Bizzaro Indians Top White Sox 10-8

Games like yesterday’s White Sox-Indians duel are the reason why the baseball season is as long as it is.  Thinking is that the cream rises to the top after a 162-game season.  Fluke wins and overachieving usually reverts to the mean after so long.  And if you don’t think last night was an uncharacteristic victory, you haven’t seen many Indians games this season.

Batting ninth, thanks to a batting average under .200, Kelly Shoppach hit his first career grand slam and finished with five RBI.

And to add a higher level of craziness to the mix, starter David Huff only lasted four and one-third innings after allowing 11 hits and seven earned runs.  This gave Eric Wedge no choice but to turn to one of the worst bullpens since color TV exploded on to the scene. 

What happened from there was nothing short of amazing.

Through four and two-thirds innings, the Indians bullpen gave up only two hits.  Sure, they walked three, but when no runs cross the plate in any given inning, it’s a minor victory.  When our bullpen can string together more than four innings of said solid work, it is a whole different story.

“We tried to take him as far as we could,” Eric Wedge said. “With the status of our bullpen, you never know what’s going to happen.”

No kidding.  Especially when they actually do their job, as seen yesterday afternoon.

Jose Veras started off with a shaky three outs, walking one and allowing a hit.  But Tony Sipp (the winning pitcher for the contest), Rafy Betancourt and Joe Smith combined to strike out four batters while allowing zero hits.

Even more surprising was the fact that Wedge went to Kerry Wood with two outs in the eighth inning – the first time all season.  Wood proceeded to fan two White Sox hitters en route to his 11th save of the season.  If that seems low, it is.  But it’s also only two behind last year’s save leader in Jensen Lewis.

Kudos to Jhonny Peralta who has actually looked like a professional baseball player over the last few weeks.  In the three games against the White Sox, Peralta went 5-for-13 with two doubles, a home run, two runs scored and two RBI.  His 3-for-5 day was very instrumental in yesterday’s win.  Also increased his trade value in the event that another team floats a decent arm our way.

As much as I’d like to see Matt LaPorta getting his at-bats, props to Ryan Garko and his 4-for-5, two-run day as well.  He’s quietly batting .279/.360/.437 and is in the midst of a nine-game hitting streak that has raised his average nearly 20 points.  Not helping my LaPorta case whatsoever, but I guess I’ll take it.

If you’re keeping track of team stats, Victor Martinez’s month of June officially put his batting average back to earth.  He and Asdrubal Cabrera are both hitting .298; Shin-Soo Choo is right there at .297. 

Since returning from his elbow-related down time, Grady Sizemore is hitting .275 with four home runs, 10 runs scored and 16 RBI.  He’s also raised his OPS nearly 50 points in the same span.

Up next, the Tribe takes on the Motor City Kitties in Detroit.  Cliff Lee starts things off tonight.  Let’s hope he recovers from his last outing and tops the Tigers’ Edwin Jackson (6-4, 2.59 ERA).