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July 20, 2011NFL Free Agency: Who Should the Browns Bring Back?
July 20, 2011
I know I am deflated. I can’t imagine how the Indians felt after this killer loss in Minneapolis last night.
Justin Masterson was at his best, while the Tribe lineup was at its worst. Nevertheless, the Wahoos were nursing a 1-0 lead heading into the ninth inning. Chris Perez entered with 16 consecutive saves in tow. A normal Pure Rage outing and the boys would be going for a four-game sweep this afternoon in Minneapolis.
Instead, we were all left scratching our heads as to what had just happened.
After retiring Alexi Casilla to start the ninth, Perez walked the dangerous Joe Mauer to put the tying run on base. He fell behind Michael Cuddyer, the hottest Twins hitter, then watched as he blooped a single to shallow left field.
I have never been a fan of the “no doubles” defensive strategy. I get why a manager would want to have everything stay in front of the outfielders with the tying run on base in the ninth, but when you have a truck like Mauer on first base, it is completely unnecessary. Cuddyer’s blooper turned into a double because the last man standing in the outfield – utility man Luis Valbuena – was literally playing one step in front of the warning track.
Sweet Luis had to make a marathon run to get to the ball, but this time, Mauer was easily on third and Cuddyer turned a bloop single into a stand-up double. Isn’t this called “no doubles defense?”
“Valbuena, obviously, is not an outfielder,” Cuddyer said. “Nothing against him, but he’s a second baseman. I knew he was playing ‘no doubles’ in that situation with me at the plate.”
With the tying and winning runs in scoring position and first base open, Perez intentionally walked Jim Thome to load the bases for Danny Valencia. This was a dream matchup for the two former Miami Hurricanes. Roommates in Coral Gables, one of them had the chance to be the hero against their good friend. Valencia entered the at-bat 0-3 with two strikeouts and a double play.
This time, the Twins third baseman deposited a broken-bat single to short left in front of Valbuena for a walk-off single. Perez made good pitches, but both Cuddyer and Valencia were able to fight them off for hits.
The one thing you have to respect about Pure Rage is that while he was clearly distraught after the loss – he tossed his glove and the bubble gum container against the dugout wall – he calmly faced reporters after the game.
“I didn’t make pitches when I needed to. I feel bad for Masterson. He pitched a helluva game for us. He put us in position to stomp on their throats and I gave it up,” he said.
Perez is right. You have to feel bad for Masterson. For seemingly the 1000th time this season, the Tribe didn’t score for him. In a year of mix and match lineups, last night’s may have been the worst.
Michael Brantley was a late scratch with what was termed a stomach ailment. “He was very sick. Couldn’t hold any food since Monday night,” said Manny Acta. “The doctors gave him treatment right up until the ballgame, but he was in no condition to play.”
Travis Hafner was given a night off. Shin-Soo Choo and Grady Sizemore are both on the DL. To make matters worse, Travis Buck, the last minute replacement for Brantley, was drilled in the head by a Francisco Liriano pitch in the fifth inning and had to leave the game.
Your outfield was Austin Kearns, Ezequiel Carrera, and Sweet Luis. A far cry from Choo, Sizemore, and Brantley. The 5-9 was Matt LaPorta (.245), Kearns (.222), Jack Hannahan (.217), Lou Marson (.250), and Valbuena (.167).
The Tribe managed to scratch their lone run across in the fifth, but it could have been much much more. It turned out to be a real game changer. Marson led off with a single. Buck was hit in the head, replaced by Valbuena. Carrera, after failing to lay down a bunt, singled to load the bases with nobody out.
The problem was the rally never occurred. After Orlando Cabrera popped out to short, Asdrubal Cabrera’s sac fly brought home Marson to give the Tribe a 1-0 lead. Carlos Santana popped out to second to end the inning. You just knew not capitalizing there would come back to haunt them.
But maybe it wouldn’t have, considering how good Masterson was. We’ve seen him good this season, but this outing was his best in 2011. Of his 23 outs, a whopping 15 of them were on ground balls. He struck out six and didn’t walk anyone. The only time he got into any trouble was in the seventh.
Asdrubal’s throwing error allowed Mauer to reach base. Cuddyer singled to put two on with nobody out. But as he has been know to do, J Mast K’d Thome and then got Valencia to ground into an inning ending double play.
“What a pitching performance by Masterson,” Acta said. “That was tremendous. They couldn’t help but beat the ball in the ground the whole day. He was just fantastic.”
With two out and one on in the eighth and Masterson at 104 pitches on another hot night in Minneapolis, Acta turned to his bullpen. Tony Sipp got Ben Revere to end the inning, turning things over to his All-Star closer in the ninth. I didn’t love the move considering how “on” The big right-hander was.
