While We’re Waiting…Tribe/Strasburg, QB Two-Step and the Big Ten Championship Game
June 14, 2010Lose Weight or Pay Cleveland Browns $500 Per Pound
June 14, 2010What a weekend it was down at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario. The new face of the franchise, Carlos Santana, arrived with his full offensive arsenal on Friday night. He didn’t get a hit, but his team won its third straight game. A day later, his bat did all the talking and led the Tribe to their fourth straight win in a game that lasted just two hours and five minutes. Finally to close the series, the Indians got to face the phenom of all phenoms, Stephen Strasburg, and play on national TV in front of 32,000 plus.
For the first time since 2007, there was an actual buzz around the stadium all weekend. A major part of that was Santana and Strasburg. Lets call a spade a spade; fans were not coming to the park in droves to see Russell Branyan and David Huff.
Santana’s call-up from Columbus has been talked about since Spring Training and with catchers Lou Marson and Mike Redmond all but impotent at the plate, the decision to bring Santana to town was not a matter of if, it was when. The Indians offense sputters; that is no surprise to anyone who watches this team regularly. With the opportunity to bring in a bat of The Big Smooth’s talent from within, the move had to be made now.
Manny Acta made no bones about it, the kid is going to hit third and play everyday. That’s not something you see in the majors. I can’t imagine a kid getting called up anywhere else and immediately being established as the team’s number three hitter. But that is what Acta did for Santana’s major league debut on Friday.
In Acta’s first game against the team that fired him a year ago, the Washington Nationals, the hot bat of Austin Kearns and solid work from Jake Westbrook brought him a 7-2 victory. Kearns hit two home runs, drove in four (against his old team as well) and set the pace with a three-run blast in the first. Westbrook pitched into the eighth, allowing just two runs on seven hits, but the real hero of this night was “Awesome” Kearns.
“Austin is the ultimate pro and it’s good to see him healthy,” Acta said.
Santana didn’t get a hit in his first game, however, he did gun out the first runner who tried to steal on him. The next two Nationals reached base as the play turned out to be even bigger. “Carlos’ throw was huge,” Westbrook said. “It would have been at least 2-0 without it. He was great back there all night.”
On to Saturday night, which turned out to be the Fausto and Carlos show. Nobody is talking about Carmona’s complete game, three-hitter in which he struck out seven and didn’t walk a batter because of the great Carlos Santana and his big stick. The rookie catcher made his presence felt in the second with a two-RBI double that capped a four-run inning for the Tribe.
But he was not done.
In the fifth, Santana crushed his first major-league homer to the seats in right-field to extend the Tribe lead to 6-0. As he returned to the dugout, his teammates gave him the silent treatment before mobbing him. “That’s part of the game,” Santana said joke in the majors, “I’ve seen it before. I was just very happy.” And well he should have been as the Tribe breezed to 7-1 win, their fourth straight. Bouquets were thrown at him after the game from all sides.
“The ball really jumps off his bat,” Nats Manager Jim Riggleman said. “They’ve got a special guy there.”
Carmona, who was masterful, dismissed the notion that the kid was not ready as a backstop. “I didn’t shake him off once,” Carmona said. “I was very confident in him.” Meanwhile, Acta had to pump up his horse after his complete game. “That was our most dominant performance by a pitcher this season,” Acta said. “Fausto was terrific.”
So with four straight wins and their hottest prospect now set in the middle of their order, the Wahoo Warriors tried their hand against the only prospect in the game hotter than Santana – Stephen Strasburg.
In Strasburg’s first start earlier in week, he struck out 14 in seven innings in a home win over Pittsburgh. Just your ordinary, average major league debut. His first road start was yesterday against the Tribe. There is so much hype for the kid that even Indians fans decided to show for this one. 32,000 plus of them – easily their biggest crowd since opening day.
The offensive approach, work the count and make Strasburg worked, was a novel idea. It actually worked as Strasburg walked five in five and a third inning. However, the Tribe could only manage two hits against him – one being a solo home run by Travis Hafner.
David Huff, the Indians starter, was not as fine as his counterpart and he needed to be. He pitched into the sixth, trailing just 2-1, but like so many other of his starts, the third time through the order got him. He got the first two out in the sixth before walking Adam Dunn and giving up a double to Josh Willingham. He had a third chance to escape trouble but Pudge Rodriguez ended his day with a double scoring Dunn and Willingham. Frank Herrmann relieved and should have ended the inning, but Trevor Crowe’s circuitous route on Ian Desmond’s liner turned into a two-run triple.
“Desmond hit it good,” Crowe said. “I just didn’t get a good enough read on it. I should have been deeper.”
It was all over but the shouting at this point. One thing of note was another poor outing from Tony Sipp, this time in mop-up duty. A guy who had an ERA of 1.40 three weeks ago now stands at 7.48 after giving up three runs on five straight hits in the Washington eighth.
