Tribe Crushed in Minny, 11-0

On a night when Victor Martinez delivered a game winning two run double with the Red Sox down to their final out, recently acquired Justin Masterson was extremely wild and roughed up by the left handed hitting presence of the Minnesota Twins.  Recently acquired reliever Jess Todd provided very little relief.  Masterson lasted only 3.1 innings before being bounced during an avalanche of 6 runs scored by the Twins in the fourth inning coming on the heels of a 3 run third inning.  The game was quickly out of reach as the Twins batted around hammering Masterson and Todd.  The Twins were hitting everything that Masterson threw at them which was not a whole lot as he was considerably wild.  He gave up 5 walks and threw only 46 of 83 pitches for strikes as almost half of his pitches sailed out of the zone or were ripped back into play.  Jess Todd entered the game in relief and gave up four straight hits and a walk to start his evening.  The sixth batter Todd faced, Delmon Young,  grounded into a double play to mercifully end the 6 run inning.

Tomo Ohka came on in the 5th inning and pitched three innings.  He gave up a two run bomb to Jason Kubel which capped the Twins scoring for the evening at 11.  Maurer, Morneau, and Kubel were responsible for batting in 9 of the 11 runs.  Skipper Eric Wedge was not around to see the Kubel homer.  He decided that he had seen enough and ended his night early arguing with home plate umpire Bob Davidson during the prior at bat of Justin Morneau.  Kelly Shoppach supposedly caught a foul tipped third strike off the bat of Morneau.  Manager Ron Gardenhire, on a tip from his third base coach, came out to argue that the ball hit the dirt before it went into Shoppach’s glove. 

It was 9-0 at this point and the game was over.  Let’s just call him out and keep moving.  But home plate umpire Davidson acquiesced to Gardy’s petition to check the baseball for a dirt mark.  He did and apparently saw such a mark although he went down to first base to check with ump Wally Bell who was blocked out by the left handed Morneau anyways.  It was unclear why he did not just check the ball and rule or check the ball and double check with the 3rd base ump.  He overturned his own strike out call and Wedge was incensed.  Both Bell and Robinson understandably let him say his piece but he continued once Robinson tried to walk away.  It ended with Wedge and Robinson nose to nose in one of the most animated arguments I have seen Wedge engage in with an ump. 

While the Twins hitters were raking away, Scott Baker continued to own the Indians and their borderline Triple A lineup.  The Tribe managed only two hits and zero walks.  Baker has dominated us all year long and is now 3-0 with a sub 1.00 ERA versus the Tribe.  The Indians have lost three in a row and while they were out of it early because of pitching in this one, the bats have gone ice cold in three straight games.  The bottom of the order continued to struggle with Shoppach, Chris Gimenez (.174 BA), and Andy Marte going 0 for 9.  Wedge stated “Our youth is starting to show up at the bottom of the lineup…we need those guys up top to do a better job.”  It’s a little bit more than just our youth.  I think we have seen enough of Chris Gimenez at this point.  The series continues today at 4 PM with lefty David Huff taking on the struggling Anthony Swarzak.

(AP Photo/Tom Olmscheid)