Browns 2016 schedule released
April 14, 2016Kobe Bryant, chainsaw drones, and League of Legends: While We’re Waiting…
April 15, 2016Tampa Bay Rays ace Chris Archer still has a baby face and a sky-high ceiling, which is why it’s mind boggling that it’s been a full 10 years since the Cleveland Indians selected the North Carolina high schooler in the fifth round of the 2006 MLB draft. In a just world, the team would be perpetually kicking itself for subsequently trading the kid away (cough, Mark DeRosa, cough), but as it’s turned out, the fully-grown Archer has yet to get any measure of revenge against the club that spurned him. Today’s contest was no exception. Indians 6, Rays 0.
On a day in which three Tribesmen—Marlon Byrd, Rajai Davis, and Jose Ramirez—tallied their first homeruns of the campaign, the star of the game was a slim Dominican gentleman whom Cleveland signed less than a month after drafting Archer. Danny Salazar was just 16 back then, but fortunately, despite plenty of good offers over the years, Antonetti and Co. never cut bait on him. Right now he’s looking about as dominant as any hurler in the league.
Starting this rubber match matinee in that dingy, soulless, catwalk-ridden, carpet-laden, eerily silent terrarium of apathy known as Tropicana Field, Salazar (2-0) breezed through the Tampa line-up for six innings of scoreless ball, allowing just three hits and striking out nine. I suppose you could complain about his pitch count totals (104 in just six frames), but he’s allowed five hits all season, so please utilize your negativity more efficiently.
https://vine.co/v/iteHJtZMiTM
To his credit, Archer did battle Salazar pitch for pitch for a while. After tap dancing out of a first inning jam in which Rajai Davis and Jason Kipnis swiped three bags on helpless Rays catcher Hank Conger, Archer settled in, keeping it a 0-0 game into the fifth. An error and a walk then set up the first Tribe run, as Francisco Lindor delivered again with an RBI single.
Salazar got out of a very brief semi-jam of his own in the fifth, when a one-out Conger double was erased on a replay review, revealing old Hank had bounced off the bag while Lindor still held the tag on him.
Were Corey Kluber on the hill in a 1-0 game, one would feel the dark clouds of shit luck begin to gather. But it’s worth remembering that—no matter your feelings on the Cleveland offensive attack—Salazar has rarely suffered the sort of run-support injustices Kluber has. Last year, he was actually 16th in the AL in run support per 9 IP at 4.82, easily best among Indian starters. Today, even with the tough head-to-head matchup against Archer, it was more of the same. Marlon Byrd went full Kobe in the sixth, muscling up as only a 38 year-old can for a two-run bomb. Rajai Davis, also being in an advanced state of 30-something-ness, was inspired, and followed suit to make it a 4-0 Cleveland lead.
https://vine.co/v/itedeMBUYTv
Archer worked 5 1/3 innings, surrendering three runs (two earned) and striking out six. He is now 0-4 in four career starts against the Indians (22 IP) with a 4.91 ERA and 5 homers allowed. By contrast, this was just Salazar’s second career start against Tampa, but he’s 2-0 with just five HITS allowed in 13.2 innings.
Anyway, in uncharacteristic Cleveland fashion, some insurance was even purchased in the late innings, as Tyler Naquin notched his first Major League RBI on a bloop to left field, and Jose Ramirez continued showing some of that power stroke we saw in Goodyear, crushing a solo shot to right in the ninth inning. Feel free to ignore the fact that the line-up actually went 2-for-19 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13. Again, are you really gonna complain about a 6-0 win? There are catwalks everywhere! It’s f%#@ing distracting!
The bullpen held off the fairly horrendous Rays line-up after Salazar took his leave. Zach McAllister was solid, Bryan Shaw lowered his ERA to 16.88, and Trevor Bauer struck out three. How y’all feelin’ about the Bauer Outage in the Pen dynamic so far? How ya feelin’ about your 4-3 Tribe?!
Old Baseball Card of the Day:
1998 Circa Thunder – Paul Sorrento
It’s a good bet that someday people will speak fondly of the Tampa Bay baseball team and ironically wear Devil Ray caps long after the club has moved to greener pastures. But let’s not fool ourselves. This is and has always been a dumb franchise—even when they were expertly constructed and making deep playoffs runs. They just seem like a silly made-up team from a film in which Keanu Reeves plays a pitcher with a secret. And their current exploding sunshine logo looks like one of those clipart “Make Your Own Team” stock logos from an unlicensed mid ‘90s video game—the ones where Barry Bonds is shown on the cover in a blank uniform. Anyway, this horrible Paul Sorrento “Devil Rays” baseball card is from 1998. It spells out “Sorrento” likes it’s a movie poster for a new Dario Argento horror flick. Come to think of it, that might be amusing. Paul Sorrento has a certain Sly Stallone charm, but there might be a twisted evil soul lurking beneath that mama’s boy exterior.