“I would have loved to keep going,” Masterson said. “But as Manny said, we’ve got left-on-left coming up (Sipp vs. Revere). You’ve thrown 104 pitches and that’s like 130 in this heat. I wasn’t disrespecting our bullpen. I know they can do it, but, yeah, I was ready.”
The loss coupled with the Tigers win against Oakland moves the Tribe back into a first place tie. It also puts pressure on the Tribe to win this afternoon and take the series. The doubleheader wins from Tuesday become moot without winning today. Its up to Josh Tomlin (11-4, 4.03 ERA) to take care of business. The Twins counter with righty Nick Blackburn (7-6, 3.99 ERA).
Unfortunately, today’s 1:10 game will not be televised locally by STO, so I’ll be tuned into the pro of pros, Tom Hamilton on the Indians Radio Network.
(AP Photo/Genevieve Ross)
51 Comments
another game after the allstar break, another game lost leaving a ton of guys in scoring position.
bases loaded, 0 outs, liriano getting hit hard, 1 run. 1 friggin’ run.
and let’s not forget the LaPorta laser that hit perfectly off the wall for Cuddyer to get the relay and somehow hold Matt to a single.
or that we were hitting Liriano hard all night (while the Twins were tapping pitches back to Masterson), yet we just couldn’t break through for runs.
thanks for the heads up on the early start today. for some reason I thought it was later. perfect noon CST start-time for me, so i’ll get to watch it online 🙂
Definitely a disappointing loss, but I can’t get too upset about it – Perez has been pretty good most of the year and these things will happen. I agree that the seeds for the loss were planted in the 5th where the offense couldn’t come through. I am so finished with Orlando Cabrera, who flied out to shallow left with the bases loaded and no one out in the 5th. Given how badly the Indians lineup is banged up, the Tribe just can’t afford to put hacking Uncle Orlando every night. Kipnis may not set the world on fire at first, but he’s GOT to be better than OC. Last night also makes it obvious that the Tribe is in desperate need of a competent right handed bat. The right handers at Acta’s disposal right now are truly a motley crew. Unfortunately, that includes LaPorta, who is looking more like a bust every day.
Does anyone in the WFNY community feel comfortable having Perez close a one run playoff game?
Does anyone here think he is capable of that?
I was so angry at O-cab after 5th, I couldn’t force myself into watching the rest of the game. He fouled two (TWO!) balls with 3-2 count. Just take a freaking BB and get your team a run. It’s a low scoring game. Why are you swinging on balls? Where’s Actaball when you need it the most?
with that line up can it really be referred to as “leaving guys on base”?
they were probably lucky to be there in the first place
@Jack – I am comfortable with him. Every closer goes through a bad stretch (see Marmol in Chicago for an extreme example). Perez is going through his before the real pennant race heats up.
Now, am I comfortable with him coming into a non-save situation in a playoff atmosphere? No.
@AMC – unfortunately, my odds-on-favorite to replace Orlando just got traded to the Giants last night (Keppinger). I agree that I’d see what Kipnis can do at this point.
@Chucky – you didn’t watch the game then. much of the lineup was hitting the snot out of the ball all night. just either right at people or when nobody was on base (Or in LaPorta’s case in the 4th inning; right at the wrong spot on the RF wall).
@mgbode agreed. closers will blow saves. it just happens.
what im really worried about is that line-up. with a triple A outfield, OldCab in the 2 whole and LaPorta as a DH we have no business winning that game.
What more has to happen to convince the Tribe brass they need another major league caliber outfielder? They should be burning up the trade phones right now. I don’t think they can afford to wait until the deadline next weekend.
Sometimes injuries catch up to you. All closers – all – blow saves. Who’d ya rather have closing a tight playoff game – Wickman? Borowski? Mesa? Rivera is not available from what I hear.
Another game soon. Serenity now.
@AMC – Don’t forget the first inning where the “experienced” O-Cab swung at ball 4, in the dirt, that led to a strike-them-out throw-them-out double play. Instead of two on and no outs there were none on and two outs. It was very much like he was trying to lose the game for the Indians.
O-Cab absolutely killed this team with his bat in yesterday’s game.
When I saw the lineup and that Hafner & Branley were not playing, I assumed that the Tribe was conceding this one to the Twins, given the weak lineup facing Liriano. Masterson had other ideas. I thought O Cab should have dropped a squeeze on the Twins with the bases loaded. Even though a force was in order, a well executed bunt would have surprised them.
Agree we desparately need a right handed hitting outfielder. No excuse for the front office to miss this chance.
Losing a 1-0 game on the road in the 9th happens. Just ask the Toronto? fans how they feel about the Hafner walk off grandslam. Now that is a deflating loss.
You have to resign yourself at the beginning of the year that even the best bullpen will blow a handful of games. I think it has been less than 5 for our bullpen which is exceptional.
