Hafner, History and Helpful Hints

Beautiful.

So the Tribe went out with a whimper, not a bang. Well there were bangs - 5 of them actually - but none off our bats.

David Huff lost his shit for real and gave up 3 homers and 3 earned runs. "Luckily" for him, Lonnie had a big error and so did Hannahan so there were 4 un-earned runs. Still it was 7 to nothing when he left.

Then Vinnie of all people lost his shit later on and gave up 2 home runs. Can you imagine?! He looked like he wanted the mound to open up and swallow him alive when the second batter in a row went yard. He actually didn't finish his inning and had to be taken out. He got a standing ovation when he left and I HOPE my 18,092 companions were cheering for the same reason I was - to say "it's ok Vinnie, please come back and be awesome next year."

Sandy got a ton of love tonight, seeing as how he had to come out like 5 times to switch pitchers. He got almost a standing ovation every time! I'm pretty sure he was blushing.

What do you think about the manager thing? Between Alomar and Francona. I honestly do not envy whoever has to make the decision. Francona clearly has the experience and the know-how and would be an absolute all-star for us. Sandy is un-proven (and why was he passed over so much by other teams?) but the fans go bananas for him. Heck I want to win as much as the next person but I go bananas for Sandy over Francona too. Who knows? Sandy could actually be an amazing manager and could take a team to the top. But it's a gamble. It'll be a head versus heart decision. I actually think it's going to end up being Alomar because he's got the marketing edge, seriously. Plus the players seem really in to it. And if the players are in to it then they will make him look good.

So, Viva del Santo! Expect tons more of that song from me next season.

Speaking of standing ovations, Travis Hafner had a bit of a night tonight. He got a standing O on his first at-bat, lots of claps on his second, crazy excitement for his third when he got a hit (presumably his final as an Indian) and an honest-to-goodness freak-out on his fourth and final at-bat. He tipped his hat to the crowd before stepping in, which was totally awesome. I was standing there with my camera out and ready but I was too busy cheering to take a picture, so all I got was him putting his hat back on. Duh. Here's my Pronk pics from tonight though:

Travis Hafner on deck

Getting his hit in the 4th.

Putting on his hat after tipping said hat.

Final at-bat.

Final ball in play.

It was not fun at all to watch this, to be honest. It was way too close to pet euthanasia  or something. I've always liked Hafner - he basically replaced Thome for me as our home-town heavy hitter. He filled the place in my heart that Thome left when he left town. But all baseball players must end their career in Cleveland sometime...sigh.

It was also awkward thinking that it'd be the last time we see Choo (hopefully not!) and maybe Jack (who played first) and Kotch (who didn't play but still signed stuff before the game cuz he's classy). I was right there in the front. It was the definition of bittersweet.

In other not-so-depressing news, Miguel Cabrera got the Triple Crown today. It's mind-bogglingly exciting considering what a feat it is, how rare it is (15 ever) and how long it's been since baseball had a Triple Crown winner (1967). There are fewer Triple Crown winners than perfect game pitchers. There are fewer Triple Crown winners than perfect game pitchers!!! 

Also tonight I said "low-carb be darned!" and got my favorite food at the ballpark - the Signature Steak sandwich from the Food Channel booth at section 172. I also got my other favorite food - fresh cut fries from Spuds & Suds at section 163. I did NOT get my other other favorite food, the cotton candy, because I had to drive home. But seriously if you like cotton candy I highly recommend the cotton candy at Progressive Field. It has fruity flavors not just "dye"!

I also was intrigued by the "Triple Mix" of popcorn (butter, cheese and caramel corn) at the stand at section 175 so I grabbed me some of that. Pretty good but their cheese corn is TOO good and TOO cheesy. It would have been better as just a mix of caramel and butter. My dog totally totally loved it, though!

Another thing I tried this year that was so-so was the fried Snickers. I decided that you can't really make a Snickers bar taste bad so frying it doesn't make it taste bad - it just doesn't add $3.50 worth of taste. I did enjoy the overall taste better than the fried cookie dough and the fried Twinkie (tried those last year) but I think that's because I enjoy Snickers more than those things.

Oh yeah I also tried the Po Boy, which is ok I guess except I don't actually like bbq pulled pork, which is a good portion of what a Po Boy is. So WTG me! My friend got one and he ate his right up so I can say it's not BAD.

Two other food things from this year that I hope stick around next year - the discount refills and the $8 Classic Combo. Over 14 games I think I saved like $30 on pop by remembering to bring my refill cup back. I forget how much a pop costs cuz I keep getting the refill, so I don't know how much I actually saved. But it worked for me. I didn't get the combo (carbs) but my friends usually did and it's just a darn good deal.

Two thumbs up for the deals! Let's see them again next year!!

Oh also, speaking of food - if you can eat I highly recommend snagging some club seats at least once in the year. You will more than make up the cost of the tickets in food. You may make it up in soda alone. And it's GOOD food, not just stale nachos or something. Pass up the "All You Can Eat Seats" and go Club. Here's my post from the 4th of July about the seats. Do it!

Two more things to share with you about going to games. First is parking. The deck next to the field is only $12. There are parking lots further away that cost more! And they're not as secure. If you get there soon enough, always try the deck first. If the deck is full, swing over to Prospect and 8th (across from the Winking Lizard) where it's only $10, or $8 on slow nights. I've never seen that deck fill up and it's a quick walk in to the stadium. There's actually another deck right next to it that's the same price, and a tiny little lot closer to the Q (still off Prospect) that's only $10 too.

The other thing is Perfect 10 Voucher packs. I give these a thumbs down. Having to stand in line to get tickets is stupid. Just stupid. Yes you do save some money on fees and maybe it helps "force" you to go to games but the new Ticketmaster ticket buying system is AWESOME. You get to choose your exact seats from a map and stuff. It's sort of actually worth the fees to be able to get it all taken care of before you hit the ballpark.

One thing I will say, though - the cheap seats at Progressive Field, which are the upper half of the bleachers and the upper half of the upper deck - are awesome seats. They're like $10 too, with or without vouchers. If you're taking a fidgety kid to the game, get those. Even if you want to sit and watch the game intently, get those. Only bad seats in the park are deep in right and center, I say. Everything else rocks.

Hmmm what else? Oh yeah - there's a service now where you can buy stuff from the day's game, like bases. Seriously! And they're not too crazy expensive - like $150. That's about all the recon I managed to get on the situation, other than the place to do it is a booth outside the main Team Shop. But I think that's pretty awesome and I have to remember to do it some day.

Also don't forget that if you go to a game and it's your first game stop at a Fan Services booth and get a first game certificate. I doubt you have to be a kid to get one, by the way. Also there is some sort of game passport book thingy but I never got a grasp on that this year. I should have - I went to a lot of games! If anyone knows, tell me.

I guess that's it, then. My impression on 25 games in 2 years (14 this year!) and some stuff I learned, and ruminations on the last game of the season.

Oh yeah I surpassed 20,000 views some time in the past month so that's cool - I hadn't reached 10,000 yet by the end of last season so I guess I'm picking up steam. Got a couple of good links in, snagged a ton more Twitter followers and had like uh...33 comments. Kind of low on comments compared to last year but I did get some re-Tweets and whatnot so whatever.

Oh hey if you have a swell transistor radio like I do, it's time to flip over from AM to FM. On my radio, AM 1100 shares the dial position with FM 87.7 which is a mind-blowingly awesome new radio station for people who were in to the latest music incarnation of 92.3 before it went sports, and 107.9 "The End" from back in the day. Holy cow, boffins - I'm totally listening to a transistor radio during the day because it's so good! Dig it!

All right so I'll hit you up soon with a recap of Hammy and Rosie from this year. Probably next week. Until then, everyone leave a comment, ok? So I feel like doing this again next year.

See you in April! 

Good night!

Radio Chatter:
"I know many of you want to know when they're coming to town so you can get tickets for Christmas..."
- Tom Hamilton on the Houston Astros

"This ballclub is playing for him like they are trying to make the statement 'We want this guy as our manager.'"
- Tom Hamilton on Sandy Alomar

"Is it true you get the car for the winter of no one wins here?"
- Jim Rosenhaus on the grand slam bonus inning

"I have a feeling, Rosebud, with a 7 to nothing score we're going to be seeing a lot of first-pitch swinging. Guys want to get out of here. [...] The White Sox have already ordered a pizza. They scheduled the delivery for 9:30."
- Tom Hamilton

"This shift might be more productive if they took the two outfielders and put them in the upper deck in right and right center."
- Tom Hamilton

"I don't know Rosie - I like Detroit. Which probably means they'll get swept in 3 games."
- Tom Hamilton on the playoffs

"It's been a great summer, we had a lot of laughs along the way. Glad I could be there for you!"
- Jim Rosenhaus, the straight man

"You Cleveland Indians fans are what makes this the best job in the world. We appreciate your support and we look forward to talking to you next spring!"
- Tom Hamilton

Good Game, Greasemonkey!

