There really isn't a better medicine to help stop a slump more than
playing the Twins when they are missing either Mauer or Morneau, and
last night it was Morneau who was on the DL. Mauer is a lifetime .360+
hitter against the Cleveland, and the Tribe held him hitless last night
so what do you think the result of the game was? Well let me share with
you some of the more crucial moments.
The afternoon started off speaking with a fellow who went to the Red
Sox/Indians series over the weekend. We both agreed that Grimmace was a
great defender, but if you can't hit over .200 in the big leagues, are
you preventing enough runs to make up for all the runners left on base
and outs that you create? If you had to select an area of the big
league club that the team would like to improve upon at the Trade
Deadline what would it be? I can't think it's the OF, they just signed
Damon, and Sizemore will be returning in June. Can't be 3B because the
Manahan has played well, and even if he hits a severe slump the next
option would be Lonnie Chisenhall. Can't be the rotation, because
really the biggest problems that we have had has been Justin Masterson
starts, and he is one of our top 2 pitchers, so you can't imagine they
trade to replace him(maybe they use the Cliff Lee method and send him
down), but not a trade. The only place for an upgrade is first base.
Grimmace can't hit. LaPorta is your next option, and he is currently
suspended for fighting(which makes me think he is even more awesome).
Well this leads me to our offensive MVP of the day. GRIMMACE! He is
slowly raising his average and is on the brink of cracking .200 for the
first time all season. Last night he went 2-4 and hit a big 2-run HR in
the 5th inning that was a no doubter off of Carl Pavano. As a team the
Indians hit very well off of Twins pitching, as everybody got a hit
except for Brantley and Left Field.
The Twins are a very aggressive team on the basepaths since they really
don't have anybody in their lineup other than Mauer that scares you.
The scoring started in the 3rd when "Twins guy with a long last name"
made a steal attempt to third when Santana bobbled one of Gomez's
pitches, Santana tried to throw down to third, but instead threw it to
left field and the Twins got a 1-0 lead. The Indians gained a 2-1 lead
off of some manufacturing of runs in the 4th inning when Pronk and
Santana each got RBIs scoring Kipnis and A-Cab respectively. That lead
to the 5th inning where Grimmace shined hitting his homerun and scoring
Jose Lopez. That 4-1 lead would hold up until the 8th inning when both
managers made questionable calls that really determined this game.
Let me back track slightly, Jeanmar Gomez got the start and he looked
really good. Tough to really gauge how good he did, because like I
said, the Twins are a very bad offensive team. The three walks looked
worse than the numbers dictate, only because of who he walked, and that
was the 9th hitter, and then some other bottom of the lineup guys that
allowed RBI opportunities for Willingham and Mauer, who are really the
only two Twins that can do significant damage to you. However, Gomez
did what he needed to do, went 7.0 innings, and left with a 4-1 lead,
and should have gotten the win.
So the 8th inning things got interesting, Pestano got called in as
usual, and was a tad wild yet again. After allowing a walk to Denard
Span, with one out he got Joe Mauer to strike out, but Santana bounced a
throw to Kipnis on a hit-and-run attempt but Kipnis couldn't come up
with it and Span got the steal and the inning continued. Santana had
him gunned by a mile, but he bounced the throw, so that was kind of a
letdown, and then the Twins made us pay. Willingham then doubled to
left scoring Span to make it a 4-2 game. Then Manny Acta went in
over-think mode and pulled his setup guy Pestano for the lefty Hagadone.
The strategy behind this is unclear, maybe he thought Pestano was wild
and threw too many pitches in that inning? Maybe it was because Doumit
who was coming to the plate does have some pop, but no homers from the
right side of the plate? Well, guess who hit his first HR of the season
from the right side of the plate? Mr. Doumit, who tied the game up with
a HR to left making it 4-4. Then Acta went back to the bullpen, and Joe
Smith got the final out of the inning.
