LeBron, Loyalty, and the Suffering of Cleveland Sports Fans
July 9, 2010It’s a Business, Except When It’s Not
July 9, 2010In a game that was watched by more than four people, the Indians went down with a whimper last night. It was an ugly, boring game—the sort of game you’d expect when a last place team plays against a legitimate contender. I imagine most of you found other things to watch, so let’s get off a recap.
Things actually got off to a decent start. Despite Michael Brantley’s putrid average since his callup, I noted on twitter the other night that he’s been hitting the ball well. His new approach at the plate paid off as he hit a lead off home run—his first career MLB home run—on the third pitch of the game. According to Brantley, “I live across the state [Florida] so all my family and friends were here. It meant a lot to me to do it with them watching.”
Well, good for all the people who live in Florida, I suppose. Wait. Florida is dead to me. Nevermind.
Unfortunately, Brantley’s home run would amount to half of the Tribe’s offense on the night. Marte sent a solo shot out to left in the second inning, but over the next seven frames, the Indians played fairly uninspired baseball.
And that included their starter, Jake Westbrook. His “trade showcase” didn’t go well, to say the least. For a guy who’s known for throwing groundballs while not missing many bats, he let up three home runs through six innings (two to future-Yankee Carl Crawford) while striking out seven. The sinker didn’t seem to be diving much, and, consequently, Westbrook seemed to rely more on his changeup and breaking pitches. Obviously, these are “swing and miss” pitches. More obviously, they end up as home runs when you make mistakes. More obviously still, Jake Westbrook cannot live and die in the air, because he will most certainly die. Case in point: all the Tampa Bay runs were scored off the long-ball last night.
Dan Gilbert put Westbrook’s performance this way*:
“Obviously, Jake Westbrook is not a good person, and his performance this evening was a despicable demonstration of the sort of cowardly betrayal you would expect from a selfish child. Jake ‘The Snake’ has truly lived up to his nickname on this evening.”
In other news, the newest Tribe Man-Crush, Jayson Nix, is apparently human after all. After a torrid trip to Texas, Nix went 0-5 with two strikeouts. Nevertheless, he did provide my favorite TV moment of the night: Rick Manning tried, rather unsuccessfully I might add, not to laugh as he pointed out that Nix and Peralta now have the same number of home runs on the year. Nix was a bad, part-time player before being DFA’d from the White Sox. This was not intended as a compliment toward Peralta.
Nonetheless, there were minor signs of offensive life in the eighth inning. Carlos Santana reached on a bunt single. (The fact the Santana was bunting sent me into apoplectic shock, but whatever works, I guess.) Kearns followed with a single, and Peralta just missed a three-run shot to center, driving the ball to the warning track. Trevor Crowe ended the threat, as he is wont to do, with a weak ground out. In total, the Indians only eked out 7 hits on the night.
The Indians’ bullpen, if not impressive, was at least effective. Raffy Perez managed to load the bases in the seventh on two walks and a single, but got out of the inning unscathed when Carlos Pena grounded into the teeth of the infield shift. Kerry Wood followed in the eighth, with a sign on his back that said “TRADE ME.” The good news was that he didn’t give up a hit or a run. The bad news was that all three outs were flyballs, and he walked BJ Upton. Let’s just tell inquiring teams that “he pitched a scoreless, uneventful inning.” Sound good?
Finally, the Rays half of the ninth was scoreless as it didn’t exist, because we lost on the road, and that’s the way the rules work. It’s important to find happiness in the little things, right? Now more than ever.
*Dan Gilbert may not have actually said this; last night was confusing.
6 Comments
Let the record show that LBJ reached Miami before BP, but probably not by much. If he thinks he left a mess behind him, wait’ll he sees what’s coming.
The Rays aren’t evil, they built their team the right way. I like them, and I hope they get Cliff Lee to help beat down the AL East and the rest of the AL
@Stink:
It’s looking like Lee to the Yankees is pretty inevitable. Gross.
Good review Jon. Gotta love Rick Manning. Makes games a little bit more enjoyable.
As luck would have it, the tickets I bought back in April for last night’s Tribe-Rays game just happened to coincide with The Fiasco, and it was nice to have some diversion from it all. It was encouraging early offensively (the fact that we were facing Wade Davis, who has his moments but otherwise is basically Westbrook but with a low-mid 90s fastball, certainly helped), but Jake never really settled in. And the HRs he gave up? Easily two of the longest I’ve ever seen hit at the Trop. It was obvious that Acta didn’t want to overwork the bullpen at the start of a four-game set, otherwise Jake gets the hook sooner.
I was impressed with Carlos Santana, despite a rather pedestrian night at the plate. He looked the part–good arm strength, decent speed…even the bunt was impressive. Jason Donald impressed me as well with his range. Jhonny is still, well, Jhonny. We were sitting right behind the Tribe dugout before the game, and Jhonny was signing autographs. My buddy asked why I didn’t go get one, to which I answered “Eh, it’s Jhonny Peralta”
I did manage to get an autograph from Sandy Alomar Jr, which was awesome. By the way, he drew more autograph-seekers than any of the players. On the negative side, when LBJ made his announcement, the PA guy decided to play “I’m in Miami Trick”…not cool, PA guy.
Hoping to get back there tonight or tomorrow for another look at the team. Plus, Vanilla Ice is doing a post-game concert, so there’s that.
Cliff Lee got traded within the division to Texas.