Not Enough: Celtics vs Cavaliers—Behind the Box Score
April 10, 2015Cavaliers and Boston Celtics inching closer to first-round matchup: WFNY Stats & Info
April 11, 2015From 1994 to 1999, the Cleveland Indians had a head-to-head record of 53-18 against the Detroit Tigers, including a robust 30-7 mark at Jacobs Field. In 1996 alone, they beat the Kitties all 12 times they met. That was not a rivalry. To say the script has been flipped the past few years would be a little unfair as the Indians have at least posed a legit threat to Detroit’s Central Division dominance since 2011. But, then again, if a good rivalry requires an even give-and-take, then it’s hard to say this era qualifies either. Since that 2011 season, Cleveland is now 28-47 vs. Detroit, including a 16-23 record at home. The one thing the Tigers had never done was punk us in a Home Opener at the Jake/Prog. Consider that last bit of ‘90s revenge taken care of.
For a second consecutive game, Nick Hagadone was pitching in the ninth inning. I like Nick. He looks like a farmboy flamethrower from the 1930s. Somebody Roy Hobbs would hit a dramatic 652-foot homerun off of. His name also sounds like an illegal street narcotic that never really caught on. Maybe Nick Hagadone will never really catch on either. He gave up another hit and a walk today. In the grand scheme, though, he had nothing to do with a loss that was far uglier than those big filing cabinets now occupying the right field bleachers.
Re-Capping
Culprit No. 1 in this 8-4 setback was starter Zach McAllister. Along with bearing a striking resemblance to the lead singer of the band Spoon, Zach’s claim to fame has been his solid 2013 season– during which he and Corey Kluber were actually considered on equal footing in the Tribe’s future plans. Everything fell apart last season, and today was kind of a microcosm of why. I’ll cover this a bit more in the Red Alert section, but basically, giving up 13 hits in 4 innings is historically bad, even if almost all of them are singles and even if Miguel Cabrera is among the opposition. The only other Indian to ever give up 13 hits in 4 innings or less was Johnny Milijus in 1929. Incidentally, Milijus also gave up 14 runs in that memorable July 25 contest. It was, not surprisingly, his final season in the Big Leagues. And since the stock market crashed, times were hard. But that’s… another story.
Along with the return of Bad McAllister, another 2014 foe reared its head in this one; embarrassing defense. It started with some textbook miscommunication between shortstop Jose Ramirez and Michael Brantley on a routine pop fly in the early going, as an “I got it! No, I got it!” moment resulted in the potential third out bouncing out of Ramirez’s mitt to plate a Tiger run. Then, just minutes after the lone Tribe rally in the bottom of the sixth cut the deficit to 5-3, Marc Rzepczynski decided to play paper airplanes with a chopper off the bat of Anthony Gose, launching his throw over the head of three Carlos Santanas stacked on top of each other. This scored the second Detroit run of the inning and basically sucked the remaining life out of the ballpark.
So, how important is an early April series with your longtime division “rival”? Are you looking forward to the David Price vs. Corey Kluber showdown more than the Game of Thrones premier the night after? Or is baseball’s oft-discussed marathon analogy once again giving us—and the players themselves—a regrettable lack of urgency? Last year, the Indians fell three games shy of a Wild Card spot. The year before that, they wound up just one game back of the Tigers for the division title. The point is, we all should be COMPLETELY freaked out about today’s loss and EXTREMELY stressed about the outcome of this series and EVERY series after it. Plus, you’re already probably thinking the Hawks are going to beat the Cavs, too, aren’t you? Oh, the Bulls? Yeah, probably. And what if the new Browns uniforms are all shiny like disco balls and they make Otto Graham cry in heaven? Have a great weekend, everybody!
C-Cap Recap Custom Box Score
April 10, 2015
Tigers 8, Indians 4
Green Highlight (as in “Great”): It gets a bit exhausting watching these broken down old geezers continue to smash seemingly any and all floating spheroids Indians pitchers fling at them.
Yellow Highlight (as in “Almost Green”): The old silver lining—let’s give it to Carlos Santana, who’s already off to a MUCH improved start compared to the crater he dug himself last April.
Red Highlight (as in “Stop, You’re Bad”): McAllister’s return to the rotation proved to be a crash to reality after a blissful three days down in Houston. Zach had a good spring before this, and there’s no reason to overreact… except that the guy really does rely way too much on his fastball. And Miggy Cabrera hits fastballs. So does Jose Abreu. And Alex Gordon. And presumably somebody on the Twins, too. The early spring idea of moving McAllister to the pen in a Wade Davis type experiment won’t be buried with days like Friday.
10 Comments
I think McAllister would have fared much better if he were pitching against the Indians : – )
Can Moss be permanently red until his average clears the Mendoza line? 1-15 with 6ks and 2 backbreaker GIDP in 4 games is absolute murder.
It’s just one game.
I don’t think it’s too early to be concerned. Until we prove we can beat the Tigers and win the division there’s no reason to think that anything more is possible.
That said, going forward I’m confidant that our rotation will get the kinks out and develop to where it needs to be. It’s still hitting that worries me. Specifically in big moments. You look at the Tigers with bats like Martinez, Cabrerra and Cespedes and it’s like they’re on another level. If we had one guy in our lineup with that kind of pedigree it would be a game-changer
Brantley, Gomes, Moss, Chisenhall = 7-for-49 w/ 2 BBs.
small sample size and such, but those guys generally are hitting 3,5,6, and 8 in our order and Lonnie is only on the team for his bat. it will get better, but it hurts right now.
Agreed, very small sample. But with Moss coming off surgery and a minimal cash investment I really feel we don’t need to throw him into the lineup every day. Maybe ease him into it?
Enter Sand(man).
I hope he can step in.
Missing the depth that Floyd and Tomlin could give us, but at least Salazar had a nice start in Columbus (6IP 4H 0BB 7K)
Boom.