C-Cap Recap Custom Box Score
April 14, 2016
Indians 6, Rays 0
Green Highlight (as in “Great”): Salazar is a no-brainer for Player of the Game. I am glad I paid him $37 fake dollars to join my roto team.
Yellow Highlight (as in “Almost Green”): Tyler Naquin finally is getting some at-bats now that we’re past “Southpaw Week ’16.” So far, so good.
Red Highlight (as in “Stop, You’re Bad”): Logan Morrison. Worst Logan on the Rays thus far this season.
Next Up: The New York Metropolitans, and more importantly, international folk hero Bartolo Colon, come to town tomorrow.
25 Comments
Love me some Salazar. His outings are must watch baseball for me. Looks like Santana started his April/May slump.
~patterns emerge~
Please keep doing what you’re doing with the Custom Box Scores. Good stuff sir.
Naquin and Afraid – hahahahahahaha.
I figured Ra’s jai Ghoul would be your favorite.
And what does the Clay Man have against Tampa Bay?? I sense some pent up aggression there…
Did anyone ask Danny why he threw a bullpen session in the middle of the game?
….OH WAIT, OF COURSE THEY DIDN’T BECAUSE THE PD ISN’T SENDING ANYONE ON THE ROAD TO COVER THE GAMES.
No, but seriously did any reporter ask this? and if so, what was the answer.
“in that dingy, soulless, catwalk-ridden, carpet-laden, eerily silent terrarium of apathy known as Tropicana Field”
No joke, Tuesday night my wife actually turned to me and asked why Tampa Bay plays inside a Costco.
SOME OF US AROUND HERE HAVE SAID THE SAME ABOUT YOUR COMMENT SLUMP LATELY BUT YOU DON’T SEE US POSTING ABOUT IT.
….LAST WARNING, BACK OFF HIM.
I can’t even tell if you are joking.
That is a good one too, but Tyler’s just caught me off-guard and I laughed.
What aggression towards TB? I thought those were their actual names and Clayman punted on coming up with anything for them.
I haven’t seen a quote on it, but it was a long offensive inning. Probably just wanted to stay loose. Bauer and Kluber both did so at times last year (I know – who knew the Indians had a long inning for Klubes, must have been a rain delay).
People ask why teams spend so much money on ballparks/stadiums. The answer should always be making those who ask the questions watch a game at The Trop.
Not the team but the city. While completely accurate, he attacked the stadium twice, then the team names and logo. I’m not sayin’ he’s wrong, I’m just sayin’.
perfect.
Thanks Bode, that’s the first I had ever seen that go on.
“in that dingy, soulless, catwalk-ridden, carpet-laden, eerily silent terrarium of apathy known as Tropicana Field”
Home to the world’s most depressing mimosa
Tampa Bay used to tease me in school.
usually not mentioned or shown on TV. Hammy fills us radioheads in from time-to-time during the season.
“THE PD ISN’T SENDING ANYONE ON THE ROAD TO COVER THE GAMES.”
Eh, does it really matter at this point? I’d say at this point that the majority of sports fans get the majority of their news from people who don’t need to ask inane questions to half naked guys. I get that it doesn’t look so great for the PD, but the people have spoken with their dollars and clicks, we don’t need Hoynsie fumbling around the press box buffets in other major league towns.
No we certainly don’t need stale panda impersonator Hoynes roaming around empty lockers in search of the last Gatorade power bar in sight.
What would be nice is for the PD to catch up with 2016 and employ a beat writer hungry to write and who excels in social media.
I’m not sure what’s more depressing that stadium or the fact the MLB allowed them to create specific rules to allow them to remain in it versus giving them the “build a new one to stay in the league” edict.
That person doesn’t bring in money for the PD. The people have spoken. We read blogs like this one instead.
My only concern is if no beat writers are there at all. Bastian doesn’t travel to all away games, for instance. Some of them have done a good job finding the real stories that are out there (Bastian’s Gomes – Napoli pick-off background story was great).
But, on the whole, yeah.
they were afraid if they said they would move the team to Montreal w/o a new ballpark that the city might pack the bags for them.
MLB.com sends another towns #2 when Bastian isnt there, like the recent Tampa series saw someone named Andrew Astleford.
The issue with Bastian is, despite that I do thInk he goes a good job maintaining neutrailty, hes basically employed by the team and is their PR service.
Yes, they all basically are. Even with Hoynes and Groves employed elsewhere, they have let it out at times that they are restricted to what they can write and report a great deal. MLB enforces a heavy price for access. Meisel is really the only one that just writes what he wants.
Still respect the others because they dig in and do find what is going on and post the information accordingly. Bastian writing about Tito being dug in on Shaw for instance…and citing his velocity up-tick as one of the reasons Francona still believes. But, he also leaves it open enough that it is obvious to see the inanity of being dug in on him. He is really good at what he does.