Written by Steve Buffum

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Jake Westbrook pitched a fine game last night, but that is not wholly unexpected.  Kerry Wood got a save for a second night in a row, but that is not remotely unexpected.  Joe Smiff threw 8 strikes in 9 pitches and didn’t give up a baserunner, which is pretty damned unexpected.  But on the scale from One to Great Googly Moogly, I would have to say that winning the game on a suicide squeeze with Travis Hafner on third … that’s Great Googly Moogly unexpected. 

FINAL	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Blue Jays (40-37)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	8	0
Indians (28-47)	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	X	2	9	0

W: Westbrook (5-4)        L: Romero (6-4)             S: K. Wood (7) 

It’s a rival and all, but all sarcasm aside, best wishes to Joel Zumaya, who does not deserve this kind of injury luck because no one does. 

1) Settling down with a vengeance 

Jake Westbrook’s first inning was not exactly what you’d call “especially good.”  It featured 3 hits, two for extra bases (a pair of doubles) and a run scored. 

Consider his next five innings, though: even given that the Jays fouled off 19 pitches and forced him to throw 100 pitches to get through 6 innings, Westbrook put up the following line in innings 2 through 6: 

5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K 

No, it’s not entirely dominant or anything, and the Jays will strike out now and again, but after a very shaky start, Westbrook struck out two in each of the next two innings and largely held Toronto’s above-average offense in check.  I would not go so far as to claim that he was razor sharp or anything, but there’s an old bromide about pitchers winning without their best stuff, and Jake seemed to make an adjustment after the first that gave him enough to hold the Jays scoreless after that single run. 

Interestingly enough, Westbrook induced 12 swinging strikes, which is not normally his calling card, and looking at the pitch trackers online, it didn’t seem like the Jays were chasing an inordinate number of balls out of the zone.  If anything, they were pretty disciplined about not swinging over Westbrook’s sinker below the knees. 

Westbrook did go to the well once too often, giving up a leadoff single in the 7^th before being lifted, leading one to wonder exactly what was being gained from those five pitches, but hey.  It’s not a bad audition for a guy who could help a contender with a hole or injury in its rotation.

2) Speed is a weapon! 

Or, as Monty Python’s version of the Spanish Inquisition taught us, so is “surprise.”  (I do not believe Travis Hafner is fanatically devoted to the Pope.) 

In the 6^th inning, after using his incredible powers of OBP to get hit by a pitch, Travis Hafner was able to use his Super Speed to get all the way to third base on a double to the wall.  Winded from the play, Hafner was forced to watch helplessly as Matt LaPorta’s groundout was hit too soundly to allow him to rocket home. 

However, with an 0-1 count, Hafner was given the sign to strap on the jet pack and motor home on Jayson Nix’ bunt.  It was not actually a particularly good bunt, but Hafner used the speed of a Young Jim Thome to barrel home and slid in ahead of the lack of tag.  (Romero tried to flip the ball the John Buck with his glove, as Buck is one of the few humans in baseball actually larger than Hafner, but the flip travelled perhaps the distance of an egg salad sandwich and Hafner was quite safe indeed.) 

Fun-poking at Travis aside, the play was set up by Ricky Romero being left-handed: it’s easier to get a better jump from third against a guy facing the other way.  And to Hafner’s credit, he was not hesitant at all, although that may be more a function of the Law of Inertia (a body in motion tends to not be able to stop, even in the face of a collision with John Buck) than anything else.  Nix deserves credit, too, for getting the high pitch down on the ground: it’s easy to pop that pitch up or backwards, and of course, if you Eric Byrnes the play entirely, Hafner might have been flattened cartoon-style by the hulking Buck. 

Note that immediately following the run, Jhonny Peralta did not score on a fly ball to right with one out.  On a night on which Jim Thome … TODAY’S Jim Thome … looking very much like a gigantic wooden Trojan Racewalker or two … hit a TRIPLE … well, let’s just say that if you appear to be slower than both Travis Hafner and Jim Thome in 2010, you might actually be dead. 

