Digital journalism and the importance of Yeezy Boosts: While We’re Waiting…
May 25, 2015Is Delly really dirty?
May 25, 2015As the Cavaliers inched one step closer to a sweep in the Eastern Conference Finals, their next-door neighbors—those pesky, Dellavedova-like Indians—had already busted out the brooms to move within one win of their own championship hardware. Sure, you may not personally value the “Ohio Cup”—the trophy handed out to the winner of the annual Indians-Reds interleague season series—on the same level as the NBA Eastern Conference Championship Trophy. But that snooty opinion shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying this brief synopsis of the Tribe’s best weekend in recent memory.
Re-Capping
All Cleveland sports fans can appreciate the rare high that comes with the “double win”—those elusive occasions on which two of your beloved local franchises prove victorious on the same day. This week, you were treated to three such events, as each of the Cavs’ wins over the Hawks landed within the span of the Indians’ current six-game winning streak—by far their longest of the season. Since you were probably wondering, the Tribe is now 9-3 all-time on days in which the Cavs win an Eastern Conference Finals game.
One of those extra special double-wins came on May 14, 1976, when Bingo Smith dropped 27 points in a 106-87 Cavs win over the Celtics (the final victory for the “Miracle of Richfield” club) and 21 year-old Rick Manning went 4-for-5 in a 6-3 Indians win over the Tigers. To neatly tie everything together, the Tribe honored Manning this weekend on the 40th anniversary of his big league debut. Red retro jerseys were handed out to the Progressive Field faithful, while the spectators at the Q got their brand new playoff duds in gold. Some say the Indians have a disease of nostalgia, but winning, as ever, can cure all.
Friday:
Indians 7, Reds 3
W: Carlos Carrasco (5-4) L: Mike Leake (2-3)
Boxscore Excerpt: Brandon Moss | 2-4, 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 BB, 1 R, 3 RBI
Unlike the White Sox, who had entered the Indians’ previous series on an upswing, the Cincinnati Reds came to Cleveland looking ripe for the picking, losers of five straight. Nothing has come easy to the Indians this year, though—on their home field and/or against mediocre competition—so the burden really fell on the inconsistent Carlos Carrasco to step up and set the tone for the weekend. And, perhaps inspired by the four excellent starting efforts that preceded him, that’s exactly what Cookie did: 6 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 7 K. The turning point of the game and arguably the series came in the third inning. After Carrasco gave up a two-out RBI double to Todd Frazier to tie the game 2-2, Brandon Moss came up in the bottom half of the frame and immediately put Cleveland back in front with a solo bomb to right center field. It took until May 22, but the Indians finally won the opening game of a home series for the first time.
Saturday
Indians 2, Reds 1
W: Corey Kluber (2-5), L: Tony Cingrani (0-1), SV: Cody Allen (9)
Boxscore Excerpt: Corey Kluber | 8 IP, 1 ER, 9 H, 0 BB, 7 K
The Indians offense did nothing to improve Corey Kluber’s microscopic run support, which—at 2.3 runs per game—is third lowest among AL starters. The team scrapped together just three hits off starter Anthony DeSclafani and one off lone reliever Tony Cingrani, while the Reds collected a healthy nine off of Kluber. Still, it was the last knock that mattered most—an RBI double off the bat of a still very locked-in Jason Kipnis in the bottom of the eighth inning, giving the Indians and Kluber their first and permanent lead at 2-1. An encouraging 1-2-3 ninth from Cody Allen shut the door to make it five straight. All of this took second fiddle, of course, to the Archie festivities.
