Sigh…

Not a whole lot to say about this one. Not a whole lot about this series to be happy about, either.

It was finally the kind of start we were looking for from Danny Salazar (7 INN/5 H/1 ER/8 SO/1 BB). Unfortunately, it a sour stay in the bay as the Giants swept the Tribe thanks to a walkoff three-run homer by Brandon Hicks off of Cody Allen.

Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong (7 INN/2 H/6 SO/2 BB) was equally up to the task as he shut-out the Tribe during his outing. Thus, the Tribe’s lineup continued its’ malaise. Carlos Santana has to be in danger of being moved out of the cleanup spot. No matter how much Francona likes to make it hard for opposing managers to match up later in games, he’s not helping the team in his spot right now. He is now hitting a paltry .122 and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of him snapping out of it.

Yan Gomes hit his third homer of the season in the eighth inning for the Indians only run, but it was a short-lived spark as Cody Allen missed his location and sent the team to Anaheim on a sad note.

W: Sergio Romo (2-0); L: Cody Allen (2-1)

 

 

10 Comments

  • Sean Porter says:

    This team is playing with zero confidence. Glad to see Salazar pitch very well today, though. Hopefully he can build upon this start.

  • Gvl Steve says:

    I’m really starting to question Terry Francona’s managing strategy. Certainly $4 million bucks a year buys more than making out one lineup card on April 1st and running off 162 copies of it so you can hand one to the umpire every day. Last year, Francona put his players in the best position to succeed by managing matchups, off days, and lineup positioning. What happened to that? And why is Lonnie Chisenhall still not playing against RHPs?

    • SteveO says:

      For some reason I thought Vogelsong was a lefty and that’s why Chiz was out of the lineup. But no, you’re right. He’s a righty. I guess he wants to have both Santana and Gomes in the lineup, and there is no DH since it was in an NL park, so Chisenhall was left without a spot. But still, if Chisenhall is hitting better, why not start him at 3B over Santana? I mean, don’t bench Santana for an extended period of time, but maybe they could’ve used Carlos as a pinch hitter and had Chiz start at 3B in that series. Idk, maybe I’m overthinking this. I’ll leave the managing to Tito.

      Also, funny thing: last season people were going bonkers because Francona used all kinds of wacky lineups from day to day, but this year we’re getting annoyed because he’s using basically the same lineup every day. Ha.

      Oh, and one last thing: Thank God we don’t have to play in an NL park again anytime soon. Ugghhh….

      • shaun says:

        i don’t think you’re off…i was wondering the same thing as well. triple digit number of games left to be played. not ready to start panicking otherwise this is going to be a looooooong season

    • The Doctor says:

      this is what i’ve been saying since about game 5. guys that should never be batting in the top 1/3 of the lineup (cabrera, i’m looking at you), keeping the only guys hitting mired in the bottom of the order, refusing to give obviously exhasuted players a day off – all par for the course. francona’s obsession with splitting up the lefties in the order at the expense of everything else is infuriating.

      we’re through 15% of the season here, so the cries of “it’s still early” or “look at our record last year at this time” only carries so much weight.

  • Adam Hintz says:

    I liked Yan Gomes a lot more as a weapon off the bench and in matchup plays. That seems weird to say, because he WAS the offense today, and he hasn’t been AWFUL (the errors are probably just statistical noise, and his offense has been fine)… but something is not right.

    • Sean Porter says:

      Something is not right with virtually the whole team, and its very perplexing. Its like they’ve forgotten that they won 92 games last year, and are continuously playing like they are expecting something bad to happen.

      For example, Gomes defensive weaknesses have been pointed out numerous times on here (for good reason), but Kipnis has been in my humble opinion just as disappointing defensively. His range appears to be Carlos Baerga-like this year, and he’s made numerous brain-farts, with poor throws and dropped balls.

      Its like the team realized that no one was going to let them sneak up on them this year – and they are petrified by this realization.

      • shaun says:

        cleveland wack-a-moles…one thing goes right and something else pops up somewhere else!! like my golf game

      • D.P. Roberts says:

        I think you’re right, and that’s part of the problem. They handed out all those “Unfinished Business” t-shirts like they assumed that another playoff trip was already guaranteed, so they put a lot of pressure on themselves. When things didn’t start off that way they all kind of panicked. I think that’s why you see so many guys swinging for the fences when they should be trying to just get a hit. Hopefully, they can calm down and just do what they’re good at.

  • shaun says:

    i wouldn’t mind seeing aviles play for cabrera against our next lefty matchup.