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April 25, 2012
As a baseball fans, you know there are those games in which your team should win but end up losing. Then there are the games that your team has no business winning, yet does anyways. Last night in front of a sparse crowd at Progressive Field, your Cleveland Indians pulled off the latter. How else can you explain the 4-3 victory in which the Tribe loaded the bases with nobody out TWICE and failed to score? Or tell me how they won while leaving a whopping 13 men on base while going 2-12 with runners in scoring position? That’s not easy to do. But this is Actaball, where the strange usually outweighs the normal.
It also helps when you are playing the Kansas City Royals, losers of 12 straight.
This one was a matchup of veteran right-hander Derek Lowe and lefty villain Jonathan Sanchez, the man who ignited the benches clearing controversy 10 days ago. The first batter Sanchez faced, Jason Kipnis, was hit in the hand with a curveball. Nobody thought the pitch was intentional. It would become obvious within an inning. Sanchez was all over the place, nibbling at the corners all night and putting runners on base like that was his job. He lasted just four and two-thirds innings and walked seven. He would exit after throwing 115 pitches, just 56 of which were strikes.
The Wahoo offense had seemingly a million chances to put this one away, yet never could. Sanchez was on the ropes several times, but wiggled his way out of trouble. With a 1-0 lead in the second, Sanchez walked Jack Hannahan, Casey Kotchman, and Aaron Cunningham to open the frame. He again was all over the place. Yet for some reason, Kipnis decided to swing at the first pitch and weakly popped out to shallow left. Asdrubal Cabrera also decided to swing at the first pitch (which was in the dirt) and missed. In the third pitch of the at-bat, he hit into a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play.
The approach by Kipnis and Asdrubal in those two at-bats was beyond poor to say the least. You just had the feeling that this would come back to haunt the Tribe.
The fifth inning is where the offense finally came through and knocked Sanchez out of the game. For the second time on the night, they loaded the bases again on three walks. Shelley Duncan delivered a sac fly to center, putting the Tribe ahead 2-1. Now with two outs, it was time for the Tribe’s MVP thus far to take matters into his own hands. Hannahan worked the count full, then poked a pitch into the right-center gap for a two-run double. It was Jackie two-out lightning at its best. He’s now an incredible 6-8 with two outs and runners in scoring position.
“He’s flying high, confidence wise,” manager Manny Acta said of Hannahan. “We want to see him up there. He’s already been huge for us in a few games. His heartbeat is probably a lot slower than a lot of the younger kids that we have here.”
The two Hannahan RBIs turned out to be the difference in this one, as the Indians would spend the rest of the game wasting chances. They had two on with two out in the sixth, but Carlos Santana grounded out. Hannahan’s two-out single in the seventh produced nothing. Then in the eighth, they loaded the bases a second time with nobody out and failed to score.
Meanwhile, Lowe was cruising. As a ground-ball, sinker specialist, Lowe is going to give up hits. But he minimized his damage, allowing just one run while scattering eight hits in six innings, striking out five and walking one before turning things over to the bullpen.
Tony Sipp, in his seventh inning spot, got the Royals in order which was a much needed confidence boost for the up and down lefty. Vinnie Pestano took the ball in the eighth and walked Eric Hosmer to open the inning. One out later, Mike Moustakas singled sharply to left, moving Hosmer to third and bringing the tying run to the plate. After getting Humberto Quintero with a huge strikeout, Mitch Maier touched Pestano up with an RBI double. At 4-2 with the lead run at the plate, Vinnie got Alcedes Escobar to ground out.
It has been flying under the radar thus far, but Pestano hasn’t been consistently the guy we saw last season in front of Chris Perez. He will be fine, but it is something to keep your eye on.
Pure Rage allowed a run in the ninth, but closed out his league-leading seventh save for the Tribe’s ninth win of the season. The victory, coupled with losses by the Tigers and White Sox, vaulted the Tribe into a three-way tie for first place, with the Indians percentage points ahead.
