Whatever strange hold the White Sox seemed to have on the Indians earlier this season finally loosened in the last few weeks of the season. We were 3-7 in our first four series with the White Sox, and 4-4 in our last two series with them. Last night was the teams’ last meeting this season, and it was exceptionally satisfying to see our guys whomp some ChiSox butt for an 11-2 win.
Kosuke Fukudome and Jason Kipnis started off the first inning with back-to-back home runs and it just got better from there. Even my jaded, cynical, 47-times-bitten-48-times-shy husband watched the game with me. It was that much fun. Two extra-nice moments worth mentioning in a game full of nice moments: Asdrubal Cabrera hit a three-run tater in the seventh inning that gave him 25 home runs on the year and set a new franchise record for home runs by a shortstop. Right after that, Travis Hafner hit a beautiful double for his 1,000th career hit. This was followed by a swarm of warm fuzzies descending upon Progressive Field.
This game also gave fans what is probably the last time we’ll see Jim Thome and Omar Vizquel on the same field together. It was a joy to watch them both in their prime when they played for the Indians. That they’re both still playing (and playing well) over the age of 40 (hell, Omar is older than I am), is downright inspiring.
I was worried that the last two weeks of the season was going to turn into the Bataan Death March, but it hasn’t been. I’m going to enjoy the last seven games of a surprising season.
Here’s one of a few reasons why DET is winning the divison (and not us):
Adrubal’s #s: .276 avg, 32 2B, 3 3B, 25 HR, 92 RBI, .355 OBP
Jhonny P’s #s: .297 avg, 24 2B, 3 3B, 19 HR, 81 RBI, .345 OBP
Their #7 hitter has similar #’s to our MVP.
Tribe needs bats (or current ones need to produce).
thankfully you didnt mention we got rid of their #7 hitter….but hey, we have kipnis & donald…they dont!
I was reasonably fond of Peralta while he was here, but given the choice, I’ll take Kipnis in a heartbeat. Man, am I glad we have him. Imagine how much confidence that guy will have next year, having had this experience in the bigs now?
“Imagine how much confidence that guy will have next year, having had this experience in the bigs now?”
I’m sure there are several Tribe fans who said the same about Santana last year.
I absolutely agree, though – Kipnis does seem like he’s the real deal (producing prior to and after injury).
Let’s hope Santana, Asdrubal, Kipnis, Chisenhall, and Brantley all product (by produce, I mean > .270 avg). If that is the case, we’re in great shape!
Go Tribe!
produce*
guys, take the tribe glasses off….there isnt a GM alive that wouldnt trade kipnis, donald and 10 mill for peralta tonight….love the tribe, but be serious….the initial poster indicated wrong spelling jhonny has the best stats of ANY HITTER ON OUR TEAM…..NOW.
I firmly disagree with SeattleStu here. When Peralta left Cleveland, I was pleased. want to point out that Jhonny Peralta is having the best season of his career offensively. Only in 2005 did he have a higher OPS than he did than he does this season. This season, he has a .814 OPS, strikes out once every 6 ABs (18% of the time), and hits .297. Compare that against his career numbers where he hits .267, strikes out 1 in 4 AB or 23% of the time and has an OPS of .756.
The key to Jason Kipnis is that he has a much smaller sample size. But if you believe the hype, then he would be sold high and it would be the Tigers not the Tribe who would be sending money in a trade for Peralta. If you’d like to see a larger sample size, then you would not make a trade at all. Kipnis’ rookie season was far better than
Peralta was in his. Kipnis has a .904 OPS, Peralta’s was .621. Both batters struck out 1 in 4 ABs. Kipnis is hitting .284 and Peralta hit .227.
This is coming from a 2011 team that scores 4.3 runs per game. Peralta played on Indians’ team that had a much more consistent line-up instead of the revolving door that is the 2011 Cleveland Indians and scored 4.6 runs per game. Only because the 2011 pitching staff is better is why the 2011 team has won more games.
Manny Acta is an above average coach in an above average organization with a severely below average budget. This team completes when every few years when the young players develop at the right time.
As Stephanie pointed out, the last time the Indians’ AAA team won back-to-back International League championships was in 1991-92. And we all remember what 1993-2001.
STRIKE TWO — TRIBE FEVER DEPT.
Once upon a time, the Cleveland Indians were the best story in baseball. Remember?
Back on May 23, they beat the Red Sox with two runs in their last at-bat, to raise their record to 30-15, the very best (at the time) in the whole sport.
Then, unfortunately, the season refused to end.
Since that fateful day, the Indians are 16 games under .500 (47-63). Which means, they’re now below .500 (at 77-78), with a mere seven games left in the season.
If you’re thinking, boy, THAT’S hard to do, we can only reply: Well, correctamente.
It’s so hard, in fact, that in the history of baseball, only three teams have ever had that good a record over their first 45 games and then finished with a losing record.
There was Horace Helmbold’s 1890 Philadelphia Athletics, of the late, great American Association. They started 30-15 and wound up 54-78.
There was Babe Young’s 1940 New York Giants. They, too, were 30-15 once — and ended up at 72-80.
And then there was a team from Cleveland that also pulled this off. That was Bunk Congalton’s 1905 Cleveland Naps. They were 31-14 after 45 games — but were 76-78 by the time they hit the finish line.
So that’s no teams in the last 71 years, one in the last 106 years and only one in the entire history of the American League. To avoid joining that group, the Indians need to go 4-3 against the Twins and Tigers to finish at exactly .500, or 5-2 to finish with a winning record.
Boy, talk about adding drama to the last week of the season. You can’t beat this. Heck, even Bunk Congalton will be pulling for them, wherever he is.
“there isnt a GM alive that wouldnt trade kipnis, donald and 10 mill for peralta tonight”
Are you kidding me?