Rays blank Cleveland again, Tribe falls 6-0 in Bauer’s debut
April 7, 2013New look, ‘new ballgame’ for Akron Aeros and Canal Park
April 7, 2013Saturday night’s Indians game was a rough go-around: A 6-0 final deficit, Trevor Bauer walking the first four batters, the crash at the plate with Lou Marson and Bauer eventually hitting in the game.
But what reportedly irked Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon the most post-game was how he believed Cody Allen intentionally hit Rays star Evan Longoria in the seventh. The pitch clearly hit Longoria in the back-side.
“It’s pretty much a consensus opinion that he did it intentionally,” Maddon said. “I’ll say one thing unequivocally, I know it didn’t come from Tito [Francona].”
In regards to any sort of retaliation, Maddon was pretty adamant about where he thought it was directed.
“I know it was a clean baseball play that did not deserve that kind of retaliation. . . . For me, it had to come from one of the players, and I would absolutely point to their bullpen.”
After the hit-by-pitch, both teams were warned about future plunkings by the umpires.
The Desmond Jennings-Marson collision took place in the bottom of the third. Marson had to leave the game, forcing Carlos Santana to move from DH to catcher, making the Tribe the first AL team since ’99 to have a pitcher bat. Marson is listed as day-to-day with a neck strain.
Overall, it’s just another facet to an unusually chippy game for just the fifth contest of the season. But more importantly, with a third straight loss, the Indians now sit at 2-3 and on the verge of a series sweep this afternoon in Tampa.
[Related: Rays blank Cleveland again, Tribe falls 6-0 in Bauer’s debut]
6 Comments
On first glance it seems the umpiring in this game was terrible. It seems the strikezone was minuscule (for both teams) but STO didn’t put up the K zone at all to show if Bauer was close to the zone. On TV it looked like he was around the plate, and wasn’t getting any belt high calls. But players were not swinging, so maybe he wasn’t so close? The worst was the missed out on the steal before the collision. If Bucknor gets the call correct on Jennings steal, he doesn’t plow over Marson.
Maddon just needs to hear his name mentioned which is kind of sad considering he’s one of the games better managers. It’s not like Longoria was beaned or injured.
No first glance it was horrible. Dale Scott behind the plate was not the guy for the rookie Bauer but to be fair Scott was horrible for both sides it was just the Indians who were unable to overcome it.
Now CB Buckner on the other hand was absolutely terrible at second base. It’s one thing to miss a call but he missed two and the second was the worst considering he was looking right at it. How he could have missed the Rays runner sliding into the glove prior to the base was baffling. I don’t blame Albers for losing it when the inning was over in fact I loved to see one of the Indians fired up enough to show it.
More pitchers have batted in AL games since 99. Andy Sonnanstine in 2009 is one example, Mo also did so against the A’s a few years back.
CB Bucknor needs to be fired, and I can not for the life of me figure out how he hasn’t been yet. He is atrocious.
Also, a number of AL pitchers have hit since ’99, that’s the last time an Indians pitcher has had to hit. We forced the Rays to bat a pitcher just a few years ago due to a lineup card gaffe.
He got hit in his “backside,” not his ribs/hands/head, relax Maddon.