If you’re like me, you're sitting in your New York extended-stay apartment listening to Travis and sipping an Anchor Steam you just bought from Whole Foods. Oh wait, what I meant to say was, if you’re like me you’re wondering when Andy will get around to posting those Tribe pictures. For a man so prolific at writing you would think a few pictures with comments wouldn’t take so long. Maybe he’s waiting for the right time.
Moving on to actual baseball, the Tribe won today, honoring all fathers who aren’t Padres fans. This marks the second series in a row the Tribe have won and just like before, this three-gamer went win loss win. Game 1 saw Sowers struggle again, but that could have been due to a 2:43 rain delay. At least Sowers going out there allowed the Tribe to stick to the relief of Betancourt, Perez, and Kobayashi, with each going over an inning. Had the likes of Mujica been called upon, the 9-5 victory would have been closer. Game 2 did see Mr. Mujica come in to do what we call “relief pitching,” where he gave up five runs in the top of the tenth. Today’s contest of Cy Young winners Sabathia (2007) and Maddux (I have no idea, but he was good and always got a Golden Glove too) goes to C.C. While Ben Francisco’s three-run shot off the Professor was the difference, I have to point out Grady had another home run. Somewhere I read speculation of moving our hard-hitting center fielder down in the order given that he has 17 homeruns (career high is 28). Wedge’s response was that he didn’t want to mess with what was working, i.e. Grady hitting first. Choo (pictured but not yet discussed) did some good things too.
With the White Sox losing today, the Tribe move up to 5.5 games back of the division leaders. If you haven’t noticed, the Tigers (6.5 games back) have won a solid six in a row. Sure those first three were cool when they beat the previously-mentioned Sox, but I expected more from the Dodgers, especially with Brad Penny on the mound.
In other news, Interleague play continues this time out west…er, kind of. The Tribe are on their way to Coors Field in the always-forgotten Mountain time zone. While much can be made of the Tribe’s disappointment just remember the World Series-losing Rockies now sit on a record of 28-41, 8.5 games back of Arizona and last place in the NL. Luckily the Indians get tomorrow off to adjust to the wicked east coast to mountain jetlag.
Game 1: Paul Byrd, RHP (3-6, 4.89) vs. Greg Reynolds, RHP (1-4, 6.69)
Game 2: Jeremy Sowers, LHP (0-1, 7.23) vs. Jeff Francis, LHP (2-6, 5.49)
Game 3: Cliff Lee, LHP (10-1, 2.55) vs. To be announced
How do I like the chances of Lee versus a yet-to-be-named pitcher? Your knee-jerk reaction may be “we can’t lose”, but if he is a soft-throwing lefty, watch out. The only real consolation is he can’t possibly be a grizzled soft-throwing left-handed veteran.
Go Tribe!
AP Photo/Mark Duncan
Sunday, June 15
Goodbye Monsignors, Hello Mountains
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2 comments:
I've heard lots of talk about moving Grady down in the lineup, but I don't think we've ever discussed it here. My two diehard Tribe fan cousins think it's absolutely necessary to bat him third. I completely disagree, simply because we have no other options at leadoff. Would it be great to have Grady driving in more runs after the first two guys get on? Yes. Do we have two guys that we are confident can get on base on a regular basis to put in front of him? No. Unless we have a late 90's version of Kenny Lofton and Omar Vizquel walking around in the clubhouse, I don't see another reasonable option. Although having your leadoff hitter leading your team in homeruns is not common, I'm OK with having batter number one having some pop in his bat. Andy, Burns, anyone else that may be reading, your thoughts?
I didn't take the photos - I'm waiting on the guy who did to tell me where I can grab them from and you'll have your photo essay.
I wouldn't move Grady down either, because, as Figgs points out, we don't have high-OBP guys to go in front of him. In addition, Francisco and Garko are providing good production in the middle of the order.
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