The Tribe entered it's second homestand of the season with redemption on
its mind. They need this homestand to be the opposite of the first, and
they started off well in recording a 4-3 win over the Kansas City
Royals, extending the Royals losing streak to 12 games. The game
mirrored that of the season opener with the Tribe up early, and then
clinging to the lead late. The difference this time was a good
defensive plays by Manahan and Grimmace which preserved the win, and
then didn't allow Perez to blow a save like he did in the opener.
Hitting looked a little different this game as the Indians gave Michael
Brantley the day off, and Asdrubal Cabrera made his return from the
bereavement list. Overall the usual suspects delivered, Manahan got
RBIs, we drove 9 walks, A-Cab got two hits, and Santana/Duncan each got
an RBI. Grimmace still can't hit with runners in scoring position, and
now is 0-19 in his last 19 At-bats. The Indians overall did a good job
making Sanchez pitch to them, as he couldn't throw a strike unless it
was a change-up. There were a few times last night with runners on that
the Indians tried to get aggressive at the plate, but that led to easy
outs, and with a guy as wild as Sanchez, you need to let him come to
you. Opponents are really fearing Pronk right now, and maybe it's
because it's a contract year, but he is the key to our lineup right now.
Santana is getting great pitches, and Duncan is coming up with a man on
almost everytime. A-Cab is locked in, even after 6 games off, he went
2-4 at the plate.
An intriguing scenario happened last night too. Jason Kipnis looked
pretty good in the lead-off spot. I still like Brantley leading off,
but this team has 3 potential lead-off guys when Sizemore returns, and
while depth is a good thing, where do you put the other two guys?
Because I would not move A-Cab, Choo, Santana, or Pronk right now.
Derek Lowe has been our best starter all season. He gives up some hits,
the Royals got a lot of cheap hits with swinging bunts, but then he just
goes back to the sinker and gets easy groundouts and double plays.
Grimmace and Manahan are key players when there is a Lowe start, because
the infield will stay active and both of those guys have gold glove
ability on the corners. Can't remember how many fly outs there were,
but not many. He is now 3-1 on the year with a 3.00ERA. Sipp had 0
problems and just smoked his 3 batters. Pestano and Perez had some
issues, but the bullpen has allowed 4 runs in its last 22.1 innings
pitched. That's ridiculous good. Some would even argue that the
Indians should have sent Wheeler down to the minors instead of Hagadone
too. We need the right-handed option, but Hagadone sitting in Columbus
just shows you how deep this pen could reach if injuries start to occur.
Overall a win is a win and I like winning the first game of a series.
With Tomlin and Jimenez getting the starts the rest of this series we
should be able to win one of those two. Never underestimate the value
of winning divisional games, even if it's one of the bottom teams.
- Manahan will not allow Chisenhall to be called up.
- I don't want to say Grimmace can't hit any worse, but he is pretty
close to Adam Dunn of last year, but with less strikeouts. I posted
about this yesterday, if the Tribe continue to win despite Grimmace,
then he will stay in the lineup and hopefully breakout of his slump.
However if we start to lose, look for Duncan to move to first and Damon
to play OF.
GO TRIBE!
Hitters AB R H RBI BB SO #P AVG OBP SLG
J Kipnis 2B 3 1 1 0 1 1 20 .237 .313 .475
A Cabrera SS 4 1 2 0 1 0 21 .302 .362 .535
S Choo RF 3 0 0 0 1 2 18 .237 .375 .322
a-J Donald PH-LF 1 0 0 0 0 1 3 .206 .216 .206
C Santana C 3 1 1 1 1 0 36 .245 .406 .469
T Hafner DH 3 1 0 0 2 0 19 .333 .500 .533
S Duncan LF 3 0 1 1 0 2 18 .273 .421 .432
M Brantley CF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .196 .274 .304
J Hannahan 3B 3 0 2 2 1 0 17 .364 .453 .523
C Kotchman 1B 3 0 0 0 1 1 22 .148 .233 .278
A Cunningham CF-LF-RF 3 0 1 0 1 0 17 .200 .304 .250
Totals 29 4 8 4 9 7 191
a-struck out swinging for S Choo in the 8th
BATTING
2B: A Cabrera (4, J Sanchez); J Hannahan (4, J Sanchez)
RBI: C Santana (10), S Duncan (7), J Hannahan 2 (13)
SF: C Santana, S Duncan
2-out RBI: J Hannahan 2
GIDP: A Cabrera
Indians RISP: 2-12 (C Santana 0-2, S Choo 0-1, J Donald 0-1, J Hannahan
1-2, S Duncan 0-1, A Cabrera 1-2, T Hafner 0-1, J Kipnis 0-1, C Kotchman
0-1)
Team LOB: 13
BASERUNNING
SB: J Kipnis (3, 2nd base off T Collins/H Quintero)
Cleveland Indians
Pitchers IP H R ER BB SO HR PC-ST ERA
D Lowe
(W, 3-1) 6.0 8 1 1 1 5 0 96-59 3.00
T Sipp
(H, 5) 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 14-9 9.53
V Pestano
(H, 4) 1.0 2 1 1 1 1 0 30-18 3.12
C Perez
(S, 7) 1.0 2 1 1 0 0 0 15-12 4.50
Totals 9.0 12 3 3 2 7 0 155-98
PITCHING
WP: D Lowe
First-pitch strikes/Batters faced: D Lowe 10/27; T Sipp 1/3; V Pestano
3/6; C Perez 3/5
Called strikes-Swinging strikes-Foul balls-In Play strikes: D Lowe
20-9-9-21; T Sipp 4-1-2-2; V Pestano 7-2-5-4; C Perez 4-1-2-5
Ground Balls-Fly Balls: D Lowe 10-3; T Sipp 0-2; V Pestano 2-0; C Perez
3-0
Game Scores: D Lowe 56
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