It wasn’t all smiles coming out of Progressive Field last night. Right fielder Shin-Soo Choo had to be replaced in the eighth inning by Jason Donald due to what Acta called “mild” hamstring tightness. Choo is listed as day to day, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we didn’t see him the rest of this series. If Choo’s injury causes a DL stint, it could signal an earlier than expected debut of Johnny Damon or the return of the 2012 Andy Marte, 4A special Matt LaPorta, who went 4-5 with a homer for Columbus last night. LaPorta is now hitting .344/.394/1.051 with five homers and 10 RBIs in 17 games in AAA.
Michael Brantley was also given the night off against the lefty Sanchez. The .196 hitting center fielder appeared as a defensive replacement. Acta revealed after the game last night that Brantley is battling a sore right wrist as well, but he is expected to be in the lineup tonight.
Taking the ball for Acta at 7:05 will be Ubaldo Jimenez (2-0, 4.00 ERA). He will be faced by a guy the Tribe has owned in the past, righty Luke Hochevar (1-1, 5.87). The last time he faced the Indians, Hochevar was lit up for seven runs and nine hits on four innings. For his career, he is 4-8 with a 5.81 ERA in 12 starts against them.
(photo via Chuck Crow/PD)
34 Comments
Hamilton had a great quote last night when talking about Eric Hosmer: “Hosmer is represented by Scott Boras, which means he is already not long for the Royals.” He then proceeded to rip Boras. Gotta love Hammy.
Just a peeve. I don’t get to watch the Indians, so I don’t know how often it happens, but this is the third time already this year (and twice in last night’s game) that I have heard about an opposing pitcher not being able to find the strike zone AT ALL, and a Tribe hitter comes up and swings at the first pitch and kills a potential rally. Drive up his pitch count, make him prove he can throw a strike, etc. It drives me NUTS to watch hitters swing at the first pitch when it’s totally obvious that the pitcher has ZERO command. /rantoff
Point of order Mister Chairman: Isn’t “sparse crowd” an oxymoron?
Perez came a lot closer to blowing that game than the play-by-play would suggest. One of their guys tagged a monster shot into the left field stands just foul. Also, that force at second was REALLY close. I thought Hanrahan would have taken the safer route by throwing to first, but he didn’t.
But a win is a win, and we’re in first. Good times.
A win is a win but I’d love to see better execution for when we start playing the real competition in the league.
is it possible for Sanchez to face the Indians without hitting a batter?
except that they still control Hosmer for 6 more years and that will give them a total of 7 years with Hosmer on the Royals.
I get that Hammy was using the opportunity to rip Boras because of Choo’s impending FA, but I hate when announcers talk about Santana, etc. the same way so I am going to hate it when ours do it to others teams too.
the Indians have been one of the highest teams in the league at taking walks and striking out this year, so we have been driving the pitch count up overall.
i agree that the hitting coach might want to work on some of these specific scenarios though as it seems we are helping out opposing pitchers too often in them.
at the same time, if a guy has walked someone to load the bases, you know he is thinking about throwing strikes, so he might throw a nothing pitch just to get it over. A nothing pitch is the dream of most hitters, so I don’t hold that against them. Though it would have been nice if they actually hit it hard somewhere.
Our old friend Trevor Crowe has been raking at Columbus, wouldnt be surprised if he gets a callup soon with Choo’s injury. The Tribes injuries always seem to turn out worse than originally reported. LaPorta played 4 games in left field down in C-Bus but he’s back at first base now.
While I agree that some of our young guys don’t always show the plate discipline they should in certain situations, our pace over these first couple weeks puts us as setting the all-time record for walks as a team.
And 13 LOB isn’t some ungodly LOB number. Just scanning the box score from last night- KC left 11, PIT left 12, BOS left 10, HOU left 10….
I know this is bordering on sacrilegious to say, but Hamilton has started to kind of annoy me. This is a good example of why: he says things that are just wrong. Like you said, he’s usually doing it to make some larger point, but I still find it annoying.
The Clippers are seriously stacked. We have some solid AAAA players.
Hamilton has a great natural voice, sometimes he should just keep quiet and call the game instead of trying to be a part of it. Thats always irked me about him too.
Agreed on that throw to 2nd by Hannahan to end the game. I thought it was a mistake and he should have thrown to 1st, since it was so close at 2nd I thought the umpire could easily have called the runner safe. Pestano and Perez haven’t exactly been mowing them down so far.
