That Went Well! Until it Didn't...

Trevor Bauer is finally coming in to his own this season! The kid has 19 innings over 3 games, with just 2 runs given up and 26 strikeouts. He is tied for the league lead in strikeouts! He's getting better, too - even though he gave up 4 hits today, he only walked 2!

Nick Hagadone and Bryan Shaw were even tight today! I guess they just had slow starts? The two of them combined for a scoreless, hitless 8th inning with 2 strikeouts between them. Shaw's ERA is still a portly 5.4 but Hagadone is down to a near-respectable 3.0

Oh, Bauer's ERA is .90, by the way.

The lineup was shaken up today. No Bourn, Kipnis leading off followed by Aviles. Jerry Sands was in there too.

Brett Hayes is our new backup catcher, if you didn't know. Not going to post a photo because I guarantee there is nothing to remember his face by. And anyway - half the time it'll be behind a mask!

Anyway, Brett Hayes had his first start with the Tribe today (he's been back and forth between the minors and MLB (Marlins, KC, Tribe) for 6 years now). He had no errors and he hit a home run! Hey hey! According to Twitter, Brett Hayes is officially better than Willie Mays Hays.

Hey guess what guys! Ryan Raburn is good again!

He's so good that when you look at him you can't tell if he's black & blue or white & gold!

Raburn got his 4th double of the season today, and his first home run! According to Tom Hamilton it was A-WAAAAAAAY out of here! Raburn is hitting .316 on the season with 6 hits in his last 5 games!

Michael Brantley got his 2nd double of the year tonight, and it was an RBI double! He's got 3 RBI already in only 5 hits. And only 6 games! Lord, we need him every day...

Mike Aviles, who I mentioned was batting second, was playing center field today. He was getting by pretty well, batting 2 for 3 with a walk and a fiesty run scored. He even had special headgear for people from tropical climes:

mlb.com

Except in the 9th inning he missed a ball that a "real" center fielder probably would have caught, and that sucked, but hey at least Handsome Mike is out there trying hard! I mean if he was the world's best center fielder he probably would not be playing shortstop on Tuesdays.

Anyway, all these nice things happened and then Cody Allen came in and gave up 4 runs on a walk and 6 hits, and we lost the game. The end.

Tomorrow's game is an 8:10 start with pitcher ... Carlos Carrasco! We'll get to see what a tough COOKIE he is! He'll be facing an RHP 3.86. As usual, maybe the Tribe will win. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Trevor Bauer keeping America clean. Picked up the wrapper and gave it to the bat boy. And got booed! Tough town."
- Tom Hamilton on a runaway hot dog wrapper

"Nobody ever knows the third base coach's name unless somebody gets thrown out at the plate."
- Tom Hamilton on Mike Sarbaugh

"Imagine you're a college baseball player facing the Huskies on a Friday night. You finally get Tim Lincicum out of the game only to face Nick Hagadone. You might consider joining the golf team instead."
- Tom Hamilton

"The Arizona Diamondbacks might be calling up Christ Antonetti asking for a mulligan."
- Tom Hamilton on the acquisition of Trevor Bauer

"He might be the best 23rd round pick in the history of the Indians franchise."
- Tom Hamilton on Cody Allen (before he blew it)

Domestic Bliss

Our first win at home this year! It came sort of non-descript on a Wednesday noon game, but whatever. People missed work ("I wouldn't say I've been *missing* it, Bob.") to see this game so it's pretty great that they got their money's worth!

Trevor Bauer was going all Feller today, extending his no-hit streak to 9 innings between his last game and this one. The first inning he threw 10 pitches! It wasn't until the 4th that a Sox got a hit. Bauer ended up going 6 strong innings (103 pitches) with just 4 hits, 2 earned runs and 8 strikeouts! Bauer leads the league in strikeouts right now with 19. Scott Kazmir is second!! Corey Kluber is knocking on the door in third, though.

The bullpen was golf-clap lovely today.

Atchison, Zep, Shaw and Allen finished the last 3 innings with no runs given up and only 2 hits between all of them. Ok, Shaw left a little to be desired and Allen almost let some slip but the golf clap is for NO RUNS!

This is how games should go: Quality start, no-run relief, and 5+ runs to get us both a win and 50% off Papa John's.

Our right-handed lineup is starting to tingle a little bit, overcoming the message that they might be the b-team but the rest of baseball is going to force them in to a-level hitting by throwing lefties at us all the time!

