Results tagged ‘ Cleveland Indians ’
5/19 – Game 2 vs. Indians
Gavin Floyd came out ready to pitch tonight. He gave up one run in the top of the first inning and then Cruised like Tom through the next six innings (for seven total). Three strikeouts and one walk is pretty darn impressive from Floyd. Not as impressive as Peavy’s outing last night, but I won’t complain. Gavin has been really back-and-forth over his last few starts and that is why I call him The Pitcher of Mystery. He had that fantastic start in Seattle (one of the Games of the Year that you can find in the sidebar) then he gave up five runs in four innings against the A’s in his next start. Go figure.
The offense was ready to go from the start as Paul Konerko drove in a pair in the bottom of the first. Doubles off the bat of Alexei Ramirez and Adam Dunn plated two runs each and then a Carlos Quentin two-run homer in the fifth inning gave Gavin Floyd and the bullpen all of the runs they needed.
Speaking of the bullpen, Chris Sale and Tony Pena both made appearances. Sale gets two points but Pena only gets one for allowing a run and killing the buzz of the evening. I was pretty pumped for the eight to one final score and then Pena had to give up a run. What a loon. Is it too much to ask for our bullpen to shut people down? I know they had a seven run pillow but still.
Overall, a good W from the guys. Offense, defense, pitching, bullpen, everyone was solid. Even Juan Pierre was fine.
The Sox welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers of a City that is Nowhere Near Los Angeles… oh wait, no, sorry, that’s the Angels. The team we’re gonna play is the Los Angeles Dodgers who are Actually in Los Angeles. Ted Lilly (3-4, 4.83) will go for those guys and my Humberometer is off the charts, which means Phil Humber (3-3, 3.18) is due for another start. Hopefully he can keep the magic workin’.
GO SOX!!
5/18 – Game 1 vs. Indians
What a game! Jake Peavy with a complete game, three-hit shutout. Those two strikeouts in the ninth inning were insane. I groaned when I heard Matt Thornton was warming up in the top of the ninth inning, but then when Peavy came out I was relieved. I knew that if he came out to pitch the ninth inning he would finish it off and sure enough he got the job done. Definitely the best he’s looked in a Sox uniform. I’m considering adding this to the Games of the Year list.
Our only run came on an Adam Dunn sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first inning. From then on Justin Masterson and Jake Peavy were in an all-out pitchers’ duel. Masterson finished with eight strikeouts, Peavy with seven. Masterson allowed five hits, Peavy three. Masterson walked two but Peavy maintained a zero in that column. So glad that The Project could bust us out of this home slump we’ve been going through. Crazy game! Well done, Jake!
Despite squandering two scoring chances there wasn’t much I had a problem with in this game. Brent Lillibridge definitely made a game-saving catch in the bottom of the eighth inning, covering a lot of ground on his way to left-center field to make a sliding catch on the warning track. Is there anything this kid can’t do?
No Bullpen Points tonight as Ozzie had no need to call upon someone. As much as I like giving out points I like not needing to even more.
Tomorrow Fausto Carmona (3-3, 3.94) will go for the Indians and Gavin Floyd (4-3, 4.22) will pitch for the Good Guys.
Go Sox!!
5/17 – Game 2 vs. Rangers
Is it safe to say that Sergio Santos is the best closer in the game right now, or is it too soon? In my mind right now it’s Santos, Leo Nunez, and Mariano Rivera. If your ERA is zero you’re definitely a candidate for Best in the League.
Danks was a bit rocky in his 6.1 innings of work, giving up three runs, two earned, with six walks and two strikeouts. Not his best of the season but it was good enough to get us a win. Unfortunately Danks didn’t earn the win but any win is acceptable right now.
How about that Brent Morel kid, huh? He picked a fantastic time for his first home run of the season – a three-run shot in the fifth inning that tied the game. Then we pushed across another run and Jesse Crain came in to the ballgame. He pitched an inning and some change before Santos came in and shut down the Rangers. Two points for both of them. Since WordPress has these widgets now I’m moving the Bullpen Points Leaderboard to the side of the blog, that way it will always be in the same spot. Plus I think that had something to do with the spacing of my posts… the list format was throwing it off.
The Project (0-0, 0.00) will pitch against Justin Masterson (5-1, 2.73) tomorrow night. I’m hoping two things: one, that Peavy can pitch a little bit better than he did in his first start, and two, that the Indians don’t score nineteen runs.
I apologize if this post isn’t up to my usual standards, I’m still trying to get back into it after the break.
Go Sox!!
4/21 – Game 4 @ Rays
Wait, are we allowed to do this? The number in the “W” column – not quite sure what the W stands for, I’ll have to look it up – went up by one. Can we do that…?
-four hours.
4/3 – Game 3 @ Cleveland
Normally when I go to church I wear a button-up shirt so I can look presentable, but today I wore my Joe Crede jersey. I have a pretty good relationship with our pastor so before the 10:30 service started I asked him if he could try to finish speaking by noon so that I could listen to the 12:05 first pitch. He finished speaking at 11:50 and the band was off the stage by 11:55.
4/2 – Game 2 @ Cleveland
I know this will never be read by the players, but… could this dominant play like… keep going?
4/1 – Game 1 @ Cleveland
As far as Opening Day’s go, this was a very roller coaster-y one. So roller coaster-y that I made up a word for it. That should make it clear… how much of a roller coaster… this Opening Day was.