Today was a nice game to show off our "team spirit" I think. Our ace pitcher was ace. Our crazy closer was nuts. Our slick star was starry. Our veteran big basher had a big bash. And in the end it was all the young kids who came around to win it.

Now, inbetween all that stuff it was kind of gut-wrenching having to listen to 1-1 baseball for the second-to-last game. One would want nothing else but to see a lot of action from both teams.

But we did get one thing we wanted and that is one more quality start from Masterson. He went 6 today and only gave up one earned run (a homer) on 4 hits and struck out 5. So...good. Bring that back with you next year, ok?!

If we were REALLY lucky we'd have Smith and Pestano pitch their two perfect innings (close - Vinnie gave up 2 hits) and then Perez shut it down but that didn't happen. He walked a guy then gave up a 2-run homer. Oops! Not a good day for him to be doing that. Then he beaned a guy up near the ear and all of Chicago (well, half of Chicago but all of the White Sox) gave him an earful. After the inning was over, he ran over to the guy he hit (and we all said "Uh oh...") and apologized and told him he didn't mean to hit him and they were cool.

He also apologized sort of for ripping on the management and basically said that Manny Acta was his problem. Huh. Dude definitely is the classic "bad boy" boyfriend - he keeps doing shitty stuff then getting out of it with sweet words.

Anyway I hope we still got Perez next year. He's our only excitement. And his intro graphics/music is awesome! I hope to see him tomorrow at the game, too.

So the White Sox's starter was pitching a no-hitter for a while until Choo broke that up with a homer in the 4th, and that was the only thing he gave up until Kipnis walked in the 7th. They brought him back in the 9th, after 104 pitches, and he proceeded to give up a single to Surprise Brantley...

Surprise!

...and then a 2-run homer to surprise Hafner!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! How cool was that, seriously? I hopped! I hooted! It was fun fun times!

I bet Chris Perez hollered loudest!

After that there were 3 more innings in which Barnes, Rogers and Seddon didn't give up any runs. All three have been pretty solid lately really. Barnes hasn't even given up a hit in 5 appearances. Rogers did have an upset yesterday but everybody had an upset yesterday. He pitches hard, too. Chris Seddon improves every time we see him. And - hair!

We did manage to get 5 hits off the Chicago relievers after getting just 3 off the starter. Jason Donald, who was in for Brantley who was in for Lillibridge who was in for the injured Brantley at center (work with me here) got a double in the 10th but Other Vinny couldn't hit him in.

The top of the lineup did nothing in the 11th or 12, and it was Chisenhall the second batter in the 12th who got on with a single. Then the Death Knell For Other Teams was sounded and they intentionally walked Russ Canzler. I have a small and un-tested (laziness) theory that most of the times other teams have put our guys on, it ends up costing them. I know it happened when I was at that Detroit game in September and I am pretty sure it happened again and oh yeah it happened tonight!

After Hannahan struck out (remember when he was our "clutch guy"?) Jason Donald - the greasemonkey! - got an RBI single and won the game!

Way to go greasemonkey!

You should watch the video, it's very feel-good. He tags first then runs towards the mob with his helmet off instead of waiting for the mob to come to him. He is very excited! Too bad it's not the last play of the last game but whatever - I'm excited to see what we'll do tomorrow!

Tomorrow I'll be at the game down by the plate. Probably will bring OMG ASDRUBAL!!! with me cuz why not? Look for us on TV! It'll be David Huff versus RHP (4.47). No problem, right? It's gonna be a real good time I think and I'm going with my bestie so you know we're gonna have fun no matter what!

See you there!!

Radio Chatter:
"Somebody tried to catch that [foul] ball and...somebody will be in a cast tomorrow."
- Tom Hamilton

"Ya hang a slider and this guy will make it 2-1 Chicago."
- Tom Hamilton on Dan Johnson

"This isn't exactly Usain Bolt but it's Jose Lopez pinch running for Dan Johnson."
- Tom Hamilton

"You could tell the hitter it's a slider and they wouldn't have a chance with this one the way Rogers is throwing it."
- Tom Hamilton

"Free Guinness for everybody if Hannhan ends it here!"
- Tom Hamilton in the 12th

No Alarms and No Surprises, Please

I can't believe I did it. I came home and I read the box score and even after that I flipped to the audio archive and sat here and listened to today's game. I had to, though. I had to hear how that 4 hours and 10 minutes of baseball went down. Because really, it was pretty much the best baseball we've played on this road trip. It was a great game. It was full of surprises!

Surprise 1: The new guy, Chris Seddon, could have been much worse. Yes 4 runs in 4 innings but he was better out of the gate than Corey Kluber.

Surprise 2: Christ on a cracker - Ezequiel Carrera! I was saying yesterday how it was fun to watch him go but I didn't think it would last. But here he is continuing on - 3 for 5 with a HOMER.

Surprise 3: Josh Tomlin just killing the 9th inning. The game was supposed to be over after Jackson's lead-off triple. No. Josh Tomlin said no.

Surprise 4: Travis Hafner hitting a home run. Yeah I know technically that's what we pay him to do but he doesn't lead the team in homers. And this team doesn't do comeback wins anymore. And he was hurt just yesterday. Him getting a 2-run bomb to un-tie it in the 10th is a total, TOTAL surprise.

Surprise 5: Chris Perez spectacularly blowing everything at the end. If you've been around past the 1st game of the season you know that doesn't happen. You know that after Vinnie Pestano, Chris Perez is the most sure thing on this team. Giving up one run when we've got a 2+ run lead? Always. Giving up 5 to lose a game in the 10th? Ne.ver. I'll guarantee you no one is more surprised than Chris Perez. I would hate to be a wall fixture in the visitor's clubhouse tonight.

The surprises were all good, except for the one that was really, really bad. You can't even imagine how hard it was to get to that 10th inning for me, listening to the archive. Like waiting for "that moment" in Old Yeller.

Anyway, on to the game.

Seddon started. Here's a picture of him pitching:

I happened to catch some of the game on TV today and I was all "wow we got our own Lincecum!" You know - tall, skinny, hair. Turns out he's 5" taller than Tim and not nearly as stupid looking - he just happens to have long hair. I don't get out much.

He gave up 4 runs to a team that had 3 starters batting over .300. So far he's just as good or better than the dude he replaced (Lowe). Hopefully every start is a little better. His line was 7 hits and 4 runs in 4 1/3, 2 strikeouts and 3 walks. Only one home run.

Manny threw the entire contents of the bullpen up there today. Here's another small surprise: the only guy other than Perez to give up a run was SMITH. Not Sipp, not Accardo, not even Tomlin. Joe Smith, I'm sure, is equally surprised.

The arms we saw were Allen (still pitching 0.00!), Sipp (still under 5!), Smith, Pestano (still calls your mom!), Tomlin and Perez. Pestano went 2 innings and struck out 3 because he is a man.

I don't have to go over Perez's inning. You got the gist.

Here's another surprise (THEY DON'T STOP!) - on a day when everyone was getting in to the act, and a day when he got 6 at-bats, Jason Kipnis did nothing. No walk, no sac fly, no nothing. He struck out twice and otherwise hit in to outs. I am totally wearing my We Are All Kipnises t-shirt to the game tomorrow because clearly the JK Kid needs some inspiration.You should tweet him.

Nice game for Asdrubal who went 2 for 6 and came in to score 2 runs. One of his hits was a double, his 24th. He also stole 2 bases which give him only his 3rd and 4th for the season. Ever since he pulled a little trick some time just before the break by dancing around at 3rd and coming home to score, he seems to be concentrating a little more on his running game. He's scheming to try to make it work. I think he's been caught stealing and caught trying to stretch out a single a couple times since then but perhaps today he's broken through a barrier of some sort.

Choo wasn't seeing it today, going 1 for 5 with 2 strikeouts. But when he DID see it was when he Scherzer deep in the 3rd for a solo homer! I seen it on TV! They took him out in the 9th during that Tomlin madness to put in Lopez to have a 5-man infield. I am pretty sure that was a good decision because the batter ended up grounding in to an inning-ending double play. You never like to lose your Choo but this time - what fun!

After being shut down last night, Santana was back in full force today going 2 for 4 with 2 runs and an RBI. He also walked. He's walked in 6 of his last 8 games and gotten 7 hits. Keep going!

Brantley was smoothin' it out today, going 3 for 4 with his 31st and 32nd doubles. Still not ahead of Choo but still squarely in 3rd place! He also got an RBI and a walk. Finally his average is moving again, up to .293. He now leads the team! (Leads amongst qualifying players. Zeke's average is .583 but that's just over 3 games!)

Once gain with the baby power is Travis Hafner (see Hannahan, Choo, Damon, Duncan) who went 3 for 5 today after coming off baby leave and then a day of a sore back. Before he got his homer to crush Detroit in the 10th he got a RBI single in the first and one in the seventh. He also struck out twice. But all of that together is exactly what every team wants their DH to do. Fan-friggin-tastic day for Pronk!

