While We’re Waiting… Paying Joe Thomas, Replacing Carmona and Missing Rookie Ball
July 5, 2011On ESPN, Bias and Cleveland Misery Montages
July 5, 2011
I was speechless. I was beside myself. I jumped for joy. Then I asked my wife to pinch me to make sure I wasn’t dreaming it.
The bane of my existence in 2011, Austin Kearns, delivered a blast that we may all never forget; a seventh inning, three- run jack to right field when it looked as if the Indians may be sunk against the big, bad, New York Yankees.
Even this morning, I still can’t believe it.
Josh Tomlin took the ball from Manny Acta to start the game. After the first two batters reached base via an error and a walk, the crafty right-hander took over the game. From that point until the seventh inning, no Yankee could touch the Texan.
Along the way, Tomlin went five innings or more for the 29th consecutive time to start his career – a new Major League record.
“He just continues to amaze everybody here, because he doesn’t back down from anybody,” Manny Acta said. “He attacks the zone with his four pitches, and makes big things happen for us on the mound.”
His off-speed stuff and corner painting completely baffled the Bronx Bombers, as it did last July when he pitched seven innings of three-hit, one-run ball against them in his Major League debut.
“He’s all about location, with a number of different pitches, and he’s really good at it,” Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said. “You don’t throw 29 straight starts and go five innings, at least, if you don’t know how to pitch.”
Tomlin retired 18 in a row, an impressive feat considering who he had done it against, yet he still looked like he would end up with a loss. Mark Teixiera ended his no-hit bid with a leadoff single in the seventh. Robinson Cano’s infield single put two-on with one out and Nick Swisher’s double to the gap in left-center scored the first two runs of the game. Tomlin left after seven full innings, trailing 2-0.
On the other side of the coin was New York starter A.J. Burnett, who like Tomlin, was cruising into the bottom of the seventh with a two-hit shutout. After getting Carlos Santana for the first out, Burnett walked Grady Sizemore bringing the tying run to the plate. He would advance to second on a wild pitch, but Orlando Cabrera would strike out. With two out, Lonnie Chisenhall sent a pop-up in foul territory behind third baseman Alex Rodriguez and in front of left-fielder Brett Gardner. Both had a chance to make the play to end the inning.
Neither of them did, and it cost the Yankees dearly.
As they did so often early in the season, the Indians came through when they needed to the most. Given the extra out, Chisenhall worked the count full and reached on a walk. Now the tying runs were aboard for Shelley Duncan. Burnett immediately got ahead in the count 0-2 before Duncan began fouling off pitches. On a 2-2 pitch, Burnett went away and Duncan went with it, depositing the ball into right field for an RBI single.
Then came Kearns. The tying run was at second. The lead run was at first. WFNY’s own Kirk tweeted “PINCH HIT….PLEASE.” I told my wife that we could take the dog out because there was no way Kearns was coming through. Shame on us!
Luckily, I stayed in front of my TV and was forced to pick up my jaw from the floor as Kearns became a hero. He took a Burnett fastball over the right-field fence for his first homer of the year, in his 105th at-bat. The three-run blast put the Indians ahead 4-2. 40,000 plus roared for more.
The smile of Kearns face in the dugout was priceless.
He had faced Burnett 11 times coming into that at-bat. It was his first hit off of him in nine years. The other was a grand slam during his rookie season of 2002.
“It’s a funny game,” Kearns said. “I haven’t really sniffed A.J. — ever. For whatever reason, I had some good at-bats tonight.”
Kearns, the man with 9,000 lives, bought himself more time with that unforgettable blast in the seventh.
With six outs left, Acta went to his bullpen, calling on Tony Sipp and Vinnie Pestano in the eighth. Curtis Granderson got Pestano with a two-out solo homer, but the Indians would get that run back plus one more to boot on Santana’s eighth inning two-run jack the opposite way.
Santana showed extremely impressive strength pulling a pitch out of the park and over the 19-foot wall in left.
Chris Perez came on to get the Yankees 1-2-3 in the ninth for his 20th save. With a newly shaven-down beard and the emotion of losing his Grandmother late last week weighing on him, Pure Rage needed just four pitches to get the final three outs for the quickest of his 20 saves.
Overall, you’d have to say this was one of the most gritty wins of the season for this young ballclub. Acta put it best after the game – “Pitching wins ballgames. Pitching and timely hitting.” That was the exact formula they used last night and were so successful with when they jumped out to a 30-15 record.
Tonight, we should all be in for a real treat. Game two of this three-game series features a matchup between former Indian CC Sabathia (11-4, 3.05 ERA) and Carlos Carrasco (8-4, 3.54 ERA), one of the hottest starters in the American League. It should be a dandy.
Meanwhile, the Indians are a game and a half up on the Tigers and three and a half games up on the surging White Sox for first place in the AL Central. They have somehow stayed afloat despite a six-week slump, losing Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore, and now Shin-Soo Choo to injuries, and seeing their opening day starter, Fausto Carmona, turn into mush.
