I try not to get irritated with the Indians this early in the season. I should just be happy to sit outside on a nice (but windy) day and enjoy some baseball. But this game today was really, really annoying. Since I’m not even thrilled to re-hash it, here’s a list of the things that made me the most annoyed.
Zach McAllister – I have a weird opinion about McAllister making the rotation. In general, he makes me nervous and I’d rather see him in the bullpen. He has a tendency to rely to much on his fastball, and too often his fastball doesn’t fool anyone. At the same time, he definitely pitched the best this spring and rightfully earned the spot. His outing was just an absolute mess today…by the end of the third inning he’d already given up eight singles. A lot of the hits against him were cheap bloopers, but you still can’t let that many people get on base and expect none of them to score. I know I was likely spoiled by the brilliant pitching in Houston, but after watching such great games, it stung to watch Detroit score 8 runs on 18 hits.
The offense – Alfredo Simon, a pitcher who the Indians have hit well, was just mowing down Tribe hitters. From where I was sitting, the strike zone seemed rather inconsistent, so I guess that they had to contend with that. They had breakthrough moments, but for much of the day they really seemed to sputter (or at least struggle to get a lasting rally going). For example, when they brought the score to 5-3 from 5-0 in the bottom of the sixth, they still had a runner on with only one out. Yan Gomes promptly grounded into a double play to end the inning.
The defense – The Indians were only charged with one error (and man, it was a big one) but they looked sloppy at other points. And who only knows what happened to Marc Rzepczynski when he threw that routine toss to first into right field. It was frustrating because just when the Indians would start to creep their way back into the game, the lead would get out of control again.
Carlos Santana’s double – Santana’s double in the eighth inning ended up being reviewed, but not overturned. A replay of the hit shows a fan reaching over the railing; if he would have kept his hands to himself it may have been a home run. Not like it would’ve mattered at that point, but it was just one more thing to add to the pile at that point.
The only positive things I can say about today is that it ended up being pretty nice out, and the renovations looked pretty nice. The outfield area was crowded with everyone trying to catch a glimpse of the new additions, but I managed to get a few pictures of everything.
The new entrance at Gate C
The remodeled concourse area
Some of the new “neighborhood” areas in the outfield
The Corner – the new right field bar
Downstairs interior of The Corner
Even though I tried to forget, there was actually a game today. Here are some pictures of that (er, mostly the pregame festivities).
Opening ceremonies
National Anthem
Balloons!
Corey Kluber, Gaylord Perry, and the Cy Young award
First pitch of the game from Zach McAllister
What do the right field upper deck group box-thingys look like in person from the stands? The new centerfield entrance, bullpens, bar, etc looks great on TV, but I’m a little ‘eh’ about what they did in the upper reaches of Progressive Field. Just curious what it looks like up (relatively) close.
Who wears Browns stuff to opening day???? Also the fan that reached over the rail, never… Bad game, win today.
Honestly seeing people show up to opening day in Browns gear represents everything that is wrong about the Indians’ attendance vs the Browns attendance. I just cannot stand the “football town” mentality where supposed “Cleveland fans” couldn’t name five players on the Tribe but will rave about how Joe Thomas is somehow great despite never making a QB look good.