You don't expect your fast little rookie outfielder to do the same. He also went 3 for 5 with a homer and 2 strikeouts today. And he stole a base. How does this happen?? He's now 7 for 12 since he got here. Way!

Brent Lillibridge was in for Hannahan and struck out 3 times before Manny realized we were still in this game, so he put Jack in for the 7th and Jack ended up going 1 for 2 with a run scored. That's nice to see - being able to make effective changes in a lineup like that.

Laser Lou was back today. Not only did he go 2 for 5 but he caught a guy stealing and presumably shut down their base-stealing game because nobody else tried. Marson's only caught 6 this year and has let 42 go. It's crazy because he got 30 of the buggers last year! Ah well - nice to see him snag one today, hopefully it will be a trend! His last hit was an RBI double that put us up 3 runs in the 10th, so he was just contributing all over today!

So yeah it ended in deafening heartache. We've lost a team-record-setting 9 games on the road and a season-high 9 games in a row. But what are you going to do? Not tune in tomorrow? There are 54 games left - 1/3 of the season. We've got new players to watch develop and original players pledging to only do better. Yeah, we're probably out of the playoffs but it's Cleveland, bitches. It's not within your idiom to get what you desire.

Just remember to love baseball, because when it's cold and dark and the Browns are doing no better than the Tribe is now due to a complete lack of linebackers, you will miss it.

I'm off to the game tomorrow (7:05, McAllister versus Twins LHP) so post will be late. Gonna be rockin' the top of the bleachers I hope. Anyone else going? I'll see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Marson was out by anywhere from 15 to 20 feet."
- Tom Hamilton on Marson trying to be a hero in the 2nd

"If either team was going to be on edge this weekend you'd think it'd be the Indians."
- Tom Hamilton on Jim Leyland getting tossed in the 2nd

"You don't get a really good feeling watching Chris Seddon today, from the standpoint of the Tigers are having really good at-bats."
- Tom Hamilton

"After he hit it he thought it may go out but then he remembered where he was and took off."
- Jim Rosenhaus on Fielder's long fly out in the 5th

"If you're hitting .179 you'd better be able to get a bunt down."
- Tom Hamilton on Brent Lillibridge

"One win could change everything."
- Tom Hamilton

"Talk about inheriting an explosive situation."
- Tom Hamilton on Vinnie being brought in with 2 on and no out

"Is this how Russell Crowe felt in the final scene of Gladiator?"
- Tom Hamilton on Tomlin's 9th inning

"It's as if that home run by Hafner lifted a weight off the club mentally."
- Jim Rosenhaus

"I mean if you gave this script to Hollywood they'd say 'Nah, sorry - we don't deal in make-believe.'"
- Tom Hamilton when the game is tied in the 10th

"How about all of those people who left the ballpark early now probably pounding their dashboards, driving to the suburbs of Detroit? Indians fans have probably driven off the road."
- Tom Hamilton

"There's gotta be another word other than 'unbelievable.'"
- Tom Hamilton's last word

Surreal

I have to admit, I did not see that coming. Surely you did not either. Losing 11-0 to the worst team in the AL after beating the best pitcher in the AL just doesn't seem possible. But it was and it happened and it was real.

I'll also admit that I watched the Olympic Opening Ceremony with the Tribe game going on in my ear. And the Opening Ceremony was even more surreal than the Indians game, I kid you not. Steampunk Branaugh, parachute Queen, Mary Poppins army, Mr. Bean in Chariots of Fire, bicycle birds and a lengthy dance tribute to socialized medicine. THIS IS ALL REAL!

All in all I was pretty glad that I had something so crazy to take my mind off what was happening here.

What happened here was that Josh Tomlin lost his shit, then Jeremy Accardo lost his shit too.

Cody Allen did not lose his shit, and other than Hafner's two hits that was the best thing that happened in the game.

We got 3 hits, yo. Yesterday we got 10. No walks today, and 6 strikeouts. Yes, even Choo. Even Kipnis. YES GUYS, ALL OF THEM!!!

I don't know what this game means and I also don't know what a flaming cauldron in the middle of an Olympic stadium means but I suspect we'll find out more tomorrow.

Oh don't forget the other weird things that happened today - the Browns were sold and it rained for longer than 15 minutes. I am soooo ready for tomorrow...

Tomorrow is Masterson versus RHP. Masterson is good again now, right? That's what I thought. That's what we're gonna see tomorrow.

I'll see you there - if the 100' Captain Hook puppet doesn't get me first!

Radio Chatter:
"It's hard liquor and handgun night at the old ballpark!"
- Tom Hamilton on the Twins' beer chugging contest

Roll Tribe!

Verlander watching Pronk's homer leave the yard

I'm lovin' it, for real!! Do you feel it, boffins? What a great night! The Good Guys never gave up, never gave in, and never crumbled under pressure and showed their potential. THIS is the Tribe I see in my mind before every game. So glad to see them come out the other side of one!

It was a great team effort, so many heroes! First off and most important was Zach McAllister who I think was just brilliant for his age, his experience and his opponent. He gave up 9 hits but none of those hits were to Miguel Cabrera and none of them were a home run for Prince Fielder. He only gave up 2 earned runs (3 total) and SEVEN STRIKEOUTS!! (Verlander only had 4) Plus he went 6 2/3 innings, setting up the terrific trio to follow. No mess inbetween.

Joe Smith finished off the 7th, and we were lucky to get him because he doesn't usually come in when we're losing. But Manny knew the score. Smith was tasked with facing Miggy and threw two pitches, the second of which went to an inning-ending double play. Most important two pitches of Smith's season!

Next was Vinnie who was there to hold what now was a winning score, and hold he did. Three up, three down with two pop outs and a strike out. He's waaaay ahead of the rest of the league with 29 holds (22 for 2nd place). I guess he hurt himself a little bit on Tuesday, pulled a muscle. But he was thankfully better by today.

Perez came in for the 9th and got himself into a jam. He always seems to find his way in to a jam when we have an insurance run or two. But he proved awesome and even though he gave up a double and walked a guy, nobody scored. And he managed to get 4 outs by being a bit screwed over by a double play that wasn't called as such. BALLGAME!!...no, its not! Hahaha!

The top of the order was just aces tonight, doing all the things we know they can do and all the things they had to do to get us the win.

Choo went 2 for 4 with a double, and came around to score 2 runs - as a lead-off man should do!

Asdrubal's light went on in the 7th, after the game was tied. He got an RBI single that was the go-ahead run (and he stretched it in to a double, noticing nobody covering second). OMG!!!! Maybe the proudest I've been of him all season!

Kipnis was totally locked in, going 2 for 2 with a walk, a sac fly and 2 RBI. He left NOBODY on base! He was makin' stuff happen for sure - Justin Verlander can't scare TheJK_Kid!

Michael Brantley almost hit it out of the park 4 times, I swear. Tom Hamilton was under that impression as well. All of his hits went to the track, except the one that dropped in for a single. He never did come around to score, though. I went and peeked in on his hitting streak, though - he's already back to 6 games! I guess I haven't checked in a while. Go Michael! :)

Carlos Santana! How about that?! He was a second too slow getting to 1st base in the 4th inning and could have avoided the double play. Otherwise, he got 2 hits including a double AND a home run! I told you when that guy gets more than one hit, we've got it locked up! He's had 11 hits, 3 homers and 8 RBI in his last 10 games. Back!

[aside]
I think my friend Jen, who hopefully is reading today, hasn't been reading lately because she was under the impression that Carlos Santana sucks. I would just like to point out to her that no he doesn't suck, he was just not playing up to his full potential and recently he has been. He's heating up to what he's supposed to be!
[/aside]

Travis Hafner only got 1 hit tonight and hoooooo boy was it a big one! It wasn't just his second homer in two games, it was the team's second homer in two at-bats! He followed up Santana's dinger with one of his own to tie the game. I don't know if you saw Pronk last night after striking out twice, but he Hulked out a little bit:

(awesome grab from Tom Hamilton Has The Best Home Run Call In All Of Baseball)

Tonight he didn't strike out at all but was also 0 for 2 when he got his bomb. Not striking out is progress!

Since this is The Positive Tribe and not The Angry Tribe I'm going to keep my statements brief on the replacing of Duncan (.224 vs left) with Lillibridge (.083 vs left) in the 8th. Possible maybe a bit better fielder if someone hits one down the line in the top of the inning? Sure. Probably not going to hit in the bottom of the 8th and is likely to strike out? Extremely. Not just Shelley Every Day - now we need to campaign for Shelley All Day! Good grief!

So to recap - Choo scoring twice, Asdrubal tying up the game, Kipnis making many things happen, Brantley keeping a hitting streak alive, Santana with two extra base hits and Pronk with a homer. THIS is the team that they put together a couple years ago, with Kipnis filling in the blank spot. This is the team that can get it done. And if the rest of the lineup can throw some sugar on it (they actually didn't tonight), then even better. If this is our team for the rest of the season, then we are going to be right up there at the end.

