Cavs Media Day: Mo Williams Clears the Air on Retirement Comments
September 28, 2010Highlights From Mangini’s Presser
September 28, 2010In front of 10,161 of their closest friends (paid attendance, there was closer to 5,000 actually there), the Indians took down their opponent for the fourth straight time. In the process, they solved the riddle of the one guy who strangely owned them all season long.
Last night’s starting pitcher for the Detroit Tigers was none other than the great Armando Galarraga. You remember him, don’t you? The guy who essentially threw a perfect game against the Tribe in June, and then pitched a three-hit shutout against them in August? It looked as through we were in for more of the same as Galarraga hadn’t allowed a hit through the first four innings. The cries of “here we go again” could be heard throughout the stadium.
That all changed in the fifth inning.
Trailing 2-0, Matt LaPorta, who has struggled at the plate all year, opened the inning with a solo shot to deep center, his 12th of the season. “LaPorta’s homer was huge,” Manny Acta said. “It broke the ice for us.”
After Luis Valbuena’s pop out, the most unlikely of all Tribesman tied things up. Luke Carlin, brought up last week so the Indians could have a third catcher on the roster, hit a line shot to the seats in right field for his first homer as an Indian. “I don’t hit very many of them,” Carlin said. “They’re always a blessing.”
In his two starts, he has three hits in seven at-bats.
Michael Brantley, making his return to the starting lineup after missing three games with a sore hamstring, doubled to right. After Asdrubal Cabrera flew out, Shin-Soo Choo walked. Galarraga seemed on the ropes. Travis Hafner stepped to the plate and bam…..that was all for Armando.
Hafner, who I have been killing all year, came through with a monster three-run blast that he stood and admired. And well he should have. His 12th home run of the season was a titanic 424 foot blast that made us long for the Pronk of years past. The two-out, three run bomb put the Tribe ahead for good. It was the third homer of the inning, the first time the Indians have managed that feat since August of 2009.
“Everything happened so fast,” Galarraga said. “I gave up a home run, another and another. And, boom, I was out of the game. I allowed only four base hits. I still can’t believe how it happened.”
Acta was thrilled that the Tribe got off the schnide against its 2010 nemesis.
“We finally broke through against Galarraga,” said Acta. “It wasn’t like the first two times we faced him this year. We were hitting some balls hard right at people. These guys just kept pumping each other up.”
The cushion was enough for Carlos Carrasco to get his second win of the season. He certainly wasn’t at his best, but he battled through six innings. Scattering 11 hits is hard to do, but Carrasco somehow did. Not many guys give up 11 hits and it only costs them three runs.
“That was encouraging to us,” Acta said. “We saw nine hits in four innings, but at least they didn’t score that many runs. They got some hits off of him, but he was able to keep his composure and get himself out of a couple of jams.
“He had very good life on his fastball and controlled a few left-handers with that changeup of his. He continues to throw the ball well for us.”
His biggest out came in the second. Jayson Nix made yet another error at third, which caused a bases loaded, one out jam for Carrasco. But the kid came back and induced a Will Rhymes inning-ending double play.
“Errors are part of the game,” said Carrasco. “I just concentrated on the next hitter.”
Joe Smith and Tony Sipp pitched two scoreless innings before Acta turned the game over to Chris Perez. It was Pure Rage time for the first time since he became a dad over the weekend. As usual, the Tribe’s closer was perfect to finish off a Tribe 6-3 win.
“We’re undefeated since he (his son) was born,” said Perez. “Maybe he’s a good luck charm.” Perez has allowed just two earned runs in his last 30.2 innings pitched. Think that trade for two months of Mark DeRosa last year was a steal?
The Indians go for five straight tonight by sending the slumping Mitch Talbot (9-13, 4.61 ERA) to the mound. He will be faced by Max Scherzer (12-10, 3.40 ERA)
(AP Photo/Mark Duncan)
5 Comments
Don’t look now, but as Terry Pluto pointed out in this weekend’s column, Travis Hafner is hitting .331 since the All-Star break. His 29 doubles are tied with Choo for best on the team.
He’s not the same guy that we gave that mammoth contract to, but maybe, just maybe, he can be a solid contributor with Santana and Choo in the middle of the order next season.
Pronk’s dinger was a beauty indeed. He sure looks healthy when he connects like that — wonder if some of his struggles are upstairs.
Tribe already has more wins in 2010 than 2009. I don’t know if I’m supposed to feel happy about that, or a bit scared that it took until the last week of the season to win 66 games. Hooray for progress!
@2: a lot of talk I’ve heard is that, while Pronk is ‘healthy’, the alterations to his mechanics due to the lingering, possibly permanent effects of the shoulder injuries are the primary cause of the nosedive in his efficiency. Honestly, though, hitting .331 since the break is a good sign – if he gets back to -form-, sans some of his power, he could go back to what he truly used to be – an RBI machine. His power was awesome, but it was his batting average that truly terrorized pitchers.
if Pronk can hit .300 and pop 20 a season that’s high production, and more than one could truly hope for.
With Hafner, I wouldn’t really care if he wasn’t hitting in the 4 or 5 hole every game. Move him down to 6 or 7 and I’ll be fine with it.