. He's batting second right now, for what it's worth. Also coming out of a bit of a slump - we hope! Saturday he got a hit also, but he had 4 LOB...which sadly is what he's known for these days.

Michael Brantley (.303) is also getting in to the record books, by having the longest home hitting streak at Progressive/Jacobs field. His ended at 19 (he didn't get a hit Saturday) after breaking the 18-game record held by Kenny Lofton and Robby Alomar. The Municipal Stadium record is a bit higher, at 27 and the team record (I suspect spanning a couple stadiums) is 30. He got his 12th double on Friday and that was his only hit. He did come around to score twice!

Jason Kipnis is back in the lineup, batting 4th and he wasted no time getting hits, going 2 for 4! No runs or RBI but what are you gonna do? He came in to pinch hit on Saturday, got a walk and hustled in to score the winning run in the 8th!

Raburn was DH on Saturday and he is not doing well at all. Oh Raburn...we all have so much hope for you!

Gomes was moved up to 5th on Saturday, after an unproductive Friday, and he went 2 for 4 with a run scored!

Lonnie Chisenhall...

...Yes, him. He is just f'n amazing! He went 2 for 4 with a double (his team-leading 15th) and 2 RBI. Then Saturday he went 2 for 3 with a homer (his 3rd of the season and 3rd in 10 games), 3 RBI and 2 runs scored. Saturday he was batting 8th because, why not? Why not score a ton of runs at the end of the lineup?! Oh yeah and he got his homer off a lefty today. He has only had like 14 at-bats against lefties this year but he's batting over .500 against him.

Lonnie every day, y'all!! People like to point out that he's not the best 3rd baseman, but neither is Santana and he is hitting like .200 higher Santana. And if we look at errors this year, Nick Swisher is not the best 1st baseman and Asdrubal is not the best shortstop but there they are. Every day. EVERY DAY!!!

Jesus Aguilar has been playing 1st while Swisher is out being old. Aguilar is humongous which is what you like in a first baseman (at least that's why they told me I was on first). He's still getting his shit together when it comes to the plate, but he's not much worse than Swisher right now. A few points worse, but I think the more he plays and the more he sees MLB pitching he'll fit in fine. He didn't get a hit Friday, but Saturday he went 1 for 2 before getting Kipnis as a PH.

David Murphy, good guy that he is, got hits both Friday and Saturday including a double. He came in to score both nights!

Mike Aviles didn't play Friday but Saturday he was back to being awesome! He seems kind of streaky - kind of like Matt LaPorta (which you will have from a bench player). But unlike LaPorta he is definitely more "on" than "off." In Saturday's game he got a 3-run homer in the 2nd, got a single in the 6th, and it was Aviles who got the winning RBI in the 8th when he got a single through the right side to score Lonnie from second. Viva Aviles!

All of Saturday's 7 runs came from the guys batting 8th and 9th. Cool!

Sunday is going to be a 1:05 start, Tomlin versus RHP 5.20. Wow, the scales are tipped HEAVILY in our favor on this one - now let's just hope that the whole team is on board with keeping up this hitting.

See you there!

Sorry for the slim pickin's on the Radio Chatter. I didn't hear anything that great! But the one quote I got was pretty good, I thought.

Radio Chatter:
"Something's gotta give this weekend. Will it be the Indians' strikeout staff or will it be the Rockies offense putting the ball in play?"
- Tom Hamilton

My Tribe is Just So GOOD!

Travis Hafner, can you BELIEVE it? Five hits, two homers, seven RBI in just 5 games back after a MONTH off. Might he be the Supernatural one? Just unbelieveable.

Josh Tomlin? Also so good. He's never gone fewer than 5 innings in a Major League game (it used to be 6 but whatever...) Tonight he only gave up 3 runs, which is just fine for most any team and especially fine for this team when hitting. Two solo homers, too, which he really likes to do. Of the 8 games in which he's given up homers, in 5 of them he gave up two.

The fuckin' BULLPEN?! Guess who has ERAs under 2.0? Smith, R. Perez, Pestano, Sipp. That's who. Magic stuff tonight from Pestano, Sipp and Perez - 6 strikeouts for 2.2 innings. Oh Chris Perez, I knew you couldn't just shake off last night's misstep to Seth Smith. You brought the Rage for sure tonight! MOW 'EM DOWN! Well, except Seth Smith. But everyone else, consider yourself mowed!

Grady Sizemore! Are you wearing kneepads now? I hope you're wearing kneepads. But, anyway, getting a hit and an an RBI. Yeah!

Asdrubal, Buck and CHOOOO! with doubles tonight! So nice to see Travis Buck sliding right in to place here.

I don't think I addressed it yesterday, but Orlando is playing 3rd during this series. I forget why they said they were doing that, other than "Just to see." I forget what they are trying to see. He didn't do so well yesterday. Well, I mean, he didn't just fall over and die like Jhonny Peralta did sometimes but he was no Supermanahan out there.

Supermanahan, by the way, as at first.

Acta did this big switcheroo in the 8th. See if you can follow:
- Marson replaces Phelps (2B) in the lineup but Santana (C) on the field.
- Santana goes to 1st
- Hanahan goes to 3rd
- Orlando goes to 2nd

Is that what Manny wanted to "see" if it could be done?

I knew we had this game in the bag tonight, no problemo. After the way we played the last couple games, and the difference between the two starters, I saw it coming a mile away.

