Those of you who attended or watched last night’s Indians game may have, as I did, said a few choice words of disapproval while watching Vinnie Pestano struggle through the ninth inning. He gave up a towering home run to the first batter he faced, and also gave up a triple and a single. Another batter reached base safely thanks to a Nick Swisher error. Pestano allowed three runs in two-thirds of an inning. Although only one run was earned, he looked terrible out there, as he did in his other two relief appearances this season.
It didn’t take long for the Indians to react. According to Spencer Fordin of mlb.com, the Indians have optioned Pestano to Columbus before today’s doubleheader. The team also activated Trevor Bauer, as they had earlier announced they would do. Bauer will start the first second game. They also activated reliever Chen-Chang Lee (they can expand the roster to 26 players on days with a doubleheader).
Our Ryan McCrystal recently wrote about Pestano’s travails, pointing out that for whatever reason, Pestano simply isn’t throwing as hard as he used to. Here’s hoping that Pestano, who was so important to the team in 2011 and 2012, can somehow turn things around this season.
Remember, we’re taking Ernie Banks’s advice and playing two today. Here are the lineups for the first game, scheduled for 12:05 PM:
Padres
1. Everth Cabrera, SS
2. Seth Smith, LF
3. Yonder Alonso, 1B
4. Yasmani Grandal, DH
5. Jedd Gyorko, 2B
6. Will Venable, CF
7. Xavier Nady, RF
8. Nick Hundley, C
9. Alexi Amarista, 3B
Eric Stults, P
Indians
1. Asdrubal Cabrera, SS
2. Nick Swisher, 1B
3. Jason Kipnis, 2B
4. Carlos Santana, DH
5. Ryan Raburn, LF
6. Michael Brantley, CF
7. Yan Gomes, C
8. Mike Aviles, 3B
9. David Murphy, RF
Zach McAllister, P
As always, feel free to chime in via comments, and go Tribe!
per usual there looks like more people are in my living room than in the stands. giving them a break on this first game because of the dub header
Zip-zip in the 6th. Oh boy. This would not be a good day to go to extra innings…
Well, hush my mouth! Kip just hit it out! š
I thought Bauer was going to start the first game. Guess I was wrong. Great job by McAllister, though. He didn’t walk a batter.
Come to think of it, Indians pitchers didn’t walk a single batter yesterday, either. I hope they can keep it up!
a positively perez-ian effort from axford. maybe it’s only because he hasn’t had a spectacular meltdown yet, but for some reason I have more faith in him than I ever did in perez.
Maybe it’s because he hasn’t barfed all over the infield yet. The season is young, though! š
Maybe it’s because he hasn’t verbally barfed all over Twitter and the press with stupid comments?
Certainly doesn’t hurt.
I wonder why Santana is the starting catcher for game 2? Bauer has had some good starts lately, but he has a tendency to be very erratic. In general, I think he’d be better off with Gomes catching.
what on earth is francona’s malfunction with the leadoff spot? multiple games of cabrera and now elliot johnson?
Man, when Bauer gets his pitches over he’s devastating. 96 mph heater, followed by an 80 mph slider or change up, all with good location… here’s hoping he keeps it up. I don’t know what the Tribe coaching staff has been up do, but the difference is apparent.
Wow, that was a catch by Johnson, and it wasn’t even close. What the heck was that?
that rule doesn’t make any sense as explained/displayed during the game. if that’s the correct ruling – then in theory, an outfielder could catch a ball on the warning track, run all the way to the edge of the infield, mishandle the transfer while attempting to underhand the ball to the second baseman, and the batter would be safe with a hit.
if nothing else, if you’re gonna call that guy safe, i don’t see how you rule that a hit and not an error on johnson.
It was sad to see Vinnie struggle so mightily after being such an important piece of the Indians success just a few seasons ago. The bullpen mafia, at least the “old” guard, is now gone. That said, Cody Allen has looked strong as of late and I already talked about Scrabble/Eye Chart a week ago.
I have to admit, I sincerely thought Bauer would have pitched himself out of the game with something like 5 walks and 5 runs allowed by this point. He’s reminding me of the grade A “stuff” he possesses when he remembers where the plate is.
He looks (at least per Hammy’s description and box score) miles above where he was last season. Getting out of that jam in the 6th was amazing. 6 innings, 2 runs, 4 hits and 8 Ks…..WOW!
I think Bauer has run out of gas though. I hope the pen is warming up