Mama Said There’d Be Weekends Like This

I apologize for the lack of posts on a pretty interesting weekend of Indians baseball because I was actually out of town watching some of it. I was in Detroit for Saturday’s 4-2 loss and haven’t had access to a computer until now. Comerica is a nice ballpark, but it just doesn’t seem to have the same feeling as Progressive Field (which definitely has nicer scoreboards, which I found weird seeing as Progressive Field is older, until I remembered they renovated the scoreboards a couple years ago).

Anyways, on Saturday, when the Immortal Mitch T was quite mortal, giving up four runs over five innings. But what I came away impressed the most from that game was how well the bullpen kept the team in the game. Tony Sipp, Joe Smith and Jensen Lewis pitched 3 innings of hitless ball, even though Smith thought it would be a fantastic idea to walk three guys in his one inning of work (OK, one was intentional).

Then the bullpen throws up this clunker today. The Perezes of Right and Left gave up 5 runs in the final 1.2 innings of work, wasting a perfectly good start by Jake the Snake, who was extra snake-y today, going 5.2, giving up 3 runs, 9 hits, 3 walks. He got some help in the form of an outfield assist by Choo to throw out Don Kelly at home to end the third inning. He helped out his own cause by striking out 7.

Really, I’m not panicking. These are the types of games teams will lose when they’re a young or rebuilding team. I want to see how Chris Perez responds to a bad outing like today. Can’t say I can find too much to be optimistic about with how Raffy pitched, but young teams need to learn they have to close out wins.

One thing that has been troubling has been Lou Marson’s struggles. He seems to have a hard time handling the pitching staff. Now, the staff hasn’t helped him out with all the wild pitches but Marson doesn’t have a lot of time to impress the Tribe and convince them he’s the catcher they should keep. Carlos “Smooth” Santana is hot on his heels and supposedly can catch as well as hit, so Marson better pick it up.

But this past week really hasn’t surprised me much, other than the Indians taking two of three from the White Sox. This is going to be a tough year for the Tribe, and we Tribe fans should be prepared for this.

Opening Day is tomorrow in Cleveland though, so it’s a time of optimism. I’m excited to be going to the game tomorrow (how convenient work doesn’t start for me till Tuesday this week 🙂 ) and I’m excited to see Fausto Carmona 2.0 in person tomorrow. Going for the Rangers will be Rich Harden, who didn’t exactly light up the Blue Jays on Wednesday, failing to get through four innings. It could be a walkfest, as Harden gave up five walks in his 3.2 IP. Let’s hope it’s not, for my sake.