But that's too far off. Tonight we celebrate a tremendous victory over the top team in the division and the top pitcher in the league. Hopefully we take this win and roll over and over and over the super-pitiful Twins the next 3 days. I've got a fire in my belly - let's hope these guys do too!

Tomorrow is Josh Tomlin versus LHP in Minnesota at 8:10. It's also the opening ceremony for the Olympics at 7:30. I'm guessing they don't start right at 7:30 and end 40 minutes later...but I really want to see this spectacle so I'm going to have to split my focus between the radio and the TV. Nothing I haven't done before!

So excited to keep this rolling through the weekend - see you there!

PS Welcome to all my new Twitter followers! Sorry that I am no good at Twitter - hopefully you will come and enjoy the blog instead. Drop a line if you love to be positive about the Tribe!

PPS The Tom Hamilton Has The Best Home Run Call In All of Baseball dude was on the ball tonight - got your video right away! Enjoy!

Radio Chatter:
"When it's Justin Verlander on the hill, sometimes a one run lead is a death sentence."
- Tom Hamilton

"He didn't look like any 12 year old you'd ever seen in your life."

- Tom Hamilton on witnessing the young Prince Fielder

"If he had pitched for the Yankees there'd be another statue next to the Statue of Liberty."

- Tom Hamilton on Justin Verlander

"It's like waiting on death row for that call from the governor. Usually that call is not going to come."
- Tom Hamilton on being behind in the count to Verlander

"If you were a betting man you'd be homeless. You would have bet the mortgage on Verlander after 6."

- Tom Hamilton

Painful

Ack! We weren't supposed to lose this bad on the second day. That hurts, but what hurts worse is my favorite guy had 2 errors resulting in at least one unearned run, if not maybe two. And we lost by two.

For what it's worth, Manny Acta is on the radio right now saying that one of Asdrubal's errors wasn't an error and the guy was out, and Jack Hannahan didn't ground out he fouled a ball off his foot. Manny Acta is the first guy to tell you when the team sucks, I take his word for it when he says it's not our fault. After that he says our pitching sucks. Ha!

Derek Lowe did not have his best outing tonight, no sir. He gave up 4 runs in 6 innings, with 8 hits and 3 walks. Huh only 3 walks? Seemed he walked half the guys he faced! He got himself into some jams but also got out of them...just not as fully and completely as Ubaldo seems to be able to do.

The bullpen was actually worthy tonight! Esmil Rogers came in for the 7th and had to throw 25 pitches to get out of it, but he gave up no hits and no runs. Then Cody Allen, the new guy, walked one but got the rest. They brought him in for the 8th to face Miguel Cabrera! And he struck him out! They collected Allen's heart from in front of the mound and put in Sipp to get the next two. He walked Fielder and struck out the next two. Nice!

None of our lineup had a particularly big night. Well except Choo. Choo went 1 for 2 with 2 walks. His only hit was a double giving him 31 on the year, squarely in second place for doubles.

Asdrubal at least got a hit, but he left 3 on. Kipnis didn't hit but he walked.

Brantley also got 1 hit and left 3 on. And all of his outs were huge heartbreakers because they went very far in to right field but never over that damn fence, with all those dudes on base. His one hit was a ground-rule double so technically it went over the damn fence. It just needed help from the ground. He stole 3rd base on indifference and I sort of think the Tigers were like "eh, they never get anyone in from third. Let him go." Sigh.

Hafner, omg...he was a true DH tonight. He struck out 3 times before hitting a homer, but it was a solo homer. Too little too late.

Damon was on from a walk when Casey Kotchman hit his 10th homer of the year. Not only does that put him 4th on the team in homers (and only 2 behind Cabrera and Choo with 12 each) but it ties his 2011 home run total and puts him only 4 under his career-high 14! How does he do it? Nobody expects the Casey Kotchman!

That's all she wrote. The game wasn't as awesome as it could have been. Maybe it would have been more awesome without Asdrubal's errors and a little bias from the umpires. I coulda said it was a valiant effort. But no it was clearly a loss. A painful one.

Tomorrow is Josh Tomlin versus Justin Verlander. If he can give up 8 runs to the National League, we can get some runs for ourselves! Tomlin just has to pitch his mustachioed heart out.

Another 7:05 game and another game on WKYC - See you real soon!

Radio Chatter:
"So the taxpayers built Miami their beautiful new ballpark, and almost right on cue the Marlins are about to blow it up."
- Tom Hamilton is troubled by what goes on in Miami

"Boy the Indians have been begging for trouble tonight, haven't they?"

- Tom Hamilton on the Tribe having two on when Miggy is up

"That has to be the biggest time waster of all time."

- Tom Hamilton on fantasy football

"Verlander can make a guy look like he's swinging a hot dog at the plate some nights."

- Tom Hamilton tying together Verlander and Dollar Dog Night

"It's hard when you're out at first base to raise that right arm. I can see that. ... Just retire."

- Tom Hamilton on umpire Tim McClelland

Yeah, On Paper...

It's true the Tigers are a better team on paper. Fielder, Other Cabrera, Austin Jackson, Verlander-Scherzer-Fister. They're all a few numbers above their Cleveland counterparts.

But so far this year, our team is 6 times better than their team for the number that matters, and that is wins. After tonight we're 6 and 1 against Detroit this season. We've held them to very few runs and have gotten just enough of our own to be better than them not on paper but in real life.

Mark Shapiro said "Yeah, on paper..." to Trivisano today on the radio and I totally agree. Doesn't mean we're a shoo-in for the playoffs by any stretch but if we can keep beating the Tigers at least we've got that going for us this season.

I didn't get to go to the game today or hear it on the radio or even see it completely on TV. I was spending time with my nieces so you can just ZIP IT! I did see the last couple innings and the post-game TV and the post-game radio so I think I got a handle on the whole thing here.

What a start for Ubaldo! Solid stuff - just like Masterson. Hoo boy! When was the last time we had 2 days like this from these two guys? He went 6 and struck out 4, giving up NO EARNED RUNS! They interviewed him after the game and he was very very happy. Aren't we all?

Joe Smith came in for the 7th and it was all gravy until he gave up a walk and then a 2-run, 2-out homer to Cabrera. When it left he banged his hand in to his glove and said "DAMMIT!" Or something along those lines. Whatever you were saying/thinking at the time, he was too.

As a special treat for the fans, we got Vinnie and Pure Rage to finish it out for us. Not sure why we're using them 2 days in a row and basically making them unavailable for tomorrow and maybe versus Verlander but whatever. My brother says Acta knows this was our only chance. Touche!

Vinnie gave up a single and a walk but that was it. He finished it off with nothing else on a total of 12 pitches. Perez got his done in 13. BALLGAME!

Choo didn't get a hit but he's still cookin', getting on base with a walk.

OMG ASDRUBAL!!! There you go buddy, 3 for 4 tonight with a double. But no RBI and no runs? Not cool, rest-of-lineup! That's 5 hits in his last 8 at-bats. Ugh how long until that batting average gets back to over .300, though? Dude has too many at-bats for it to shoot up - it's going to crawl.

By the way, did you notice Asdrubal wears braces? I thought I noticed at the ASG and my bro said he noticed and today we saw them (I rarely ever see games on TV). Googling for a photo, I see that he already had them at least in September of 2011:

From a cleveland.com article, October 2011

I wonder if he's getting his jaw straightened out, like I did when I had braces as an adult. Twice. Because I'm awesome and don't need friends! Although I suppose if you grew up on a dirt farm in Venezuela (I have no idea how he grew up) and sign a big Major League contract then you can do whatever you want to your teeth for fun!

Kipnis was right there behind Asdrubal, makin' stuff happen. Well actually he left 4 guys on base but he did go 1 for 4 on a double and came around to score. And we only won by 1 run so it was very important that he did!

Brantley only went 1 for 4. I cringed.

Santana, on the other hand - WTF? Where have you been? Seriously did someone teach him the sign for "Hey stop moving your foot" and now he doesn't move his foot and he remembers that he's a fantastic hitter? Whatever has prompted him to hit .379 in his last 10 games, I am all for it! Tonight he went 2 for 3 with a run AND a RBI AND he didn't strike out or anything. He got his 17th double. I TOLD you when he multi-hits we win games!

Hafner with a TRIPLE! Check it out! He was as excited as we were that he was safe at third, I tell you what. It was his second triple of the year, of course. He's a runner!

Usually it's a sleepy move to pinch run for your hoss DH in the late innings, but today it seemed like an act of genius on Manny's part to bring in the less-slow Marson with one out. Next up was Aaron "Despicable Me" Cunningham from Anchorage, AK pinch hitting for Johnny "No You Got It" Damon. He laid down possibly this season's most important squeeze bunt and Marson charged down the line, scaring Avila out of catching the ball and that is how the game was won.

Cunningham doesn't get a hit for that, just an RBI. It was an error on Fister.