Sunday
Indians 5, Reds 2
W: Trevor Bauer (4-1), L: Raisel Iglesias (1-1)
Boxscore Excerpt: Trevor Bauer | 7.2 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 4 K
When bad defense starts playing a role in Indians’ wins, rather than explaining their losses, the tide just might be turning. Critical errors by Brandon Phillips in the third inning and Joey Votto in the sixth (though I blame reliever J.J. Hoover for failing to vacuum up Votto’s decent lead toss) helped the Indians overcome yet another miserable day at the dish (2-for-18 with RISP) and gave Trevor Bauer all the tallies he needed to complete Cleveland’s first series sweep of 2015. All it’ll take now is one win in Cinci in July to bring back the Ohio Cup and all the pomp and circumstance that comes with it (?).
The Indians’ starting pitchers have been so superb over the past week that it’s easy to overlook any individual member of the gang. But Trevor Bauer deserves hid due and then some. The 24 year-old has worked into the eighth inning and allowed one earned run in each of his last three starts, which is impressive for anybody, but extra eye-opening for a young guy who only pitched into the eighth inning three times ALL of last season. His ERA has dipped down to a team best 3.02 on the season, and opposing teams are hitting .212 off him with a .617 OPS—both ranking 9th best in the league.
The Indians’ fearsome foursome continues to set a potentially historic pace in punchouts, as well, with Bauer (8.74 K/9, 10th in AL), Carrasco (10.58 K/9, 3rd), Kluber (10.72 K/9, 2nd), and Danny Salazar (12.37 K/9, 1st) absolutely owning the category.
As for the Ohio stuff, the Indians now lead the all-time interleague series with the Reds 48-44, which should indicate that it’s somewhat rare to find the teams headed in such opposite directions as they were in this round. After a decent start to the year, Cincinnati (18-25) has now dropped eight straight, while the Indians’ six consecutive wins have them at 20-23. Grinding toward .500 might not sound that thrilling, but Cleveland has basically worked its way back to the middle of the pack in the American League, where only the Royals and Tigers seem guaranteed to stay relevant. The Tribe heads into Memorial Day eight games back in the Central and just five back in the Wild Card, tied with the Mariners and Orioles and White Sox and hell, basically everybody else.
5 Comments
Nobody notice the Wahoos playing better, ssssssshhhhhh, let them start creeping up on fellow Central opponents nice and quiet like, see, nice and quiet!
But what happened to the team wearing the all red jersey this weekend? For a promotion rich organization I thought they dropped the ball. And yes I love those old all red uniforms.
Agreed, seemed odd they didn’t wear them on Saturday. The Browns have like 12 uniform combos for a 16 game season, but the Indians can’t even be bothered to mix in a retro jersey for 1/162nd of their season.
➮➮➮➮➮ Moreable person wants to Earn money At home .. Its best opprutunity for you,,, i just got paid 160 usd per day …Make A huge profit just doing Simple Tasks……. Last saturday I got a great Alfa Romeo after I been earning $9498 this past four weeks and a little over 10k lass month . with-out a doubt this is the nicest-work Ive ever had . I actually started 4 months ago and pretty much immediately began to make more than $89.. per-hour . find out here now ->
Going Here ,.,..
you Can Find.,,, ->
➨➨➨http://WWW•SuccessY0urDream•C0m/H0me……
✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸lj
✸✸
➮➮➮➮➮ Moreable person wants to Earn money At home .. Its best opprutunity for you,,, i just got paid 160 usd per ..Make A huge profit just doing Simple Tasks……. Last saturday I got a great Alfa Romeo after I been earning $9498 this past four weeks and a little over 10k lass month . with-out a doubt this is the nicest-work Ive ever had . I actually started 4 months ago and pretty much immediately began to make more than $89.. per-hour . find out here now ->
Going Here ,.,..
you Can Find.,,, ->
➨➨➨http://WWW•SuccessY0urDream•C0m/H0me……
✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸✸
♥♥♥♡♥♥♡♥♥It’s more Earn money with waitingfornextyear < my buddy's step-mother makes $74 hourly on the computer . She has been without a job for 7 months but last month her paycheck was $14216 just working on the computer for a few hours.
official website ===—->-> SEE MORE INFO