Gotta get more than one run with bases loaded and no outs.
another reason for Perez’s tirade afterwards. apparently Valencia is one of his best friends. man, he’s never going to hear the end of this one even if he strikes him out the next 10 times he faces him.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/The-Juice-Twins-Valencia-takes-down-Indians-b;_ylt=AjFHgfFBmBn.25NV1nmQ6No5nYcB?urn=mlb-wp13284
1. Chums: Danny Valencia(notes) of the Twins and Chris Perez(notes) of the Indians still want to beat each other’s brains in (figuratively), no matter that they are longtime friends, former teammates in college at Miami and even former roommates.
Even if it was a blooper, Valencia made it sound like he’ll never let Perez forget that he connected for a two-run, game-ending single to lead the Twins past the Tribe 2-1 on Tuesday night.
Perez planned on staying at Valencia’s home during the series at Minnesota, which badly needed a victory.
“I will be tweeting a picture of me and him,” Valencia said. “We’re just going to be watching the highlight over and over again.”
Valencia was even in Perez’s wedding. Friendship takes you only so far in life. Hey, we better get Joe Torre on the phone. We got a couple of fraternizers here!
@Jack – Going into last night he was 22 saves in 23 chances. Wheres the beef?
My expectations for OforCab are so low at this point that I was happy he didn’t hit into a double play in the fifth.
This one, in my book, falls squarely on the shoulders of the offense. Liriano was struggling with his control all day and we kept swinging at pitches out of the zone to help him out. A little patience could have gone a long way.
Call up the travel department: book one ticket from MCI to CLE under the name of “Frenchy”.
Perez threw about 5 strike to Mauer and the rest is just unlucky. Bounce back today and find a way to trick Orlando into not coming home with the team tonight.
Another random point- I’m so sick of reading/hearing about poor Masterson missing out on the all-important win despite pitching so well. Tom Hamilton can’t go ten minutes during a Masterson start without pointing it out.
Can we PLEASE finally admit that the win is a dumb stat that in no way conveys how a pitcher performed in the course of a game? The emperor has no clothes. I had hoped that Felix Hernandez’s CYA last year had signalled the end to obsessing over this arbitrary, silly statistic, yet it abides. When pitchers can consistently pitch a great game and not get the win (or vice versa) then maybe that’s an indication that it’s kind of a dumb stat.
For as much as we rave about Acta-Ball, he certainly makes his fair share of head scratching decisions. Why is Luis Valbuena playing left field with the game on the line? I get that Buck was injured and Brantley was out, but Kearns was available to play left field, and unlike Sweet Luis, he’s actually an outfielder.
And I get that Hafner sometimes struggles against lefties, but why take our best bat out of the lineup when facing the Twins best pitcher? Especially with Sizemore AND Brantley out of the lineup? Were we really better off with Matt LaPorta DH’ing last night? Why continue to hit Orlando Cabrera 5th? Theres a lot to like about Manny Acta, but Im beginning to see why he has a career winning percentage of .416
Manny is every bit as stubborn and hard headed as Eric Wedge, yeah I said it.
I find myself whining about why the Indians can’t get a shut-down closer… and then remember there simply aren’t that many of them. Perez is a decent closer, I just wish he threw more strikes or at least started-off with a few more. I cannot stand closers walking people.
Perez just isnt good, plain and simple. point to his stats all you want but the guys stuff is simply average. low to mid 90s fastball. his slider is good once every 6 games or so. its a miracle he has been able to convert saves this year to be honest, given that he rarely strikes anyone out. also I love how he tries to defend himself by saying valencia broke his bat, give me a break. Bum.
Did WFNY ever consider having open threads for afternoon games? Might be nice to have some place to comment on the game while working.
@NJ – do you really need to know that I screamed out loud when Santana struck out LOOKING with the bases loaded and noone out (inside my library-quiet office setting).
Thank God for Revere in CF.
and Tomlin just doesn’t have it (2nd straight start too). His fastball looks like it’s going straight and batters are just waiting for one and teeing off it. not a pretty game for him.
I don’t get all the negativity about Perez. He’s taken giant strides since last year. Before last night he had blown one save. And he anchors one of the best bullpens in the league.
Oh wait…I forgot this is Cleveland and the sky is falling if we lose a game in any sport.
where else am i going to vent all my ocab hate?
between the looking Ks and always swinging for the fences, i’m starting to worry about santana. he hasn’t shown an ability to adjust his approach when needed.
tomlin’s lack of “stuff” may be catching up with him. especially now that teams have a book on the guy now.
@26- I agree. Typical Cleveland reaction. One bad game = worst player ever.
I’m not a huge Perez fan, but he does the job pretty well and doesn’t cost us an arm and a leg. I’ll take him over Borowski, Wickman, or any other recent closer. Like somebody else said, I’d like to see him stop walking people in the 9th though.
