While We’re Waiting… Sullinger Trains, Tribe a Bargain and Examining the Roster
July 7, 2011Cavaliers D-League Affiliate to Move Closer to Cleveland
July 7, 2011
I admit it. At times last season, I was driving the “Justin Masterson must be a reliever” bandwagon. Could I possibly have been more wrong on this?
Left-handed hitters have always been sort of a bugaboo for “The Big Nasty.” They entered the game hitting .306 off of him. On a night where Masterson had it all working, the Yankees lefties were 0-19 against him. All of this added up to eight shutout innings of three-hit ball, backed by some of the best defense the Indians have played all year.
The 5-3 win took the series from the Yankees, the first time they have done so at Jacobs/Progressive Field since 2005.
The offense supplied five runs (and really should have done more), but as manager Manny Acta put it “The night belonged to Justin Masterson.”
This season we have seen just how good he can be. His stuff is nasty. His funky delivery can be deceptive. Now, he seems to have his head and his arm on the same page as well. Credit must go to pitching coach Tim Belcher who has helped turn Masterson from an inconsistent performer to a top of the rotation guy who gives his team a great chance to win every time out.
“It seems like his ball moves as much as anyone we’ve seen,” said Yankees SS Derek Jeter of Masterson. “He’s throwing 95, 96 all night with a lot of movement. He pitched outstanding.”
Acta was equally impressed: “He got his four-seam fastball in on just about everybody tonight. He used both sides of the plate very well.”
The offense got him two runs in the first off of Phil Hughes, making his first start since early April. After walking Michael Brantley to lead off the game, Asdrubal Cabrera and Travis Hafner both singled, Pronk’s bringing the speedy Brantley home. On Carlos Santana”s strikeout, the third strike got away from catcher Russell Martin and both AC and Pronk advanced. Martin compounded the mistake by making a wild throw to third which got past Alex Rodriguez, allowing Cabrera to score.
It would stay 2-0 Tribe until the seventh as the offense continued to leave men on base. But in the bottom of the frame, the Tribe would get a huge insurance run. Lonnie Chisenhall, the rookie third baseman who seems to be able to spray the ball all over the diamond, took a Boone Logan pitch over the wall in right-center field for his first career homer. Best of all, it came against a lefty.
“It went by really fast, so I’m going to have to go back and watch it on video so I can enjoy it a little more,” Chisenhall said.
In the top of the eighth, Masterson gave up his third hit, a one-out double to Jeter, but would get out of the inning thanks to the spectacular defense of one Asdrubal Cabrera.
A night after turning his ankle and leaving the game in the fourth inning, the Indians shortstop put on an Omar Vizquel-like show with back to back web gems that wowed the crowd, as well as his own teammates. The second of the two came with the infield shifted for left-handed hitting Mark Teixiera. On a dead sprint diving to his left, he came up with a magical play getting Teixiera for the third out of the inning.
“He played fantastic defense,” Acta said of Cabrera. “Both of them were great, especially the one up the middle. Those hands and that range that he had and the athleticism to get up and make a good throw — this guy has been darn good for us.”
The defense on the night as a whole was as good as we’ve seen it in weeks, with Grady Sizemore and and a fresh off the DL Matt LaPorta also making great plays with the glove.
The Indians tacked on two more in the eighth with the help of some wild pitching from reliever Sergio Mitre, and they ended up being the difference. With a five run lead instead of a three run lead, Acta turned to Vinnie Pestano for the final three outs. Two singles and a double later, closer Chris Perez was summoned for the save.
Two more Yankees would score on groundouts – all three runs were charged to Pestano – but Perez got Brett Gardner swinging to end the game with a Tribe 5-3 winner.
“I know we had a chance to put the game away throughout the whole game,” Acta said, “but being able to score five — the way Masterson pitched — was good enough.” And good enough to take a series from the AL’s best in the New York Yankees. Something tells me we may see them again later on down the road.
Up next for the Indians is a visit from the Toronto Blue Jays. The four game-set begins tonight with the Major League Debut of right-hander Zach McAllister, who has been solid for the AAA Columbus Clippers with a record of 8-3 and a 2.97 ERA. He will face off against Right-hander Carlos Villanueva (5-1, 3.24 ERA)
(photo via Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer)
18 Comments
the Indians win the series, get closer to the Yankees for the top seed (hey, it’s July, time to start looking at the standings), and they avoid becoming the negative portion of a trivia question (Derek Jeter got his 3K hit against…)
all-in-all, great series for the Tribe.
Wow, McCallister’s first start tonight! I’m ready for this era of Indians baseball.
Any word of the status of Alex White?
April mojo has returned? Take 3-4 from TOR and I’ll be cursing that All-Star week has arrived. Nothing pulls hot streaks, winning ways and overall momentum away like the ASG.
