Stallworth Not Practicing
July 23, 2008What Do We Want For Blake?
July 24, 2008Angels 14, Indians 11 (box)
These high scoring games are excellent if you’re a fantasy baseball player. This is, of course, assuming that Aaron Laffey wasn’t in your starting lineup. After a stellar start to his 2008 campaign, Laffey has been laughable at best, going 1-3 with an ERA north of eight in his last five starts.
Last night was no different, where the young gun allowed 12 hits and eight earned in only four innings of work. Ouch. Even worse was that he pitched to three batters in the fifth, with all reaching base. Tom Mastny wasted no time in clearing said bases, as catcher Jeff Mathis did his damage once again – this time, hitting ninth. In the series against the Tribe, Mathis went 6-for-10 with two home runs, four runs scored, and nine RBI.
The Angels John Lackey was not that much better, allowing six earned in five innings. But given the onslaught that came from his team’s bats, he left with his eighth win of the season.
Now back to the Tribe. The bullpen to be specific. In extended relief, the ‘pen allowed six earned runs in only four innings – matching the output of Laffey. It may have just been a case of incredibly hot bats from the opposition, but it really stings when your team can put up 11 runs on 14 hits and you still lose the game.
Even though we took the “L,” I have to mention the play of Jhonny Peralta, Shin-Soo Choo and Ryan Garko. The 4-5-6 men combined to go 8-for-14 with six runs scored and seven RBI. Peralta has increased his OPS by 38 points over the last 10 games with at least one hit in each game save July 22, where he pinch-hit, and five games actually seeing multiple hits. I hate to sound like a fair-weather fan here, but we’re about two or three more games like this away from seeing Jhonny above .270 with an OPS over .820. Perhaps we jumped to conclusions a bit soon?
What isn’t good is Asdrubal Cabrera’s 0-for-4 night with two strikeouts. Is it just this level of play, or is he putting too much pressure on himself?
Meanwhile, C.C. Sabathia is now 4-0 with the Brewers. Three-hitters will do that for ya. He’s now thrown three complete games in a row. It’s great to see him doing well – let’s just hope he doesn’t get worn out.
4 Comments
Now THERE’S the Tribe I know…
Maybe we did judge Jhonny too early, but lets see where he is at the end of the year, there is plenty of time for him to come back down to Earth. He has always been somewhat of a streaky hitter and he tends to do better when he realizes that he doesn’t have to pull everything, but he can also forget that just as easily as he can remember it
Sal Fasano 1 for 3 with a sacrifice bunt. Only Indian hitting .300.
I wonder if he can pitch too.
I just don’t understand why you bring a guy with an era north of 10 to relieve Laffey in that situation. Mastny needed some work but where was Mujica?
Adding to the Peralta lovefest, can we stop with the third base talk? People bust him for his defense and then we want to change his position midseason? Jhonny’s coming around offensively and I’d hate to see what happened to Trevor Crowe happen to him.
With Choo’s impending military obligation and how Korea doesn’t select guys on anyone’s 25 man roster what if the Tribe springs an injury on us a la Joe Bo, V Mart, and Hafner? That way we put him on the DL, Choo’s national team picks him up, and if Korea medals Choo can be back on the field sooner. Granted this an awful lot of trouble for someone many consider a AAAA player but I’ll just put it out there.