Kansas City Royals at Indians, July 29-31st

[entertheshoe]

Sipp screws up two games in a row.

Santana gets two more hits to the opposite field, after his huge opp field double Sat night. This time he got them hitting right-handed. If he ever learns to hit the ball where it's pitched instead of trying to pull everything, he'll be a lot more productive. These last two games were encouraging.

He did fall asleep on that double down the right field line. He got run over by the hitter rounding first as Santana was apparently eyeballing some babe in the stands. Then he got so discombobulated he forgot to back up Donald, which allowed a big run to score when Donald failed to handle Fuko's throw that short-hopped him.

Good to see Kipnis hit his first ML home run, and off a lefty no less.

Kearns is toast. I'd rather see Zeke in the lineup, even against lefties.

Now we get Boston and Texas on the road. The next week will be huge. If the offense doesn't get going they could easily go 1-6, or worse. They're going to need some great performances by the starters and some hits with RISP, unlike today when they were 1-for-9.

Hate to nitpick but it was Kipnis who couldn't handle Fuku's throw, not Donald.

[Prosecutor]

Thanks for the correction. I still think of Donald as a second baseman but he was at 3rd yesterday.

Anyway, somebody needs to tell Santana where to position himself when a batter hits a double (Hint: not right in the basepath) and when a throw is coming in from right field.

[GeronimoSon]

Quite a few opportunities missed in yesterday's finale with the Royals.. The Marson near homer.. the foul balls down the lines.. the pickoff of Asdrubal.. etc.. The bad news is the Indians couldn't capitalize on the opportunities.. The good news.. the Indians created more opportunities than we've seen in the last six games.. Going into Boston to play the mighty Red Sox at Fenway will require cashing in on those opportunities. The season is in the balance over the next ten games.. This part of the schedule (four with the Red Sox, three with the Rangers and three with the Tigers) is the time of the year that will show if the Indians are contenders.. or pretenders.. should be great viewing..