Sands is still on fire, with another 2 hits today! He's gotten 7 hits in his first 4 games as an Indian - with no games left un-hit! His average is .412. How long can he keep it up??

Chisenhall had his best game of the season so far, going 2 for 4 with a double and 2 RBI. I do believe he's batting 1.000 in his career against John Danks!

People are starting to hush their mouths about Ryan Raburn, who is getting back in to Goon Squad form - he's got a 3-game hit streak going with 4 hits in those games. No RBI for him today but he did come in to score!

It's weird how Carlos Santana is still batting under .300. He's got 8 hits and 7 walks in his 7 games. He's also been robbed of a few great hits, including today! But then he turned around and robbed Abreau right back. Looking good at first!

Speaking of first base, Bourn got a bunt single today. Nice to see him try that out and have it work! That could work for one hit per game for him if he needs it. Nice to see him being aggressive!

We're still missing Brantley and Gomes, and some guys who could be better bats aren't cutting it (Ramirez, Perez) but if they all keep chipping away at pitchers they can add up some runs as a team. Chicago is a good team to practice on and even better will be Minnesota!

No game tomorrow (Thurs) which sucks. We just had a day off! Friday will be a real treat in Minnesota with Kluber going against a RHP with a 7.36 ERA. Looking good for the good guys! It'll be an 8:10 game so bring your pillow. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"I'm not even gonna say what the official score is because nobody up here can believe it anyway."
- Tom Hamilton after an er- no, a base hit.

"Santana says to Abreau 'You rob me, I rob you!'"
- Tom Hamilton

"Finding a competent official scorekeeper in Cleveland must be like searching for a dinosaur."
- Tom Hamilton

Not a Picasso, but Still Priceless

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you there!

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

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

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

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

Don't Call It A Comeback

Because it wasn't! Ha!

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

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

Twelve hits, though!

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

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

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

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

Creepy Bro Stank Eye

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you there!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stumble and Fall

Just a quick blog post because I got stuff to do. I'm at work!

We were totally supposed to win this one today, but it didn't happen. That how baseball go.

Trevor Bauer was good, he had a quality start. Six innings, 3 earned runs. Seven strikeouts in those 6 innings - not bad!

Carrasco came out for the 7th, and Hagadone for the 8th. Nick making a nice transition back up to the bigs so far.

The bats were just dumb today. Except for Jose Ramirez, who was back again from Columbus. He went 2 for 3 with a double - the team's only multi-hit player, only multi-base hit and only RBI. The rest of the runs were on errors. 

Santana got another hit, so that's cool. A bona fide comeback?

Roberto Perez wasn't so hot AT the plate but he crushed it from behind the plate! Two caught stealing boyeeeeeee.

Kipnis and Murphy also got hits today. Murphy came around to score.

And that's it! Kind of hurts to dedicate an afternoon to a game and have it go so BLAH but sometimes it happens. Time for everyone to take their naps, catch up on some Orange is the New Black, and get ready for the 8:10 start against KC tomorrow.

It'll be Corey Kluber, thank God, versus LHP 2.66. Hmm....meet me at the flagpole for a prayer circle beforehand. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"It's amazing how you can end up on a float."
- Tom Hamilton on his possible participation in the St. Patrick's day festivities

"'Day Baseball - It Works' That ought to be baseball's new motto."
- Tom Hamilton

"He raises his hands in the air as he crosses home plate, in one of the slowest home run trots you'll see for a guy who now has 6 home runs."
- Tom Hamilton on Arcia's homer

"The only thing people in Dallas knew was that you put it in your drink. They didn't know people were running on top of it."
- Tom Hamilton on hockey moving from Minnesota to Dallas

The First Day Of The Rest Of Our Season

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


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

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

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

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

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

Actual Tribe fan

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

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

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

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

Sad Albequerque

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Good Day For Flying

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Omar Day!

Hey fan! Sorry I haven't been around much. Going through stressful stuff at home and just not feeling like taking the time to blog after games. I have been glued to the radio (and TV!) for the games of course but afterwards....on to other more serious stuff.

I hope you took in tonight's game! There were 40,000 of you at the game, plus it was on Baseball Night In America on Fox so really there was room for everyone in Cleveland to see it with their own two eyes. On Friday the game was on WKYC so that was pretty special - to see two games in a row on TV!

Today was the day they inducted Omar Vizquel into the Indians hall of fame. He's the 40th Indian to be inducted and of course the greatest short stop. And aside from Bob Feller...the greatest Indian? How about greatest since 1950? I like it.

