So far the entire 2009 season has been for the birds. Last night the Indians defeated the Kansas City Royals 4-3 in the bottom of the 10th making this game definitely "For the Birds" If you follow the Tribe you have probably realized that Progressive Field seems to be the Noah's Ark of of Baseball Stadiums. Whether it's bugs, bees, or birds, it always seems like the players are competing for space out there with creatures of nature. Last night was a special case in which the Indians won with the assist of....non other than a Lake Erie Gull. With Mark DeRosa on second and Victor Martinez on first, Shin-Soo Choo came up to the plate after going 0 for a million in this series and lined a single into center field. Just as Coco Crisp was about to make a play on the ball one of the famous gulls that was getting an up front and personal seat to the game decided to make the play instead. You could see the ball just ricochet right off the little guy giving the ball just enough movement to make Crisp miss the ball. That being said DeRose scores easily from second and...THE INDIANS WIN, THE INDIANS WIN! (actually it really was not that dramatic as DeRosa would have scored even if Crisp would have fielded the ball cleanly)
Although the Tribe won last night which was good as they won their second series in a row there were a couple things that I kind of scratched my head on last night...I know you all care about my comments so I will share them with you. The first being that on Wednesday, when Cleveland Indians beat writer Anthony Castrovince wrote an article about the managers' lineup card. Castro reported that Eric Wedge was really coming around to liking Jhonny Peralta playing third and thought that Luis Valbuena was a good fit at shortstop, at least while Asdrubal Cabrera was out.
After watching the starting lineup take the field, where does Jhonny go, but to shortstop. I understand that Carroll had the night off but come on, put Jhonny over at third, let Valbuena play short and put DeRosa at second. Wedge just got done saying that Peralta seemed to be coming around at third and needs more time there to get comfortable. Besides it is not like DeRosa doesn't know how to play second as he played there all last year. OK, enough venting....I am sure others out there will disagree with me. I guess I just got upset when DeRosa made his 132 error last night on a play that my grandma could have made.
I can't stand Ben Francisco. In the bottom of the 3rd the score was 0-0 with one out and Luis Valbuena was on third base. B-Franc had an 3-0 count and he swings at the next pitch fouling off to the catcher. WHY!! I listed to Manning on STO and he agreed with it but I thought it was stupid. First of all, it is 3-0 and second of all you got DeRosa, Martinez and Choo coming up....and just for craps and giggles, third of all you have Zack Greinke pitching and you are probably not going to get a hit anyway. I agree if you are a good hitter and it is 3-0 count then by all means you have the green light but Francisco is not a good hitter. He either hits a home run or does nothing. Case in point ol' Benny boy swung and popped up to the catcher...NICE. If he would have walked, then it would have been first and third, and then he would have moved to second when DeRosa walked. Now when Martinez singles we score two runs instead of one. I realize that anything can happen and if he did get a hit or sacrifice Valbuena in then it would have been a great call. Furthermore, I am not much of a stat guy, but my stats in my head were saying statistically, Ben is terrible and that was a dumb decision. They won the game, but he needs to show more patience, especially hitting in the leadoff position.
This game was for the birds, literally. More flying creatures are scheduled to invade Progressive Field this weekend, with the St. Louis Cardinals headed into town for a three game series. Let's try and make it 3 series wins in a row.
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