4/8 Game 3 vs. Indians
I don’t even feel like writing a full review on this game so I’m just gonna say that Quentin homered and that’s pretty much the only good thing that came from tonight’s action.
Jenks was decent; Putz gave it a try but let the Indians blow the game open; Thornton (for the third game in a row) was lights-out; Teahen can’t do anything… nobody on the team can come through in the clutch except for Beckham if you need him to make a sacrifice bunt or Pierre to take a walk.
We welcome the Twins into town tomorrow for game one of a three-game set. Minnesota sends left-hander Francisco Liriano to the mound while the Sox counter with fellow southpaw John Danks.
7:05 for the first pitch and as always you can catch it on 670 The Score beginning at 6:30.
Go Sox!! (Please get a win tomorrow… doing this is much more fun when you win…)
4/7 Game 2 vs. Indians
Well, you win some, you lose some, and even with the 2007 National League Cy Young award winner on the mound… we lost some…
Jake Peavy struggled his way through five innings of three-run baseball, and even though he only gave up three runs, it was painful to watch at times. It seemed to me like he was trying to get the batters to chase his breaking pitches that were outside of the zone anyway instead of getting a good fastball over to start things off. He did manage five strikeouts, one of them against Travis Hafner with two on and two out to end the third inning, but it was a rough first start for Peavy.
Juan Pierre was able to draw a walk from Fausto Carmona (one of six) to lead off the ballgame and ended up stealing his way to third. He was then driven in on a sacrifice fly from Paul Konerko allowing the Sox to jump ahead early. In Konerko’s second at-bat he cracked his second home run of the season, a 2-run blast into the bullpen in left field, to put the Sox up 3-0.
Unfortunately that’s where our scoring stopped and where Cleveland started to pile on gork shots, bloopers, and in-betweeners to eventually tie the game. Peavy was pulled after the end of the fifth inning which gave our so-far stellar bullpen a chance at some early action.
Randy Williams was the first to toe the rubber. He pitched an inning and a third, giving up the run that would saddle him with the loss.
Then came Tony Pena who pitched two thirds of an inning surrendering a hit and a walk in a decent effort.
Matt Thornton was once again lights-out, sandwiching a strikeout between two ground outs.
The bottom of the ninth inning brought on Big, Bad, Bobby Jenks… who is now officially demoted to “Just Big” Bobby Jenks. He let the final run of the game come across home plate while also walking two and striking out two. I know I said watching Peavy struggle was bad, but this was even worse. Peavy we need every five days while Jenks we’ll need close to fifty times this year.
We’ve only played two games and everyone in the division is currently tied for first until the Twins game finishes, at which time they’ll be in first by half a game, so there really isn’t anything to complain about.
Tomorrow we finish off the series by sending Gavin Floyd to the mound to face Justin Masterson. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 and, as always, you can catch all the action on AM 670 The Score starting with Chris Rongey’s pre-game show at 6:30.
Go Sox!!
4/5 Opening Day
Opening Day of 2006 was one I’ll never forget. It was a Saturday night and the Sox were playing the Indians at 7:05; Mark Buehrle vs. C.C. Sabathia. They got to about the fourth inning when it started to pour with rain and the result was a near two-and-a-half hour rain delay, which meant I was up until close to 2 in the morning because I was keeping score.
Thankfully Opening Day of 2010 was a day game and we had seventy-degree weather here in Chicago for the Sox and Indians to enjoy, and boy did they enjoy it!
Mark Buehrle was absolutely dominant over his seven innings of work. Followed by free agent acquisition J.J. Putz, who also dominated, and then Matt Thornton, whose performance goes way beyond domination. From just the 2 innings of work our bullpen logged I think it’ll be a pretty good year as far as that aspect of the team is concerned.
From the offensive side of the ball there were a couple things that could change. First off, Mark Teahen needs to be off this team and we need Chris Getz and Josh Fields back. I didn’t like that guy when he was in Kansas City, I liked him less when he came to Chicago, and I liked him even less than that when he inked a 3-year contract with us. We either need to sign Joe Crede, call up Dayan Viciedo, or put Vizquel at third permanently, but of course none of that will ever happen and I’ll most likely be singing Teahen’s praises in a week or two.
I was more than excited when Quentin doubled in his first at bat. I was happy to see that his leg is strong enough for him to leg out a 2-base hit, and then make it all the way home on Konerko’s mammoth 2-run home run. I was also happy to see Alex Rios do something productive for maybe the sixth time while being a member of the White Sox. He homered and made a spectacular diving catch to end the game.
Of course I’d be put to shame if I didn’t mention the insane play Mark Buehrle made, so I saved the best for last. Basically, what he did was… well… gah, I can’t even explain it. He kicked a leg out in the direction of a line drive up the middle and managed to deflect it into foul territory near first base. He ran after it, gloved it and, without looking at Konerko at first, flicked the ball through his legs and directly at Paulie’s outstretched bare hand to get the out (okay, so I can explain it). That didn’t do it any justice whatsoever so, please, go here and watch the video.
The Sox don’t play again until tomorrow when they’ll send Jake Peavy to the mound to face 2007 rookie sensation Fausto Carmona. That game is at 7:05 pm and, as always, will be on AM 670 The Score as well as on TV on WGN.
Go Sox!!
Anders
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