So there are starting to be stark similarities between our top two
starting pitchers Justin Masterson and Ubaldo Jimenez. Both seem to be
capable of looking like Cy Young one game, and capable of looking like
Rick Ankiel the next game. There remain slight differences to them when
they perform badly. Masterson gives up a lot of hits and HRs, because
his pitches just start to hang over the plate, while Ubaldo doesn't hang
anything he just loses the plate completely and walks 8 batters. This
is a recurring problem because an 'ace' needs to be a consistent stopper
and provide relief to the offense/bullpen. It's no secret our bullpen
got a bit rocked in Chicago, a nice 7-8inning start would be a good
break for them, and keeping the runs down would help these fill-ins on
offense not have to score 6 runs only to still lose games. Ubaldo and
Masterson need to be those pitchers that provide relief on their turns
in the rotation, that's how we will make it to the playoffs. However,
their performances are like a coin flip, counting the licks til you
reach the center of a tootsie pop, or opening a box of chocolates....you
never know what you are going to get.
I bring this up because as you guessed, Masterson got rocked by KC.
However it was only in the first 2 innings when he just hung pitch,
after pitch, and either his mechanics were off early or Carlin wasn't
holding the mit in the right spot. Whatever the reason, the Royals
weren't fooled. Mike Moustakas got the game going with a 2 out, 2 run
HR to RF in the top of the first(2-0). The Indians were able to tie it
up in the bottom of the first, so you thought that maybe Masterson would
settle down a bit. I mean after all, we had Masterson pitching, and the
Royals had Will Smith making his second career start. Well Masterson
got worse in the 2nd and was rocked for 5 runs, which probably should
have been 7 runs(but Moustakas just missed another HR), and they are
were all line drive singles for the most part. Nobody was fooled in
their lineup, and most of their foul balls went HR distance. After
falling behind 7-2, their pitcher got jiggy with it and shut down the
Tribe for the rest of the game.
Masterson settled down in the 3rd with the game basically over, and he
ended up going 6 innings striking out 8. He allowed one more run later
in the game, but that was a fluky run that scored off of a steal attempt
at 3rd, and the ball was an easy grounder right were Chisenhall would
have been had he not moved to cover 3rd. Overall, 4 out of his 6
innings pitched were really good, but a 5 run inning is bad. I am not
sure what the fixes should be, at least with Ubaldo you know that IF he
can find the strike zone you are golden, with Masterson he needs to find
the lower part of the strike zone.
The offense scored only two runs, and the highlight was the fact that
Luke Carlin reached base 3 times on 3 errors, by 3 different Royals. 3
errors, and we could only score 2 lousy runs. Give the Royals pitching
some credit, they limited their walks, they usually kept the hitters off
balance with first pitch off-speed strikes, and they mixed the arm slots
when they got guys out of the bullpen. Just a bad game all around for
the Indians really and they happen.
These aren't the quotes you want to hear though after a game:
Manny Acta - "I must confess, that had to be the most boring game I have
ever been part of, that second inning just sucked all the energy out of
us."
Justin Masterson - "It's always one inning" (Always? That means this
is a regular problem).
Greybeard Thoughts -
- Asdrubal Cabrera returned to the lineup and went 1 for 4. He looked
a little rusty, but overall it is very nice to see him back in the
lineup. Hopefully Pronk can return very soon too.
- Lou Marson should get the start in the series finale.
- Chris Perez apparently went with the "You can't see me" hand gesture
after closing out the first game of the series and Royals CF Jerod Dyson
wants a piece of him. Chris Perez is starting to make a name for
himself as a crazy person, and I actually like it. Obviously if you
aren't an Indians fan you don't like him, but at least they have a vocal
player that may bring some national attention to the club, and most
importantly his performances back up all his talk. Why not, maybe next
time he do a Hogan pose on the mound following a strikeout, or work on
raising the Cleveland eyebrow when he peers in for the pitch selections.
Hitters AB R H RBI BB SO #P AVG OBP SLG
S Choo RF 3 1 0 0 1 2 17 .263 .382 .400
J Kipnis 2B 3 1 0 0 1 1 21 .281 .341 .454
A Cabrera DH 4 0 1 0 0 1 14 .299 .392 .484
J Lopez 1B 4 0 1 1 0 0 19 .260 .296 .416
M Brantley CF 4 0 1 1 0 0 16 .273 .310 .374
A Cunningham LF 4 0 1 0 0 1 14 .211 .297 .246
L Chisenhall 3B 4 0 0 0 0 2 11 .250 .250 .625
L Carlin C 4 0 0 0 0 0 19 .300 .300 .400
J Diaz SS 4 0 1 0 0 0 13 .267 .353 .267
Totals 34 2 5 2 2 7 144
BATTING
RBI: J Lopez (15), M Brantley (21)
GIDP: J Diaz 2
Indians RISP: 2-9 (M Brantley 0-1, L Chisenhall 0-2, S Choo 0-1, J Lopez
1-1, A Cunningham 0-1, J Kipnis 0-1, A Cabrera 1-2)
Team LOB: 7
BASERUNNING
SB: S Choo (8, 2nd base off W Smith/H Quintero); M Brantley (9, 2nd base
off W Smith/H Quintero)
FIELDING
DP: 1 (J Kipnis-J Diaz-J Lopez).
PB: L Carlin.
Cleveland Indians
Pitchers IP H R ER BB SO HR PC-ST ERA
J Masterson
(L, 2-4) 6.0 9 8 7 0 8 1 111-78 5.14
J Accardo 2.0 1 0 0 0 3 0 34-23 2.16
N Hagadone 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 10-7 2.20
Totals 9.0 10 8 7 0 12 1 155-108
PITCHING
WP: J Masterson
HBP: A Escobar (By J Masterson)
First-pitch strikes/Batters faced: J Masterson 18/28; J Accardo 5/7; N
Hagadone 1/3
Called strikes-Swinging strikes-Foul balls-In Play strikes: J Masterson
16-18-25-19; J Accardo 5-8-6-4; N Hagadone 1-1-4-1
Ground Balls-Fly Balls: J Masterson 9-1; J Accardo 3-0; N Hagadone 1-1
Game Scores: J Masterson 32
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