While We’re Waiting… Pomeranz Scare and Browns Draft
April 27, 2011NFL Draft: WFNY Roundtable, Part III
April 27, 2011A miracle happened last night at Progressive Field. It was 74 degrees at game time in April. After seemingly weeks of playing in wet, cold conditions both at home or on the road (save for three games in Anaheim), it was a pleasure for the Tribe to actually be comfortable in shirt sleeves; not to mention being back home where they have been sensational this season.
The Wahoo Warriors entered Tuesday night’s game with the second-place Kansas City Royals with two streaks going. They had lost three in a row, but had won seven straight at Progressive Field. Only one of those streaks was going to make it through the night.
The right streak came to a close.
The Indians hit five home runs, including two from the Super Mannahan himself – Jack Hannahan, on their way to a 9-4 victory. The unlikely power surge brought an end to mini-skid and smiles to the faces of Tribe fans.
This game had so much to talk about. I have to break it into pieces.
How about that Hannahan guy? The Tribe’s third baseman didn’t even sniff the majors last season after spending parts of three seasons with the Oakland A’s from 2007-2009. They added him as more of a Spring Training roster filler more than anything. He came with an all-glove, no bat reputation, but was given a shot in Cleveland because of the one year hole at his position.
Fast forward to April 27th and Hannahan has become a vital part of the Indians resurgence. After his 3-4, two jacks, and two RBI night Wednesday, Hannahan is one of seven Indians with double digit runners driven in. The leader, Asdrubal Cabrera, has 14.
If I had told you that at the beginning of the year, I’d take Jack Hannahan’s numbers at the end of April and you could have Carlos Santana’s, how many of you WOULDN”T have taken that bet?
That would be none of you.
Hannahan’s hitting .286 while playing the best defensive third base the Indians have seen since the days of Travis Fryman.
Grady Sizemore is in the middle of beast mode. I will be the first one to admit I was very skeptical of how the Centerfielder would look after nearly a year off from microfracture surgery on his knee.
Two weeks in, I am sold. Did you all see the bomb he hit in the bottom of the eighth?
Grady looks as comfortable at the plate as we’ve ever seen him. It was clear the last two seasons of injuries robbed him of his vast abilities. In 32 at-bats, he already has more extra-base hits (9) than he did last season in 132 at-bats (8). The power is back and he is an on-base machine. You notice nobody (including me), has mentioned Michael Brantley should be the lead-off man lately.
Like Hannahan, Grady was 3-4 last night and is now hitting .406 with seven RBIs.
I tweeted in the fifth inning last night that Shin-Soo Choo and Carlos Santana were killing us. Choo, who singled and almost hit into two double plays (only his speed kept him from it) in his first three at-bats, hopefully broke out of his mini-funk with a well-timed, three-run blast to deep center which broke the game open in the seventh with the Tribe clinging to a one-run lead. Lets hope that kill-shot wakes Choo up for a big time roll.
Santana on the other hand continues to look lost at the plate. On a night where the ball was flying out of the park and the Indians had 13 hits, Santana struggled big time. He took the collar while grounding into two double plays and striking out with two on and two out in the fifth. The Indians Catcher is sitting at .189.
I was against this a week ago, but I’ve done a 180. Its time for Manny Acta to take the pressure off the kid and move him down in the lineup until he finds himself again. Its obvious he is really pressing at the plate.
Justin Masterson is now 5-0. Did I really just type that? Remember a year ago when he couldn’t buy a win and went 17 starts without one? Those days are long over. Masterson has emerged as the Tribe’s stopper and continued that last night. He is now 4-0 after Tribe losses this season and made his fifth straight quality start, before turning it over to his bullpen.
Other than a shaky fourth inning, Masterson was solid again. “I just got underneath a few pitches,” said Masterson. “I really didn’t find my slider until the sixth inning. I just had to make a few adjustments.” He is now one of four Indian starters in club history to win five games in April with an ERA under 2.25. The last to do it was Cliff Lee during his Cy Young season.
Last, but not least, Vinnie Pestano is my new hero. Someone needs a nickname. “Pure Rage” works so well for closer Chris Perez, but Pestano’s got that late inning mentality as well. After Tony Sipp loaded the bases with nobody out in the eighth, Acta called for Pestano to bail him out. With a 7-3 lead, the hope was for Vinnie to minimize the damage.
He did one better. He kept the Royals from scoring.
Pestano as usual, sprinted in from the bullpen, then calmly took the mound. Tribe killer Billy Butler popped out to short for the first out. Red hot Jeff Francouer K’d swinging for the second out, and Kila Ka’aihue popped out to Hannahan at third. Just like that, the threat was over and a star may have been born in the Tribe pen.
“Vinnie save the day for us,” said Acta.
Pure and simple.
The Tribe, now 2.5 games ahead of KC and Detroit, seeks a ninth-straight home win tonight. Josh Tomlin (3-0, 2.33 ERA) takes to the hill at 7:05. He will be faced by lefty Jeff Francis (0-2, 4.06 ERA).
(photo via Thomas Ondrey/PD)
20 Comments
Pestano is the man. I was keeping track of the game on my ScoreCenter app and saw that Sipp loaded the bases with no one out and that Pestano had been brought in. I couldn’t bear to “watch”. I shut the app down, and checked back in five minutes later and saw that it had gone to the bottom of the eighth and the score was still 7-3. Color me pumped.
