I don’t know about you folks, but I was really hoping to see the Cleveland Indians bust out their brooms and sweep the Tigers tonight; however, Doug Fister was sharp enough to keep the Indians bats at bay as Cleveland was downed 7-1. As Stephanie mentioned in an earlier post, today marked the first time the Indians played a potential “Sweep” game since they had swept the Cincinnati Reds June 18-20. Realizing that this 2nd half has truly been one to forget, I thought I would take some time to point out some interesting numbers.
1.) This series against the Tigers was only the third series the Indians have won during the 2nd half of play. To put that in perspective, only the Astros have won fewer (just 1 series win during the second half), and the Chicago Cubs have won 6 series (51-85 this season).
2.) At the time of their last sweep on June 20th, the Indians were in 1st place in the AL Central with a record of 36-32. Their season run differential on that day? -31. What is their run differential today? -162. What does this mean? Indians have been outscored by 131 runs in their past 69 games, good for an average deficit of 1.9 runs per game. Again, only the Astros have been outscored by more runs since June 20th.
3.) According to how poorly the Indians have played this half, ESPN’s Relative Power Index states that the Indians expected W-L record is 51-85. Since the Indians are actually 58-79, the baseball gods have not been all that mean to us. (My one positive note of the evening)
Now, onto some observations about tonight’s game:
1.) Matt LaPorta struck out again this evening, and is now hitting a gentlemans .138. LaPorta is listed at 215 pounds. Basically, what I am trying to say here is that Matt is hitting 64% of his weight. He has struck out 9 times in 29 at-bats (1 walk), and has four singles to his name this season. Ladies and gentlemen, your starting first baseman!
2.) If you decide to glance at tonight’s box score, you may notice that the lowest batting average in the Tigers lineup tonight was Alex Avila, at .243. The Indians side of the box score featured five players hitting below .243- Casey Kotchman, Cord Phelps, Matt LaPorta, Jack Hannahan, and Jason Donald.
3.) Cody Allen was ineffective yet again Wednesday evening, as he gave up 3 runs in just .2 innings. In Allen’s last six appearances, he has given up 2 or more earned runs three times. After an initial impressive start to his big league career, Allen has seen his ERA climb to 2.95. Struggles aside, I still see Allen as a potential 8th inning option next season if the Indians decide to move Chris Perez in an effort to open of the closer’s role for Vinnie Pestano.
Oh, and if you were wondering what the title had to do with this post, see below. Jason Kipnis scored the Indians lone run of the ballgame, and he seems to be pretty happy about it.
I just have this feeling that when they tried to high five, they missed!
At least LaPorta is making it easy. If he was doing anything at all, the team would be tempted to bring him back next year. Now they can finally move on. As a UF grad and longtime follower of Matt LaPorta’s career, I am baffled and saddened to see someone who was so good at so many levels fail so miserably. And he’s a good guy too. It proves once again that there is no such thing as a can’t miss prospect. This guy’s college OPS was nearly 1.150 and almost 1.400 his senior year. Now he can barely hold onto his bat or put the ball in play. It’s hard to watch and I’m looking forward to the day when it will be mercifully over.
hey obama and biden are nice guys….but at some point you have to evaluate objectively…bye bye matt.