Boras is Hammy’s white whale, for sure.
HOPEFULLY, we’re still in the race come trade deadline and one of the AAAA studs could bring in a much needed Vet right handed bat, or switch ala Ichiro who is in contract year. (or a guy named Manny)
First place feels so good.
I hope Choo’s hamstring injury isn’t serious because the OF that ended the game was just plain scary! Paging Johnny Damon…
Which happens even more now that they dont have a color guy/analyst in the booth. Just Rosenhaus to say the occasional one or two tidbits here and there. There is no back and forth between the two and the broadcasts have become boring.
I’m amazed at how much grief Boras gets, when all he does is his job – and very well at that. Do people really think Hosmer had no idea what he was getting into when he signed with Boras? You sign with Boras because you have no interest in signing a team-friendly lock up deal, and you want to get the last dollar on the free agent market. Boras should make no apologies for getting his clients exactly what they ask for.
Yeah, there really isn’t much chemistry. Those two seem to like each other, but generally agree on everything. They need someone in there to spice things up.
No one is giving us a good player for Crowe/Laporta. And Ichiro is not a switch hitter.
Not to mention drawing hate is EXACTLY what a high-powered agent should do. Attract the negative for your client and keep them looking good.
my bad, i should’ve said a package of the AAAA (or lowers class ball) studs. obviously the better the guys perform down there, the additional flexibility the FO has in making a move to improve us, presuming we’re still in the hunt come trade deadline time.
good looks on Ichiro, guess him being a lefty hitter rules him out…
Not only is Ichiro not a switch hitter, he hates Cleveland. No thanks.
Agreed. Without Hegan, it’s a little draggy, but I don’t really mind Hammy’s tangents.
Crowe has been playing well, but if the Indians want to call him up, they’ll need to clear a spot of the 40 man roster because Crowe isn’t on it. Don’t know who they would DFA to call him up given they also have to clear a space for Damon (Cunningham being the obvious candidate).
Does anyone have the attendance numbers from last night?
I was at the game and I think there were as many seagulls there are there were people. I mean it was a bit brisk last night, but couldn’t believe how empty the stadium was. I’m hoping this warm front today will help bring in some more people for tonight’s game. I mean come on the Indians are in 1st place right now (I know it’s April, but I don’t have many chances to actually say that).
The Indians emptied the farm system with the Jimenez trade and promotions of Kipnis and Chisenhall (he’s not going anywhere). The only guy in AAA who could possibly bring back a useful player is Barnes, and that’s if you add something else to the package. You’ll have to hope people are enamored with the lower level prospects. The Indians may be able to add a decent minor piece, but not a whole lot, and certainly not for any combination of AAAA players.
it’s the hubris of a guy who realizes he’s an institution and his job is more secure than anyone’s but the owners. Same thing happened to the sainted Joe Tait, who didn’t go on those sarcastic mini-rants back in the early ’80s.
I love Hamilton’s technique, he’s one of the best and hope he’s here until retirement. But certainly he’s now imposing a personal attitude into broadcasts that he didn’t dare do when Herb shared the booth. The trade-off is fine; I’ll take the perfect “waaaay back …” over the little-boy-with-hairbrush-microphone-in-mirror “gone to Souvenir City!” any day.
The announced, allegedly paid, attendance was 9,137, but it look like less than half of that were there.
On the bright side, we got out of the parking lot afterward real quick.
Hammy has had me a little off-put this year during some games, I don’t know why but the lack of Hegan is likely the cause. Hearing him back in the booth in Oakland for that game was awesome. Rosey just has a lame voice when he’s in the booth with Hammy, I can’t stand the middle innings when he calls, especially when big plays happen and you want to hear Hammy’s calls. But still I love Hammy, one of the best in the biz and I for one appreciate his excitement for the game and his rants etc. actually help me feel connected better to the game.
From the look of it, they were lucky to get 4000 through the gate. I could not believe how empty the bleachers were. I think we had 10 people sitting in our section, 4 of which were from out group.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance
could be the 2nd time in 3 years we end at the bottom. i hope not.