Twins at Indians, June 6, 7 & 8

[Prosecutor]

I'm withholding judgement on Carrasco until he goes 8 innings against a major league team. The Twins are devastated by injuries. Only one starter in last night's game was hitting above .259. Five of their nine starters were below .230. Their lineup is a joke right now. Their DH was somebody named Dinkleman who has 0 HRs and 0 RBIs. I can't believe Tomlin let himself get beat by these guys.

Those were the same guys who had won five in a row and beat the Indians the night before. Dinkleman had four AB's starting the night out, so not having a lot of stats wouldn't be a HUGE surprise....somehow, withholding judgement seems "dis-ingenuine"...

Excellent point. I have no idea how they won five in a row without Mauer, Span, and Kubel, and with Morneau a shadow of himself. Did I mention Joe Nathan is on the DL?

Carrasco gave up 5 earned runs in 6 innings in his last start against the Rangers, who I consider to be a very good offensive team. So I'd put Carrasco somewhere between the Cy Young candidate we saw last night and the talented but not-quite-finished product we saw against the Rangers. I just hope he stays healthy and shows improvement as the season goes on. This is his first full season in the bigs and he's learning what he can get away with and what he can't.

[Hermie13]

Don't really get this lineup today for the Tribe.

Ok, so we sent Duncan down.....disagree but ok.

But you start Marson at catcher against a righty? Especially a day game after a night game (caught last night too)?

Where's Buck who is hitting well against righties? Heck, even Kearns is a better bet.

Get that it's 90 degrees out but still

[ChadS17]

It's been almost a week since we scored an earned run that wasn't a homer.

[ChadS17]

Said it before, I'll say it again, this isn't a team that can afford to have Hannahan starting. On the right team maybe, but not this one!

[Prosecutor]

Great catch by Phelps. OCab wouldn't have come close to that one. Now let's see if Pavano strikes him out with three changeups in the dirt again.

Looks like Phelps is calming down in his 3rd at-bat. He actually took two pitches.

[Prosecutor]

Marson now 2-for-34 against right-handers. I can't believe Manny didn't have him bunting from the first pitch against Pavano with a runner on first, nobody out, and Brantley and Droobs coming up next.

[Prosecutor]

Brantley now hitting .428 in his last nine games. He's turning into a stud right before our eyes. I don't see how Manny moves him back to the 7 hole. When Hafner gets back it will probably be:

Brantley
ACab
Grady
Santana
Hafner
Choo
LaPorta
OCab/Phelps
Hannahan

[Prosecutor]

I guess I'm the only one who called in sick to watch the game today.

Another game of no run support for Masterson. He goes 8 innings, gives up 2 runs, and is about to get tagged with another loss. Tribe has scored 5 runs in Masterson's last 5 starts.

[Prosecutor]

OH MY GOD! Hannahan goes deep with two out in the 9th to tie it. Just when I was closing book on this game.

You don't suppose Marson could...Nah.

At least Masterson doesn't get stuck with another undeserved loss.

[Prosecutor]

The miracles continue! Marson with his second consecutive hit off a right-hander. OK, it was an infield hit but they all count. Now Brantley going for his 4th hit of the game to give ACab a chance to win it.

[criznit2009]

Way to go Hannahan!!!

[ChadS17]

That was HUGE. If we win this it would be a significant momentum boost heading to New York.

[ChadS17]

That was huge as well.

[ChadS17]

This is bad. We will be lucky to split with New York. Hannahan came up big but we need more offense and we need it at third base..IMO

[jellis]

This is bad. We will be lucky to split with New York. Hannahan came up big but we need more offense and we need it at third base..IMO

They way we are playing a split would be unreal, we will be lucky to not get swept.


Props to Phelps he might not have had a hit, but his defense was great and this game would have been over in 9 if he had not been in.

[GeronimoSon]

Sad way to lose a game.. Just weren't able to get a clutch hit early..to put some runs on the board. Masterson pitched about as well as you can expect. Nice diving catch by Cord in his first action in the Majors.. I'm sure he would have liked to get his "first hit" out of the way.. Perhaps it's karma that he'll get his first hit this weekend in the Bronx..

Saddest part now.. no Indians until Friday evening.....

[Prosecutor]

Horrible performance by Chris Perez.

Top of the 10th, score tied, two outs, nobody on, and Butera up. Butera is right-handed, the #9 hitter in the order, and he's hitting .148. Perez goes to a full count then gives up a double to this stiff.

That brings up left-handed hitting Ben Revere, who is hitting .320 in June and already has two hits today. First base is open. Perez needs to either walk this guy or make him swing at a bad pitch because he's swinging the bat better than anybody on that team right now. Instead he falls behind 3-1 then grooves a fastball right down the middle. Of course Revere singles and the Twins score the go-ahead run.

Gardenhire brings in a lefty to pitch the bottom of the 10th and it's game over. Two more scoreless innings for the Tribe today against lefties and now they're up to 46 innings by my count with only one earned run. Santana doubled to give them a chance but Choo, who has 2 RBI's all year against left-handed pitching, bounced back to the pitcher to end it.

