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April 29, 2010I’ve watched thousands of Tribe games in my life, and I can honestly say that I’ve never seen one end like this before. That’s the beauty of baseball, everyday you come to the park and you can see something new. Well, this time in Anaheim it was certainly one for the books.
With a runner on third and two outs in the bottom of the ninth with a 3-3 tie, Angels second baseman Howie Kendrick did something nobody expected him to do…
He Bunted.
His attempt happened to be perfectly placed on the first base side of Tribe closer Chris Perez and turned into the game-winning RBI single. The Angels took the game, and the series, from a heartbroken Indians team. Not since Jake Taylor’s bunt to third base in the bottom of the ninth against the Yankees in “Major League” has their been a bigger surprise bunt dropped at a crucial point in a game.
“I was looking at the infield and they were all back—even the third baseman,” said Kendrick. “So right there I had it in my mind that in that situation, he was probably going to try to throw a strike on the first pitch.”
The bunt was Kendrick’s first of the season and only the fourth of his career.
Thing of it is, the Tribe shouldn’t have been in this position in the first place. The dreaded lack of a big hit did them in yet again. Starter Jake Westbrook deserved a better fate. The offense staked him to a 3-0 lead on a second inning sac fly from Jhonny Peralta and a two run sixth. In both instances, the middle of the order failed to produce with the opportunity to crack the game wide open against Angels right-hander Ervin Santana.
Sure, Peralta drove in a run on the second inning sac fly, but that inning started with a Austin Kearns double. Travis Hafner grounded out, but moved him to third – sad thing is, that’s about the best we can hope for from “Hackner” these days. After Russ Branyan walked, Jhon’s sac fly brought in Kearns, but that’s all the Tribe could muster.
The sixth inning was far worse.
It started with all the makings of a big one. Lou Marson doubled (his third hit in two games!) and Asdrubal Cabrera sacrificed him over to third. Then there was actually a Grady Sizemore sighting! His RBI single to right was his first hit of the series (he finished 1-14) and out the Tribe up 2-0 with the “meat” of the order coming up.
After Grady stole second on a pitch-out, Shin-Soo Choo beat out a single to the hole between short and third. Cleanup man Kearns was walked, loading the bases with one out for Hafner. Would he actually respond with a clutch hit? Not exactly.
As he has been doing all season, Hafner quickly fell behind in the count 0-2. Luckily for him, Santana lost a pitch low and inside and the ball hit the dirt and skipped into Hafner’s back leg for an HBP. How he gets an RBI for this, I don’t know, but nevertheless it brought in the Indians third run. They still had the bases loaded for Hafner’s twin, Branyan, and the under the Mendoza line hitting Peralta. Branyan looked horrible in striking out looking on three pitches before Peralta would weakly fly out to end the threat.
Again, another missed opportunity for the Tribe. A mere four minutes later, we were tied at three after Torii Hunter crushed a three-run jack off of Westbrook, who entered the sixth with a two hit shutout. You can understand why manager Manny Acta said after the game in describing Kendrick’s walk-off bunt single.
“We shouldn’t have been in that position,” said Acta. “We had our opportunities.”
Santana came back for the seventh and Luis Valbuena reached base with a single. I would have bunted 100% in that spot. Score tied, your worst hitter (Marson) at the plate. Acta didn’t call for it. Naturally, Marson grounded into a double play. Jamey Wright entered the bottom of the seventh and got through unscathed. The Angels Fernando Rodney and the Tribe’s Tony Sipp kept the score even heading into the ninth.
That’s when all the fun happened. The Wahoo’s own Angels closer Brian Fuentes, who entered a tie game. Valbuena laid down an absolute beauty of a bunt single with one out, and Marson followed with a sharp single of his own. All the Tribe needed was one hit to take the lead. Closer Chris Perez was warming. Except, per usual, the offense couldn’t come up with it. AC hit a deep fly ball to left, which moved Valbuena to third. Sizemore was the last shot. In yet another big spot this season, Sizemore came up small. Left-handed pitchers are eating him for lunch, and Fuentes was no different. Grady weakly grounded to first to end the threat.
You just knew at this point the Indians were going to lose. But just how would they do it this time?
Westbrook took the loss very hard despite having his support come up short.
