Morning Rundown: Clutch-Mannahan Puts Tribe in First

The fact that Jack Hannahan is the Indians most clutch hitter is certainly not a bad thing. Considering he's the guy that keeps coming up in the clutch situations and he produces more times than not. I mean, Hannahan is the guy I want in this situation all the time now.

In a 3-3 game, there was a few runners on in the eighth and Addison Reed just was brought in to reliever left-hander Will Ohman.

I'm half paying attention, also focused on whatever is happening on Twitter (might have been General Cramping, might have been Jeff Liefer, might have been Jody Gerut). And then I notice who it is at the plate.

Pay attention, front and center. When Hannahan comes up to the plate in these situations, I take notice. I get a little excited. And every time he is up there, I think "Oh, this is the time he'll surely not come through, because he's come through so many other times, he's going to run out of steam."

Oh man.. Or should I say, Ohman... Remember when Travis Hafner was getting on-base at the flip of a coin about a week or so ago? (He's still pretty close). Well, Jack Hannahan is getting a hit with runners in scoring position at the flip of a coin. He's 9-for-18 with runners in scoring position and with two outs, he's hitting .400, 10-for-25. 

That's insanity. It surely will not continue and his numbers will even out. Just say that he has improved (and at this point, it becomes foolish to suggest that he hasn't in some way with the bat), the numbers are still a little too high and his numbers will even out, but it's nice having someone come through with the clutch hits, especially since he's always the one in the position to deliver.

I don't think it's fair to call Hannahan a fluke. Will he regress? He probably won't hit near .300 all season. But I think he's at least a changed hitter. He's no longer that guy that will hit his weight in average. He has at least a serviceable bat to go with an above average glove. In Cleveland he's found himself and that is nothing out of the ordinary. He isn't hitting the home runs he was last year that made us say, "Who the hell is this guy!" He's simply hitting well, producing quality at-bats and being smart when he swings the stick.

So don't get all "BUT IT'S JACK HANNAHAN!"

Yeah it is Jack Hannahan. I'm not saying he's the .300 hitter who is leading the team in RBIs that is now... But he's at least a little better now than we all thought. He's an improved hitter overall and he deserves that much credit.

Throw a little credit Josh Tomlin's way after his outing. He got through six innings on just 82 pitches, but that was probably the right time to make a move. He started out getting through the first three innings having only walked Adam Dunn, then he gave up the solo shot in the fourth to Dunn. Overall, it was just one of those Josh Tomlin outings. It's six innings, three or less runs, a quality start that Josh Tomlin has made us accustomed to from him.

He went toe-to-toe with his good buddy and perfect game-twirler Philip Humber. He really out-pitched him despite going the same amount of innings and giving the same amount of runs. Humber walked six and really tread the waters a few times. It wasn't until Carlos Santana's big blast in the fifth that things kind of loosened up and the Indians settled in. They wouldn't score more off of him, but if they couldn't get a single run off Humber and he got through six or even seven, there might have been a big demoralizing aspect to that.

But instead, Santana crushed one with a pair on and at least gave some relief to Tomlin. Who promptly surrendered the lead, but still pitched well enough to win and still out-pitched his teammate, even if the numbers don't totally dictate it.

Random Details...

On another night the following details would have been major storylines... And I feel with all the praise towards Hannahan for his clutch hitting, we need to heap a lot of blame on the rest of the Indians for their lack of clutch hitting.

Early in the game against Humber, the Indians struck out three times with the bases loaded, Choo being the culprit twice and also with runners on second and third and one out. That's four prime run scoring opportunities. Had Santana not redeemed himself (one of the strikeouts with bases loaded, with one out, no less), I would have figured this would be a bigger deal than it is.

But fear not. The Indians really started out striking out a lot, but still managed to work a good amount of walks, eight in total actually.

The problems with the bases loaded are a little concerning this year, as Jordan Bastian notes. Currently 0-for-12 with two outs and the bases juiced, that's a big fat goose egg... AND just three hits in total out of 26 opportunities. Um, gross.

Choo overall had a rough night (he left seven on base). Made his return to the lineup and had several opportunities to make some things happen and he came up dry. Another day, another chance big guy.

Johnny Damon's much ballyhooed debut ended early as he was replaced by Shelley Duncan in left. It was made noticed that he had a bit of a grimace coming out of the box in his third at-bat. The Indians reported he suffered from general cramping. Insert your Ted Mosby jokes here, I salute you. Damon walked and was 0-3 on the night.

Don't worry though, Damon said he plans to be ready for today's game against Chicago (if he starts/plays) and that he simply felt some cramping up in his back and calves. He said it was embarrassing having done everything in extended and coming up and well, General Cramping. It's all good though because it does not look serious.

Travis Hafner's two-run shot was a nice insurance policy and it was a big hit for the guy. He was 2-4 and really could have been 3-4 and he was on base three times with the HBP. Aside from that strikeout early, he had three great at-bats. He's really been stinging the ball hard lately and they've seemed to find outfielders or infielders. Them's the breaks, especially when the defense plays the spray charts, but if he hits them hard enough like he did Wednesday night, there's no chance of them robbing him.

Bullpen: 4 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 R. Joe Smith is suddenly a strikeout artist as he struck out the side around the walk. I'm glad Acta didn't waste any time with Sipp tonight because after he let the leadoff guy on in the eighth, I was ready to see Pestano. It was either Manny's intention to play matchups or he too was sick of seeing Tony after one-batter.

Perez now shares the AL-lead in saves with Fernando Rodney with eight. It's a who's who up there with Perez, Rodney, Baltimore's Jim Johnson, Brandon League and, TEXAS' Joe Nathan. 

[U-GIVE-ME MORE]

We spent quite a bit of time on Ubaldo Jimenez yesterday and I guess we should spend a little more time analyzing him after the comments that have come out from him after yet another ugly looking sort of outing from The Big Ewww.

"It's not easy. It's not easy to take," Jimenez said. "The only thing is I'm going to keep working on it, and I know it's going to be for my own good and for the team. Once I get it, it's going to be there. I won't have to be worrying about it anymore."

"It's not only [about velocity]," Jimenez said. "It's trying to get myself in a better position to deliver the ball. That's something I haven't been doing. My front shoulder has been too open, so I'm trying to work on creating torque and power out of it. That's something I did before."

"He's phenomenal," Brantley said. "We talked a little bit already. He's just a class-act person. He's already taking young guys in and teaching them some things. We were talking about different situations already. He's a pleasure to have."

"It's not about the numbers," Acta said. "It's about the quality of the at-bats and what he's working on. They're encouraged by the fact that he's been using his legs better and laying off some off-speed stuff due to that. That's what we've looked at."