While We’re Waiting… Ranking Colt, Wide Outs, and Bullpen Advice
August 30, 2011Browns Should Look to Stay Young This Year
August 30, 2011Their lineup might resemble those of the 2002-2004 Indians, but that doesn’t mean this team isn’t battling.
With their backs against the wall and seemingly missing every important cog in their offense, the Wahoos pitched their way into a 2-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics.
It was a battle of arms between David Huff and Oakland right-hander Brandon McCarthy. It certainly wasn’t pretty for the Tribe’s offense. McCarthy, not known as a big strike-out guy, K’d 10 in a complete game performance.
“We couldn’t do much against McCarthy,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “He was very, very good with that cutter and the sinker coming from the same slot. He worked both sides of the plate and was very effective. He had us going back and forth, chasing his pitches. But we got some clutch hitting.”
They were very fortunate to come out of this one with a W the way they looked at the plate.
It was scoreless until the sixth with two outs and McCarthy cruising when Ezequiel Carrera punched a single to left. The A’s starter kept a close eye on Zeke assuming he would steal. He ended up not paying enough attention to Kosuke Fukudome at the plate, who laced a double down into the right field corner. The burner Carrera was waved home all the way and slid safely into home head-first, narrowly avoiding the tag of Kurt Suzuki.
Speed kills as they say.
“Great slide by Ezequiel,” Acta confirmed.
Meanwhile, nobody is talking about it, but the Fukudome trade has turned out to be a real gem for the Tribe. He has played in every single inning since being acquired, has shifted between right, center and left, and has hit the ball well. He has done everything the Indians could have asked him to do, hitting .319 in his last 23 games, impressive considering he really has been the only constant in the outfield during that time.
Carlos Santana, another guy swinging the bat better over the last month, took McCarthy deep in the seventh to stretch the Tribe lead to 2-0. It was his 20th of the year.
Huff in the meantime was solid. The lefty was coming off brutal start in Detroit where he couldn’t find the plate or make it out of the third inning. On this night, he started slowly, but was able to settle in without allowing any damage.
He went six innings, giving up just three hits without allowing a run on 99 pitches before turning the ball over to his bullpen.
“Coming off of nine days’ rest, I was a little up in the zone at the start,” Huff said. “But eventually, I settled down and made pitches and got ahead in the later innings — four, five and six.”
The Bullpen Mafia took it from there, but it wasn’t without a little bit of drama. Joe Smith, who has been so solid all season, pitched a 1-2-3 seventh and returned to face Scott Sizemore to start the eighth. Sizemore doubled and Acta called for Tony Sipp to face Jemile Weeks.
Sipp has a hard time holding runners on base. He almost ignores them. Sizemore took advantage, stealing third with ease. Weeks doubled in Sizemore and the A’s looked like they were in business.
Coco Crisp was sent up to bunt Weeks over to third, but popped it up in front of Sipp. Weeks froze, and stayed at second with Sipp easily throwing to first to get Crisp. That play turned out to be huge because Hideki Matsui followed with a towering blast to deep right. It looked like it would be gone, but Fukudome caught it at the wall. Weeks moved to third instead of scoring on what would have been a game-tying sac fly.
Acta then called upon Vinnie Pestano to face the right-handed hitting Josh Willingham. As he has done so may times this year, Vinnie K’d Willingham looking and the A’s were done in the eighth.
In the ninth, it was Pure Rage time. Chris Perez closed the game out 1-2-3 with a pair of strikeouts and looked the best he has in weeks doing so.
“I try to do that every night,” Perez said. “It was just one of those nights where everything was going where I wanted it to go. You’d like to have 75 of those a year, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.”
The win, coupled with the Royals victory over the Tigers, the Indians inched closer to first place. They now sit five and a half games back of Detroit. If they can get to within four before the Tigers come to town on Labor Day for a three game set, they’ve got a chance.
Tonight, the Indians go for two in a row against Oakland as they sent Jeanmar Gomez (0-2, 5.70 ERA)to the mound, making his his first start since July 17th. He is taking the place of Josh Tomlin in the rotation while Tomlin sits on the DL with a sore elbow. Gomez will square off with A’s right-hander Trevor Cahill (9-12, 4.13 ERA)
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Photo via Chuck Crow/PD
15 Comments
After Fukudome’s double, my wife mentioned that he’s been a good pickup for the Tribe. I hadn’t thought about it, but he really has. I bet seeing him play well would drive Cubs fans crazy.
I was at the game last night. Great time.