We're 1 game ahead of the Tigers as we go out to the West Coast. Going out to face the Giants who are on a 6-game skid. The Tigers are off to face Arizona who lead the NL West. Could be an awesome road trip for us, but it is 9 games in NL parks - meaning no designated hitter.

Hafner will bat once a game I'm sure, but yowza...let's hope that this doesn't set anyone back.

I guess the pitchers are looking forward to hitting. I look forward to it, sort of - if we've got enough of a lead. I don't think we'll see Chris Perez hit, though. Dammit!

Ok so we've got tomorrow off, and you all need to get some rest because it'll be a late one Friday (10:15) and then ... the schedule has changed since I synched with my Google Calendar. The game is at 4:10 on Saturday AND it's on Fox TV. Sunday it's at 8:05 on ESPN!

Anyway, make sure you get your schedule all fixed so you don't miss a minute. I know I will!

Radio Chatter:
"I asked Orlando Cabrera how he liked playing third base, and he just shook his head."
- Tom Hamilton

"He either caught a spike or he simply had a brain cramp."
- Tom Hamilton on Hammel's balk

"He twisted so hard he almost spun into the ground!"
- Mike Hegan on Hafner's home run swing

"A year ago, the Indians were 13.5 games out of first. And 20 games below .500. What a turnaround!"
- Tom Hamilton

"And the Tribe bullpen is still shutting them down. What else is new?"
- Tom Hamilton after the top of the 8th

"Boy, Choo hit a 2-iron that just didn't get high enough!"
- Tom Hamilton

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

Wow what a cool baseball game! It felt very tense. Of course, my very large (and wet from swimming) dog growling trying to sit in my lap for half the game probably added to the overall tenseness of the night. That and the lightning.

It was just a nice little matchup for two closely-matched teams. The pitchers weren't as evenly matched, but neither of them "blew it."

Talbot only managed 6.1 innings and gave up 3 runs and only struck out 2.

Conversely, Rockies pitcher Jhoulys Chacin struck out 7 but also walked 8 so our patience chased him off after 6.2 as well with 115 pitches. He actually had a no-hitter through 6 but then walked two and CHOOOOOO! got the team's first hit and first RBI!

So it's 3-1 Rockies in the bottom of the 8th. A storm is rolling in, with thunder and lighting in the distance. Chacin is gone and Rafael Betancourt comes on. The slowest pitcher they've got, oddly enough. Possibly slow enough to allow the storm to shut down this official game.

But, there was a glimmer of that April magic when 3 singles in a row (Phelps, Asdrubal, Hafner) scores a run and still no outs. Then a pitching change. Then two outs. O noes!

Then Travis Buck, of all people, snaps an 0 for 24 slump and gets himself an RBI single to right. The game is tied! The storm is coming! Hurrah!

Ah, but, after 30 innings of scoreless work, the bullpen gives up a run. Chris Perez gave up a homer after not giving up a homer all year. BUMMER.

The last inning was still pretty fun, though. Still lightning and thundering out here, the dog panting wildly and drooling on my feet, cracks of thunder fuzzing out the radio reception. Two outs and it's Sunday's hero Cord Phelps! Oh hey he gets a triple! Yaaaaay!

Now Asdrubal's up. Yaaaay! But he walks. Not intentionally but intentional enough.

The Questionable Call of the night goes to Manny Acta for pulling Hafner in the 8th for a pinch runner (Everett, .228) and then putting Kearns (.207) in to hit. Kearns isn't the questionable call, pulling Hafner is. No Shelley Duncan anymore, ya see.

And then the game was over.

But! The storm continues and my dog continues to moan, I've had a couple Benadryl and a Goji White Grape popsicle and all in all I am pretty happy with tonight's game. I was listening to it thinking about the people I know who can't get in to baseball or sports in general and wonder if they know what they're missing. I've never felt this much emotion watching The Office. How can they like Firefly so much and not Cleveland baseball?

Weirdos.

Anyway this is the sort of game that The Positive Tribe is founded on, because even though we did a lot of losing last season there were tons of cool games like tonight. I'm happy to spend a night listening to this kind of baseball.

Lou Marson got his second (second!) triple, by the way and also threw out a guy at second. Still loving him behind the plate.

And Asdrubal went 1 for 2 with 3 walks, 2 runs scored and his 12 stolen base.

Amen.

Ooooh, I just heard that Chris Perez is going to be on WTAM in the post-game show in a bit. Great, gotta hear what he says. Gives me something to do while waiting for this damn storm to pass, because the dog has made it clear that going to bed is not in the plans.

Tomorrow's at 7:05 and I think it's going to be a great game again. This one we have a real chance of winning too! See you then!

Radio Chatter:
"Pronkville is begging for a souvenir."
- Tom Hamilton

"People listen to these games and they actually believe you guys! I pay for that in the offseason!"
- Jim Rosenhaus taking Mike Hegan to task for suggesting that he was wearing pink high heels

"Chacin is walking around the mound thinking to himself 'Why can't I throw strikes over the corners of the plate?'"
- Tom Hamilton on Chacin's multiple walks

"Those 'All You Can Eat Seats' ... great time to go to the ballpark and then get a physical the next day."
- Tom Hamilton

"The way the wind is blowing now, it'll be easier to rally from behind."
- Tom Hamilton puts a positive spin on the impending storm

"They put a 'no doubles' defense on at Coors Field and doubles will be dropping in everywhere."
- Tom Hamilton

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