DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Indians Thread

Trying not to over-react, but how can you honestly say this is a playoff contender? of the last 7 games, we've blown 4 in the 8th or 9th. Good teams don't do that.We have no business being in this race.

Let's not forget that this was against 1st place teams.

"Sometimes" good teams have battles that come down to the last at bat when they play one another.

We're "contenders" because we play in what might be the worst division in baseball. That said... This is just embarassing to watch.

Your 100% correct. I have a lot of "how many times can you blow a gem starting effort" thing going on.

It's hard to watch, and all I have it the mlb.com game day thingy on.

Alright, need 2. Let's go tribe! ...

Well .. not tonight.

At least Detroit lost to Kansas City, so we stay 4 back. We play Detroit and Minnesota at home coming up ... so we need a strong homestand.

That was U-G-L-Y. We have to stop inventing new ways to blow games late and start closing them out again. This was awful to watch.

I think Acta found out, Joe Smith is not a set-up guy. Time to get Pestano back in that role.

Last week, we couldn't score any offense, this week the bullpen implodes for the most part. This team just cant fire on all cylinders. That explains why they're 26-41 in their last 67 games.

I don't necessarily agree with that. Up until last night, Smith has pretty much been money in that spot (along with Sipp from the left side). I think Pestano has been the shakier of the two of late. I'd keep Smith where he is for now. Every pitcher is going to have a rough outing here and there over 162 games. Unfortunately, we've had a few of them (with several different pitchers) lately.

That said, we certainly brewed the perfect storm in the 8th last night. Tomlin puts two guys on to start and Smith comes in and can't find the strike zone. If you pitch from behind to this Texas lineup, they are going to hurt you. Throw in a wild pitch for good measure and you end up with a really crooked number on the scoreboard. It's been a tough stretch the last couple of weeks.

Oh well... big, BIG series against Detroit starting tomorrow!

that's one of the problems with bullpens. if they start to get shakey and they are needed a ton (so they are taxed too), then they can fall apart.

hopefully, they just need to recharge and get back to being the strength of our team.

some positives out of the TX series:

1. Ubaldo was throwing gas. Location/Movement was not good, but concerns about a drop in velocity did not seem prevalent on Friday (94-98 on the local TX broadcast gun).

2. Kipnis - not just at the plate either. He also made some great plays this weekend (in particular Friday where Ubaldo would have owed him a steak dinner if he got that win).

3. Chisenhall - his defense was surprisingly good as well. He made a couple outstanding plays (one hard short-hopper early in the game yesterday comes to mind).

4. Zeke - he didn't do anything spectacular (though he was busy) before or after, but he deserves props for one of the best catches of the season on Friday (diving full extension while coming up to the wall).

5. Carlos Santana - he's swinging the bat good again. started the last game of the Boston series and he's swinging good now. even his 3 SO game Saturday, the swings didn't look forced like they have been. he's back to his fluid motion, which is huge.

6. Perez picked up a save. It wasn't pretty, but we finally got him in a save situation and he delivered (first save since mid-July - mostly the team's fault for not getting him the chances, but he blew his first one on Friday).

7. Carmona & Tomlin - they both sure looked good against that great TX lineup.


that's about all the positive I can muster out of this series, but there were decent signs. losing 4 of the last 6 games in the 8th and 9th inning really hurts though.

The positive thing is we went toe-to-toe with two of the best teams in the AL, and pretty much held our own. The negative is we found a way to lose 4 games to those two teams when we could easily have swept both series. So it goes, thats what separates the competitive teams from the contenders.

Masterson vs Fister tomorrow night, Time to start a streak.

the strangest thing is that we had 5 down to the wire games. we went 1-4. but, the games we had the late lead, we went 0-4 and won the only game we had the late deficit.

we HAVE to win the Detroit and Minny series. don't have to sweep, but have to win the series.

After Masterson vs Fister, matchups are Jimenez vs Porcello and then Carmona vs Verlander (ugh). I thought I had read we would miss Verlander in this series, but he's scheduled for Thursday.

Smart move. I think we can beat Verlander, but a lot has to go right for us to make it happen. Getting Verlander into the series almost guarantees the Tiggers one win which would mean the worst that would happen by the end would be a one game loss. Very smart...

Just saw this little tidbit:

12 home games remaining in the month of August and they are against Minnesota, Seattle, Kansas City, and Oakland. The AL’s worst teams.

This is where we have to make our move. 9-3 at worst.

Jim Leyland is one of the sharpest managers in the game, imo. Maybe when Carmona faces Verlander Thursday, he should plant one in Miguel Cabrera's ribs - the guy wears us out anyway, and then when Verlander reciprocates maybe he'll get tossed.

Follow the Tigers more closely and your opinion of Leyland will change dramatically.

Verlander is 11-11 against the Tribe in 25 starts with a 4.82 ERA

Although keep in mind that the Tribe is sporting a very young, brand new lineup. A lot of these guys have not seen Verlander.

I think it's going to be an interesting experience. Chisenhall, Kipnis, Fukudome, Carrera have not seen him at all. Other guys like Laporta and Santana have limited at-bats.

I honestly don't think you can chalk that up as an L though. The game doesn't scare me as much as it should.

Well, just your ordinary walk off, bases loaded, hit by pitch, to win the game in the 14th .......

Tribe takes game 1 from the Tigers.

Well that was different. Walk off hit by pitch.

We will take it any way we can get it!

Fun. I'm going to bed.

JC
Great job by the bullpen last night; 12 shutout innings. We're going to need innings from Jimenez tonight.

turned it on late and Masterson was already out of the game. well, we could have gotten 4 more wins the past week if the bullpen pitched like that, but at least we saved the good innings for the Tigers.

Of course I turned it off after the 12th inning...

Stupid early morning...

Flipped on the sports radio this morning to a Tom Hamilton call, and knew right away the Tribe had won one.

Interesting thing about the squeeze last night. The Detroit color guy called it before the pitch and then said that Brantley tipped it off.

They showed a replay and it looked like Brantley looked down before the signs were done. Anybody else notice this? Did the Tribe broadcasters pick up on this?

How many outs were there withe the bases loaded hbp?

Looks like just one.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/6...s-rogers-centre

too long to post here, but basically confirming all the rumors that the Blue Jays steal signs at the Roger's Center and give a couple examples along with some statistical backing for it.

What are the chance Masterson comes back tommorrow to face Verlander? He only pitched 2 innings and 37 pitches. They can't give his normal 5 days rest can they?

I would think they would just stick with Carmona. He's pitched well recently and it's important to stick to the rotation.

Not sure if this is great news.....but Choo is scheduled to maybe start playing next week. Grady, he's probably done for the year.

Just heard on WKNR that Masterson will go Friday against Minny. Tomlinson on Saturday.

Hopefully he can still pitch with that Darth Vader mask on too.

Whoa...we finally got LT? Man....I don't know. Didn't he have that big sexual assult trial recently? I'm not sure about this...

That's TAYLOR ...


... he pitches Sunday.