Omar's with the Tigers now. Not sure how that came about. I'm hoping it's due to iron-clad contracts and no room for him where he needs to be. Because...Detroit? Oh, Omar!

The team has been on their BEST behavior in the field while Omar is around. How could you not? No errors and a few pretty, pretty plays so far.

Unfortunately for the Tribe, the Tigers also have our Victor Martinez and he's hitting over .400 against us and it just really. really. hurts. Especially when he gets a home run (which seems like every game) and the Tribe loses by 1. I guess we made him cry, he'll make us cry now. Argh - he's so good! Not fair that the stupid Tigers get to have him and Miggy AND Torii Hunter. For Pete's sake!

Trevor Bauer was our man today, and he still is not scared. He is also not untouchable - three homers for 4 earned runs. He did go 6 1/3 innings on 100 pitches, and only walked 2 and struck out 5. It was the long ball that got him. And you could say "Well, the Tigers, man - you'll get that" but one of his homers was to leadoff man and speedster Rajai Davis so...fail.

Old Man Atchison mopped up after the kid and finished the 7th for him as well as completed the 8th. No hits for him. Kyle Crockett pitched to one guy in the 9th and that was a success, then it was Vinnie's turn to get that hold in the 9th. Yeah you heard me - Vinnie! They took the rotation down to 4 and brought up Vinnie who was throwing a .48 ERA in Columbus. He threw the final 2 outs in the 9th and nothing bad happened so that was awesome!

Cody Allen came in with the game tied in the 10th and wouldn't you know it - he un-Allenlike gave up a run. Nuts! After all that work to tie it up, in front of all those people, on Omar Day! But really if anyone was going to be out there we wanted Cody, right? I mean, who else? Is Shaw even here? Anyway, we got what we wanted and it didn't work out so oh well.

The Tribe got its offense in some interesting ways today. Not from Nick Swisher, of course. But from his pals at the bottom of the order. And Brantley and Kipnis BOTH were shut out! I am not kidding you! Brantley did get a pinch hit on Friday when he came in late after being on the concussion DL, but it just wasn't happening for him today. And not sure what Kipnis' deal was. You don't really want him flubbing while the whole town is watching but it wasn't going his way today.

Michael Bourn had a great night, going 1 for 4 with an AWESOME clutch hit in the 9th to tie the game! It was fall-outta-you-chair-worthy, man! That guys waxes and wanes on the excitement meter but since he got revved up he's been pretty steady on the reliability meter.

Speaking of unreliable, poor old Good Guy David Murphy had been 0 for 25 when he broke that streak to get on base so he could come around to score later on Bourn's single. Talk about a nice surprise!! He really reached back and dug around for his clutch-ness and brought it back at just the right time today.

Asdrubal had a night! He went 3 for 5 with a double and a HUGE RBI. It was his 18th double, which is tied with Chisenhall (who also got his 18th double tonight) which leads the team. They are better than Michael Brantley in a category! Woah!

Carlos Santana!! He's up over .200 now with a .201 average! Check him out! He's like, the hottest player in June or something. He's batting .340 with 5 home runs and 12 RBI in 53 at-bats. Did you know this??? It's almost insane that his average can still be so low but he's raised it 39 points since June 6th. Looking pretty decent at 1st base, too. He's back, man!!

Gomes had a solid hit today too but he ended up not coming around. He also threw out a guy trying to steal, which makes it 6 in a row. And people still do not seem to know not to run on Gomes (or Brantley). Bwahahahaha!

Ok I'm fading fast and have to get to sleep. Tomorrow's game is more Tigers and they gotta win to avoid the sweep! It'll be Tomlin and his hair versus Scherzer and his eyes. They have the exact same ERA! This should be interesting...

See you there!

Everybody Have Fun Tonight!

Man, I have been so STOKED for this homestand. I suppose it has to do with how much better the Tribe does at home than on the road this year. But the weather has been nice and the Central is a tight race and football & basketball & hockey are over now for a minute (except there is always, always Manziel) and it's BASEBALL time now in Cleveland and I'm ready to watch the people watch the Tribe.

Every day I am finding myself totally excited for the upcoming game. And that's the way it should be!

Anyway, today it was Trevor Bauer time. I love that this kid comes off as so cocky. For some reason I think his sideburns and and his high socks make him look cocky hahaha I mean he's not killing it on the mound, but he does have some stuff to back up that cockiness. Part of being cocky is not being afraid and that means that you can tell Terry Francona "hey man, I'm going to go back out there for the 7th, all right?" and Terry Francona does it even though it means you throw 120 pitches.