 Damon did get a hit and it was an RBI single. Slow clap.

Good ol' Casey Kotchman got his hit today to keep up that .230s average. He also made a freakin' fancy play to turn two and end the 5th, so he's still doing exactly what we're paying him for.

I loved today's game and I just can't wait to get to the next two. And they're both on TV! I might actually get to see what some of our bullpen looks like. Perhaps someone has a gold tooth or an 11th finger. I'll let you know.

Plugging away with another 7:05 game - I'll see you there!

When Nothing is Good

Hey y'all! I'm in Shamokin Dam, Pennsylvania. I wish I could tell you it's beautiful but it's been pitch black for like 4 hours now so I haven't seen anything since State College.

They don't have the Indians out here. If you were wondering, you can go about 100 miles east on 80 into Pennsylvania until you no longer get Indians radio (570 AM Youngstown). It was great fun driving around listening to the Tribe game but I only got to hear to the 6th inning. I was looking forward to catching the end here at the hotel but for some reason the radio archive is not available, even though the game's been over for 3 hours.

But, according to the box score...nothing happened. But that's good!

Masterson had a classic game where he dominated the opposition allowing only 5 hits in 7 innings, and striking out as many. And it was a shut-out! He made short work of the Jays too, getting it done in 2:40. He only had to face 25 batters in his 7 innings, with 2 double plays behind him.

Vinnie and Perez came in to finish it off. How fucking nervous do you think Masterson was? I mean, not nervous about Vinnie - he's a hold machine. But Perez....well, I'm a big jerk for thinking maybe it might happen twice in a row. Masterson is NOT a jerk so he probably had the utmost confidence in CP. And he wasn't let down - he got a pop out, a strike out and a ground out. When he wasn't tossing 86 MPH sliders he was firing 96 MPH fastballs down the hole. All fixed!

Not sure how we managed to only get one run off a guy who gave up 17 in his last 2 games, but we did. That run came off the end of Hafner's bat!! It was so unexpected, poor Tom Hamilton barely mentioned it. He didn't have a chance to get revved up or excited or anything. Maybe he didn't think it was going to make it - it was quite high up - but it did and that was the solo shot that won the game!!! I gave it a couple extra exclamation points there, to make up for Hammy's lack of enthusiasm.

Santana actually had a decent game, playing first. He went 1 for 2 with a single an 2 walks. So that's pretty cool.

Get this tho - Michael Brantley got THREE hits! He went 3 for 4, extending his hitting streak to 11. And he got his 25th double. He's hitting .294!!!

On his heels is Sweet Lou who ALSO has a hitting streak of 8 games. He went 1 for 4 and has been hitting something like .400 over this streak. Today we got Lou, Santana and even Kotchman in the game. THAT I like to see! Kotch came in for the 8th. Didn't do anything, though...but, I like to see him keeping limber!

Damon did good. He went 2 for 3 and a stolen base (!). But you know, he still left 2 guys on base so...well, ok...good job, Damon.

Yeah so other than Masterson dominating and Hafner having his swerve back, and Brantley continuing his swerve, that's about it. Glad I didn't stop on the side of the road as the radio was fading out so I could finish the game. Ha! That'd suck...

I don't have any Radio Chatter for ya tonight, sorry. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. I'll still be in PA and I have a thing to do so we'll see if they give me my radio archive or what.

Tomorrow is Ubaldo - think he'll rival Masterson's mastery? He sure could! We're going to need to get our bats back to work, though. He very well could give up 4. Hey! The other guy is Aaron Laffey - neat!

Oh, it's a 1:07 PM game so don't miss it. See you there!

Pronk Smash!

I text with some of my friends during the game, and today I was going to text "I have a feeling Pronk is going to go yard tonight" in the first inning. Even though his other at-bats weren't that productive, I just felt like today he'd Pronk one out of here.

Of course, I didn't text that to anyone even though I thought it, so there is no proof of the level to which I am tuned in to this team. Ah well.

How about that Josh Tomlin?! Nailed it! Seven innings, 2 hits, one run? He's only limited the other team to 1 run in 3 of his 14 games this year. Actually one of those times was 3 starts ago - but in his last 2 starts he gave up 11 in just 9 innings. So this is a huge turnaround for him right now! Wow if we have all 5 of our guys giving up 3 or fewer every game, and we keep hitting like this...this is how we have an amazing second half!

Vinnie and Perez came on for the 8th and 9th. You know what they did! Yeah buddy!

Speaking of Vinnie, here's some shenanigans from the 4th of July:

 

What a joker!

CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! He started off the game with a solo shot, his 9th homer on the season! That's 3 in the last 10 games, where he's been hitting .389. He also stole his 2nd base today (really, that few?) and ended up going 2 for 3 with a walk. Awesome!!

PRONK! Hafner only went 1 for 4 but his 1 was a big one! A solo homer in the 8th (his 7th on the season) which, judging by how the Rays were not hitting and the fact that it was Perez's turn, pretty much ended the game RIGHT THERE.

No Lou today - Acta basically said "Sorry, we hired Santana as our catcher." Sigh. But at least we have a hot backup catcher, and Santana can play first and if nothing else one of them can bat for Hafner. 

Anyway, Santana did something today in the form of getting a hit, going 1 for 4. Good job!

COUSIN MICHAEL! Brantley's back in the swing of things with his second homer in as many games! And in case you didn't know he's got a total of THREE on the season. He's got 11 hits in his last 10 games and tonight he went 2 for 3. Not too many guys got hits tonight and he got 2!

Man - looking at this lineup, we've got 4 guys who are hot and staying there (Choo, Cabrera, Kipnis, Brantley), two guys who are hot when they can play (Marson, Duncan), one guy who is just about to blow up (Hafner) and two guys who are hopefully going to get it going any time now (Hannahan, Santana). If we get this lineup firing on all cylinders, and rotate Marson, Duncan and Lopez in when we can AND the pitching stays like this? Holy smokes!

And don't forget Casey Kotchman, thank you - he went 1 for 2 tonight with a walk. He's got 5 hits in his last 9 at-bats! I just don't know how or where to count on him as a batter. I'm fine with him staying around .230, maybe .250. Just keep doing it at first base!

Aaron Cunningham would also like to not be forgotten. He was the subject of a "15 Questions" TribeVibe blog post today. One of his favorite movies is Despicable Me, he watches it over and over. HA! I've never seen it but now I have to check it out, to get deeper in to the head of Aaron Cunningham.  Anyway, I thought he looked good in right yesterday and today he had a great play from left after he took over for Damon. The radio guy on the post-game show said "no offense to Johnny but there's no way Damon makes that play." Finally, someone agrees with me! (to be fair I don't listen to much post-game anymore. I just can't hang with Bob Frantz anymore. So maybe he dislikes Damon a lot too, I don't know. But Tom Hamilton seems indifferent. Grr!)

You're going to want to check out Tom Hamilton has the Best Home Run call in all of Baseball later on tonight to hear, I think, all 3 homers. I know he called Choo's and Hafner's and since Brantley hit his in the 2nd that should be Hamilton too. Hafner's was great - it was a classic Pronk too. The way the guy does it you get to see the video with Hamilton's audio overlayed. It's a thing of beauty! Don't forget to check it out!

Tomorrow is Masterson versus a righty so there's a pretty good chance we've got this on in the bag. Also the pendulum is swinging towards a better home record, as opposed to how it was early in the season when we weren't doing as well here. Weather? Prolly.

It's a 7:05 game - see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Maybe he just needed to get ou tof the month of June."
- Tom Hamilton on Josh Tomlin pitching better

"Pena's got one thought in mind - he is looking middle-in to rip one out of here and tie the game up."
- Tom Hamilton

Pronknasty

Man oh man, what a night. It was one of those nights that things kept going from bad to worse. Later getting out of work than I wanted. Later getting on the road than I wanted. Got nervous about standing in line to redeem my stupid "Perfect 10" vouchers at the ticket office so I thought "I'll stop at the Beachwood Place Indians Team Shop to get my tickets." Except that doesn't exist. I didn't realize until I sat in traffic trying to get off on Cedar. Then it took forever to get to my friend's place on Coventry. Then our other friend was 15 minutes late. Then I kept getting stuck in traffic and couldn't park in my good garage and had to go to another garage for more money, further away. Then we got to the park and stood in line for a half hour and missed the first 4 innings. Then the lines for food were unbelievably crazy, so I went hungry until I paid $10 for a stupid bottle of pop and peanuts. Then a bird pooped on my shirt, my hat, my sign. Then the kids next to us were obnoxious and threw a hot dog at someone.

But by the end of the 6th inning I was fine. A beautiful Pronk homer. Then three innings of amazing pitching and fan supporting, then cap it off with another warm welcome for Perez and by the time I got to the car I could care less that I was starving, had to pee and had a half hour wait to get out of that expensive garage.

It was kind of like going to church, you know? That's the point of both - to uplift. I think even if we'd lost I'd have come out the other end OK.

