As Butch said to Sundance, “Who are those guys?”
Having buried the bar so miserably low the last two weeks, the Indians actually won their second straight with a well-played victory over Boston, 5-3.
Jimenez had a smooth, consistent delivery tonight which helped establish solid fastball command he turned into 10 Ks in only 6 innings (70 of 106 pitches were strikes, a high ratio for him). As important, he limited his reliance on offspeed and splitters and as a result walked only one. A clean shaven but hardly boyish Chris Perez finished for his 30th save.
Game Notes
— Jason Donald, recalled earlier in the day when Hafner went on the DL again, homered leading off the Indians’ first with a twisting fly just inside the right field foul pole.
— The Indians trailed 3-1 in the 5th but bunched 2 walks, 2 singles and a double with a sac fly to score 3 runs and take the lead for good. The key hits were an rbi 2B by Cabrera, a bases loaded single by Santana and the sac fly from Brantley.
— Donald plated an insurance run in the 8th with a bases loaded ground out.
— Turning Point: With the score only 4-3 in the 7th and 1 out, Boston’s Ciriaco tried to advance from 2B on a grounder to short. Asdrubal aggressively threw to 3B and later tagged Ciriaco out in a rundown, then wheeled and fired to Donald to catch Crawford sliding into 2B and end the rally.
— The win vaults the Tribe 2.5 games ahead of the Mini Twins and keeps them 3.5 games in front of the KC Masterpieces for last place in the Division.
so sad that we are now measuring the team not on how far out of first place but how close to last place. The Clippers can still win the wild-card in the international league, but I secretly hope not so that the Indians can gut their team for September. Besides, it has to be more exciting to to be a non-contender spoiling the White Sox and Tigers than it would be to win another IL championship.