Do these pants make my butt look self-assured?

It was the first time in 8 games that a Tribe starter made it that far into the game. Actually all he really ended up with was the far end of a quality start. Six and 2/3 innings, 6 strikeouts, 3 runs and 8 hits. Not one 1-2-3 inning but he kept going! And 3 runs is just fine, as long as your offense shows up. And today they did, bless 'em.

As if Bauer's performance wasn't cool enough, Carlos Carrasco came out to be the unlikely hero, pitching 2 1/3 innings to get the save! I really dig him out of the pen because he's just got length to spare in really weird situations. I mean, 7 outs - that could have been 3 relievers! But he came in to finish the 7th with a strikeout. In the 8th he walked a guy then had a strike-em-out-throw-em-out. He gave up a single but got the final strikeout to end the inning. And then a magical 1-2-3 9th! I mean, a Trout-Pujols-Hamilton 9th - woah!

Carrasco gave a post-game interview to Hammy and Rosie. Tonight was his first save in 11 years. No matter how much he ends up disappointing us as a starter, he always seems like a good, humble guy. Remember when he totally beaned that KC player in retaliation for something and got suspended for 5 games? Team player! He says he is just going to work real hard at any position he's in, and now he's in the bullpen so he'll work hard at being a great reliever. He's asking questions and learning every day. Much love, Cookie!

On the offensive side...The team only had 4 LOB today! They got 4 runs off of 6 hits. Low on hits and no 50% off at Papa John's, but at least dudes weren't being stranded!

Michael Bourn is glad to be back at home, yeesh! Dude went like 1-19 in Boston and came home and went 2-5, just like there was no slump at all.

OMG ASDRUBAL!!! Home run #7 wahoo! And suddenly he's found the patience, because other than the homer he walked twice and I can't remember the last time he walked! (8 days ago) His homer was a 2-run job.

Michael Brantley (.323) is the MLB player of the week! Because while his team was busy figuring out ways to lose miserably and win barely, Brantley has raised his already-high average 25 points with 15 hits in the week, including 3 doubles and a homer.

Then, because Cleveland can't have nice things, Michael Brantley didn't show up in left field. Mike Aviles did. There was a mild panic, and finally we found out that Brantley got a knee to the head when sliding into second. Hopefully his head is as strong as his will. BE OK, BRANTLEY!!!

Kipnis was shut down tonight, which makes me shudder.

But Carlos Santana! Whoop whoop! Dude got a home run, which turned out to be the game-winner! Still hitting under .200 but they say he has "quieted down" since his stint on the DL. Cool stuff but uhm...do you really want a guy to come off of a concussion so relaxed?? Once again I heard him on the radio, and once again I was surprised that he has a Dominican accent and is not in fact a kid from Oakland. It gets me every time!

Anyway, Santana has almost as many hits as Brantley in the last 10 games (ok just 10 but still - how many you got??) and 9 RBI. On your way up, Like a boss!

Lonnie has been shut down for 4 games now, and I think it's giving me a rash on the back of my hand. But Jim Rosenhaus pointed out - while talking about Mike Trout, actually - that there's 162 games and even amazing players can't be amazing for all of them. So if Mike Trout is going to be slumpy, so can Lonnie. Just...not too much longer, ok?

Nick Swisher is still on our team. He hit a $15mm home run the other night. Whee.

David Murphy tried his hardest, but only got a walk tonight.

It was George Kottaras day! He went 1 for 3 with a bunt single, and threw a guy out at second, thus proving that he is a well-rounded player and a great Indian. For now. Opa!

Tomorrow is MORE BASEBALL!! It's Tomlin time! Has he straightened himself back out? It'll be Tomlin's mane versus RHP 4.19 and his beard. We love RHPs at home! And it's Puppypalooza, I believe.

The fun starts at 7:05, and I forsee a lot more runs in this game so start picking out your pizza. See you there!

Sorry, no Radio Chatter today. I don't even know what I was doing to miss any potential quips. I think it was just a lack of quips. Not me, man.

What Went Wrong

One bad inning for Bauer, one bad outing for Zep, and too many guys left on base.

The pitching unfortunates could have been overcome by batting, and they did get 10 hits today, but they didn't get them at the right time - and struck out 11 times - so the unusually-bad pitching couldn't be overcome.

Although, no one thought the Tribe would score any off of Yu Darvish, so to get 4 off him and for Bauer to be right up there with him - well that's not too shabby.

