With one pitch, one swing, and one huge blast, Lonnie Chisenhall may have finally jump-started his major league career.
Saturday night was Turn Back the Clock Night at Progressive Field, as the Indians donned extremely retro 1902 jerseys. These jerseys came from a different time period, when uniforms resembled a strangely appealing mixture of business casual and pajamas. Nick Swisher reportedly popped his collar during his first at-bat, which was awesome, predictable, and strangely appropriate.
The Kansas City Royals didn’t wear anything special on this particular evening, choosing to wear their standard road greys (boring!) but they did participate in turning back the clock by starting Miguel Tejada at 2nd base. I must say, I am surprised Tejada has managed to stick in the major leagues as well as he has, but just like Jason Giambi for the Indians, Tejada is in the part of his career where he can provide leadership and some clutch hitting off the bench.
All uniform frivolity aside, there was a baseball game to recap.
Scott Kazmir (5-4) followed up Corey Kluber’s gem on Friday night with a great outing of his own. Kazmir struck out 6 over 6.1 innings, though he was charged with two runs when Matt Albers couldn’t provide any relief after Kazmir ran out of gas. Vinnie Pestano made an appearance in the 8th inning, allowing zero runs while working around a couple soft base hits. Chris Perez pitched a very clean ninth inning and is quietly rounding into form following his injury earlier in the season.
The reason that the Indians won this game, however, was one Lonnie Chisenhall. The Tribe’s young third baseman has had his share of detractors (including yours truly), but he has rather quietly been more than serviceable since returning from the minor leagues. I had very high hopes for the Chiz Kid coming into 2013, as I picked him to have a breakout season in IPL’s Opening Day predictions, but Lonnie struggled mightily to start the season.
In the sixth inning, Lonnie took a big step towards exorcising those early season demons once and for all, as he came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs and sent the first Jeremy Guthrie (8-7) fastball he saw deep into the Royals bullpen. That blast made the score 5-0 and practically put the game out of reach. Lonnie has also been seen taking some walks in recent days, which is a great sign for his developing plate discipline. Personally, I’m loving what Lonnie is doing right now, and I think he’s finally starting to fulfill his potential.
OTHER NEWS:
-Max Scherzer (13-1) finally lost a game, giving up four runs over 6 innings in a loss to the Texas Rangers.
-The Indians fell just short of drawing 30,000 fans (29,740), but they did have to compete with Justin Bieber, whom was playing a concert at the Q. The Indians decided to get in on the festivities by playing Bieber’s “music” at every opportunity. Sometime before first pitch, this intrepid blogger overheard a young girl say the following to her father:
“Dad, I know there is a Justin Bieber concert going on, but do they need to play his crappy music here?”
I don’t know who you are, mysterious dad, but I just wanted to personally commend you on a parenting job well done. You are one of those every day heroes.
-MLB needs to seriously evaluate their Blackout restrictions on nationally-televised games, especially on Saturdays. It is one thing to be unable to watch the Indians when I lived in Florida (because they were on Fox and my area was on another game), but it is another thing altogether to not have a game on TV on Saturday night in the middle of July in 2013. I like to think that some team executive saw that Indians fans would be relegated to WTAM 1100 on this evening and said to themselves “Gee, being forced to listen to the radio, it’s like turning the clock back… hey that sounds like a promotional idea!”
To clarify, if I still lived in Florida, I could have watched this game on MLB.TV. But fans in Cleveland had no recourse to view the game in HD, regular-D, or any other kind of D you can imagine. That isn’t right.
-The Indians will go for a sweep Sunday, as Ubaldo “Five and Dive” Jimenez will take on James Shields at 1:05pm at Progressive Field. It’s Kids Fun Day, and looks to be a gorgeous (if sweltering) day, so head on down to the ballpark.
I also want to apologize for the delay in getting this recap posted. Moving sucks, and not having internet sucks even more. Thanks for your patience.
I was at the game and it was a very entertaining contest in absolutely perfect weather,delightful!
Gordon made a fabulous catch to save a big inning and Guthrie pitched out of a couple other jams while Kazmir loooked down right dominant at times,his fastball was really hopping.
Chisenhall’s poke was huge,he raked it right into the bullpen in right.
The Royals scored three runs in the seventh and only hit one ball out of the infield,Kazmir started the inning with two walks and was flexing his left fore arm like he had a cramp or something the whole time.Alcides Escobar picked up two RBI on an infield single!
As far as the navy blue and white 1902 uniforms go,I thought they were pretty sharp but the black socks needed to be replaced with white socks,you can see them in the game re-cap photos and decide for yourselves.
Attendance was a surprising 29,000 plus and with Biebermania, parking was a bit precious.I actually had to go to parking option three(which involves a nice walk) for the first time this season.
A sweep and a Detroit loss would put the Tribesters a half game out at the break,not bad.Not bad at all.
Good recap, Great “Other News”. Had me rolling!
I actually had to turn around and congratulate the girl on her good taste. It was too much!
Even MLB.TV blacks out games on Saturday nights. I live in Virginia and do not get the luxury of watching Saturday night games. My fiance loves that since she knows there won’t be any images distracting me from hanging out on Saturdays.
Yes, unfortunately for us Tribe fans down here in sunny Florida, MLB.TV does not spare us the Fox blackouts. All I could get was the lone highlight of Chiz’s slam, which was spectacular by the way. It looked like a curveball to me.
It was a hanging curve that Chisenhall absolutely destroyed.
I was at the game too, and most of the pre-trip was a valiant attempt on my behalf to avoid contact with the thousands of screaming teenage girls that flocked to the Gateway area like a biblical plague of locusts. Was given advice to park in Ohio City (near the West Side Market) and take the free shuttle over from there. Sounded like a great idea, until you find out that Ohio City at 4pm on a beautiful summer Saturday is somewhat akin to Times Square. Ended up parking at a lot 10 or so blocks north of the ballpark off E. 9th. It was one of those lots with no attendants, just an electronic box that you pay for your spot. Apparently, the lot is free on weekends. SCORE!
I love me some throwbacks, and generally liked the ones they Tribe were sporting, with the exception of the hideous white ‘Stayin’ Alive’ style belts. Oof. Anyone know why the Tribe chose 1902 to honor though? Seemed like a rather random year to pick…
Side note: This post reminded me of the days of my youth, when the Indians only broadcast 60 games a year. I still vividly remember the night I came home after playing summer ball (1992 maybe?) and stumbling upon the cable station ‘SportsChannel’, who had picked up a boat load of the other games not televised by Channel 43. I’m pretty sure I heard trumpets blare in triumph!