Boom goes the dynamite… Tribe Lose Barnburner

This was a good ole’ fashioned Jim Ross Slobber-knocker.. By Gawd.

You never got the feeling it was over, even when Mathis hit the grand slam. Especially since the Indians ended up scoring 11 runs. But man that was not the overall pitching performance this team needed.

Rincon had another perfect outing, but every other pitcher gave up a run. Laffey’s ERA went from the 2’s to the 4’s in the past few starts. He was just awful… Just Awful man.

Four innings plus, 12 hits, 8 runs, 2 walks on 77 pitches.

Just.. Wow.

Mastny gave up four(not including the ones he gave up that were charged to Laffey) and Jensen gave up 2.

Offensively.. Man Man Man

Grady Sizemore had the BEWSH 25th of the year. He tied Quentin until Carlos went deep for the second time today. So he trails Quentin by one.

Peralta went 3-5 with an RBI. He continues to mash man.. Putting together some great at-bats as well. Just battled against Lackey.

Choo 2-4 with two RBI.. Marte 1-3 with an RBI and a walk. Garko had the big day finally starting… You gotta think Wedge is gotta start him more.. I mean come on, when is Casey Blake gonna get traded?

Anyway.. Ryan Garko went 3-5 with four RBI including a two-run blast to left.

Hell Even Dellucci (in the two hole now? What the hell) had an RBI.

It still wasn’t enough though.. Everyone in the starting lineup got a hit, except for Cabrera who really got into one with men on base but Juan Rivera made a great play to run it down. Blake’s 7 game hit-streak came to an end when he failed to get a hit in his pinch hit apperance.

Take this though.. Bruce Drennan just made a good point. This is the best record-wise team in the entire major leagues. So taking one from them, and losing by one and three runs isn’t bad. If only.. IF ONLY they played like this offensively yesterday and pitched like they did yesterday today.

Gotta put it together sirs.

Off Day Tomorrow-Which means a quick return to our new favorite feature.. Photoshop Off-Day! I know you’re excited. Then Friday we return home to face the Twins. Cliffffffffffad and Livan Hernandez. Let’s get 14 for the good man. Expecting a Hafner update tomorrow..

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Morning Update: Deadline Looming For Blake Deal

As you know, tomorrow will be the one week mark for the Trade Deadline. Teams will be starting to fire up the trade discussions and two deals already got done yesterday.

The Indians are of course a prime team to trade some people. The most valuable being Casey Blake. But, for whatever reason, all quiet on that front. I’m going to be really upset with Shapiro if he doesn’t move him before the deadline.

Here is what has come through the pipeline on Blake.

Jon Heyman says both New York teams are interested in Blake.

Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus has the Mets as well, but also adds in the Twins and the Rays as the top suitors. Would the Twins be willing to trade a prospect in-division? He also said that the Indians are just listening to all the offers. Well that’s sort of encouraging. I don’t think Shapiro is in any hurry to trade Blake away, which is baffling and just frustrating.

The infatuation with this club and Blake has gone on long enough. He’s done a lot of good things, but it’s time to move on.

Tim Brown (Not the former Raider Receiver) of Yahoo! Sports has Blake on the list of players the Indians are listening to offers for. But he also has Jamey Carroll and Paul Byrd. No surprise on Byrd, but I don’t think Carroll is going anywhere. Jhonny Peralta’s name also came up, but it would take one hell of an offer for Shapiro to give up on Peralta, especially with the way he’s hitting this year.

As for Casey Blake.. He’s hit in every spot in the lineup except lead-off this year.. Last year he did it all except the four hole or three hole(and leadoff) I believe. I’d never put it past Wedge to hit him lead-off though. He’s that crazy in love.

Wedge want’s to keep Jhonny Peralta fresh, so he gave him the day off yesterday and you could see it happen again soon. I’d imagine he would give Peralta a DH start rather than sit him though.

“We’ll give him two out of the next three days off [with Thursday's off-day],” Wedge said. “It’s a good time to get him a day off. There are days we’ll give him from time to time here in the second half to keep him strong and keep him going.” (Indians.com)

Peralta has done nothing but knock in runs since getting put in the clean-up spot.

“When you hit fourth, you know there are going to be people on base,” Peralta said. “I’ve been concentrating on every at bats. Right now, it’s been good for me.” (Plain Dealer)

A kind gesture by Paul Byrd to Masa Kobayashi the other day.

He gave him a t-shirt that said “I’m Huge In Japan.” I’m sure you’ve seen the ad for it on Snorg T’s or someone wearing it around. It has an alternative meaning, that I’ll let you figure out, but Masa was wearing it around the clubhouse.