The real reason they lost was because they could only get one run off Carl Pavano in 7 innings on a Sizemore HR. I don't know if Pavano was that good or the Tribe hitters were that bad.

Phelps looks like a definite improvement over OCab in the field but he failed to hit the ball hard in four at-bats hitting left-handed, which is his better side.

[A.Zajac]

Horrible performance by Chris Perez.

Top of the 10th, score tied, two outs, nobody on, and Butera up. Butera is right-handed, the #9 hitter in the order, and he's hitting .148. Perez goes to a full count then gives up a double to this stiff.

That brings up left-handed hitting Ben Revere, who is hitting .320 in June and already has two hits today. First base is open. Perez needs to either walk this guy or make him swing at a bad pitch because he's swinging the bat better than anybody on that team right now. Instead he falls behind 3-1 then grooves a fastball right down the middle. Of course Revere singles and the Twins score the go-ahead run.

Gardenhire brings in a lefty to pitch the bottom of the 10th and it's game over. Two more scoreless innings for the Tribe today against lefties and now they're up to 46 innings by my count with only one earned run. Santana doubled to give them a chance but Choo, who has 2 RBI's all year against left-handed pitching, bounced back to the pitcher to end it.

The real reason they lost was because they could only get one run off Carl Pavano in 7 innings on a Sizemore HR. I don't know if Pavano was that good or the Tribe hitters were that bad.

Phelps looks like a definite improvement over OCab in the field but he failed to hit the ball hard in four at-bats hitting left-handed, which is his better side.

I've said time and time again here not to bring in CP in non-closing situations. That's when he's at his worst.

[hoof32]

Cannot really find fault with Phelps oh-fer.

How much sleep could he have possibly gotten?

He should do better with some rest.

Glad that Acta has him up here to play.

Hope he claims the job. Think it's his for the taking.

Who's with me?

[ChadS17]

Cannot really find fault with Phelps oh-fer.

How much sleep could he have possibly gotten?

He should do better with some rest.

Glad that Acta has him up here to play.

Hope he claims the job. Think it's his for the taking.

Who's with me?

Those who have an ounce of sense in their head. Hard to expect the guy on top of his game in his debut.

The guy we really should be on is Asdrubal for his oh-fer.

[Pork Chop Pough]

What a friggin' disaster. This was about as winnable of a series a you can ever get, but this team is a complete embarrassment right now. Meanwhile, the White Sox and Tigers both won their first two games in very difficult series... the only silver lining is that they're both losing tonight. I just checked in on the Mariners-ChiSox game... what's really insane isn't that Adam Kennedy is batting cleanup for the Mariners, it's that, looking at the rest of their offense, it makes sense.

[Prosecutor]

Well, Manny is calling them out, sort of.

"Right now, it seems like if we don't hit home runs, we can't score. I think we're expanding the zone too much. Some guys are trying to do too much instead of having quality at-bats and letting the next guy handle the business."

I imagine he'll take advantage of the off day to have a talk with the players he feels are chasing too many pitches. I'll be looking to see if the Tribe hitters seem to be more patient against the Yankees. LaPorta in particular needs to lay off that breaking ball down and away, and if he gets one with two strikes he needs to take it to right field. They're making a fool out of him time after time with that pitch.

I didn't mean to critisize Phelps; I just pointed out that he didn't hit the ball on the nose in four ABs. He was in a 5-for-27 slump at Columbus when he got called up and he was up late traveling, so I'm not getting on him for taking the collar. I'll give him at least until the All-Star break before making any evaluation.

[Hermie13]

I've said time and time again here not to bring in CP in non-closing situations. That's when he's at his worst.

Not a whole lot of choice there. Pestano is banged up. And 9 out of 10 managers will bring in their closer for the top of the 10th. They know they can't get a save situation, so might as well use the guy who is (or should be) your best reliever.

And honestly, he really didn't pitch any worse yesterday as he has in many of his save situations.

[Hermie13]

Cannot really find fault with Phelps oh-fer.

How much sleep could he have possibly gotten?

He should do better with some rest.

Glad that Acta has him up here to play.

Hope he claims the job. Think it's his for the taking.

Who's with me?

Those who have an ounce of sense in their head. Hard to expect the guy on top of his game in his debut.

The guy we really should be on is Asdrubal for his oh-fer.

Depends what you mean by "claim the job"......OC still should start every game against lefties.

[ChadS17]

I've said time and time again here not to bring in CP in non-closing situations. That's when he's at his worst.

Not a whole lot of choice there. Pestano is banged up. And 9 out of 10 managers will bring in their closer for the top of the 10th. They know they can't get a save situation, so might as well use the guy who is (or should be) your best reliever.

And honestly, he really didn't pitch any worse yesterday as he has in many of his save situations.

Completely agree with Hermie. Guy has to learn to pitch in situations like that. If you only bring him in for save opportunities, he pitches 45-50 games a year. And he's only been a closer for less than a year. Should still have a little "set-up man mentality" in him.