The problem when the Indians play out west is that games don’t start until almost 10 p.m. Eastern time. Between the late start time, a husband who has a tendency to commandeer the remote, and feeling sick the past few days (actually sick due to an organic cause, not the Indians’ horrid series in San Francisco), I went to bed without watching any of the game and woke up not knowing who won. I confess, I expected to wake up to a loss. The Diamondbacks have kind been the mirror opposite of the Indians; we got off to a great start and have slowed down since then. The Dbacks started slow but went on a tear the last two weeks of May in which they won 14 of 17 games. In June, they’ve been playing .520 ball, while we um… well, we haven’t. (We’re .360 for the month of June. eek.)

Given these circumstances, I was pleasantly (okay, really joyfully, excitedly) surprised to wake up and discover that we beat Arizona, 5-4 on home runs from Asdrubal Ought-To-Be-An-All-Star Cabrera and Orlando Cabrera. Plus, Lonnie Chisenhall went 2-4 with an RBI in his major league debut. I hope this wasn’t a fluke and that he can consistently make a positive impact. I’m glad to see him in the Bigs.

Tonight it’s Tomlin (9-4, 3.95) vs. Daniel Hudson (9-5, 3.58). Hudson has won his last three starts. The pessimist in me says that he’s on a hot streak and we don’t have a chance. The optimist in me says the law of averages is going to catch up with him tonight and  he’s bound to lose. Somehow, with the way the bullpen performed last night and the addition of a Lonnie Chisenhall who seems ready for the majors, I’m feeling more confident about the next two games in this series. If I can wrest the remote away from my husband, I’ll be watching.

 

4 Comments

  • Drew says:

    Cord Phelps bothers me. Isn’t he supposed to be a very capable fielder? He already has 5 errors this season as an Indian. Those are the kind of numbers you’d expect from a little league second baseman. I am little concerned also by Lonnie Chisenhall’s hits. Both pitches were on the outside of the plate and he pulled both of them. In contrast, A-Cab’s homerun was to the opposite field. I have to give props to Manny Acta with how he managed the game last night. On two separate occasions, he combined a pitching change with a defensive substitution to prevent the pitcher from having to hit. The second of which brought O-Cab to the plate with two outs in the top of the nineth. Between all the substitutions and pitching changes, I think I counted that 18 players were involved in last night’s game.

  • Susan Petrone says:

    Yeah, Cord Phelps is troubling me too. I’m willing to give him a bit more time to acclimate to the major leagues. It took him several plate appearances to get a hit (and a few more to start hitting more regularly). How long do you wait before you say, Gee, the kid isn’t ready defensively and leaving him up here is going to mess with his confidence? And I agree, Manny Acta did do a lot of clever shuffling last night to keep the pitchers away from the batter’s box.

  • Bob Timmermann says:

    So you live in a household where the husband controls the remote, but doesn’t have it on sporting events? Holy gender role reversal Batman!

  • Susan Petrone says:

    @Bob: My husband is a huge Cleveland sports fan. Our first date was actually an Indians game (He said those four magic words: “I have season tickets” and I was putty in his hands.) But he’s the quintessential Cleveland fan in that he gets so frustrated when they lose that he can’t watch because it drives him too crazy. That being said, we do occasionally have reverse gender roles. When we first started going out, the now-defunct Cleveland Rockers were in the WNBA playoffs. He was still in the cow-eyed lovey-dovey phase of the relationship. I did actually say to him: “Can we please talk about our relationship later? I’m watching the game.”