Tribe Down White Sox 10-8 in Exciting Opener

The Indians came out of the gates firing on opening day and thankfully, their fire power was enough to edge out the White Sox.

Martinez Leaves With Injury: Obviously the big story is Victor Martinez leaving his second straight home opener in a row with a hamstring injury.

Vic was advancing to 2nd on a ball that got away from White Sox Catcher A.J. Pierzynski when he pulled up lame and rolled to the ground right in front of the tag.

Word is day to day with right hamstring tightness. Kelly Shoppach should see action for the time being.

Hot Bats Carry Tribe: Before he went out with the injury, Victor got the party started in the 2nd inning with a hit. From there it was bombs away as Garko and Peralta followed up with hits. Asdrubal Cabrera avoided a double play and knocked in a run which would prove to be huge.

Gutierrez juiced one into the left field bleachers that set off the light. A few batters later Grady Sizemore sent one into right field, Jason Michaels coaxed a walk and Travis Hafner brought him in with a double. Hafner would then score on Victor’s 2nd hit of the inning.

The scoring would cease till the bottom of the 8th when Vic’s replacement Kelly Shoppach got on base. Peralta would follow suit, and after outs from Garko and Cabrera, Gutierrez works a walk setting the stage for a Casey Blake double.

CC Struggles: CC Showed his glimpses, but for the most part struggled in his 5 plus innings. The main culprit was Jim Thome who hit a pair of 2 run homers to keep the Sox alive. The funny thing is that Thome was career 0 for against Sabathia.

The bullpen would carry the rest of the game. Jensen Lewis came in a struck out a pair in the 5th, but ended up giving up a pair of runs in the next inning with the aid of Rafael Perez.

The Sox managed to tie it up before Betancourt came in to work 1.2 inning, and Joe Borowski of course made it interesting giving up a homer to Jermaine Dye, walking Pierzynski, but then getting Crede to pop out to end the game.

Star of the Game: Franklin Gutierrez was no doubt the big gun in this one. His three run homer energized the Tribe and put them ahead early, he had two more hits and drew a key walk to load the bases for Casey Blake’s 3 run double in the 8th.

Up Next: The Tribe has an off day on Tuesday before they resume action with the White Sox on Wednesday. Fausto Carmona goes against Javier Vazquez.

[BOXSCORE]

Michaels Batting 2nd Against Lefties

Since today’s first game is against a left handed pitcher, we get a peak at Jason Michaels before we do David Dellucci.

And an interesting decision has come to light with that.

It turns out Eric Wedge will be going with Michaels in the 2 hole rather than Asdrubal Cabrera, who will bat in the 7th spot.

However Cabrera will still bat 2nd against right handed pitchers.

This could be because of 1 of 2 things.

They don’t want to put that much pressure on the young Cabrera.

Or the Indians just like Michaels. I know I do in terms of a left handed hitting role player. Michaels is a scrappy guy and will make those small plays, a guy that will take some pitches and lay down a bunt.

Or it could be a little bit of both.

Opening Pitch is about 5 minutes away, let’s go Tribe!