Well the Indians have made vast improvements from where they started off at this point last season. A year ago we opened against the White Sox and were trailing 12-0 before you could get back from the concession stands. This year things started off a lot better, and the Indians led 4-1 for most of the game. However a blown save by Chris Perez in the 9th blew yet another great start for Justin Masterson and the Indians fell to the Blue Jays 7-4 in 16 innings. A record was set, as this was the longest game on Opening Day in the history of major league baseball. Now to the the notes.
What Impressed Me about the Indians;
Justin Masterson: 8IP, 2 hits allowed, and 10Ks. That's a pretty nice stat line to start the year off, and usually deserves a W. Every time I talk about Masterson it comes down to the same few things, first he has Cy Young stuff, and can easily be a 20 game winner. However, the Indians hitters treat his starts the same way they did those of Sabathia and Cliff Lee not too long ago. Yes he left the game with a 4-1 lead, but all of the runs were scored in the 2nd inning, which is cool, but there are 8 other innings that the offense needs to show up. The one run he allowed was to Jose Bautista cranking a solo HR, which he will do against everyone so that wasn't a big issue. Great debut by Masterson, except in the AL he can't help his hitters out.
Jack Hanahan: Hanahan hit the big 3 run HR in the second inning that basically accounted for the entire offense. He also had a clutch hit in the 12th where he flung his bat at an off-speed pitch to make sure he hit it to the right side of the field, allowing Kipnis to move from 1st to 3rd with one out. Hanahan is a monster on opening days, so I suppose he is just following his own status quo, but he played very solid defense as usual, and was the only guy I can think of with multiple hits today.
Shin-Soo Choo: Choo looked really good in his debut. He was very aggressive on the basepaths being thrown out at home, and thrown out trying to steal second. However I like the aggression, at least it shows that he had a pulse and was trying to provide a spark to the bats as most of the hitters seemed fairly content to work the counts for walks for most of the games. Choo even walked towards the mound in the 15th when the Toronto reliever threw at his head. I liked that too, he knows it was probably unintentional, but again he showed a pulse for the offense. I don't think Choo will have as slow as a start to the year as he did last season, he seemed refreshed, very loose, and even had a good single to start off the year.
Bullpen: Other than Chris Perez, the rest of the pen looked pretty solid. The remainder of the unit went 6.2 IP with only allowing 3 runs. I think both teams were stretching the outings a lot longer than they would have liked as to avoid going to the 5th starter, but overall Pestano, Smith, Sipp, and Ascencio impressed me. Ascencio won't be asked to go 3 innings every time he throws, but he looked pretty calm and dependable in his Indians debut.
Eric Thames Facial Hair: What's not to like about that?
What I didn't like:
Chris Perez: Very rough way to start the year as he blew a 3 run lead in the 9th, which ultimately turned into a loss. He won't be perfect as far as save opportunities go on the year, so this one may not be a big one to let get away, but after the way Masterson shut down those bats all game, you really think he is beating himself up after the game for blowing it. He will be fine, and like any missed opportunities he will use this to help keep him focused and throwing confidently in future save opportunities.
The Offense: Once the extra innings started I couldn't help but feel bad for Manny Acta. What more is a manager to do when you have the go ahead runner on 3rd with one out, and then you hit into a double play...twice. I mean, Acta went by a very good playbook that he used last season, pinch running for Duncan and Hafner at different times, he had Kotchman and A-Cab up during those separate game winning situations, and all he could do was sit back and watch the team shoot itself in the foot. I didn't think the offense would be as huge a concern this year if the key players could stay healthy. In the end it is only one game, so lets see what they do on Saturday to redeem themselves. However, I wasn't impressed today. Regardless of the runs scored, they just weren't hitting the ball very solid all game. Weak grounders, choppers, and pop outs were the basic results of most of the at-bats. I don't mind seeing some hard line drive outs, or hard grounders just get hit in the wrong spots, at least that tells me the hitters are seeing the ball well, I didn't get that feeling after watching this game.
Colby Rasmus: We would have won if he didn't make a diving stop in CF on a Hanahan line drive. That could have blown the doors off the game, but instead it was an out and likely Web Gem.
Conclusion: The story here is that the Tribe wasted a great start by one of their starting pitchers. You aren't going to get a starter to go 8IP and allowing only 1 run very often, so you have to win those games. They couldn't, and what makes things worse is that by playing the odds, and trying to squeeze out one or two more runs late in the game by using pinch runners, Acta essentially took out two of the more powerful bats (Hafner and Duncan) in our lineup for the entire extra innings. Had they been in the lineup, I actually believe we would have won since their presence is a little bit more threatening than Jason Donald and Aaron Cunningham. I don't mind the pinch running moves by Acta, but I remember watching him sub Cunningham in for Duncan, and I thought, "Why not wait until Duncan can make it to 2nd before pinch running?". Well Acta sent the pinch runner in while Duncan was on first, and the next AB was an easy double play ball, so the pinch runner didn't matter. It was nice to see Cunningham play, but while he seems solid defensively, offensively we needed Duncan in those extra frames. It may take a few games to get the bats going, but somebody needs to get hot, and while Hanahan was the hot hand today, he was in the 9 spot so he was up the least amount of times. Carlos Santana called a very good game from behind the plate today, and the only damage done by the Blue Jays was on two hanging sliders that got crushed over the left field wall.
Next up is Ubaldo Jimenez vs. Brandon Morrow. Morrow is a right hander so that SHOULD favor us with our 6 lefty lineup. however we hit much better against the lefties of the Blue Jays today than we did against their righties. Jimenez will need to throw strikes and with our bullpen having been used a lot today, he will have to go at least 6 innings to set us up for a nice closing of that game. Ideally I am hoping he can throw strikes, he gets to go 6-7 innings, and then you will see Dan Wheeler and Rafael Perez first out of the pen, before Chris Perez redeems himself. Also, Brandon Morrow can throw over 100mph, so I am feeling a couple homers if any of the Indians can square the bat on one.
That's all for now. Good night and Go Tribe!
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