When I saw that the Indians were facing a soft-throwing left handed pitcher that was making his second major league start, I pretty much knew how this was going to turn out. The Indians are 5-14 (today’s game included) against left-handed pitching. They are just 1-4 this season against pitchers making their first or second major league start. In fact according to ESPN Stats and Info, Dallas Keutchel is the first Astros starter to pitch a complete game, surrendering one run or less in his first or second major league start, since Randy Niemann in 1979. FYI – I was born in 1979, so that’s pretty much my entire life. Ladies and gentlemen – your 2012 Cleveland Indians offense.
I want to make sure to save enough of my ire for Jeanmar Gomez. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a Gomez fan since his Akron days. Unfortunately, I think it’s time for the Colum-bus to come and take him for a stint at Triple-A. Switch him out for Zach McAllister and let Gomez try to solve his problems with the Clippers. In his last 6 starts, Gomez is 1-5 with a 7.92 ERA and 8 home runs surrendered. Batters are hitting over .300 off him. The most painful part of today’s game is that Gomez took a perfect game into the 5th inning. Once the wheels fell off, they fell off. That seems to be a trend with him; he does really well until he hits a patch of trouble, or until he goes through the lineup a second time.
I decided to go to the Larchmere Porch Fest today and was keepomg track of the game on my phone. I figured that Gomez may be pitching for a spot in the rotation at this point, and when I saw that he was doing so well, I hastened to find a television. The second I got to a bar showing the game, Gomez gave up a double and it all went downhill from there. (I found a bar serving mead later in the day, so it wasn’t a wasted outing at least.)
I don’t have much to say about the offense (other than the fact that it was bad). An early home run by Asdrubal Cabrera produced the lone run…otherwise there was nothing much to speak of. There are rumors that the Indians are in the hunt to acquire Kevin Youkilis, but I’m not sure what I think about that. I’m tired of seeing the Tribe just simply owned by left-handed pitching, but I fear that my desperation is causing me to think unrationally.
My friend is an Astros fan and I asked him to give me a scouting report on them prior to the series. He told me that they were kind of unpredictable, yet tended to play fairly well at home, typically winning at least one game a series. (That makes me hope that the Indians can still take the series on Sunday.) The Astros usually do poorly in the first inning and Brad Mills tends to panic and use too many relievers. (Last night Matt Underwood and Rick Manning mentioned that Mills once used 7 pitchers for 7 batters). My friend has also referred to J.A. Happ as “Happless” so you have to hope tomorrow will be better…Happ is left handed though, so he’ll probably look like Cy Young against these guys.
Happ is left-handed. He’s not good, but he is still a lefty.
Crap…thanks. I’ve never been good at keeping my left and right straight! I’ll fix it. He’ll probably look like Cy Young against these guys.
“…he was doing so well, I hastened to find a television. The second I got to a bar showing the game, Gomez gave up a double and it all went downhill from there.” Well THERE’S the problem. 😉
I had the same thought re: soft-tossing lefties. Hmm, seems I also posted that same thought to IPLs Facebook comment page during the game….(thief! lol!) I’m hoping this game punched Gomez’s ticket for the C-bus but I haven’t seen anything on-line yet. Don’t want to give up on him since he DID throw a perfect game once in AA. There has to be something in there somewhere, I would hope.
OH, and OT for baseball, but How Cool is the Larchmere Porch Fest???? Made me think of the Hessler Street Fair Hubby and I would attend in the ’70s. After I read your post I checked out the Porch Street website (hubby said they used to do something WAY small scale when he lived close to the area in the late 60s/early 70s) and have found yet another reason why I want to move back to C-Town ASAP! We’re planning this year’s visit to our kids in Akron the same time Little Italy’s “The Feast” runs in mid-August. Good times, good times.
Please tell me the rumors about Youkilis coming the Cleveland are false. There are few players in baseball that spark such feelings of hate as Kevin Youkilis. Not sure what it is about him (batting stance, cockiness, Boston) but I would have a real problem liking him even if he joined the Tribe. I want him to go to Chicago so I can have even more reasons to root against the White Sox, but he would probably torch us every time we played them.
I saw your comment Mary Jo – great minds think alike! I definitely don’t want to give up on Gomez, because I think he still has great stuff. It seems like it may be a matter of working through mental issues, because when he seems to hit a patch of trouble, things just unravel. And the Porchfest was very cool…it was my first time attending. I later found out that Susan was there as well, and that a relative of hers even had a band playing on their front porch. I lived around Harrisburg, Pa. for about 6 years and was very glad to move back about 5 years ago.
I honestly can think of no real reason why I want Youkilis to come to Cleveland, except that I feel desperate and basically want to play “keepaway” from other teams in case he bounces back. He may not bounce back though, and he’s always rubbed me the wrong way (dugout tantrums if he has a bad game, even if his team is up by like 10 for example). I saw someone suggest that maybe playing 3rd isn’t the best for him at this point in his career and it’s just exacerbating his injuries…that he’d be better off back at 1st. If the White Sox nab him, it sounds like he’ll be at 3rd (no way will he displace Konerko or Dunn unless there’s an injury). So while I never hope for someone to be injured, I secretly hope he may not physically be up to being an everyday 3rd baseman at this point in his career.