Katie Witham and the Life of a Female Freelance Reporter
August 31, 2011Browns vs. Bears: What We’re Watching For…
September 1, 2011I don’t know who the guy is wearing the #9 jersey for the Indians these days, but whoever he is has been playing the game like an All-Star for the last month.
A night after going 3-4 with a homer and three RBIs, Indians third baseman Jack Hannahan was even better. This time, Jackie hit two bombs, including a game-tying mammoth blast off the right field foul pole in the sixth, and the game winning RBI single in the bottom of the 16th to give the Tribe a 4-3 marathon win.
What makes the game of baseball great the fact that you can go to the park every single night and see something completely different. This was one of those odd nights.
Its started off innocently enough, with Ezequiel Carrera’s leadoff triple. He was brought home by Kosuke Fukudome’s sacrifice fly. Kosuke came to the Indians with 13 RBIs in 87 games with the Cubs. The sac fly was his 13th RBI in 31 games as an Indian.
Ubaldo Jimenez got the start for the Tribe and wasn’t at his best. He was trying to put together great back to back starts for the first time since coming over from Colorado. The problem was he was all over the strike zone. Both times the Indians scored, Ubaldo gave the runs back.
In the second, he loaded the bases on two singles and a walk, and walked ninth place batter Scott Sizemore to force in a run, tying things at one. After Hannahan’s first homer, a 431-foot blast to center in the second, Jimenez again allowed a two-out run, this time on a single from Brandon Allen.
In the fourth, catcher Kurt Suzuki took Ubaldo deep to put the A’s on top 3-2. Jimenez scuffled, but got the last seven men he faced and departed after six innings, throwing 114 pitches. He struck out six, walked two, and allowed the three runs on six hits.
Hannahan’s second “jack” in the sixth off of Rich Harden tied things at three. Ironically Harden, who the Indians tried to trade for last week and couldn’t work out a deal for, left after six innings and had the exact same line as his counterpart Jimenez. Six innings, six hits, three earned runs, six K’s, two walks.
That’s where things got interesting.
Once the seventh inning rolled around, any semblance of offense from either team was pretty much gone. The bullpens took over and were both outstanding.
The game looked like it may go one forever, the way the Indians were hitting from the seventh inning on. The A’s bullpen retired a whopping 24 consecutive batters from the seventh to the 15th – that would be three outs short of a perfect game essentially. Craig Breslow, Grant Balfour, Faustino De Los Santos, Jerry Blevins, Neil Wagner, and Andrew Bailey literally shut the Indians down and out.
On the other side was the short-handed Bullpen Mafia, who were without the services of both Vinnie Pestano and Rafael Perez. Manager Manny Acta desperately wanted to avoid using them as both were overworked. Pestano had pitched in the previous three games while Perez has pitched in three of the last four, but threw 29 pitches a night earlier.
Tony Sipp went an extended two innings, throwing a season high 41 pitches (he won’t be available for this afternoon’s game) before handing the ball to closer Chris Perez, who came through in a non-save situation in the ninth. Joe Smith took the 10th, Chad Durbin pitched the 11th and 12th, and Frank Herrmann took over in the 13th.
Say what you want about the bottom two guys in the Tribe pen, but Durbin and Herrmann were solid in this one. Durbin danced out of a bases loaded one out jam in the 12th by striking out Ryan Sweeney and getting Tribe killer David Dejesus to pop out. Herrmann was a cut above.
In what would be the longest outing of his career, the Harvard Heater pitched four perfect innings of relief and gave the Indians just enough time to win it.
We all thought it was over in the 15th when Jason Donald led off with a double against lefty Josh Outman. Jerad Head’s sac fly moved him to third. It was a gutsy move by Donald. Everyone was expecting the bunt, but Head swung at the first pitch and hit a deep fly ball to left. Josh Willigham didn’t set himself squarely on the throw, and Donald slid in head first. Lou Marson had the chance to be a hero, but K’d for the second out. After Carrera walked, Fukudome struck out and it seemed to suck the life out of Tribe Nation.
But then came the bottom of the 16th.
Jim Thome led off with a single and was replaced by pinch runner Cord Phelps. Carlos Santana sharply singled to center, moving Phelps into scoring position. Then up stepped the man with the “S” on his chest, Hannahan.
Whatever the man is drinking, I want some of it, because he seemingly could do no wrong in the month of August. As the clock midnight and August turned to September, Hannahan laced a single to right field, third base coach Steve Smith was sending Phelps all the way. Dejesus’s throw was a tad off line, but the ball seemed to beat Phelps. He made a diving head-first slide to avoid the tag and was called safe by home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman.