Trevor Bauer was the man today, having an OK outing. Except for the time when he gave up 4 hits and 4 runs in an inning. That was the 2nd. He had a 1-2-3 first and a 1-2-3 third, and pitched 3 more scoreless innings, and one more out until he was at his 100 and done for the night. In 6 1/3 innings, Bauer struck out 6 and only walked 2. As someone on Twitter said:

The flashes of brilliance from Bauer are starting to become a more constant beam.
— Kevin Dean (@kevnbaseball) June 7, 2014

Nice!

Zep was the next reliever, and apparently I have not been paying close enough attention to relievers. I just thought they were all equally good, less Ax and Carrasco. But people were like "nooooo!" and then when Zep gave up a homer they were like "Seeeeee?" So that happened.

Then for the 8th it was Atchison, who got the first out then Elvis Andrus got on base for the 38th consecutive game versus the Indians. Then it was Hagadone's turn and he gave up a walk, so he was gone. ? Then Axford who Axforded a run home on a sac fly. They only let 2 runs score between all of them, but that was 2 too many.

Michael Bourn was shut out tonight! After an amazing 8-game run with 11 hits and 5 RBI, today he went 0 for 5 with 4 strikeouts. He only had 6 strikeouts total in his 8 games.

Asdrubal on the other hand was having a great night! Perhaps it was due to the company of his fellow countryman Rougned Odor? Cabby went 3 for 5 with a double, single and homer! It was his 6th homer of the year, his second in 2 games, and third in just 7 games. I think he's found his power - lookout!

Michael Brantley (.307) didn't have all that good of a night, but he tried to be the hero in the 9th, and got his one and only hit to hopefully be part of the tying runs scored. Not so much.

Kipnis tried to be that guy who hit in the tying runs but that didn't happen either. He went 1 for 5 on the night as well, with his single coming in the third.

He was on base when Lonnie Baseball went yard, though! And it was a 3-run thingie so it brought the Tribe back from an 0-4 deficit! It was his only hit for the night, but he did walk. He has had TWELVE RBI in the last 7 games!!!

David Murphy had nothin' going on tonight. But Yan Gomes did! He's been a little feast-or-famine lately getting 2 hits, then none, then 2 hits, then none. Today he had 3 hits! Shockingly....no RBI and no runs on those. Oof! He did have an awesome play where he lept like 3' into the air to get a ball for a play at the plate, and after all that the guy was safe.

Santana was back from concussion leave. Kind of a bummer because they put him down there at 8th and that's sort of why Gomes had 3 hits and nothing to show for it. Then again...what have Raburn and Giambi been doing lately? Santana did get a single, though. But he left 3 on base.

Mike Aviles is also feast-or-famine lately and since he's getting more playing time, the famine is starting to show. He went 0 for 4 today, and apparently was Slowy McRunnerson on a hit today that ended up being a GIDP. The people called for his head. He says he hurt his toe. I tend to believe Aviles, because everyone believes a handsome man.

So our first loss after a 6-game streak.Tribe not so good on the road but scoring 4 on their first night out, versus Darvish, is nothing to sneeze at. They need to rub their bellies and come out swingin' tomorrow. It's all do-able!

Tomorrow is Josh Tomlin versus RHP 4.43! That's our favorite kind of pitcher! It'll be at 3:05 and broadcast on FS1.

See you there!

No Radio Chatter today. But here's a clip of Hammy and Rosie re-visiting the idea of motor oil in the 1800s. They did a big thing about this earlier in the season when they realized that cars weren't around when Valvoline first became a company, but they're at it again!

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

Bauer Boy, Tell 'Em!

Again, with the baseball! The Tribe playing baseball!

And, hey - Everybody hits!!

But first - our main man Trevor Bauer.

Awww yeah! The kid is back, and he's the perfect guy to throw out there against Verlander because he's totally a cocky sunofagun. Trevor Bauer ain't afraid! He didn't strike out too many in his 6 innings - just 5. He also gave up 2 homers. Solo homers, though. Otherwise, he was getting the ground outs, just like Justin Masterson (who normally is out there on Verlander days!) Bauer got up to 100 MPH, according to the Progressive Field gun. And according to Jim Rosenhaus it's a couple digits high, but whatever - it's worth a shout-out! I remember last time I saw Verlander pitch in 2011 he was throwing 100. But what was special about that it that it was the 8th inning and his 111th pitch. HA!