Kobayashi is doing a good job closing out games for now, but Wedge wasn’t quick to rule out Rafael Perez having a shot. But he doesn’t seem to want to do that, because of Perez’s value as a left-hander and not having another viable one to use in situations that may need it.

“If we had a closer who can do the job,” Wedge said, “I don’t care if he’s right-handed or left-handed.”

“Ideally, you’d like to have somebody else to close,” Wedge said. “Because otherwise you’re searching for another lefty who might not be as good.” (Indians.com)

You could see Fausto Carmona pointing to the camera with a wild smile on his face in one of the ending clips to the game last night if you stayed up.. Neadless to say, he’s happy to be back and is cleared to make his return on Saturday.

Minor League Update: De La Cruz Earns Call Up

Michael Aubrey had a two run homer for the Herd as they defeated the Norfolk Tide last night. John Halama went complete game on us AGAIN. 9 hits, 2 runs – none of them earned, and four punch outs.

Akron won big last night, Matt Whitney went 2-5 with a two run home run and three RBI. Wyatt Toregas went 2-5 as well with a solo shot. Wyatt has done nothing but hit since getting called down to Akron. Steven Wright, five innings, five hits, one run, one walk and six strikeouts.

Beau Mills got two of Kinston’s three hits as they got shutout by Potomac.. Kinston was involved in a bevy of moves the past few days that landed them Ryan Goleski and Kelvin De La Cruz. We’ll touch up on that later. Niuman Romero’s streak is now ended at 21.

Lake County lost another extra-innings game on a walk-off win by Augusta. Cristo Arnal went 3-4.

Mahoning Valley got 3-hit again. Kaimi Mead pitched well, going five innings and giving up just one run off four hits and a walk.

Matt Willard and Kevin Rucker went deep in the GCL’s team blowout.

Okay so all the moves..

Kelvin De La Cruz has been promoted to Kinston and well start tonight. Ryan Goleski will be on his way to Kinston from Akron, the writing is on the wall for Goleski and he might not be with the organization past this year. Nick Weglarz will soon leave for the Olympics, so the K-Tribe will be needing that extra outfielder, not to mention Jason Denham was placed on the DL.

Matt Ginter Is Effective, Can Someone Tell Me What K-Rod Is Doing?

I really–rehhheeellly thought this team had a little comeback in them, especially with the starter Weaver going out after three innings.

Darren Oliver and the young Jose Arredondo shut it down long enough to get the ball to Shields and K-Rod.

Weaver was just not finding the zone at all tonight and when he did the Indians hitters got some good licks in on him. If only Choo’s deep drive did something, he really got a piece of a ball with two guys on, but it was a simple fly ball.

Matt Ginter pitched a real good game. Here is what I love about Ginter’s outing… He gave up the seven hits, but he didn’t walk anyone in his six innings. He only struck out one, but he got hitters out or made them earn their bases.

Ginter made the Angels earn all three of those runs.

Hats off to Matt… I hope some team gives him a shot, he deserves it, he did well in these two starts.

Offense wise.. It was a struggle sir. Asdrubal Cabrera had a good night with two hits. Grady provided that lead-off home run, which puts him one behind Kenny Lofton for the most in Indians history. He also stole his 24th base. So 24-24 for number 24.

Hey Wedge.. Why you hitting Dellucci late for Franklin? 1-10 as a pinch hitter, Franklin had the big triple. Give the kid a shot you dork.

Now I questioned the Ryan Garko pinch hit for Carroll and I still kind of do. But I’ll give Garko some credit. He battled up there the best he could.

Hey loook at that duo there in the 7th and 8th.

Juan Rincon pitches a perfect 8th, throwing only 14 pitches(10 of them for strikes) and Rafael Betancourt pitched a slow but effective 7th with 23 pitches(18 of them for strikes).

If those guys can do that.. Man.

You know I really don’t care what he does, because he’s damn effective and he has 41 saves. But is K-Rod talking to someone in the air? Hes banging his chest and then looking up to the sky and just talking till he goes for the handshakes. I wonder what he’s talking in too.. You think any of the Angels players have caught on to it? I’d love to know whats up there.

Either way.. If I could throw a curveball that dipped the minute it hit the plate, I’d be talking to the sky too. “SHAMALAMA BASEBALL GODS, THANK YOU FOR MY CURVEBALL! ANDY MARTE CANT HANDLE THIS! SAL FASANO HAS AN AWESOME MUSTACHE, PLEASE GIVE ME THAT NEXT!”

An afternoon start tomorrow… 3:30 start for Aaron Laffey and John Lackey. Should be a good one to watch, let’s see if The Joker can get himself on track.

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