Actaball apparently employs liberal use of fielding errors and passed balls.
2nd & 3rd, 1 out – foul popup on a ball way out of the zone (someone might want to tell these kids that when first base is open, they might want to take a couple pitches to see if the pitcher has any intention of pitching to them)
cmon Carrera, we can’t waste Orlando’s 1 hit for this week.
Can I just mention, Valbuena was playing at the warning track for the double AND the game winning single. WHY are you playing that far back after letting a easy fly ball land for a double? no matter what if it hits a gab the games at best tied. I dont know if that was acta or Valbuena, but it definitely looked like both those hits were aimed at left field on purpose because they had a football field to hit into.
Perez is pretty good, I dont blame him for that loss last night. 1 walk and a couple of bloop hits did him in. It was bad situational hitting, bad defense and bad decisions by Manny that cost us the game. Last night was only Perez’ second blown save. You can expect him or any other reliever to nail down every 1-0 game.
@30 – It know it was Kearns, but I hate the sac bunt there. I understand the logic – opens up the sacrifice and avoids the double play – but I’d rather take my chances letting my guys swing the bat.
I blame Shapiro and his mouthpiece Antonetti. In spite of the injuries, the Indians have a half dozen players on their roster that should not even be in the Majors. And why is Kipinis, our best prospect, still in Columbus? He plays second base and outfield. He would have been a great option last night.
@ bobby….Not only was Valbuena playing deep on the walkoff hit, there was NO REASON to do so. There’s no sense in playing a “no doubles” defense with 2 runners in scoring position. A single likely wins the game. Blame the manager for the positioning, but, that said, Valbuena didn’t take a “do-or-die” route to the ball. Not his normal position, I know, but he still has to know that if the ball drops, it’s game over. Shoulda got some mud on his uni…..
ps. Just heard Hamilton’s call on ground rule double that “should have been caught” by Valbuena…..sigh….
valbuena has played all of two MLB games and 11 minor league games in the outfield. why is he out there again? we have no other options?
@NJ
I was just thinking the exact same thing. I dont know whats worse, Valbuena or Shelley Duncan in left. Acta is out of his mind. Jared Head is the regular left fielder in Columbus. Is he really so bad that they cant call him up for 1 or 2 games? At least get somebody who plays that position regularly. Id rather see Kearns in left than Valbuena.
Exactly. Are they trying to save money on airfare or something? Bring in somebody to play left, preferably a left fielder.
And poor Valbuena. Nothing worse than having your boss put you in a position where you’re bound to fail. The guy is going to be the target of a lot of undeserving ill will.
Probably unfair, but I’m thinking that another second baseman would have been able to grab Valencia’s single and keep it at 4-4.
Orlando has to make that play. Yeah, it would have been a very good play, but it glanced off his glove and he has to make up for his bat somehow.
oh well, will be down going into the 9th now with Orlando, Chis, Kearns, Valbuena due up. Ugh!
Ive heard Kipnis has had some issues defensively, otherwise he would probably already be here. I think we’ll get a look at him soon though.
at least Chisenhall homered.
4-4 against 2 of the worst teams in the AL. missed opportunity.
The hell with this, heads have gotta roll after that fiasco.
We had a chance to sweep a division series and bury the Twins in the standings. Instead they are only 5 out. Not to mention we are trailing the Tigers again.
Call up Kipnis, ready or not its time for him to get an audition.
Get another outfielder, whether its by trade or callup. Put Buck on the DL with his “head contusion” or whatever they’re calling it today. DFA Kearns if necessary, send Valbuena back down, not because of what happened in left field (not his fault, he never should have been out there) but because hes not hitting.
We absolutely gave away 2 games, that just cannot happen.
The last eight games have perfectly encapsulated this season.
Ghost, I couldn’t agree more. I can’t remember the last time I was this frustrated with the team, the manager, and this organization.
@NJ – I can’t speak for you, but for me the words “Eric” and “Wedge” would pop immediately to mind.
Other than winning a couple of games on squeeze bunts, somebody explain to me why Acta is so much better than Wedge. And Im not saying that to pick a fight or be condescending either..
Take away our 30-15 start and Acta’s career winning percentage is .398, and NO Im not saying we should re-hire Wedge, Im just making a point.
There has been something vaguely Wedgeian about the last week, hasn’t there?
well sure, but it takes 2 OFers on the DL, 1 OF getting hit in the head, 1 young-star-3b getting hit in the face, and 1 OF not being able to keep food down to get to these levels.
I think Acta looks at the lineup the past few days and thinks he might as well try something crazy (i.e. stupid) hoping that it somehow works because it sure doesn’t look like “normal” should work with what we are left with.
Can we please just make a trade for an OF?? Most desperate position on the team.