Morning Rundown: Indians Claim the Prelude to the Battle

But as Pestano would say, sometimes you'd rather be lucky than good. And a little bit of luck helped out the fact that the Indians were good, specifically Justin Masterson.

The trend of not really giving him any run support continued of course, but Masterson was good enough to not need much. And after Vinnie Pestano almost gave the lead away, the Indians put one more on the board for good measure and an extra cushion for Chris Perez.

"Whenever guys are kind of going down," Masterson said, "hopefully you keep a team to nothing. You have to ease a little bit of the pressure off the offense. Say, 'Hey, just give me two, boys, and we'll try to get it done.'"

All-in-all you like the fact that the offense did enough, but it doesn't mask the fact that they still went 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position, leaving more opportunities on the board. It continues to go back to the fact that the team is hitting, they just can't seem to hit when it counts. Shin-Soo Choo's two-run blast in the third accounted for the two runs all game, then Brantley added the RBI single in the eighth.

But your top three hitters were all 2-for-4. Granted the team didn't get a walk, but they had 10 hits. They again had their opportunities. Heck the Brantley single in the eighth was the fourth straight hit without an out. But a Santana force out at home, a Hafner strike out, and a Cunningham infield pop out ended any sort of opportunity to add more. You would have liked to see at least another run or two when you have bases loaded and nobody out.

But you also can't complain when Chris Perez comes in and gets the job in three hitters. 

Random Details...

Again not a single walk, in fact, the Orioles only walked once, making it a fairly well-pitched game on both ends. The Orioles struck out eight times, the Indians five. So even though the Indians didn't come through in those at-bats late, credit the O's and Indians' pitching staffs.

A lot of double plays for the Indians. A few normal groundout double plays, and in addition to nabbing Markakis in-between third and home in the eighth, another capitalization on some bad baserunning by the Orioles. They caught Adam Jones in a rundown earlier in the game when a groundball was hit to Masterson, it took a few throws back and forth, but the Indians got him and that is just as good as a double play as the threat is really neutralized.

There was a double play the Indians recorded in the sixth with a runner on and one out. Matt Weiters grounded to Kotchman, who threw to second for an out, then threw back to Masterson who was covering first. It looked as if Masterson got there, but didn't quite touch the bag. It took forever for the umpire at first to make the call, but it would appear as if he made the right one as Masterson's toe just seemed to hit the bag.

It also looked like Wieters stepped on Masterson's foot, and that made me cringe. The play made the Oriole's base coach dance around in frustration at the call.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

The most anticipated bullpen session of all time (not really) was thrown yesterday prior to the game against Baltimore. Roberto Hernandez stepped onto the rubber and threw pitches at Progressive Field for the first time since last season. How'd he look?

"[He looked] very good, very smooth," said Tribe manager Manny Acta. "He threw the ball pretty good. Granted, it was just a bullpen, but it was good to see him. Everybody that was over there was pretty happy. He does look like he's been pitching."

Well that's good, he looks like he's been pitching. I'm glad.

It looks like Robbie (get used to it) will be going to some affiliate on Thursday and throw anywhere from 70 to 75 pitches. The fact that he's already able to get up to that count is great. Hopefully he'll be ready to go with no worries when he's eligible to be activated.

We heard Justin Masterson say that the Indians had "something planned" for him in regards to the whole "identity thing" and well, I'm not sure if it's something Robbie wants to joke around about, but what the players did was kind of funny, but also tasteful. His birthday isn't til the end of August, but they did bring him three birthday cakes, one for Fausto Carmona and his 29th birthday, one for his 30th birthday and one for Roberto Hernandez's 31st birthday.

My question is simply, who made the cakes? Cause they look delicious. I bet Mrs. Masterson the baker had something to do with it.

Grady Sizemore may be closer than we think. Mainly because I think he's years away from returning. Sizemore has now re-reached the running period of his rehab. He now hopes to get through this rehab without any setbacks.

"It slowly got worse as time went on," said Sizemore, who hasn't played this year after signing a one-year, $5 million deal in the offseason. "We had gotten pretty close to completing that rehab, and we had a setback. It wasn't major, but it was enough to where we had to back off for a couple weeks. It ended up being a good chunk of the season."

It's not just the back right now, it's the knees as well. Running is the last step he needs as the hitting and throwing has been fine. Sizemore says he thinks he'll play, but that "it is just a matter of when."

Um, yeah that's the $5 million dollar question. When. It is always when. And it will always be when.

One thing is for sure, I'm not sure Johnny Damon's "Grady Sizemore clause" is much of a big deal. You think Johnny Damon is thinking about retirement? Heck, maybe he's thinking about it sooner rather than later. Sooner being before the season ends, later being after the season ends. He did say that he's thinking more with his offensive struggles, but if the Indians do end dropping him at some point, it will probably be the end for him.

He certainly thinks the Indians may drop him at some point.

"If we're not in contention, I'll be the first one they drop," Damon said. "The team needs to work toward the future. Obviously it's up to [general manager] Chris [Antonetti], but that's the way I see it."