3) Bull horn taking update 

Jayson Nix: 2-for-3, 1 RBI, 1 sacrifice (in which everyone was safe, meaning he reached base three times in 4 trips). 

Anderson Hernandez: 0-for-3, 1 BB. 

Note: Jayson Nix saw a grand total of SEVEN pitches in his FOUR trips to the plate.  This might be something to remember, as the ghost of Craig Caruso looms over all Chicago White Sox infielders, but then, Nix has an OBP-AVG of .096, while Hernandez’ is .031.  Nix has been the more patient hitter this season, but the samples are pretty small.  Also pretty bad. 

4) DJ Jazzy Joe!

 Joe Smiff came in with a runner on base and no outs, and retired both hitters he faced, including a strikeout of John Buck, who is slugging .520 and homers against the Indians with alarming frequency. 

Yes, the man’s ERA is still 7.59, and no, I would not trust Joe Smiff with any baseball task more demanding than applying rosin to his hand, but he did do a good job. 

5) All dressed up with someplace to go 

On Sunday, Kerry Wood struck out the side to record his 6^th save. 

Called out for a second consecutive night, Wood struck out 2 hitters to record his 7^th save.  This included 5 swinging strikes and whiffs of John Buck, who kills us, and Adam Lind, who is in the process of killing his own career. 

Virtually at the same time, Joel Zumaya threw a pitch in Minnesota and somehow fractured his elbow.  I will not make light of this: I don’t even understand the mechanism by which this is possible, and I’m certainly not going to watch the replay.  I saw a couple of those “spiral humerus fractures” (Dravecky, Saunders), and that’s enough for me.  (I remember reading about John Smiley’s when he was with the Indians, but he was warming up at the time.)

I know we have our own perpetual-injury story in Adam Miller, but Adam Miller hurt his FINGER.  He can no more pitch than Zumaya can, but … when Joel Zumaya hurts himself, boy, he gets his money’s worth. 

Anyway, Detroit now leads the A.L. Central after beating Minnesota.  The two teams are pretty much evenly-matched, even to the degree that they needed “Game 163” to decide the winner last season.  So Detroit could really use a new right-handed power reliver at the back end of their bullpen.  And Kerry Wood … let’s be honest here.  Kerry Wood is as valuable to the Indians as a custom paint job on an engineless ’72 Pinto. 

Wood could go elsewhere.  It makes no difference to me.  But a new suitor just entered the showroom. 

6) In other news 

The rest of the bullpen was pretty solid, too: Raffy Perez got his batter to ground out, and Chris Perez faced the minimum by inducing a double play after a solid single.  I’ll feel okay with C-Pez in the closer’s role. 

7) The ol’ one-two 

The Indians equalized in the first when Carlos Santana doubled and Austin Kearns singled him home.  Santana’s blast came right-handed: he has an absurd .469 ISO … that’s *ISO*, his SLG-AVG … left-handed, but right-handed power was not as obvious.  Santana is now hitting .263/.440/.526 against left-handed pitching: look, this is in 25 plate appearances and means next to nothing, but his stroke is just damn pretty to watch. 

Kearns, meanwhile, took an outside pitch and served it into right field like the experienced pro hitter he is.  It is nice to watch him have an actual healthy season for once.  I think he could really help a team needing some right-handed pop, like the Braves or Mets. 

By the way: Santana is hitting .333/.453/.725.  He has twice as many walks (12) as strikeouts (6).  More than two-thirds of his hits are for extra bases (5 singles, 8 doubles, 4 homers).  He also regularly gives tips to the guy from the Dos Equis commercial and can divide by zero. 

8) Welcome back! 

I get on Matt LaPorta’s case, so it’s only fair to point out that LaPorta reached base three times last night on a single, a walk, and a double.  The patience is good to see, but the power is even better.  I am absolutely of the mind that LaPorta should be given Infinite Rope in 2010: start him every game, regardless of results.  I would bet that with the weight of performance expectations removed from his shoulders, he might actually settle in and build some much-needed confidence and rhythm to his game. 

Lifting him for Andy Marte, he of the Three Run Death Error in Detroit, for defensive reasons really boggles my mind, though.