Training Camp: A Photographical Recap
July 29, 2008No. Thank YOU.
July 30, 2008Tigers 8, Indians 5 (box)
This game came down to one thing: Capitalization. The Tigers did, and the Indians did not. Seven of the eight Tiger runs came with two outs; the Indians were 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position.
More than one occasion found the Indians getting the lead-off man aboard. When Grady Sizemore and David Dellucci went for back-to-back doubles to start the fourth, we then followed up with three straight outs. The last four men in our lineup (Shoppach, Marte, Garko and Cabrera) combined to go 2-for-13. The bottom four for Detroit? Six for 15 with seven RBI.
Jhonny Peralta continues to smoke the ball, going 2-for-5 with a triple. His single was one of the harder hit balls I’ve seen in a while, and it managed to hit the wall on a line drive. The only problem was that it was hit so hard that he couldn’t manage a double out of it. Since the All-Star break, Peralta is hitting at a clip of .349/.364/.605 (.969 OPS). Not too shabby.
However, our bullpen continues to make any offensive production moot. Juan Rincon and Rafael Betancourt combined to give up four earned runs in two innings of relief. Regarding the ‘pen, Eric Wedge had the following to say:
“We’re going to keep mixing and matching with it,” said Wedge. “Depending on where I feel we are and where I feel the guys down there are. There may be three or four guys I use to close down there. The same thing with setting up.”
Typically, I would tear this apart. But seeing the cards that Wedge has been dealt, I really can’t blame him at this point. In fact, pulling Kobayashi last Friday was one of the better in-game moves I’ve seen from Wedge all year. The bullpen has been atrocious, and something needs to be done regardless of the team’s beliefs in not spending on bullpen arms. As Terry Pluto mentioned, we really need to inquire about Huston Street sooner than later.
And speaking of Terry, he mentioned that there were over 4,000 walk-ups for last night’s game which featured the infamous dollar dog night. Just a question, but would it be in the team’s best interest to have dollar dog night from here out? The product on the field isn’t the best – obviously – but what if they could go and actually afford a few hot dogs with the gorgeous weather? Personally, I think it would make attending a lot more feasible. What about you?
Meanwhile, the slump buster in Cliff Lee takes the hill tonight…
4 Comments
The dollar hot dogs would be great but if they had 10 cent beer night again I bet that would shoot attendance (and crime) threw the roof. I know I would finally use my season tickets instead of giving them away.
Just go the full nine like the Clippers do here in Columbus (the hopefully-future-AAA-team-of-the-Cleveland-Indians-which-would-make-me-unbelieveably-happy) and have DIME-A-DOG night. You can walk up, plunk down a hard-earned dollar, and get 10 (TEN) hotdogs. You might have to sit through a Billy Ray Cyrus show at the end where the Mulleted One sings from the back of a flatbed truck (yes, I know this from experience), but for that much hot-doggy goodness, can you really argue?
Oh, and more importantly, our bullpen makes my insides hurt. As does Derek Shelton.
Wow I can just imagine all those hot dogs as I sit stuck in my office during lunch trying to make a deadline. Now im sitting here day dreaming of a bunch of hot dogs and really bad mullets