This is where I yell randomly.. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
July 26th, 2011
Los Angeles Angels - 2
Cleveland Indians - 1
W: Jered Weaver (14-4) L: Josh Tomlin (11-5) S: Jordan Walden (24)
This is where I hold back all possible cursing towards Matt LaPorta.
Look guys. It's frustrating to lose that way. Even more so any other close game. Even more than a game where you make errors or just let it get it away or whatever. You've got your winning run on second with nobody out and a closer who is clearly on the ropes, who you already got to the previous night?
Yeah, anything would be great. Anything but a double play. I mean what is worse? Yes, a triple play, duh, but the odds there.
I'm angry. That was bad and just a rough way to lose. But what are you going to do? Yell at LaPorta on Twitter? Curse at him and call him a bum? Go the Sean Michael Wapes route and call him a derogatory name?
(Side note... I hope none of my readers at the blog or any of The Cleveland Fan crowd aren't doing things like that... Stupid...)
Sure, call him a bum. But what? He did knock in the only run of the night. Is it wrong to expect more? No of course not. But it's most definitely not wrong to expect him to do that. LaPorta can only hit the ball, he can't control where it goes, but check swing? Check swing?! Why check swing? What are you going to do with that? Either swing through and strike out and make some solid contact, or don't swing at all.
The chances of you hitting into a double play that gets the force at home are less likely. A quick chopper to the infield is doom. Just swing through. Just swing through.
So what else can we boil this game down to? Josh Tomlin's one hit that scored two runs? Because that was it. You had a feeling it was going to be the first to blink and the way Tomlin gives up home runs and Weaver doesn't you'd figure it would have been Tomlin. And it was. But it wasn't a homer and it was actually Weaver who gave up the LaPorta solo shot right after. But Tomlin got stung with a two-run hit.
"Whenever he's not making his pitches in his spots, due to the stuff that he has, he might get in trouble here and there," Acta said. "But when he's on, he's fantastic against anybody. It was just a beautiful game that he pitched tonight."
Mark "Jim Thome" Trumbo was not the thorn in Tomlin's side that Howie Kendrick was, so that's why Acta elected to walk him and have Tomlin pitch to Trumbo. He came up with the big hit and you could tell right after he gave up the pitch, Tomlin was frustrated.
That was one of his better starts and it was a shame it had to come against a guy like Jered Weaver. The Indians actually got more than I expected against the best pitcher in the American League. Tomlin goes eight, gives up just the four hits and a walk.
And it was just his second loss at Progressive Field this season. It's a place he's found himself very comfortable at and you know you're getting a good effort with him on that mound.
To further that in this particular game, Tomlin threw 26 of 28 first pitch strikes according to Acta. That is straight up incredible and no wonder Acta and Belcher love him so much. A lot of the quotes from Tomlin make it seem like he is taking the blame for this one, but he shouldn't. Most guys shouldn't lose an eight inning, two run effort. It simply came down to facing the best pitcher the AL has to offer.
"The only thing we didn't do today was get a key hit," Acta said. "We had a very good approach against Weaver. We made him throw the ball over the plate and we made him work really, really hard. We just couldn't get a good hit with runners in scoring position all night."
And as Acta said. They stopped the magic.
Random Details...
Someone needs to explain the random USA chants that broke out in the ninth inning when Rafael Perez was pitching... Please and thanks!
Lonnie Chisenhall's bunt was textbook. How often do high impact rookies like that know how to bunt? They're always swinging in the minors. But these guys lower in the lineup, they might be asked to do that stuff. And man did he put down a beauty and set the Indians up in a big way with the Angels mistake throwing to third.
Jason Kipnis did double in this one, in his first at-bat. It really set up the third inning after Travis Buck grounded out and Zeke Carrera walked. But a Michael Brantley pop out and a Asdrubal Cabrera ground out would extinguish that rally.
Later in the fourth, Santana and Chisenhall singled with one out and then LaPorta and Kipnis couldn't come through. Weaver is tough, but sometimes you gotta find ways to scratch a run out here and there off those opportunities.
Orlando Cabrera pinch running for Travis Hafner again. Save your jokes.
Josh Tomlin was catching everything last night. How about some of those snags on balls hit right back up the middle.
Is Tomlin's cheek dip growing or something? It seems like his cheek is getting bigger and bigger every game.
How about that Michael Brantley snag in left too? Defense really needs to start playing that way again.
[WHAT SAY YOU BELTRAN?]
Earlier this spring, I was so adamant about the Indians not signing Chad Durbin. It was going to happen, it made no sense, if it happened, I'd stuff a Jhonny Peralta T-Shirt into my mouth and run into a wall.
I was dead set on that idea and even promised I'd do that if Durbin signed. No, I didn't ever do it. I didn't squelch on the bet, no one would have cared. It wouldn't have hurt. So what's the point?
I wasn't, shirt-stuffing, wall-running into, ready in terms of trading for a big name, heck, I wouldn't have argued that. But I think I was pretty adamant that the Indians wouldn't be making a big acquisition. Then this whole Carlos Beltran report came out yesterday. So yeah basically for something to happen, I have to deny deny deny, sell sell sell, it's never going to happen, go out of my way to dismiss it.
The Indians would never go out and get Carlos Beltran. It would take a big prospect, one that they won't give up. It will never happen!
Well if what Peter Gammons says is true, it almost happened, they almost brought the former Royal back to the AL Central.