Also, those obnoxious kids next to us didn't fuck with me. I dunno if they respected someone with a sign, or someone with a swell hat, or someone that looks like they could have pounded them into oblivion. But they had a nice time sort of heckling other folks around us and the usher, but not me. Word.

I'll admit I was pretty worried about facing Doug Fister, and wasn't sure what to expect from McAllister. I was blown away by him in his first start but his second and third starts yielded more runs. We all knew that we couldn't be giving up runs against Fister.

But McAllister didn't disappoint! He matched Fister on innings (6), strikeouts (3) and earned runs (2). He gave up more hits (8 to Fister's 5) but didn't walk ANYONE. He was going in there and pitching at everyone, man.

Nick Hagadone came in to finish the 7th for McAllister, and he got the bases loaded with the game tied and Miguel Cabrera up next. Eep! Not what we expect from New Nick but before he could give up a (rare) run, Joe Smith came in and took care of Miggy with a groundout. Crowd = wild.

Next inning was started by Sipp versus Fielder and Fielder got on with an error. Sipp was pulled right away - Acta was in full-on chess mode. In came VinneP52 who gave up two singles to load the bases. Game still tied. Crowd going bananas. Strikes out Peralta. Now coconuts. Infield dribbler, throw home for an out - best defensive play of the year. Pooping pineapples. Strikes out All-Star catcher pinch hitter Alex Avila on a 3-2 fastball. We were full-on piña colada by then.

Chris Perez came in for the 9th. Someone had a "HEY CP WE ARE HERE" bedsheet banner in the upper deck. Wild crazy applause for 21 pitches, which fueled Pure Rage to strike out two and cap it off with a pop-out to big Miggy.

Awesome, awesome, awesome!

And that was just the pitching!

Choo ended his streak at 9. Oh well, he'll be back tomorrow. I'm sure no one is more disappointed than Choo himself! No chance to steal or anything.

Finally awake tonight was good ol' Jason Kipnis. The JK Kid leads the team in runs, home runs (tied) and RBI. Where you been, bro? We are back to being Kipnisses! Tonight he went 3 for 4 and scored 2 runs. One of those runs was on Hafner's homer, the other was him basically stealing home on a dribbler to the right of the mound, and getting in safely thanks to a craptacular throw by Prince Fielder. Someone called Fielder "Fatty McButterpants" on Twitter or something. I'm a fatty myself and not a fan of the fat-hate but damn...LULZ!

I dragged my OMG ASDRUBAL!!! sign around all over the place tonight and was rewarded with two chances to use it. One for defense and one for an amazing double in the 9th that got Kipnis to 3rd from where he eventually scored. I also rocked the sign when Asdrubal came down to score next on a sac fly from Santana. And I rocked it so my friends could keep me in their sight on the way out.

It may be time for a new sign, tho - this one is bird pooped. Grr...

Did you know that "Pronknasty" is a word? I was alerted to this by the scoreboard. I guess it shows that I've either been ignoring Twitter or not going to games because I'd not heard it. But the scoreboard applied it to Hafner's RBI dribbler. They did not apply it to his homer in the 6th, however. They called that a Tribe Tater. Seriously...it was brought to you by Mr. Potato Head.

I can run with Pronknasty tho. It's "all over" Twitter if you Google it. You should Google it more, and come here.

Brantley got a nice double, and ODDLY nothing came of it. I say ODDLY because we only had 4 LOB today. I'm going to make the call and say that's the lowest LOB ratio we've had all season. Giving Cousin Michael a smiley for that double, by the way.  :)

Jose Lopez (LOPEZ!) is still tearin' it up, extending his hitting streak to 9. He's batting .283 now. I guess Hannahan was ok to play but not to start. I wonder how long we'll have the Lopez? He proved to be fallible today on the bases - getting caught sleeping at first and making a critical out. We'll blame it on over-excitement, and request that he never do that again.

Shelley Duncan came in for Pronk in the 8th. I guess he sort of hurt his leg on his first at-bat. Shelley got caught stealing and I don't know why. Perhaps he thought that since he was brought in to pinch run that suddenly that meant he was a good runner. Considering they didn't bring Donald in I'm guessing they had other plans for Shelley. Plans that didn't include stealing a base.

I am going to take a second to bitch about the Perfect 10 Voucher Pack. I bought 20 of them for the bleachers, for $198. Swell idea and possibly might maybe save me some money if I get sat in some $12 bleacher seats or go to a game where bleacher seats cost more than $10. I'm not pissed that we got bumped from the bleachers and put in the upper deck, because I like the upper deck and we got very nice seats. The thing that sucks about these vouchers is that they're vouchers. I know - duh. That's what they're called. But the sales people get you so psyched up about them that you forget that in exchange for not paying the $5 "printing fee" for tickets online, you have to stand in line to redeem your vouchers. Yes you can redeem them any time before the game at a Team Shop but who the fuck lives near a Team Shop? There ain't one between here and East 9th.

So if you have these vouchers you need to get there early, don't go on a Dollar Dog Night, and don't go when we're playing the Tigers, Yankees or Red Sox. Also go down to the 12 ticket windows past Gate A, that's the quickest line.

Ok end of rant. I've got 16 tickets left. Who wants to go?!

Tomorrow is [scary music]Verlander[/scary music] versus Masterson. What do you think? Is momentum real? Will they let Damon "rest his legs" so Shelley "Two Homers Off Verlander" Duncan can play? The stats say we don't do too well in day games but that includes all those miserable Sundays. Here's a stat: 16 homers in night games, 19 in day games. I just looked up the 2011 Indians stats vs. Verlander...

Noon game tomorrow! Need to CHEER CHEER CHEER! See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"If you're Fielder and you're getting paid 30 million dollars a year, you'd better get that runner to third base somehow."
- Mike Hegan

"In Santana's defence, you can't be pitched to any better than that."
- Mike Hegan on Santana's strikeout

"We drove all the way from Hilton Head just to get a dollar dog. With gas prices today that's about a $120 hot dog."
- Mike Hegan

"Remember when we were talking about that 20-second radio delay? I think we would have needed it to play some of McClendon's conversation."
- Jim Rosenhaus on the ejection of the Tigers' batting coach

"Come on, this might be your only game this year. Get on that soapbox!"
- Jim Rosenhaus urges Mike Hegan to go off about bunting, for old time's sake

Goin' All Cromwell Up In Here!

Did anyone expect the game to go this way today? Yeah our team's been good but not GREAT. Especially not at home. Felix Hernandez has been GREAT against us. Ubaldo has been up and down. Heck, after the first half of the first inning did you expect the rest of the game to go as well as it did? I was still fuming about Ubaldo throwing 25 pitches and giving up  two hits and a run in the top of the first we were accidentally scoring 4 in the bottom!

To be honest I was also pretty crabby in the third when Ubaldo walked 2 and gave up a homer in the third. And in the 5th when he gave up more hits. But inbetween all that he had three 1-2-3 innings. But I just can't trust Ubaldo anymore. Which way is he going? How is he going to do today? I just don't know! 

Turns out he did just fine and I needed to chillax. He went 6 innings, gave up 3 runs on 5 hits and struck out 4. Sounds good to me. Sounds Tomlin-esque. That's all we should be asking of him now. Just as long as he goes 6 and doesn't give up more than 4, we can live with it. He's no Derek Lowe but while our team is hitting if he pitches like that it'll be ok.

Jeremy Accardo came in from CBus and made his debut. What a debut! He went 1-2-3, striking out the first guy then getting the next two to ground and pop out. Come back soon!

Sipp and Asencio came in for the 8th and 9th, each facing 3 batters. Exactly what you want from your bullpen!!

If the pitching wasn't good enough for you, the hitting was outstanding! The top of the order was just gonzo with the top 4 guys going 9 for 19 (.473) and scoring 7 of our 9 runs.

Choo has been hot shit since Acta moved him up to the first slot. He's gotten 6 hits in the 3 games he's been first. Of course this was all against righties but if he's gonna start to be on a roll this is a fine way to start. He went 3 for 5 and of course he got a double because that is what Choo does! He also came in to score 2 runs.

Kipnis was back in form tonight after being a little ho-hum in Minnesota. He went 2 for 5 with an RBI, his first RBI for a week. He's hitting a very respectable .275!

Droobs was all in today going 2 for 4 and being hit by a pitch (his 3rd already this season). He's working his way between 10th and 20th in the league for average with .325. He made an awesome run in the first when he and Santana scored on a couple of mis-throws. It was very exciting!

PRONK! Oh man how much do you love a Hafner home run? Always so big, always so majestic. Always so needed. He's been making contact with the ball a lot and doing some sac-flying, but he was 0-24 with runners in scoring position coming in to today (well, his last 24 chances). Today he grounded out for an RBI but then he doubled in a run and got his solo homer in the 6th. COOL!! A real treat for all the fans that made it out there tonight in the cold.