Incredible.
photo via @bananawut
19 Comments
Honestly, for a guy that doesn’t blow people away, how good is Josh Tomlin? Hands down he’s been our most consistent starter from the beginning of the year. I hope they find a way to keep this guy around in a long term sense.
i’ll on limb and say it: the april mojo seems to have returned. (friday 7/1 vs reds seemed like an ‘april’ win.) specifically, the defense is looking so much better and i can’t say why it’s back. it just is.
(did anyone notice that AMAZING play by hannahan to end the yankees’ 8th inning? the ball took a bad hop that forced him adjust from a ball play coming to him under his belt to over his head. i dont think laporta makes that play.)
imo the key to maintaining this lies with the 4-5 starters. maybe gomez/mcallister can show something filling in for carmona. maybe adam white comes back earlier than expected. i do see the batting improving with more pronk now, but for the team to succeed the starting pitching needs to get back where it was in april. i dont trust talbot/carmona on that.
imo #2, i want hannahan in the lineup. soft hitting be damned… whenever he plays, he makes a game changing play in the field. i think the pitching is more confident when they know he’s behind him whether it’s at 3rd or 1st. i can’t tell you why this is, but my eyes see a correlation between better pitching and hannahan.
i just love this team when they play smart.
as much as i want to bitch about hoping this doesn’t mean more playing time for kearns it was still a great win anyway you cut it.
@2 in order to keep hannahan in the lineup everyone else has to do their job and hit so that he doesn’t have to.
Tomlin is in line to replace ACab as my favorite Indian to watch.
The Yankees have so many strong left-handed batters who love to pull the ball… the move by Acta to bring Hannahan on as a defensive sub at 1st base was incredibly smart. I would love to see some stats comparing how Cleveland hits with Pronk in the lineup versus no Pronk. It seems like when he plays, the Tribe has better at-bats all around. I “watched” the game on MLB’s gamecast and it seemed like most of the guys were putting good swings on the ball even when they were getting out. There were a good number of lineouts. One negative point… Brantley is definitely in a slump. He got a 2-seam fastball on a hitter’s count that was right down the heart of the plate and grounded out weakly. On the flip side, Sizemore is having much better at-bats and looks like he is starting to break out.
Loved that game.
Now is the perfect time to sell high on Kearns in the trade market. He got national exposure!
Also wondering if this was an improbable Big Win that might set us off again on a run. A few things:
– Huge that Mariano was unavailable for the Yanks. Burnett was starting to miss his locations but Girardi didn’t pull him before the homer in the 7th to save a reliever.
– Santana’s beautiful swing driving the ball the other way in the 8th. If he, Brantley and Hafner get hot together, pressure lessens on the others, and here we go.
– Tomlin: man, for a kid without a dominant fastball to never, ever get lit up in an early inning and get pulled, to never leave a start with a twinge, to have the cajones to challenge the league’s best hitters with strike one, to figure out what the umpire is giving him and and have the control to continually poke the limit of that zone … very special.
Anyone know when Choo is supposed to return?
@6 Amen about Tomlin… a lot of people like to make Greg Maddux comparisons, but it really applies for Tomlin (so far in his career). Mediocre strikeout rate, very low walk totals, 90 mph fastball but excellent off-speed pitches, mixes 4 pitches well and never seems to put them in the middle of the plate. I wonder how the Sabermetrics stats would look when put side-to-side.
I actually prefer Duncan’s smile in the background in that picture…..guy looks like he’s about 8 years old.
I was at this game, and it was amazing, although way too many Yankee fans. They weren’t too obnoxious (which is news itself) but they were loud when the Ys got a hit or whatever.
Tomlin looked very solid.
@ TSR3000 — I heard 6 to 8 weeks. So late in the season…hopefully during a central race with us in first.
When Santana’s swing is on, like it was last night, he looks like the full-bodied Chief Wahoo logo from the ’70s, with that front leg up high.
I never understood the significance of pinching someone to ensure that they are not dreaming. Who is to say that the pinch is not part of the dream?
When is Alex White coming back? should he be ready after the all-star break to begin pitching again?
That was an unbelievable game! Everytime the Yanks fans started chanting something, we quickly drowned them out with Tribe chants. The whole night was freaking awesome! #RollTribe
Thankfully, I’ve never sniffed A.J. Burnett either. He looks like he would smell like cabbage, among other things.
if Acta would have told everyone in April to be patient with Kearns because we needed him to beat the Yankees in a key spot in July; we would have laughed. but, hey, we’ll take what we can get 🙂
great win. our defense seems like it is back, which seems to help our ability to get key hits late. our pitching never really left so it’s nice to reward our starters again for their efforts.
@8- Tomlin gives up too many homers to be truly Maddux-like. Maddux was sick when it came to that.
Still, being 2/3rds Maddux is really good.
@typo…because you don’t feel physical pain in your dreams