Bauer finished 6 innings with 95 pitches. No HBP, no wild pitches. Great stuff! Bryan Shaw came in to do what Bryan Shaw does - namely throw TWO innings with no hits and no runs. And of course he faced some .330+ worth of batters because their entire lineup is crazy good. Shaw got an out and a double play in the 7th, then in the 8th Kinsler popped out, Lonnie made a double-saving play at third and then Shaw strikes out Miggy. Yep!

So what was left after that? Cody Allen versus only like, .300 worth of batting average. V-Mart, Austin Jackson (who is always just awesome against the Tribe) and Castellanos. Strikeout, out, out. BALLGAME! No problem for Cody Allen!!

Like I was talking about yesterday, we need some REAL BASEBALL around here and that meant not only pitching and hitting but some stellar FIELDING too. Today we got it again. The aforementioned awesome stop by Chiz. Another outfield assist by Brantley - his league-leading 5th of the season (I love having an awesome player that nobody seems to know!) THREE double plays and no errors!

The Tribe got 12 hits! Eleven of them were off Justin Verlander. Holy SMOKES! Four doubles and a homer off the man, and 5 earned runs.

Michael Bourn had a good night, going 2 for 5 with 2 big doubles, one for an RBI. And he totally rocked Verlander by stealing 3rd - only his 3rd steal this year but I guess that makes him more surprising to catchers! Bourn's got 12 hits in his last 10 games, by the way.

Asdrubal again in the 2-hole and he's heating up again, going 2 for 3 with NO strikeouts. A walk, a run and an RBI. His average is a big, beautiful, beefy, round .268!!! And two DP for him today to boot! (No, no booting.) He's got 14 hits over his last 10 games.

Michael Brantley (.291) is still our God. He should make $45mm a year. He "only" went 1 for 4 today - 6-game hitting streak! But he had that huge outfield assist, nabbing Ian Kinsler in the 5th. Boop!

Lonnie Chisenhall had the cleanup spot today. Which...duh! Dude is batting .366. Not leading the team in homers (er...he has none) but he's up there in doubles. He leads on on-base percentage. Still not enough at-bats to qualify though, as they just don't let him hit versus lefties. Grr! He only went 1 for 4 today but he got the job done on that one with an RBI!

David Murphy was the last guy to get a hit today, but he's such a good guy he wanted me to update my list and so he got a HOMER in the 7th! He also walked.

Santana's chillin' down in the 6 spot. He got a single to go off Miggy's glove and roll down the first-base line, and 'Los took the opportunity to try to hustle out a double. I know he stole a base the other day but really he ain't that fast. I also know that he was counting on Miggy to go all slow on the play - and he did - but his throw still beat out Santana at second and he was out. He went 1 for 4 today then (that 1 was a 1 and out) with 2 strikeouts.

Nick Swisher is batting above .200 now. He is much less scared of the ball batting 7th.

Gooooomes! A big 'ol double and a walk tonight. His walk was made way more exciting when it was followed up by a huge 2-run double from Aviles to start off a 4-run inning. Yeah! Handsome Mike is back to wow us!

So nice to see everyone playing good baseball today. Wish they had it in them to play like this before...but we can't go back so let's hope it goes on forward forever!!

Tomorrow is a noon game, our chance to sweep the series. And you know what? JOHN ADAMS WON'T BE THERE!!! Wow. What do we do? How do we score? I sure hope people are filling the stands and going crazy in his stead.

YOU GO BE THIS!

It'll be ZMac trying to redeem himself for not being Kluber or Bauer, versus Scherzer who is actually better than Verlander and was last year too. But he's a righty so NO PROBLEM.

Noon! See you there!

No Radio Chatter tonight. I was at my niece's pre-school graduation. Here she is, a lifetime ago in 2013.

Double Headscratcher

We took the series, so that's cool. The Tribe has won 2 of their 3 series. Keep winning series and you'll be in dang good shape!

Starting pitching looked sharp these two games but...what of batting? Twelve hits in 17 innings? Grumble. I don't have very fond memories of when the Tribe previously had problems matching their batting with their pitching, where we'd lose games with tiny little scores.

But, we split the series. And we did see some good things. So let's revisit them!

- Zach McAllister did exactly what was needed and went 7.2 innings in the first game. That just gives Francona a million options for whatever the second game brings, so it was pretty big! He looked pretty tough too - he gave up 5 hits with no walks, and fanned 7. So far he's our best starter! Also good to see that our pitchers are improving with every outing - ok, even though there's only been 2 outings each.