//glass half empty today when it should be full
What might have been, had Masterson not suffered some extreme bad luck as the Tribe’s bats failed him:
5/18 Lost a 1-0 dec to CWS (Peavy)
5/23 ND on a late 3-2 win vs BOS (drubal 8th inning double, 2 RBI)
6/8 ND on a 3-2 L in the 10th vs MINN
6/14 Lost on a 4-0 Verlander 2 hitter (any P loses this one)
6/19 ND on a 5-2 W vs PITT in the 10th (Phelps 3R bomb in 11th)
6/25 Lost on a 1-0 unearned run to SF (sipp balk)
at 7-6 now, could EASILY have been 11-4 or 12-3 with just anemic run support (3 runs a game in the first 7 innings).
Baseball is an especially cruel game for a pitcher…
And yes, I usually hate the Monday morning quarterbacking thing, but if Masterson had any luck at all, he’d be in the conversation to start the All-Star game!
That being said, watching the Tribe last night on ESPN was the highlight of the summer so far!
@oribiasi
per alex’s twitter page “We’ll have some fun with this thing for sure. The finger gets better and better everyday. Looking forward to getting back on the mound”
Regardless of what happens this year, who isn’t looking forward to the next few years, with Masterson/Tomlin/Carrasco heading up our rotation, a seemingly solid and young bullpen, and a decent lineup for the future? If a couple more of the arms and bats can come up and produce, perhaps Cleveland finally will have a team to cheer for for more than a single year!
Quote from NY Post, high praise:
“His ball had the most movement we have seen all year,” said Jeter, who entered the game 5-for-12 (.417) against Masterson.
“being able to score five — the way Masterson pitched — was good enough”
i’m sorry but does this quote from Acta make anyone else upset? i understand that to win a game you only need one more run than the opposing team but last nights display of runners left on base and in scoring position was infuriating.
i would have hoped for more of a “masterson was brilliant but we need to get those runners in” quote from the skipper after that game.
“…Perez got Brett Gardner swinging to end the game with a Tribe 5-3 winner.”
Was it swinging or was it called? I thought it was called.
Hey Christopher, if you saw the entire interview with Manny Acta on the STO postgame show, he pretty much said exactly what you “hoped for”.
This team is the real deal! The starting pitching in the playoffs could be: Masterson, Tomlin & Carasco starting with the bullpen mafia at the ready – anchored by “Pure Rage” Perez! It almost always boils down to the pitching. Having LaPorta (back from injury & lookin’ good last night) and Hafner (thank God the NL roadie from hell is over) getting back in gear is nice as well.
They sold 84% of the tickets for the Yankees series, yet still I hear some people on the radio complaining about no fan support?! Aaron G. needs to be removed from a microphone and shipped back to Denver, NYC, Wisconsin…anywhere but here. Get ready for him “speaking for NE Ohio” again today/tomorrow as the 1 year anniversay of the LeQuit decision plays out. Fabulous??!! Ouch – when will THAT end???
The Tribe has won the last 3 series and need to finish strong as they roll into the all-star break!
P.S. – Manny “freakin'” Acta has done an awesome job in-game managing!!! So much better then Eric Wedge, it’s scary!!!!!!! Go Tribe…let’s enjoy it NE Ohio!!!!!!
@christopher: Acta knows lack of intensity or focus is not the cause of the offense’s problems. These lineups have a healthy dose of very green hitters, has-beens and never-weres. A public calling out is not going to make Brantley, Santana, Kearns or O-Cab hit better right now. Given what he has, Acta is pitch perfect right now, keeping the ship steady and not inducing panic.
@PNR– It was definitely called. Gardner was frozen on a classic Perez fastball.
Joe – 84% for the Yankees isn’t impressive. Thats what the Yankees typically get. And considering that we aren’t too far from the state of NY, we should be getting more than the typical number of Yankee fans showing up. Of course, none of that is anywhere near as important as that we have our own first place team to pack the stadium for. The band-wagoners are starting to hop back on, but color me unimpressed with the support so far.
This post needs more Derek Jeter
/ESPN’d
all game long i knew there was gonna be a headline calling Justin’s performance “Masterful”… i was just hoping the lazy tagline wouldn’t come from the hometown WFNY.
on attendance: still 26th, but we are now at least over 20K per game. expecting this to continue to creep up now that people have to really stretch to explain why the team won’t be competing for the division.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance
The economy, especially in NE Ohio, is a HUGE factor. The Tribe was NOT projected to be this good and families budgeted other events this summer besides 20 game ticket plans for 4 people. Same for small businesses and larger ones looking to cut overhead! Those are the keys…IMO. Still, I hope the numbers keep increasing as we have a shot with our pitchng and when/if we stay in the race, which I fully expect.
The economy is a selective reason. The economy hasn’t prevented Browns fans to continue to bang their heads against the wall, the economy didn’t become a factor for the Cavs until Lebron left, the Dolans get absolutely ripped to shreds if they even hint at the economy. So, while it is true that the Indians operate in one of the smallest and poorest (and both numbers are going in the wrong direction) MLB markets, somehow the only people allowed to complain about it are Indians fans.