This Week In Indians Baseball: Week 5

NEWS:

• Grady Sizemore (60-day DL) spoke with reporters on Tuesday afternoon, indicating that he expects to be able to join the ball club in early-to-mid-June. The earliest he is able to come off the DL is June 3^rd.
• Josh Tomlin was placed on the 15-day DL with right wrist soreness on Saturday; his stay on the DL is retroactive to May 8^th.
• It was an up-and-down kind of week for Zach McAllister, who got the spot-start in the first game of Monday’s doubleheader as the 26^th man on the roster and was sent back to Columbus at the conclusion of the game. He was recalled again to start on Saturday, taking Josh Tomlin’s place in the rotation.
• Jason Donald was optioned to Triple-A Columbus on Saturday. Jose Lopez was recalled to take his place on the roster.

WAHOO’S ON FIRST HIGHLIGHTS:

• Merritt previewed the series with the Chicago White Sox and Brian previewed the series with the Boston Red Sox
• Lewie took a look at what the hitters are on pace and what the pitchers are on pace to accomplish this season after the first month
• Lewie interviewed JJ Stankevitz from CSN Chicago about the White Sox and Matt Sullivan from Over the Monster about the Red Sox
• Steve looked back on the Four Home Run Club and how they fared at the plate the day after hitting four home runs in one game in light of Josh Hamilton of the Rangers joining the club on Tuesday
• Merritt looked back on Casey Blake’s career in baseball after he announced his retirement on Tuesday
• In this week’s Wroundtable, we inquired about how worried we should be about Ubaldo Jimenez after his shaky start to the season

WEEKLY TRIVIA:

• On May 7^th, Travis Hafner notched his 79^th career hit-by-pitch, tying Nap Lajoie for the all-time franchise record.
• Sunday’s third consecutive loss to the Red Sox marked the first time this season that the Tribe had a losing streak of three games.
• In all of his 16 appearances this season, Vinnie Pestano has recorded at least one strikeout, which is the longest streak to start a season for an Indians reliever going back to 1918.
• The first game of Monday’s doubleheader marked a pair of firsts for two Tribe rookies: Zach McAllister and Nick Hagadone. McAllister earned his first major league win and Hagadone recorded his first major league save.
• Travis Hafner’s triple on Monday was his first since 2007.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“You should’ve seen it from my perspective in the dugout. He looked like a linebacker.”—Shelley Duncan, on Travis Hafner’s triple on Monday.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Michael Brantley

Michael Brantley has been coming around at the plate and the past week was evidence of that. In a week when the Tribe struggled to make noise offensively, Brantley was a steady force helping them along. He had four multi-hit games and brought home 8 runs. Heading into the week, Brantley carried a .238 batting average; he raised it to .269 by the end of the week.

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