Browns release 2015 preseason schedule
April 9, 2015Tribe home opener, Browns draft, and Jeremy Enigk: While We’re Waiting…
April 10, 2015Ijust had that dream again—the one where the Cleveland Indians are three outs away from their first no-hitter in 34 years, and Nick Hagadone is on the hill. …And he’s in his underwear.
In what could have easily gone down as the least electric atmosphere for a no-hit bid in Major League history, the roughly 426 remaining spectators at Houston’s air-conditioned Enron Minute Maid Park were instead treated to a one-out, ninth inning homer from Jed Lowrie (who is apparently NOT Brett Lawrie), as the Astros escaped with a 5-1 defeat and Len Barker twirled his mustache in villainous delight. Some Tribe fans will no doubt question manager Terry Francona’s decision to thumb his nose at history and save closer Cody Allen for a more crucial circumstance. To these people I say, is this really how you wanted this to go down?
Re-Capping
I was in utero when Barker threw his perfect game back in May of ‘81. And so, for the three decades since, I’ve been actively and almost disturbingly aware of every occasion in which Greg Swindell or Charles Nagy or Bart Colon or Jake Westbrook got into the fourth inning with a clean slate. The dream of that long awaited Tribe no-hitter has played out in many ways in my mind, but this wasn’t one of them—four pitchers, seven walks, Houston. As a movie action hero often says when his revenge-seeking sidekick has a gun pointed at the bad guy, “Not like this, Joey. Not like this.”
Of course, focusing on the end of the game kind of buries the lead a bit here, because the story of this satisfying Indians win was clearly Trevor Bauer—a complicated young man who over-thought his way to 11 strikeouts in six innings of work. Yes, he was kind of hurling pebbles past a row of windmills, and yes, he did walk five batters and fell victim to his usual pitch count problems. But all things considered, it’s hard to envision a more encouraging start to the season when it comes to the Tribe’s starting rotation. Kluber, Carrasco, and Bauer weren’t just solid in their season debuts, they all looked like vintage Addie Joss circa 1907. Maybe it’s all just rosy vision seen through the bleary eyes of a helpless Evan Gattis, but I’ll take it!
It was good to see the Indians knock around Astros starter Asher Wojciechowski, too. The kid was making his Major League debut and is far from an elite prospect, but those ingredients have routinely spelled doom for Indians hitters over the years. Everybody but Brandon Moss reached base at least once, youngsters Jose Ramirez and Roberto Perez both went yard, and Yan Gomes (in the line-up at DH) made the baseball equivalent of an Allen Iverson killer crossover with his ridiculous slide into home plate. Astros catcher Hank Conger was so stupefied by Gomes’ craftiness that the official scorekeeper initially gave him an error for just essentially tripping over himself.
C-Cap Recap’s Customized Box Score
Indians 5, Astros 1
Green Highlight (as in “Great Job”): Pretty easy choice. The combined one-hit performance of Bauer, Kyle Crockett, Scott Atchison, and [Nick Hagadone]. Not soon to be forgotten.
Yellow Highlight (as in “On the Verge of Great”): Roberto Perez is the real deal, folks. Expect a lot of days like today, where Yan Gomes rests his knees and DHs while Perez earns his own keep.
Red Highlight (as in “Stop, You Are Doing Badly”): My in-game doodle of Evan Gattis is quite awful, but so is striking out eight consecutive times, so it seems fitting.
Next Contest: The Home Opener vs Detroit, obv.
24 Comments
I question whether Francona was interested in his team getting a no-hitter between Hagadone coming in to face three straight right handed hitters to leaving Moss in the game in RF the whole way.
Your answer would be ‘no,’ though Moss saved a hit in the eighth.
I would have gone for it great way to head home to open things verse Detroit.
Great recap, renderings, custom box score, artistically discussing the game. Great stuff.
https://mobile.twitter.com/MLBastian/status/586285727622815745
The Addie Joss reference is stunning. Unsung CLE hero. Well done.
I’m good!
Thank you.
That box score LOL
Awesome work dude! Love the box score, especially the “ruining history” stat. Think before Nick Hagadone’s time is over, he will rack up quite a few more ruins.
Keep those doodles coming…
Excellent work. Thank you.
I like that Tito put Hagadone in to finish the game. It shows that he has confidence in his ability. A relief pitcher needs to know that the manager trusts him when the game is on the line.
The Tribe won last night. I refuse to complain about a win.
You guys had big shoes to fill and I was slightly worried. Then Bode set the bar high the first two games and I was slightly worried for the Clay man. I need to stop worrying.
You’re the first team, and you’re not gonna fall for no banana in the tailpipe.
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/HktV2yGtLv8/hqdefault.jpg
“An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up”
I busted up laughing when I saw “Scrappy Doo” in the box score, and again when I saw that Evan Gattis had achieved the fabled “Golden Sombrero” for the second time this season.
An even better way to open things against Detroit is to take 2 of 3 in your opening series with both Shaw and Allen fully rested.
I don’t want to sound like the worry-wart after a great win, but I hope Bauer isn’t going to be so erratic all season long. He’s not going to get to play the Houston Windmills every start.
“lede”
Three games into the season only one of which Allen worked and you are talking about rest. If this is even remotely true you have a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong road ahead.
You mean the Astros lineup isn’t the 2015 version of the Bronx Bombers?
Yes, you want to start thinking about rest this early in the season. Pitching back to back nights this early in the season causes the same amount of strain as it does later in the season.
Smallish strike zone last night. At least compared to where MLB is at nowadays.
Sure.
Agreed, this was fun to read and the box score was so good I had to send it to non-cleveland fans to look at.