Santana was part of that neato play in the first, running his ass off and scoring. Basically he scored from first. I would never put it on Santana to be "heads up" but he totally was right there. He ended up going 1 for 3 with a walk, 2 runs and an RBI. He's had 7 walks, 10 hits and 8 RBI in his last 10 games, now with a respectable 4-game hitting streak. Can he keep it up?

I've tried for a season and a third now not to use smilies in my blog posts but seeing Michael Brantley hitting more just makes me smile from ear to ear. JUST LIKE THIS :) :) :) Tonight he went 2 for 3 with a double, single and a walk. He's got 14 hits in his last 10 games and actually just this one walk. If we've got Choo covering the top spot and Brantley is feeling good in the middle then I am fine with him in the middle (even though I love him first). Cuz I love Choo first right now and I love Brantley batting!

Johnny Damon was in this game and he managed to walk twice then he did this dumbass thing and it looks like he also shaved off his beard.

My friend pointed out today that Kotchman and Albert Pujols have been batting about the same this year, with Kotchman sometimes higher than Pujols. Kotchman went 0 for 3 tonight so he's down under .200 again BUT...he's got 1.5 times the home runs as Pujols (er, 3 to his 2). HA!

Plus, Kotchman rocks your socks at first.

Hey, LOPEZ! Playing some short-stop-via-3rd-base today. He also went 1 for 3 and walked. He's had 7 hits in the 9 games he's appeared in. I of course want Jack Hannahan un-hurt and playing here right now (man, he would have gotten a few RBIs today I bet) but I still like me some Lopez.

So 14 hits, 6 walks and 9 runs today. THAT is how we shoulda played in Boston. But we didn't. Instead they brought it home so everyone here could have fun and see the glory!! Super fun game!

I don't have any Radio Chatter for tonight because I spent the evening watching some guys dig out my ditch with a backhoe. It was really mesmerizing, and it lasted almost the whole game. They also picked up this cement culvert with the backhoe, and there was a dump truck involved. Wicked awesome. Alas, I couldn't stop to write anything down so you'll just have to wonder if Hammy and Rosie said anything worth remembering. If you want to hear something good then be sure to look on Tom Hamilton Has The Best Home Run Call In All Of Baseball for a recap of the PRONK!

Oh and if you don't get today's title - which I think is wicked clever - check out this primer from Monty Python. (He got rid of the king, yo)

Tomorrow is a NOON game with our new friend Zach McAllister versus some guy who's got a 8.27 ERA on the road. Bat bat bat! It's gonna be fun AND there will be more digging in my front yard. Dig it!

See you there!

A Fun Afternoon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Tale of Two Texans

It was the best of us, it was the worst of us.

Finally we had some home runs. We had our fistful of walks (12 of the last 13 years' walk leaders have made it to the playoffs, yo). We beat the guy (from Tyler, Texas) who had the 21st perfect game ever in baseball. And we're in first place!

But we left the bases loaded twice with 10 LOB. We had 6 strikeouts. Johnny Damon, no joke, is already hurt.

Sidebar: Have you heard the Tom Hamilton Domino's Pizza commercial? He seems utterly bored. Like he has some sort of personal grudge against Domino's and he refused to do anything but read the copy. I've never heard that man so un-interested! If they had Domino's in my area I'd probably avoid it.

Anyway, regardless of the "worst of us" and Tom Hamilton's sad pizza, it was a pretty fun game tonight. At least in the later innings. Johnny Damon leading off with a strikeout was sort of an "urp!" moment and there was not much to say about the first 4 innings, but after that I was pretty pumped!

John Tomlin (of Tyler, Texas) did better than usual, only giving up 3 runs instead of 4. He had a solid 6 innings and struck out 4.

All of our top-quality relievers came out (Smith, Pestano, Sipp, Chris Perez) came in and did well, except Tony Sipp who uh...well he didn't. Joe Smith's striking out the side more than made up for it, tho. Dude is pitching 1.59 and he got the win! Perez, of course, got his 8th save and is now the league leader in saves. MEMORY ERASED.

As I said above, Damon started today in the lead-off spot where he struck out but also walked. At some point he got hurt (pulled muscle I think?) and they replaced him with Shelley and then Cunningham and neither of them did anything at the plate.

Kipnis stayed second and got his hit, giving him a 6-game streak and 16 hits in his last 10 games.

Asdrubal had an awesome night going 1 for 2 (a double) with 3 walks. Holy smokes! He's "only" hitting .290 and not bashing the homers but I think maybe he'll only get better from here.

Hafner had a big night too! He went 2 for 4, 2 runs, 2 RBI and...A HOMER! WOOHOO!

Know who else went 2 for 4 with a homer? Santana! WOOHOO!!

Remember when I was all excited that we were leading the league in homers? That was less than a month ago. Maybe we're about to climb back up! Climb back up from second-to-last...

Michael Brantley was relegated to batting 7th today. Ok. If Johnny Damon's thing is being first and Brantley is not ripping my face off like I thought he would, then he can stay at 7th. He could do some good down there just like...

SUPERMANAHAN! He did it again today, getting a clutch hit in the 8th when we were tied, with 2 outs and 2 on. Double for Hannahan, ho hum. HO HUM! So once again Jack plays the hero and I'll totally take it. He hasn't been hitting worth shit for the last few games so it was an awesome surprise for him to do his thing like that, while it can still be considered a "thing."

How excited were you when Santana hit that homer in the 5th? It was nearly almost as exciting as last season's walk-off grand slam. I'm serious! Why? Because we were so bad last night. And we haven't hit homers in forever. And Humber could have shut us down completely. But instead, Carlos Santana hit one OUT OF HERE! Did you cheer? You know I did!

And Hafner's, too! Just a couple of insurance runs but lord knows we need those these days. And a Hafner home run? I will take that ANY day! I "woo-hooed" for sure that time too.

Don't forget to check out Tom Hamilton Has The Best Home Run Call In All Of Baseball tomorrow for a visual-audio slice of pie!

Tomorrow is the final game of the series, once again at 8:10. Justin's our man versus John Danks. Both of them have sucky ERAs, maybe we'll get us some more runs. Can't wait!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"I'll guarantee you that Johnny Damon has never had a white shirt that looks like yours does tonight."
"Oh come on..."
"There was a serious moment in this booth when we thought Rosie could be injured. Then we realized it was just that his ketchup packet had exploded."
"You thought I'd taken a stray bullet, huh?"
"We thought you took one for the team but turns out your just took one for the burger."
"This is radio, I coulda gotten away with it all night."
"Wait til you show that to [your wife] Carol. 'Good luck, honey!'"
"It never happens when you're wearing a red shirt."
- Tom Hamilton and Jim Rosenhaus

"Philip Humber continues a line that you normally see in a Little League game. Six walks and six strikeouts."
- Tom Hamilton

"Just umpire the game. Don't stand there staring in the dugout looking for trouble. [...] Either that or he's looking for a ham sandwich in there."
- Tom Hamilton on the umpire's drawn-out confrontation with Asdrubal Cabrera

Who Are These Guys?

So Ubaldo Jiminez still is no good. To be honest he's never been good for us. We know good - we've got Justin Masterson. We even know good-with-bad-streaks - we've got Roberto Hernandez. Jiminez seems to be consistently bad. But not blow-out bad just too-many-runs bad. And if he's not giving up too many runs, he's not going enough innings because he put a lot of guys on base and happened to get them out before they scored.

Plus there's the "ok he's going to be good this week!" anticipation of our big purchase from last year and then it never happens. I think that makes him even more frustrating. If he was just some dude who ended up on our roster or came up through the minors we could easily forget him every 5 days. But he came to us wrapped in a package of high hopes and so far he's not been living up to the hype (however small the hype was before we found him on our team.)

Le sigh.

So there was that - Ubaldo giving up 4 runs - which was no fun. But this was the Royals and we are the Indians and it is only natural that we're going to come back and the Royals are going to implode. That's at least the story for the 2012 Indians and Royals. HOWEVER, in the history of the Central, the story is that the Royals will beat us even if they are the worst team in baseball. Welcome to history!

Wheeler and Perez did fine in the 7th and 8th and Asencio blew the barn door open and gave up 4 runs in the 9th, giving up a 3-run and 1-run homers.

Wasn't just Asencio and Jiminez today, tho. Well ultimately it was Asencio but before he gave up all them runs, our batters did a lot of failing to get on base.

Nobody had a multi-hit game today and we only had 3 walks which is super unusual for this team. We totally owned Luke Hochevar and today he owned us!

Asdrubal got a hit and he's still up over .300. He and Santana both got one hit and one walk.

PRONK is still the man. Dude got a double and a RBI and reached on a fielder's choice. I can't tell if his OBP is under .500 now or not (stats not updated) but whatever, he's still streaking and doing what he came here to do.

Jack Hannahan was shut down today. Isn't that weird? Surely he'll get 'em tomorrow...

Casey Kotchman got hit by a pitch and I sort of cheered. I'm sorry that I sort of cheered, Casey. Do you think he maybe cheered, too? He is batting .143.