- Trevor Bauer was hella good too. Since he's our 6th guy, numbers 1-5 are going to have to work hard to keep their jobs! He had a capital-Q Quality Start today, throwing 6 shutout innings and striking out 8. He kept up good velocity while occasionally taking off 20 MPH to throw a curveball. Yoink!

- Oh man, could our bullpen be any better right now?? They've put in a lot of work, collectively, and 5 of the guys still have an 0.00 ERA. The only ones with ERAs are Axford, Wood and Pestano. Oh...Pestano got sent down. So uh, I guess that means we have 6 guys with a 0.00 ERA, as CC Lee is here now with a clean slate. It'll be fun to watch them compete to hold on to those goose eggs!

- Kipnis goin' DEEEEEEEEEEEEP! That homer put number 22 at a .222 batting average and gives him 6 RBI over his last 4 games. Up through the first game he hadn't struck out in a while, but he didn't fare as well in the second game today. Tired boy.

- Asdrubal finally got a couple dang hits, albeit in that second game where no one else was hitting. He also got back to sharply hitting balls to where guys were playing in the field, which sounds crummy but everyone prefers that to him striking out or grounding in to a double play. Cuz one of these times he's going to hit it sharply to where some guy is playing but not paying attention!

- Ryan Raburn got 3 hits over the 2 games! One of them was a double, too. Total Goon Squad day for him. Man, he's so good...

He's so good that _____ __________ is in town to make a sports movie about him!

- New York totally got a review wrong. Here's the play and Tom Hamilton's call. This isn't a good thing that happened today but it was interesting and controversial. Also it happened in the first inning and people booed the umpire the rest of the game!

There were a lot of crummy things in the box scores today. A lot of head slappers. But since this is The Positive Tribe I won't be covering any of them. Makes my night easier!

We've got 3 coming up against the White Sox and hopefully they're the same White Sox from 2013 because we only lost 2 games to them last year. That's right - we haven't dropped a game to Chicago since April 24, 2013. We won three 4-game series against them last year too. It was just magic.

So let's hope that an extra hour of time moving over to the Central gives the Tribe plenty of time to shake the dust out of their undies and get ready to be a dominant baseball team again. The pitchers are ready - let's get them bats going!

It'll be an 8:10 game,  with Salazar facing LHP 3.86. Get ready, Chicago - we're back!

See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"The catcher came to the mound, and the infielders said 'Hey we're lonely, we want to join the conversation.'"
- Tom Hamilton

"They won't complain about cool nights anymore at PetCo Park."
- Tom Hamilton

"I wonder what they saw in New York that we didn't see here. Maybe they don't have HD."
- Tom Hamilton, on the review in the first inning

"Seth Smith never saw a snap in football, but when Eli Manning is ahead of you, welp..."
- Tom Hamilton

That...Was A Lot Of Baseball!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the last 30 days, he's:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Come on, now...

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

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

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

See you there!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 Games, 5 Layers, 6 Hot Dogs and 1 Run

So I just got back from 5.5 hours of baseball! Well actually with the driving and parking and whatnot it was more like 7.5 hours. Who knew that a traditional double header would attract so many fans?? There were 23,299 there today which is 9k more than average and 3k more than Dollar Dog Night. Wow!

Well "Wow!" is not what I was saying while I was stuck in traffic on the way in and ultimately missing the first inning, but it did make me happy to see so many folks there. Actually it sort of made me suspicious. Why are Clevelanders able to not be at work at noon on a Monday and why were all of these kids out of school?

I can't answer for the kids (awesome parents, I suppose) but I have come to the conclusion that Cleveland is a second shift town and nobody is coming to the games because they're all at work. That's why noon games are so popular. So, the media can stop pondering the question and leave Cleveland alone. And no, I do not know who is covering first shift. Clearly not sports fans.

We had our seats up in the nosebleeds, the All You Can Eat seats. I thought it was a solid plan, being that we like the view from up there, and for $15 more than regular seats in the section we could eat all day. And while I had no problem eating $15 worth of food (I calculated I managed to down about $49 worth over 5 hours) the selection does sort of suck. It's the lowest of the low forms of food from the stadium - the cheapest nachos, the smallest drink cups, the dollar dogs - and you definitely get jealous as you watch people walk by with their ice cream cones and pizza and cotton candy. Granted you are totally free to buy all that stuff but then you can't smugly chow down on more free hot dogs. It skews your ratio of free food to paid ($15) food.

Anyway the whole situation is mentally exhausting, trying to make sure you eat enough. Perfect plan for when you have two games to sit through and need lunch and dinner, but otherwise - skip the All You Can Eat seats (unless someone gives you tickets to the Club version of this, which is a million times better and full of ice cream. Go get that!)