“I made a huge mistake to Torii,” Westbrook said. “I elevated a sinker which hurt us big time. I’m tired of being part of the problem. I need to do a better job finishing ballgames. I’ve said that after the last two games.”
Meanwhile, Sizemore’s batting average of .192 is third-highest [qualified mark*] on the team. If Jake wishes to help out, he’ll have to take to the cages on an off-day. The Tribe’s ERA is 13th in the MLB at 3.93. The fact that the team has only 19 runs in their 11 losses is the troubling part.
—
*minimum 60 at-bats
(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
18 Comments
has acta pinch hit anyone yet this year?
“Meanwhile, Sizemore’s batting average of .192 is third-highest on the team.”
Please tell me this is a typo and you mean third lowest…
So much for the early predictions of the team’s potential to score 700 to 800 runs. They will be lucky to hit 300 runs at this rate
dwhit… Was thinking the same thing.
I was at this game. Very frustrating. Westbrook was cruising until that sixth inning. So many wasted opportunities.
I hate having to listen to those lame Mickey Mouse wine and cheese Angel fans brag about their team. I hate thunder mountain in center field and the ridiculous Rally Monkey.
More than that, I hate seeing the Indians piss away a game and how that makes me hate the above things even more.
In Japan, a bunt in that situation is expected by everyone. Not sure why there are such radically different approaches to the same play in the U.S. and Japan. You might think statistics-mongers would have solved this one and determined which approach is better once and for all, be it swinging away or dropping one down, but it appears that culture still holds sway over the smallest of decisions.
What makes it worse watching the abomination that is the Tribe this season is living in the Tampa area. The contrast between our guys and the Rays is both staggering and depressing. Of course, given the economics of the game, we all know what eventually happens to teams not located in NY, Boston, or LA…..
“Please tell me this is a typo and you mean third lowest…”
I edited in the qualifier. 60-AB minimum. Still doens’t make it much better…
we are who we thought we were…with even less offense..poo
You’re right Scott…. doesn’t help at all
I seem to remember Vizquel doing this in crucial late season situations.
my biggest problem is that Acta let Westbrook face Hunter. I was lookin at Jake like..
“this guy is completely gassed, he needs to be pulled, something bad is about to happen” and I had barely finished thinking it.
I was just thinking about mlb 09, a sound bit of announcers when Torii blasted a grande right after arriving in Anaheim…
I’m a super critical Tribe fan, but this type of shiz happens in baseball. A bad loss. It all evens out. We’ll win a game on a ridiculous play later this season. Still, it blows.
Anyone have Hafners address? I want to send him and unmarked package with some, uh….errr “supplements”. Looks like thats the only last hope. Sad that Peralta, Hafner and Sizemore are all currently under .200. They were all touted as “cornerstone players”.
Can we open the discussion on the lack of ability to evaluate talent in the front office? Their average (if you look at trades AND the draft) has to be Mendoza-esque itself.
I understand we are working within a limited budget, small market blah blah blah blah blah, but thats an excuse. And after the 49 millionth time ive heard it, a poor one at that. As much as I hate the Twinkies, they seem to fare better at this with the same budget constraints(until this Mauer deal). Over the course of the last decade, I can’t remeber a year where they were totally non-competitive. And even look at them this year, Mauers deal notwithstanding: Nathan goes down, Rauch steps in, like nothing happened.
I hate the ChiSox, and Tigers. i feel sorry for the Royals. I’m envious of the Twins. We should be able to field a good team (im talking mostly around .500) consistently, that stays in contention til the end or near the end of the season (division is weak), more often than twice every nine years.
I would argue that they should have a stat similiar to VORP, call it VORGM (value over replacement GM)… wonder if theres a way to quatify that?
Looks like Sizemore’s third-highest qualifying BA is *also* third lowest. That is, there’re five qualified BAs:
Choo, .338
Cabrera, .291
Sizemore, .192
Hafner, .190
Peralta, .190
…and LaPorta’s got 57 ABs and a .211 BA.
And to think I had originally started writing this comment as a “wait, calm down”-type comment. Nevermind.
can we limit the discussion to just be about Choo?
We’re taking the series against the Twins. If not, I’ll eat my hat. My hat that’s made out of recycled bottlecaps. I’ll be back in a few days to inform you on the taste, texture, and pending state of my esophagus.
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