Agreed on Fukudome. Re: Thome, though, he looked weak last night, grounding out three times and seeing only 7 pitches all night (didn’t he used to take a ton of pitches and draw a ton of walks?).
I know we really have no other reasonable options at cleanup, but by what criteria do we judge the signing? Excitement alone? Attendance numbers? The 3-1 record we’ve sported since the signing?
I think he’s 1-11 with one HR right now.
Agreed on Fukudome… his season is really turning around in Cleveland. He’s been arguably our most dangerous hitter since he arrived, and I never expected that to happen. You don’t get many homers from him, but you get a crap-load of doubles. I’ve also been cautiously impressed with Carrera. He seems to have a knack for getting on base when the Tribe really needs a run. Too bad the guys behind him (not named Fukudome) haven’t had good success in driving him in. You might not know it because of his 3-run game-winning blast the other night, but As-Cab has been in a slump for the last 2 weeks. Hopefully he comes out of it for the September run. He hasn’t been here long, but so far Thome’s bat has been quiet and he’s been striking out way more than he’s been drawing walks, which isn’t usual for him. Seems like he might be pressing a bit to impress the fans.
Am I the only one legitimately confused by David Huff?
@2
Sample size.
@2, How dare you. Jim Thome could crush you with one hand.
The fact this team is playing borderline important games on Aug. 30 is insane. Their current lineup might be the worst in baseball. I mean, you look at our starting nine (offensively) last night and it really was the worst.
I really don’t like our chances tonight against Cahill. He’s a good pitcher going against this lineup and Jeanmar Gomez is pitching for us. Yikes.
It’s funny but if they do win tonight, I say they make one more trade tomorrow. For anyone. I mean, I’d take a guy batting .260 with nine or 10 home runs right about now.
Ethan – no need to be confused. Just read this: Is David Huff a New Pitcher?
HUGE win last night. Huff has had ONE bad outing this year. He got into a “Mangini-like” dog house situation related to a twitter incident from what I heard last year. If you remember, he was kicking butt a couple years back & got hit in the face/head with a line drive…not the same for awhile.
Just saw that the Tribe had 13 ONE RUN games in August alone…crazy! (5-8 in those!). Coupled with that, I believe Detroit won an amazing 8(!!!) one run games in a ROW!!!
Then there’s the massive injury plague: Hafner, Sizemore, Brantley, Kipnis, Tomlin, Carassco, Choo and now even Donald (who has been hitting!)!!! Absolutely amazing…let’s lay off bashing the Tribe here and leave that to WKNR as they have been doing that ALL freakin’ season – even when they were 30-15!!! Now 92.3FM, at least gives us local sportstalk radio fans an option……c-ya, Aaron, Fedor, Roda, Reghi & Brinda. Buh-bye!!!!!
I’ll have whatever Joe’s havin’, because those those anti-depressants must be STRONG.
Hey triberocks4, intersting words you typed…what the hell does you mean? First, I have never been “depressed” and have my option now for local sportstalk radio and it rocks! Secondly, somebody asked about Huff and about the Tribe’s season/situation. I typed my opinions…go back to listening to Aaron & Fedor now…the rest of us are hearing Andy Baskin & D-man (from the PD) on 92.3FM The Fan!!!
Oops…LOL! Meant: “what the hell do you mean?”
Anyone know how many opposing pitchers/teams have had “record strike-outs” or “season-best strikeouts” against the Indians this year? It seems like I hear this at least once a week.
Looks like Choo wont be back for a couple weeks. I wouldnt mind if they worked out a deal for Matsui, he reportedly cleared waivers.
was finally in town last night for game. i think Thome’s biggest impact is letting other guys get a pitch to hit. since they made their money on him back over the weekend alone (!) I’d say that’s worthwhile.
not sure how it looked on TV, but Zeke looked really oddly slow coming around the bases, but a brilliant slide. we were looking straight up the third base line from behind the plate and not only did he take a perfect angle on the slide, he adjusted his arm perfectly to hit the plate. it just seemed like it shouldn’t have been that close.
i know he pitched well, but huff really didn’t do well especially early. rockets off the bats were caught and didn’t clear the fence, but it seemed more fortunate than skilled.
anyone else notice that relievers seem to pitch poorly when sent out for a second inning? not sure why Smith was sent back out.
the ushers are annoying. come on, the stadium is empty. don’t be so strict about moving over a few sections.
the Indians feel like the giants: we can’t really hit, but we may stop you, too. not sure if we’ll catch the tigers, but we better be addressing the lineup in the off-season.