Second Thoughts: Game #42 - Tigers 3, Indians 5

Starting Pitching

The Line: 6IP,5 H, 3/3R/ER, 6BB, 2K. 1GIDP

The Results: 99pitches, 59% strikes, 28 batters faced, 8GB, 7FB, 5LD

The Write-up: On the surface, this is a good outing for Ubaldo. Getting 6 innings and 3ER every time out from your starting pitcher would be a good result. No, it was not an ace-caliber performance like Ubaldo could deliver, but certainly a valuable one nonetheless. Some silver lining could even be drawn from the fact that despite the six walks, Ubaldo didn’t give up the huge inning and only got burned on one bad pitch. However, watching the game and looking at the batted ball data, there is a lot to be worried about. There were a lot of very hard hit balls throughout the night and about 40% of the time these are going to find holes and those walks are really going to hurt.

The velocity was back and he held it into the 6^th inning, which is a positive sign. That means he is getting back to his old mechanics, but the control problems look like they will be an issue all year. The biggest problem is that he is so erratic that hitters go up there looking for get-me-over fastballs early in the count and don’t have to pay attention to off-speed pitches because they aren’t going to be strikes anyway.

The scouting report on Ubaldo for the Tigers was an odd one: swing early at his fastball. This is a guy that will likely ruin things on his own, you don’t need to do anything. Of the 23 batters Ubaldo faced after the 1^st inning, 15 of them swung at one of the first two pitches. Of those 15, 11 were put in play. Of those 11, only three got hits (one of which was a 3-run HR), but there were five hard hit balls (Line-Drive + Deep FB) and the damage could have been much worse.

The Bullpen

The Line: 3 IP, 1H, 2BB, 3K

The Results: 48pitches, 60% strikes, 2GB, 2FB, PO, 3LD

The Write-up: It seemed like the usual suspects were struggling tonight: Tony Sipp and Chris Perez, but the fact is that they were both just pitching with runners on and Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder up to bat. That makes it seem like they are going to blow it and therefore they are bad pitchers. Far from it, both handled things very well giving up a grand total of a BB and only one ball in play.

I’ll start with the bad: Chris Perez gave up a hit and walk, but got the job done. This is what we care about, and I was unsurprised, but greatly disheartened to hear the meager showing at Progressive field booing and heckling their own closer. People: this was a divisional game that had been superbly played by your home team and they were trying to put the finishing touches on winning the 1^st game of a crucial early season series. Chris Perez cares, and he is 14/15 in save opportunities while flashing signs of his octane stuff again. Call me optimistic, but this is a good thing all around.

Now for the really good: Vinnie Pestano. This guy is just lights out and should definitely be in line for closer duties if/when the Tribe part ways with Chris Perez. His slider completely baffled Alex Avila as Pestano tripled up on the pitch and generated two bad swings and misses to get a strikeout to end the 8^th. That makes 20 straight appearances that Pestano has struck at least one batter out. Pestano has a rare delivery that makes it so lefties can’t see the off-speed stuff that breaks in towards them, most of the time a change-up is needed for a RHP to attack lefties, but Pestano is burying the slider so far in that guys are going right over top of it. He is a real weapon in the pen, and with a ridiculous 12.42 K/9 he will be relied on to get the Indians out of more and more jams as the year goes on.

The Starting Lineup

The Line: 12/34, 4 2B, 4 BB, 3SB

The Results: 5R, 16TB, 20LOB, AVG/OBP/SLG 352/421/471

The Write-up: This was a good offensive performance from seven of the nine starters. Damon went hitless yet again and looked badly over matched in most of his at bats. He did hit one ball hard down the right field line that ended up going just foul, but he was badly cheating and happened to guess right. At this point, Damon isn’t a capable Major League hitter, he may be once he gets more AB’s, but he could’ve hurt the team tonight. The last straw was in the 6^th inning when Brantley singled and stole 2^nd on the 1^st pitch of Damon’s at bat. He tried to bunt unsuccessfully, then struck out while hacking and trying to hook some pretty bad pitches. That could have really mattered had it not been for back to back hits from Kotchman and Jose Lopez. Jason Kipnis also had a rough night at the plate striking out in two big spots and almost grounding out into a double play in the 1^st.

However, on that very same play in the 1^st, Kipnis hustled down the line and beat out the throw. Cabrera promptly doubled home Kipnis thanks to a great read off the bat and some good aggressive base running on the part of Kipnis. I thought the Indians were smart on the bases all night. Lopez did well to get into a rundown in the 6^th and let Choo take his place at 2^nd. I would love to see more of this from a relatively young and athletic team. Brantley and Choo both took advantage of Porcello and Avila to get easy steals. Brantley’s other steal should have been a CS, but Peralta’s glove was travelling up instead of down and he couldn’t reposition to bring the tag down in time.

The Defense

The story of the night defensively was Jason Kipnis and the gap in left-center. Kipnis made several really strong plays and is demonstrating surprising range and instincts for a position he is relatively new at. The jump and throw in the 2^nd inning was a remarkable play. First, just to get there showed good range and soft hands to field it cleanly. Second, incredible balance was on display by being able to jump and turn in a single motion while turning the torso to face 1^st. Finally, an absolutely wonderful throw was placed to get Ramon Santiago, a pretty fast runner, by several steps. As much as we may rip on Johnny’s bat, he still has good outfield instincts, he made a catch in the left-center gap in the 1^st inning that neither Duncan, Cunningham nor anyone else in consideration for Left Field duties would have been able to. Brantley made a couple of nice running plays and may be starting to let that natural speed of his pair with some instincts to get better reads and cover larger territory more indicative of his physical talents.

The Takeaways

When it comes to divisional games, you care about winning and this team did that last night. Warts and all, a win is a win. Ubaldo pitched well enough and battled, despite the fact that similar outings in the future will likely result in much worse results, he got a quality start and picked up a win. At this point, the strength of the team needs to be narrowed down to two things: a patient lineup (4 walks last night actually lowered their season average of BB/9) and a lights out bullpen. The starting pitching and the power department will need to raise their heads up at some point to keep it rolling, but for right now; the Tribe faithful should enjoy the ride and look to keep on rolling against the team that was supposed to be running away with the division, but in reality is four games behind your very own Cleveland Indians.