Then Ron Gardenhire made his managerial blunder of the evening. And let
me start off by saying I like Gardenhire a lot as a manager, he
continuously is a guy who does more with less, but the last few years he
has been hammered by injury, and this year they still have the injuries,
but even less talent to go with it. Anyways, he made "Classic Manager
Mistake #1" he brought his closer in to pitch the 9th in a non-save
situation. Luckily for the Indians it was against us. Grimmace got a
1-out single up the middle, and once there was a wild pitch during the
Cunningham AB, Acta went with Marson to pinch run on 2nd. Cunningham
couldn't get the job done, but with 2 outs, Big League Choo took
advantage of a fastball that missed his mark over the middle and singled
in the go ahead run to RF. Then all Acta had to do was bring in the MLB
saves leader with a save situation, and game over. Tribe win 5-4.
Quick Notes:
- The Manahan missed the game with tightness in his back. Jose Lopez
got the start at 3B, which is a nice sight to see as he was smoking the
ball in spring training and really hasn't had enough A.B.s to get into
any sort of rhythm offensively.
- You know how the referees in basketball get WAY TOO AMPED to call
blocking and charging calls? Well the home plate umpire went all Hulk
Hogan on a ball that hit that batter will still in the batters box on a
hit. He definitely just jumped to the spot, pointed with the whole
"Whatcha gonna do!!!" finger, and repeated for about 30 seconds until
the world knew that it wasn't a fair ball, but a foul ball. Nice call,
BROTHER!
- Choo was hitting lead-off. Different strategy, but I like it. I
mean, his extra AB was the reason we won the game, so kudos on that call
by Acta. However it is concerning that Choo is afraid of the inside
pitch now after being plunked so much, not a good sign at all, but
hopefully he can turn it around soon.
- Choo got HBP on the leg.
- Odd sequence in the 8th during the Willingham AB. There were 3
straight foul tips, the first two hit Santana in the face, and the third
hit the umpire in the face. The second caused Santana to look a little
woozy, so I wouldn't be surprised if Marson gets the start at catcher
with the short turnaround.
Tribe has an afternoon game at 1pm today as it will be Derek Lowe going
for the 2 game sweep against Jason Marquis.
Hitters AB R H RBI BB SO #P AVG OBP SLG
S Choo RF 4 0 1 1 0 2 20 .236 .362 .330
J Kipnis 2B 5 1 1 0 0 0 16 .281 .348 .475
A Cabrera SS 3 1 1 0 1 0 17 .316 .414 .500
T Hafner DH 3 0 1 1 1 0 10 .252 .397 .430
C Santana C-1B 2 0 1 1 1 1 15 .252 .378 .395
M Brantley CF 4 0 0 0 0 1 10 .261 .301 .362
J Lopez 3B 4 1 1 0 0 0 11 .192 .192 .385
C Kotchman 1B 4 1 2 2 0 0 13 .198 .277 .311
L Marson PR-C 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .095 .269 .190
S Duncan LF 3 0 0 0 0 2 13 .200 .320 .341
A Cunningham LF 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 .217 .308 .261
Totals 33 5 8 5 3 6 130
BATTING
2B: T Hafner (5, C Pavano); A Cabrera (12, C Pavano); J Lopez (2, C
Pavano)
HR: C Kotchman (3, 5th inning off C Pavano 1 on, 0 Out)
RBI: T Hafner (16), C Santana (19), C Kotchman 2 (11), S Choo (13)
SF: C Santana
2-out RBI: S Choo
GIDP: J Kipnis
Indians RISP: 1-6 (M Brantley 0-2, C Santana 0-1, J Lopez 0-1, T Hafner
0-1, C Kotchman 1-1)
Team LOB: 6
FIELDING
E: C Santana (4, throw)
PB: C Santana.
Cleveland Indians
Pitchers IP H R ER BB SO HR PC-ST ERA
J Gomez 7.0 3 1 0 3 2 0 97-58 3.75
V Pestano
(H, 9) 0.2 1 2 2 1 1 0 22-12 3.07
N Hagadone
(B, 1) 0.0 1 1 1 1 0 1 13-7 1.74
J Smith
(W, 3-1) 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1-1 2.81
C Perez
(S, 12) 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 12-9 3.68
Totals 9.0 5 4 3 5 4 1 145-87
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