Indians 5, Angels 2 (box)
So, all it takes is a twelve-day rest?
Paul Byrd notched his first win since June 6th, despite a less-than stellar outing (9H, 2BB, 5.1 IP). In fact, Byrd’s outing against the Tigers during his last appearance (which was later blown by a seven-run inning against the bullpen) was waybetter than last night’s. Couple that with the fact that Ervin Santana struck out eight and walked none (in fact, no walks were given during the entire game) in seven innings and this was a bit of a bizzaro game.
I guess it helps when 33 percent of your hits are home runs, eh?
Said contributors to the long ball were Andy Marte (who went 2-for-4 on the evening), Casey Blake (also 2-for-4), and Jhonny Peralta. Given that the team only had six other hits, it comes as little surprise that only Blake’s came with a runner on. Franklin Gutierrez and Asdrubal Cabrera combined to go 0-for-8 with three strikeouts, but aside from that disaster, every other member of the Tribe was on base.
A quick aside: LA’s seventh batter last night was Howie Kendrick, the much-heralded yet oft-injured second baseman. He is batting .325…and is batting seventh. Our seventh hitter was Marte, who just upped his average to .187. Though Marte is batting .278 for the month, I think this speaks volumes for this year’s team.
Don’t look now, but Grady Sizemore (.273), Casey Blake (.287) and Ben Francisco (.289) are all within sniffing distance of the .300 mark. Granted, Blake could be gone within the next 10 days, but at least some of our team has improved their hitting for average. And while he is frustrating the heck out of us in the field, Jhonny Peralta is 10-for-25 with three home runs and 10 RBI over the last seven days. I actually had to look at that twice myself, so I don’t blame you for re-reading it.
Fausto Carmona has officially been penciled in to start Saturday’s game against the Twins. It will be his first appearance on the hill since the May 23rd hip injury. Let’s hope he regains his control and can continue to roll the Twins like he did last season (3-1, 1.45 ERA). Until then, two more against the Halos…
Author: Scott
Scott is a co-founder/editor of Waiting For Next Year who resides in Cleveland, Ohio. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or email him at scott@waitingfornextyear.com.Scott has written 2088 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
You know, as much as we like to complain about Peralta, I think we are vastly underrating him. He’s never going to win a gold glove, and he’s not Omar. But he’s 9th amongst all shortstops in VORP, just one spot behind Jimmy Rollins and ahead of the likes of Michael Young, Derek Jeter, Miguel Tejada, and Orlando Cabrera. Defensively, yeah, he’s 17th in MLB among shortstops in zone rating (Omar is 3rd, despite being 100 years old), but his rating is .817, compared to Jimmy Rollins’ .818. Peralta is ahead of Jeter, Renteria, and Hanley Ramirez. My point is, he’s having a very comparable year to Jimmy Rollins. If you go back to 2005, his VORP rank amongst all shortstops has been 4th, 21st, 12th, and 9th. He’s pretty much a top 10 offensive SS, and I’m just not 100% certain his defense is so atrocious so as to neutralize what he brings to the team offensively. Until Asdrubal proves he can hit major league pitching above a .190 clip, I have no problem with Jhonny being our SS.
And as pointed out by Paul Cousineau:
2009: $3.65M
2010: $4.85M
2011: $7.00M club option
I don’t have the time to weigh Vorp and Zone by dollars, but I’d be willing to bet that he may be above Rollins at that point…
People pick on Peralta way too much. He is one of the last players I am worried about…
What’s that weird feeling in my heart? Is it…hope?
don’t let it in battles! don’t do it!
Peralta’s defensive struggles are mulitplied when Carmona and Westbrook pitch.
well lucky us we won’t have to worry about westbrook for a while :/
The problem with peralta is he is a shortstop. He is supposed to have a high on base percentage. Supposed to be able to lay down a bunt. Supposed to save runs with his defense.
He doesn’t do any of that. He’s a free swinging power hitting guy that should be playing 3rd.