It was cold today - 44 degrees at noon and 47 degrees at the beginning of game 2. I planned ahead and wore 5 layers of shirts. An undershirt, my "We Are All Kipnises" tee, an Indians thermal shirt, my usual blank-back jersey and an Indians hoodie. I actually had to keep my hat on and hood up the entire time and wear heavy gloves for the first game. There was no sun anywhere in our section until about the 6th inning of the first game. Then it was weird because it was windy and cold but our faces and legs were hot from the sun beating down on them. I was able to take my gloves off (much better for my cheer ability) but I still stayed huddled up. My butt (my literal BUTT) was freezing!

So, we missed the first inning, since it took me too long to get downtown. Saw Kipnis's homer on the television as we ascended the escalator and that was that. No more runs for the Tribe in 17 more innings of baseball.

There were no runs for the Yankees in the first game so that was cool. Actually that was one of the few times I enjoyed a pitcher's duel, I think because Masterson looked so sharp. Any fan of this team wants desperately for Masterson to be able to come out and throw a complete-game no-hitter. That is exactly what he did and by about the 5th inning it was evident that whatever troubles he has been having his past few outings were straightened out - at least for today - and it was going to be lights-out for him. He struck out 9 and only walked 3, and held the Yankees to just 4 hits. Mid- to low-90s pitches with the occasional off speed. It only took him 118 pitches to finish the game, too.

Oh, Masterson did have a little help from his friends. Twice:



Ok, three times. No one would have won anything had it not been for Kipnis' home run!

Asdrubal had a good first game, uh, aside from the 2 strikeouts. He had those 2 nice plays and then a double. I had refreshed my sign just for this occasion, so I was happy to get to wave it about. Twice. Then I spilled some more pop on it.

Old

New

The first game only took 2 hours and 30 minutes. The second game did not start 20 minutes after the first ended, as promised. Instead it was 30 minutes. Didn't seem too bad! Especially since we finally had sunshine by then.

Trevor Bauer pitched the second game and I think he looked good. He did have a quality start going 6 2/3 innings and giving up only 2 earned runs. The Yankees did make him pitch a heckofalot though. He was past 100 by the time he left. Th first two innings were slow, but he roped in his pitch count in the 3rd and 4th, and had 1-2-3 innings for the 5th and 6th. It's nice to see that Bauer is progressing each time he pitches with us!

Nick Hagadone is going the opposite way. He struggled his last time out and today fared no better. He gave up 3 earned runs on just 3 hits and a walk. Three earned runs! I think we've got enough good stuff going on in our bullpen that Hagadone needs to be sent away (like Chisenhall was today) for a bit to figure things out.

Matt Albers finished up the 7th for everyone. Not until Mark Reynolds let a run score on a throwing error. But that inning ended and Albers came in for the 8th, giving up a single and throwing a wild pitch. Damn! The Bad was catching! They yanked him for David Huff...


Yeah, David Huff! I didn't even consider that he was still on our team. Apparently he's been in CBus throwing a 4.07 ERA and winning 3 games. Last year he finished the season with a 3.38 ERA and 6 appearances. I'm not sure what his role in our organization is since his appearances keep going down and his ERA stays relatively high. But today he faced 5 batters, striking the first 2 out and then finishing the 8th and 9th innings with no runs scored. Huh.

Nothing worth mentioning on the offensive side. Yes they got 5 hits but only went as far as 2 in one inning, then did poorly at bringing the runs home. Well, they did nothing in the way of bringing the runs home. Not sure what that means. I guess the weather and some exhaustion (I'll wait here while we all roll our eyes at the thought). I'm pretty tired and all I did was sit there!

Oh so the guy who shut us out in the second game, Vidal Nuno, was a 48th round draft pick by the Indians. And today was his first MLB start. We beat 6 Cy Young Award winners so far this year and just got beaten by a 48th round draft pick in his first start.

OMG BASEBALL!!!

Tomorrow is more baseball, if you can stand it! Off to the city of brotherly love to be harassed by Philly fans. It'll be our new favorite Scott Kazmir versus RHP 3.36. We ka-rushed the Phils in our last 2-game series, last week or whatever. This is another 2-game series, so it should be interesting. Anything will be more interesting than today's games! (And with fewer hot dogs)

See you there!

(No radio chatter...totally not going to listen to the archive of 5 hours of baseball where nothing happened)