'Never mind that the Indians did offer to pick up all of Carlos Beltran's remaining Mets contract andgive up a good player in return. The deal Scott Boras negotiated with the Mets for Beltran includes a no-trade clause, which Boras refers to as a "ring clause," meaning that if things ground to an end in New York, Beltran had the right to choose where best to go get a ring before entering the free-agent market, and Cleveland did not fit.'
So there's something in there. What's the point of discussion this? Beltran ain't coming. So there's no use wondering if there's a possibility still, there's no use dreaming.
But I gotta wonder... Who's that "good player" the Indians were offering up. Eating contract is going to lower the haul a team would get, but let's assume the Indians wouldn't have even accepted or even offered a deal that included Kipnis, White, Chisenhall, or Pomeranz. What did the Indians offer up?
Now Gammons fails to clearly state whether or not Carlos Beltran actually exercised his no-trade option. He does mention it and was pretty vague about Cleveland "not fitting." So I'm just going to assume the previous statement and that he did veto a trade to Cleveland idea are both true. Who was that player?! It was a single player that was good enough to get the Mets to say yes, only to have it get shot down by the player their trading.
Maybe there was additional pieces, Gammons doesn't say anything, but he does say a good player, so that is at least involved. That makes me curious more than anything.
But hold the phone here... This only deserves even more discussion because of the tweet SI's Jon Heyman sent out. Now remember the other day, I said to take caution reading Heyman's stuff, so even though he uses Gammons as his source for Indians offering up something for Beltran, he adds on...
Heyman says the deal wasn't even brought to Beltran. Was it brought to his agent, Scott Boras? Who knows, but according to Heyman, Beltran didn't see the deal and the Mets just assumed or already had a list of approved teams.
If that's the case, boo. What's wrong with Cleveland? You wanna a chance to play in the playoffs don't ya? Why not this year.
Again, not really worth getting into, but it's an interesting few layers to this trade market. This isn't a rumor, this is a failed deal and it comes from an impeccable source, Peter Gammons. I'll act as if it's true, but I don't think it deserves much discussion beyond this point.
One rumor I'll squash right now is the other tweet Heyman sent out. He said there's seven teams in on Ubaldo Jimenez, the Colorado Rockies ace. All but one are AL teams, and Detroit and Cleveland are both named. Detroit seemed to come up earlier, but the Tribe being thrown in the mix?
First off... The Colorado Rockies, and I'll go this far, are not going to trade Ubaldo Jimenez. So forget even the opportunity the Indians have, no team has it. For one, Heyman's tweet is kind of specific. Teams are interested. It doesn't mean the Rockies are interested in dealing him.
So just cross that name off your list right now. It ain't going to happen!
[RANDOM RUNDOWN]
On that note... I love when Terry Pluto talks to himself. It's better when the fans talk to Hoynes. I'd rather let Pluto ask himself questions and then answer them. Not use giving you the rundown, just read the entire thing. Terry does say this though in his overall point. A trade would help, but the lineup, specifically guys like Matt LaPorta, need to step it up.
Chris Antonetti did poke his head out of the gopher hole to do some talking though.
"Honestly, I don't know," Antonetti said on Tuesday. "Literally, the next phone call could be that deal that could be the right value and we'll line up and have something to announce later tonight. But, it's really hard to say when those things may come together."
Deals come together quickly and likely fall a part even faster. He also said that they are going to do the best to get to the postseason and advance, but they will be mindful of the cost. I'm pretty sure "Mindful of the cost" is Shapantonettiese for "We're not trading our biggest chips."
Congratulations to Asdrubal Cabrera for earning the 2011 Heart and Hustle Award, given to him by the MLB Players Alumni Association. He is the Cleveland Indians selection and will be a part of a 30-player vote with the final overall winner being announced on November 3rd.
Vinnie Pestano shaved his head. He put on an excellent display of bullpen candy backpack stocking skills on Twitter the other day and after giving up that homer to Abreu, he apparently had enough of his hair.
Let's be honest though. It's going to be something else that Pestano will need to alter if he want's to stay on track. Pestano will need to make some changes to the way he throws. His delivery is very deceptive and it comes up quickly. It also compliments his slider well. But the rookie is starting to get some notice and players are starting to pick things up.
"It's just something you've go to go through," Pestano said. "You just make adjustments. Pitchers have to make adjustments. It's just part of the game. It's one of those things where you've just got to keep throwing. My stuff is what it is."
Pestano says it isn't mechanical, but of course, that isn't up to him to notice, that's up to Tim Belcher. So he may just have to go back to the drawing board and figure some stuff out.
Shin-Soo Choo has started swinging the bat. It's just light swings, but it's progress.
Congratulations go out to original Bullpen Mafia member, Justin Germano on his perfect game last night in Syracuse. The Clipper was thrown into the starting role with David Huff up and Scott Barnes hurt and he was magical.
It's the first perfect game in Columbus franchise history. He struck out seven in his nine perfect frames.
WWE Superstar The Miz threw out the first pitch last night at the game. You may know him as the kid from The Real World. He claims to have thrown a strike. The Miz also claims to be "Awesome." Or Awwwwwwesome! Either one.
[RAFAEL PEREZ TWEET WATCH]
Nino's TV Reference of the Day: "Chicken Dances" - Arrested Development
Chicken's don't clap...
Days Without a Tweet: 64
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You can follow Nino on Twitter @TheTribeDaily where he doesn't tweet curse words to Tribe players. You can also read more Morning Rundown and other features at his blog, The Tribe Daily.