“I was just trying to stay up the middle,” Hannahan said. “To be honest with you I didn’t think about swinging away (for a homer). Those hits had happened so long ago in that game that I forgot what happened.”
The Tribe had pulled out another miracle finish at Progressive Field and maybe received some help in doing so. Replays showed that Phelps may have been out. But you know what, it was time the Indians caught a break.
Herrmann was the much deserved winner on a night where the bullpen pitched 10 scoreless innings. But we all know who the real hero in this one was – Jack Hannahan. He has played hero all month. Jack essentially regained his everyday job on August 13th. He has hit .429 with three homers and 13 RBIs since.
“I’ve kind of always been a streaky hitter,” Hannahan said. “I’ve had some good months and some bad months. But, no, I can’t remember having a month like this.”
This team is so resilient. Just when you think they are down for the count, they keep coming back for more.
“Maybe it is our year,” said Herrmann. “We keep pulling out games in this kind of fashion. Who knows? Maybe it is our year. Maybe things are falling into place.”
If only the Royals bullpen had shown up the last two days in Detroit, the Indians would be closer than five and a half games back. The Royals led both games heading into the eighth and lost. But the Indians need to just keep on winning.
They go for a four-game sweep at noon today by sending out Fausto Carmona to the hill (6-12, 4.85 ERA). He will face tough lefty Gio Gonzalez (11-11, 3.35 ERA), who went 3-0 against the Tribe last year without allowing an earned run in 20.2 innings pitched. Expect to see some bullpen reinforcements called up for both teams before this game, considering the September 1st roster expansion and the 16 inning affair last night.
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(photo via Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer)
12 Comments
About that thing about Phelps almost being out, I recall a game or two a couple of weeks ago where the Indians got screwed on calls at the plate, so I suppose it’s evened-out now.
Glad I stayed-up for this one. I had a feeling Hannahan was going to win it for the team, but most of us probably figured that as well. Good job to Herrmann, too… four perfect innings!
I was wondering… let’s say Herrmann pitches NINE perfect innings and the Indians win it. Would he get credit for a perfect game?!?
Congrats. Your reward? Six hours of sleep. Be back here first thing in the morning.
28 days, 29 games, one day off.
Watch the highlights and see Donald (?) jumping up and down when Cord was coming home. Prety funny but also shows how much emotion these guys have. Hopefully we can keep it up, but will need to win each det series to have a shot. Since we play 6 games with them, the gains (or losses) in the standings will be an even number. If we go 4-2 then we gain 2 games, 5-1, we gain 4, or 6-0 we gain 6. Hopefully will be interesting, but we will need to also win at least 2 of the 3 doubleheaders (both games)
Good win. Good for Jack, if he could keep up even a fraction of what he’s been doing lately I’d love to see him play everyday. Count me in as still worried about Ubaldo.
Good move by Acta to bring in Phelps as a pinch-runner. With Thome on 2nd, there is zero chance that he scores on that Supermannahan hit. I went to bed after the 15th inning thinking that this one could last a while. Really wonderful stuff by Hermann… he was mixing up his pitches well and throwing to the corners. I would say that right now Joe Smith’s ERA is not indicative of how well he’s throwing (a negative thing), but I would also say that Durbin and Hermann are throwing much better than their ERA’s indicate… hopefully they finally hit their groove.
April/Early-May – the Tribe was near unstoppable behind hot and clutch hitting from Jack Hannahan (and O-Cab)
late August/Sept – the Tribe is once again near unstoppable behind the hot and clutch hitting from Jack Hannahan (and Fukudome?)
Indians RISP: 1-10 (C Santana 0-1, J Thome 0-1, L Marson 0-2, J Head 0-1, A Cabrera 0-1, K Fukudome 0-2, E Carrera 0-1)
and of course: J Hannahan 1-1
Hannahan should have more children!
On a side note anyone know the blondes sitting a couple rows behind the visitors dugout? They were distracting me whenever a left handed batter was up.
@6 – Near unstoppable!? That’s sarcasm font, right?
It’s gonna be a fun month!
@6 fukudome sac fly carrera from third…
@7 – I rarely actually laugh at loud at stuff I read on the net, but “Hannahan should have more children” got a big guaff out of me.
Jack Hannahan will be the new Shawn Kemp.
@ 7 & 9:
Conversely, Choo shouldn’t. (Although he was really good for about a day thereafter.)
@8 – it’s called hope. i mean, gotta cling to a little at this point, no?