Yeah, heaven forbid we start a winning streak or something

Did someone forget to tell the Indians they had a game tonight? They didn’t show up until about the seventh inning. By then it was too late. It’s not worth wasting much effort to describe this ridiculous game. Apparently, the Tribe left Detroit thinking they had won the Central. THERE’S MORE BASEBALL TO PLAY MEN! C.C. had his usual inning of complete and utter non-concentration. What was odd is that he got Victor involved this time. In the fifth inning Sabathia hit Pena, then on a pitch that was exactly where Martinez wanted it, Victor simply missed the catch. It bounced off his mitt and sent the runner to second. Gathright, who was up there to bunt him to second took the opportunity to bunt him to third instead. Hmmm…imagine that, a sacrifice bunt executed called for and executed correctly. Runner on third with only one out, next batter hits a sacrifice fly to center. Second run crosses the plate. Ball game. Oh, we still had to play 3.5 more innings, but that essentially ended the game.

Sure, Garko singled home Sizemore in the seventh, after Victor and Hafner popped out and grounded out to second. Of course there was also the triple that Cabrera hit with only one out in the eighth, but have no fear, Lofton struck out on three straight. The last one at his shoulders. Now had Buddy Bell been managing the Indians, he might have called for a squeeze play there. I mean we had our best bunter at bat. But what am I thinking. That would be like fundamental baseball or something. In the ninth we had yet another chance, as Sizemore again walked, and after a Victor line-out Hafner singled to put men on first and second with only one out. Garko and Peralta went out with a wimper, and the game was over.

C.C. pitched 8 innings. Gave up 2 runs. Got the loss. Sound familiar? You know what was strange? I had a Tom Mastny sighting. And Fulltz too. They warmed up in the eighth. Does anyone remember when one of these two pitched last? Any guesses? Alright I’ll tell you. Fultz pitched 1 inning back on August 18th. The middle game of the Tampa Bay series. For Mastny, get out the way back machine. He hasn’t pitched since August 11th. The blowout loss in the Yankee series. In fact, that was the last time Mujica pitched as well. Mastny has pitched in three games THIS MONTH! He has logged a whopping 4 2/3 innings. Mujica? Three games, four innings in August.

Maybe someone should get Wedge a day planner. He can use it to remind the team they have to play before say the fifth inning, and he can get some work for his relievers not named Betancourt, Perez, and Blownski. For that matter use it to mark the number of sacrifice bunts the Tribe attempts. Or maybe the number of hit and run attempts. Has anyone seen that move employed by the Tribe? Call me crazy, but it seems to me that I used to hear baseball men say that sometime that will get a hitter going, having to focus on just getting the ball in play. We certainly wouldn’t want that would we? Blake can execute this. Peralta needs to try. When he came up in the ninth he was wearing a sign that said I’m swinging at the first pitch no matter what you throw.

It’s so frustrating. We lost to a team that used 6 relief pitchers. The starting pitcher wasn’t even a starter! Sweeney is on the DL. Teahen is hurt and not playing. Reggie Sanders is on the DL. Odalis Perez is on the DL. This is not a major league roster, and they just beat us with our ace on the mound! (Shakes head for about a minute.) I’m going to bed. Someone wake me up tomorrow. Better yet, wake up the Indians.