Comment below with a funny caption for a chance to win a prize!

I admit that after watching the Indians rattle off four straight wins to start this week, I was quite optimistic that the tribe could keep it rolling tonight. After all, I was assuming that the Indians would frustrate Carlos “Mr. Hyde” Zambrano into destroying a couple gatorade coolers. In case you are looking for a nice video summarizing some of Zambrano’s greatest meltdowns, you can find it here. Anyways, Zambrano seemed to get off to a rocky start, allowing two quick Indians runs in the second inning thanks to a Casey “Botchman” Kotchman RBI double and Shin-Soo Choo RBI single. I must say that I cannot say “Casey Kotchman” without instantly saying BOTCHMAN afterwards. Thanks Stephanie, it has now become a habit!

Other than those two RBI hits, the Indians offense was kept in check by what my father referred to as  “a calmer, more Dr. Jekyll-like Carlos Zambrano.” Gotta love dads. Anyways, the tribe only managed one hit in the final seven frames of the game (a Jose Lopez single in the seventh inning), and had one runner reach second base (Choo in the 5th); However, it is worth noting that the Indians had 10 line drives in the game. I point that statistic out because the Indians had tallied twenty line-drives in their first four games this week (an average of 5.0 liners a game).

As for Justin Masterson, he seemed to correct some of the control issues that have plagued his season thus far as he only walked three batters in tonights game (two walks on 3-2 counts with pitches that just missed). Still, Masterson only managed to throw first pitch strikes to 11 of the 26 batters he faced, indicating that his control is still far from last year’s. This typically would not be a big deal, except for that it is past the middle of May Justin!

On the defensive front, I have to give a shout-out to my favorite Indian Carlos Santana for tonight’s performance. In all, Santana threw out three Marlins baserunners trying to steal second base, including Emilio Bonifacio. If this does not seem like a big deal to you, maybe you should read this. Basically, all you need to know is that Santana is the first guy to throw Bonifacio out in 2012, as he was 20-20 in steal attempts coming into tonight’s game. Again, Bonifacio…is…fast.

As stated above, I am going to do a caption contest for the picture at the top of the piece. Please feel free to submit a “caption” for the contest, and I will pick a winner to receive a prize. Nothing too crazy, but something an Indians fan may appreciate. I figured this would be a way to spice it up every once in awhile. I will announce the winner of the contest in my next post, which will be in a couple of days most likely!

I typically do a numbers line at the end of these post to indicate exactly how the game panned out for certain players, but my espn trumedia page is not working for some reason. I will update with some bits of information when I can figure out the issue.

Tomorrow:

Marlins 21-18 (Sanchez) vs. Indians 22-17 (Gomez) 4:05 P.M. Start

Feel Free to follow Brenden on Twitter @BrendenLowery

Also, Brenden is still desperately looking for a couple more questions for a mailbag post. Send him anything, even if it is something about Manny Acta’s glasses. Send questions to: balowery12@gmail.com!

 

 

 

8 Comments

  • Sean says:

    “About that nickname. We coaches are torn between Tony Baloney and Big WHIP Sipp. Any input?”

  • Mary Jo says:

    “I’m the coach so I get to lead. Put your left hand on my right shoulder so we can dance.”

    Tonight’s strike zone by Ed Hickox seemed to be a little like one of those fun house mirrors with the wavy lines. Sometimes it was a strike, sometimes not. [Then again I don’t watch the games (we’re cheap so we don’t have cable) and can only go by how Hammy calls it.] Still haven’t decided if Santana’s improvement behind the dish is because of 1) one more year experience, 2) one year further removed from his injury, or 3) per Hammy, Sandy said Carlos is wanting to “own” the catcher’s job this year and wants to be known not only for his offense but for being a good defensive catcher. Having Sandy Alomar for your mentor isn’t bad either.

  • Ben says:

    How about “Dancing with the Stars.”

  • Will McIlroy says:

    Wheeler left this behind but I’m giving it to you. Careful, it squishes.

  • Brenden Lowery says:

    Mary Jo,

    If you are interested, Ed Hickox boasts a “correct call” rate of 84.4% so far this season; Overall he ranks 69 out of 76 qualifying umpires at that category. To put it in perspective, two umpires (Jeff Nelson and Chad Fairchild) sport a C.C. rate of over 90; therefore, it is safe to say that yesterday’s strike zone was a little bit odd in my opinion.

  • Mary Jo says:

    So basically Hickox blows a call every 15.6% of the time. Got it. 😉

  • Norm says:

    “With this ring I thee wed”

  • Edward Ennett says:

    You put your Left Hand, You take your Left hand out…

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