Aaron Cunningham! With an RBI single! Now is his chance to get some live batting practice in while Choo is out (hopefully having a 24/7 hamstring massage). Who knows - maybe he's good? I think we've got 3 games to find out.

I think the cool weather is starting to get guys down or something. They need a bit of a woo-ha moment here. Yeah we won yesterday but not by nearly as much as we should have. And today we did the same thing only it bit us in the butt.

The Tribe does pretty well in afternoon games (that aren't on Sundays) so maybe Josh Tomlin can get it done. He can if the bats get to swingin' and guys start connecting with the ball. Or heck - if they get back to walking more.

Noon baseball tomorrow - see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"He's never mediocre. He's either lights out or the Indians tattoo him."
- Tom Hamilton on Luke Hochevar

"Jiminez...he's become Muhammed Ali. He keeps on doing the old rope-a-dope and gets it done."
- Tom Hamilton

"When you've lost 12 in a row you'd better pay attention to details. They may come back to bite you."
- Tom Hamilton on Hochevar pitching in the dirt

"Quintero's about a 50/50 guy behind the plate. He catches half of them and lets the other half go to the back stop."
- Tom Hamilton is still not a fan of the Royals' catcher

"I wonder if Willie Jenks has the plastic up in the Royals clubhouse? They may feel like spraying each other with champagne tonight."
- Tom Hamilton after the Royals score 7

Day Off

Oh, Sunday Tribe games. How you try me! I thought we had the Sunday Blahs worked out with our two previous Sunday wins but I was wrong.

Once again it's like Sunday is an off day for an otherwise awesome team. It literally was an off day for Kotchman, Duncan and Santana. Not to mention Asdrubal is still off (he had 6 days...I think he may be back Tuesday?) So we were left with a skeleton crew.

I didn't think too much of it, though, because I've always liked Marson and was blown away by Lopez (LOPEZ!) in spring training. Although I do wonder if maybe Damon would have filled in for Duncan today and done better than Cunningham...hmmm... Anyway, I didn't go into this game thinking the worst, especially with Justin on the mound and us having won the last 2 but nope - Sunday reared its ugly head again.

Masterson walked 6 today and only struck out 2 in his 5 innings. Whatwhatwhat? I didn't expect this sort of poor outing - 4 earned runs - two starts in a row. Someone's got to fix that and fix it fast!

Raffy Perez didn't do too bad, he just took forever. He struck out 3 in his 2 innings. Hagadone finally gave up a run, so he's got an ERA. But he still has looked awful fancy in his 3 appearances.

No one really hit today except our guys that have been hitting consistently.

Yesterday's and Friday's hero Jason Kipnis got a hit today but sadly nothing came of it. But I like to see him keep it up!

Choo got another double, his third in 3 games. He would come in as our only run.

Hafner, who, damn... yeah he went 1 for 2 today with 2 walks and the only RBI. He doesn't have a game hitting streak to speak of (well, 4) but he's gotten 15 hits in 12 games this year and 10 walks. Two homers, two doubles and 7 RBI. He's fifth in the league for OBP. LOVE IT!

Jack Hannahan got his hit today too, with a 6-game streak. He's got 14 hits in 12 games, with 6 walks, 3 doubles, one homer and 11 RBI. they moved him up from 8th to 6th today and it didn't help or hurt us. Neither his hit nor his walk gave us any more runs.

So that's all for today's game. No feats of grandeur, just guys squeaking by. Woo-ee.

Rest up tomorrow and then 7:05 baseball is BACK on Tuesday, where we get to play the world-class flops from Kansas City again. Fun time for sure - see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"It's Groundhog Day around here when it comes to talking about how they need a new stadium."
- Tom Hamilton on the state of the Oakland Coliseum

"I asked them what kind of flu do you have that keeps you out five days? They said 'It's called a 'I got a 2-year contract flu...''"
- Tom Hamilton on Coco Crisp's absence

"He might not know a lick of English, but he does know what a ball and a strike is and he is not happy with the umpire."
- Tom Hamilton on Yoenis Cespedes

"Ronnie Belliard did all second basemen a disservice. He was the first one to play that shift to the side of second base, but he had the arm to back it up."
- Tom Hamilton on Kipnis's off-mark throw to first

Teetering

Ubaldo Jimenez. What do you think? Dude always seems to be teetering on the brink of blowing up. His previous awesomeness is not making him get guys out but it is keeping him from giving up tons of runs, I guess. We all just have to nail-bite our way through his 5 innings.

Oh, and he only goes 5 innings (ok 6 tonight).

Sipp was scary in the 7th. He used to be my dude. Why is he not so good this year? Do not want.

Smith and Pestano are still good, tho. They both had scoreless innings and their ERAs are under 3. Doesn't look good for Sipp, when Asdrubal comes back and someone has to go back to Columbus...

Chris Perez got his 5th save. He's on pace for uhm...80? That'd be funny. Looks like he's coming in, striking a dude out, maybe giving up a walk, then getting a couple of pop-outs. That's fine. All the guys we have platooned in the outfield in the 9th inning can catch pop-ups. They can't all be Kenny Powers-like and striking guys out with his majestically powerful fastball all the time. But he can still have cool hair and ride a jet ski.

Man, Chris Perez is from Florida. You know he has a jet ski!

Brantley got a double and a walk today. No spark in that tho. Where's my spark? He misses Asdrubal. He had a couple of fly-outs instead.

Kipnis still can't hit worth shit, but he was kind enough to get hit by a pitch, steal second and then sacrifice his body sliding in to home. He seems to get his ass on base every game somehow, even though that average is in the dumps. So good on you, Katniss.

Choo quietly got 2 hits tonight and won out on some aggressive baserunning. But then he got too confident and was thrown out at the plate trying to be aggressive again. This is SORT OF turning in to a pattern for him but I think either someone will reel him in or he will actually become as fast as he thinks he is.

How is Santana's average not higher? He's got 11 hits and 9 walks in the last 11 games. /me does math. Oh, well he's also got 39 at-bats so somehow it only works out to .262. Sad for him but he's got 9 RBI so it's good for the rest of us! Santana has been on base in every game this year.

Fact: Duncan, Santana and Choo are in the league's top 10 for drawing walks, the team leads the league with 66. NO Indians are in the top 10 for striking out! We're 11/14 in striking out.

Speaking of getting on base, Travis Hafner has gotten on base the last 7 times he's been at bat (thanks to Tribe Tweeter and super-fan Jobu for that tidbit). Dude is hitting .333 and that average is not going down. Today he got another SINGLE and then he walked 3 times. He went 1 for 1 and scored a run!

Shelley Duncan straightened out a bit today, going 1 for 3 with a walk and a run. He did not have a chance to be a hero today but Aaron Cunningham pinch ran for him in the 8th (he didn't replace Hafner, cuz Hafner's so hot I guess) and then he was up in the 9th with the bases loaded. And he grounded out. So, Shelley could have been up in this crucial moment but 1) he wasn't and 2) it wasn't crucial, as it turns out. Now we don't have to go to bed being disappointed in Shelley Duncan! Hooray! I have no trouble sleeping being disappointed in Aaron Cunningham.


One guy we can never ever be disappointed in anymore is Jack Hannahan. Once again o'dude got those clutch hits and ended up with 3 RBI, including the game winner. He's batting .324 and I don't want him anywhere else in the lineup but 8th!! He is doing SO much good there, unfuckingbelieveable. He hasn't had an error for a while, either. Heyoo!

Jason Donald didn't get a hit but he made this Asdrubal-worthy play so I won't make fun of his greasy hair or goofy smile tonight.

Tonight was a nice rounded game, except for the tedium that was Ubaldo. It's so great that our hitting has come alive! Obviously we couldn't be 6-1 on this road trip so far without it.

Guess who's in second place? It's the Indians, silly! We're 1.5 behind Detroit who has 3 games against the unstoppable Rangers this weekend (rained out today, double tomorrow). I know, I know, it's too early to be counting these chickens but it's ALWAYS nice to be in first. Especially since you didn't hear anyone predicting us to be anywhere.

Tomorrow's game starts graciously at 9:05, presumably so you can listen to the game and still have time to get your party on afterwards. Right? Jeanmar Gomez versus some dude named McCarthy. I feel good about it. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"In other words, if Jiminez has trouble tonight...that is a giant red flag."
- Tom Hamilton after explaining how bad the A's offense is

"He had the easiest job of any Rebel football player ever. He was the backup quarterback to Eli Manning."
- Tom Hamilton on A's outfielder Seth Smith

"If you didn't know better Rosie you'd think it was about 35 degrees out."
- Tom Hamilton on the weird pitching

"It has not been riveting, and the pitching we have seen tonight has set the game back a few years."
- Tom Hamilton

"The question is why? Or how?"
- Tom Hamilton wants to know how is it they might send Hagadone back to Columbus

"Perez probably feels like he struck Cespedes out twice."
- Tom Hamilton