It's A Walkoff

Aroldis Chapman throws over 100mph, and is on fire this season.  So when
the Indians had to face him in the bottom of the 10th, down 2-1, you
knew what was cooking in Cleveland.  First batter was Lonnie Chisenhall
who took the first pitch he saw and drove it to deep right field.  He
was sitting fastball, got it, and then was looking to elevate it to tie
the game.  When a guy throws that hard, you don't have to hit it that
hard to make it go far.  The next batter was Big League Choo, who worked
the count into his favor, and then ripped a single into RF(fastball),
and got a single to get the tying run on board.  Next up is Asdrubal
Cabrera, who again worked the count into his favor as Chapman was pretty
wild in his appearance.  Then, Cabrera fouled a few off, waiting for a
fastball, and then like Chisenhall, swung just to get it in the air and
let Chapman do the rest.  He made contact, DEEP TO RIGHT FIELD, AND IT
IS OUTTA HERE!!  Walk-off for the Tribe, 3-2 victory over the Reds for
the Indians second win a row.  If they can win one more that is what we
call a winning streak, it has happened before.

This was a game that you kind of expected to be low scoring after the 19
combined runs the teams scored the night before.  It was a pitchers duel
between Mike Leake and Josh Tomlin, who both look like very similar
pitchers.  Both offenses managed to get runners on base though, but
Tomlin managed to get timely double plays, and Leake got key strikeouts
to not allow the Indians to advance the runners.  The Indians got a
runner on base to lead off the first 4 innings  of the game, but
couldn't muster a run until the 4th inning when Grimmace got a base hit
up the middle, allowing Carlos Santana to score from 2nd base after he
lead off the inning with a double.

Tomlin only ran into two problems during the game, and that was in the
first inning, when the Reds looked like they were going to continue the
trend from the opening game of the series.  The Reds manufactured a run
on an infield single by Chris Heisey which scored Zack Cozart.  Then
Tomlin while allowing some hits, basically cruised the rest of the way
getting 2 double plays, and leaping grab at the wall by Michael
Brantley, and two great plays by Grimmace.  Like most of his starts, in
the 7th inning Tomlin got in trouble during his third trip thru the Reds
lineup, and then the new guy Esmil Rodgers got Tomlin out of the inning
by striking out Scott Rolen using a very very filthy slider.  This guy
had a huge ERA in Colorado, but that movement tells me he has the stuff
to be another key piece to our bullpen.  Especially since AL hitters
have seen much of him.

Indians win 3-2 over the Reds in 10 innings.  Nick Hagadone moves to 1-0
on the year by getting a win even though he threw 2 wild pitches, and
allowed the go ahead run.  Aroldis Champman gets the loss, and Asdrubal
Cabrera is a hero only 2 days after he had 3 errors in the same game.

Quick Hits:

-  Huge win, you can't make the playoffs by losing games that your
pitcher gives you a quality start.  It took 10 innings, but the Indians
found a way to win a game that Tomlin pitched beautifully during.
Honestly, I would be ok losing on Monday, because that was a slugfest
and the pitchers didn't do anything to really deserve a win.  This game
the offense only needed 3 runs in 10innings to win, and that should be
possible even with our slumping offense.

-  Shelley Duncan got the start in LF today.  Let me share this,
Duncan(.195), Cunningham(.194), and Damon(.180).  Those are their
averages and these are the BEST guys in our organization to play MLB LF.
2 out of the 3 can't be relied on defensively to even last longer than 7
innings.  I don't say this often, but that is absolutely pathetic.  The
camera guy even did Cleveland fans another huge favor by showing Grady
Sizemore on the bench at one point.  Why give us false hope?  I mean
seriously, why was that necessary?  Oh wait, let me look at those
averages again...yeah, I would rather see Sizemore on the bench then
those 3 at the plate.  Ubelievable, but the trade deadline is
approaching, and I am going to take a guess that the OF will be
addressed.

-  The offense is still struggling, but Grimmace looked real good today,
and Hannahan put some good swings on the ball.  I trust that Acta was
just playing the numbers, but Grimmace was having a good day offensively
AND defensively, why pinch-hit with Lopez who just went 0-4 the day
before against Sean Marshall late?  I understand righty vs. lefty, but
Lopez doesn't usually hit his HRs in his first AB, and maybe his career
numbers were good vs. Marshall, but if they weren't, I would have stuck
with the hot hand over the somewhat powerful cold pinch hitter.