I don’t want to read too much into it, but Pure Rage hasn’t exactly been lights-out lately.
@OmegaKing, this is true but I would ask for an example of a closer who is consistently lights out. Usually Mariano Rivera, but I’m not even sure you can include him this season. It seems to me that the HGH is flowing right now, and homers are back in fashion… very few pitchers are immune.
@ OmegaKing — Hamilton said something last night that makes sense: as a closer if you go out in a non-save situation you aren’t pumped up as you should be, which of course cause major problems. I am guessing this happened with Rage. And I am not worried about it.
Jack Hannahan might actually be a ball player.
I’m not too worried with leaving Santana where he is. He’s been getting a good amount of walks even though the hits haven’t been falling. If those were strikeouts and not walks I might think about dropping him down in the lineup.
Perhaps the organization needs to really slow things down for Santana. He had a good first month and a below average second month in the bigs last year. To not only insert him as the cleanup hitter but to guarantee a spot on the MLB team this year may have been premature. Just look at the up and down treatment that a guy like Brantley was given and how it seemed to finally click for him at the end of the season.
I know we all have high hopes for Carlos and I think he can be a true middle of the lineup bat in time, but perhaps he does need a liiiitle bit more seasoning before sticking full time?
It’s still too early to worry about Santana. Dude leads the teams in walks (14) and has a better OBP than Choo right now. We know he can hit. Let him play.
Props to the front office on finding Hannahan. They’ve become quite adept at finding minor league contract talent.
Tigers sneaking up. Probably a good thing because it’s much easier for me to hate a team from Detroit (almost a birthright) than to cheer against the hard-luck Royals. Outside of when we are directly playing against them of course.
@mgbode Love the fact that Detroit is closing…amazing to me that since 1901 the Tribe and Tigers have been 1st and 2nd only 3 times…1908 and 1940 the Tigers beat out Tribe and 2007 the Tribe beat out Tigers…it would be great for both teams to be good at the same time.
@Ben – totally agree. especially with the cities histories in other sports that play into it as well (though not many of us were alive for when the Lions and Browns were rivals)
3 random thoughts
Jack Hannahan is my new favorite player. Im serious.
Santana should be moved down in the order. You cant have your cleanup guy hitting .189, especially a young guy like Santana who hasnt earned the benefit of the doubt just yet. In 244 big league at bats, Carlos is hitting .237. No matter how vehemently people want to defend him, Carlos is not a proven commodity and until he shows that he can consistently hit big league pitching, there is no justifiable reason for him to be hitting 4th.
We need help in the bullpen. Sipp looks to be completely unreliable right now, and the Royals may have batted around in the ninth if it wasnt for Choo’s great catch. I get that its only 2 bad games for “Pure Rage” but Im starting to wonder if the skeptics were correct, that Perez is better off as a setup guy and that the Tribe still needs a long term closer.
Good win last night though, the home cooking looks to be just what we needed.
The losing streak is over…
PANIC aborted…for now.
If I were running the team (no laughing, please) I would have Brantley leading off; Sizemore hitting 3rd; Choo cleanup; and Santana in Brantley’s 7th spot.
Of course, the way Sizemore is hitting, he can hit whereever he wants. I just think all those extra base hits would be more valuable from the 3-spot than leadoff…especially the way Brantley has been hitting.
Patience with the bullpen guys. Lots of big arms coming through the minors. At least a couple of those guys will be here soon.
@BAJ22, I think the issue with batting Sizemore 3rd is that he just doesn’t seem to hit as well when you bat him further down in the order. Whether it’s a mental block or he’s seeing different pitches or whatever… he has historically been a better hitter and had a better OBP in the lead-off spot.
You can’t even vote for Hannahan on the all-star ballot on mlb.com. Jason Donald is the representative for the 3b spot on the indians. Well I just wrote him in, vote for the indians players lets get more than 1 All-Star this year. (hopefully)
I am shocked… SHOCKED I SAY… that Hannahan continues to put up good numbers. I figured that the bottom would drop out on him, and for awhile it seemed to have (he was dangerously close to the Mendoza line not that long ago). I figured that he’d eventually regress to being the .225 hitter he’s been all his career.
I still think that will happen at some point, but I’m glad to see him put up these numbers when we need him to. Chiz isn’t blowing everybody away at AAA like Santana was last year. Donald apparently had some setback, and won’t be back just yet. So Hannahan is stepping up when he needs to, which is nice.
My only question, will anyone ever go to the stadium? This spring has been a new embarassing low for attendance.
@19
Yeah and you cant blame the weather anymore. I no longer live in Northeast Ohio but I understand that it was in the 70’s for each of the first 2 games against KC. The team is winning and the weather is warming up, no reason why we cant get at least 15,000 into the ballpark to watch a first place team. The announced attendance tonight was 9,700 and from what I saw watching the game online, it couldnt have been more than 5,000. The disdain for Dolan runs deep.
I just hope that if the Tribe keeps winning that people will check their hatred for Dolan at the door and come out to support a good ballclub. Seriously, the Tribe is only team in town with a shot at contending right now.