Back to Strasburg. The Indians were impressed all around by the rookie’s moxie and arm. Kerry Wood, who came in with almost as much fanfare as Strasburg, liked what he saw. “He’s got tremendous stuff,” said Wood. “He has command of a couple off-speed pitches which is huge for a young guy with his kind of arm. It was impressive.”
The 9-4 loss ended the four game winning streak, but the Tribe still split with Boston and took two of three from Washington. A good week for Manny Acta’s club. So what did we learn this weekend?
A certain Indian prospect lights it up in Columbus. Remember when Matt LaPorta was sent to AAA last week so he could get regular at-bats? Well now he is getting those and tearing the cover off the ball in Columbus. In his first week down I-71, LaPorta went 10-23 (.435) with five home runs and nine RBI. In 119 AB’s in Cleveland, he had one homer and seven RBIs.
Is he better because the pressure is off, or is he getting the everyday AB’s he needs and finally healthy again? Lets hope for the latter. You will see him again when/if the Indians trade off Russell Branyan or Austin Kearns.
The bullpen still has only one reliable setup man. I’m speaking of Chris Perez, who was terrific on Saturday night, getting a four out save. The Tony Sipp problem seems to be getting worse, not better. Frank Herrmann is probably the closest thing at this point to a bridge to Chris Perez. The rest of the guys out there can easily be replaced. I still cannot believe another week has gone by and Rafael Perez is still employed by the Indians.
Carlos Santana looks great in an Indians uniform. Who else absolutely loves the fact that The Big Smooth is wearing #41 in honor of his idol and former Indian Victor Martinez? The swing looks fantastic and its just a pleasure to have our best prospect up and playing everyday in the majors.
To me, right now with the Indians cellar-dwelling, I want to see the future. Give me Santana, Lonnie Chisenhaul (who is tearing it up in Akron as well), LaPorta, Jason Donald, and Michael Brantley every day.
Up next is an interleague meeting with the New York Mets.
photo via Thomas Ondrey/PD
16 Comments
ZOMG!!! I’M AN ANGRY MSU FAN! WHY AREN’T YOU COMPLETELY BENDING TO MY WILL!!!
Nice write up TD, the entire reason I went to the ball park friday was to see Santana. I was a little disappointed he didn’t get a hit and nearly grounded into two double plays but the throw out of Nyjer Morgan was fantastic.
If this team can get it’s bull pen somewhat figured out between this year and next, this team could certainly be a contender with Santana, Choo, Donald, and perhaps Lonnie Chisenhall at third with Jhonny gone. Certainly good things to look forward to down the road.
I think you commented on the wrong post ben.
Chisenhall is tearing up AA Akron, not Columbus.
I am very impressed with the way that Santana handled Strasburg yesterday. He seemed very patient at the plate. Its a good sign for the future.
How about that rally starting double by Andy Marte…… oh yeah
@brwnsgrl- Don’t forget how well he handles a freight train. Adam Dnn destroyed him at home plate. It was kind of funny, after I knew he wasn’t injured, Sanatana just nonchalantly wanders over home plate and BAM.
I told my brother yesterday that Adam Dunn looks like he would smell like beer. Anybody else get that impression of him? Maybe, stale beer and hot dogs….
Adam Dunn looked like a fullback when he blew through Santana
More like Ray Lewis? Welcome to the majors rook!
Sham- Ray Lewis stuffing Darren Sproles in the backfield… I can see it. Dunn is better compared to Ed “Too Tall” Jones though. What is he, like 6’7″ or something?
watching Dunn run over Santana all I could think of was Jack Parkman in Major League 2 saying “Welcome to the Big Leagues, Hayseed. Next time, don’t stand on the tracks when the train’s coming through.”
I wonder how long it will take and how many losses people will endure before they start calling the Indians a AAA team and complain about the young guys…i dont think cleveland fans can really ever be happy…even if we happen to ever actually WIN anything, there will be some sort of caveat to it…
that being said, seeing that kid complain about the mound was pretty funny…he seems like a baby to me…
DK- I found that annoying. I’ve never seen anybody do that before.. And he did it twice in one game? It was odd… I think he was using that as an excuse to pitch around Hafner.
I hope the baseball fans that went to the game to see the opposition had a good time. Now that the circus has left, let’s see how many of those “fans” come back to support their home town team!
Will these same “fans” be rooting for Strasburg when he’s pitching for the Yankees or Red Sox in a few years?
@13 – they weren’t there to see Strasburg. They were there to see ‘Black Magic’ take on Strasburg.
I so wish it was Santana that did what Pronk did to him. Though, hopefully that gives the Donkey Project the confidence he needs to be worth at least half his contract.
@11&12…Did you guys see the replays after/during the game in which Strasburg foot slid about a good 6 inches after his foot planted? I think the kid has a right not to break his freakin’ ankle.
I think is Strasburg broke his ankle and wore a bloody sock we would see the highlight of that for the next 20 years…
Especially if he did it while pitching a perfect game and continued pitching.