A Quest Called Tribe

Well, it is now official: Jim Thome is not the second coming of our lord and savior Jesus Christ.  Hopefully, Thome (0-4, 2 K, 0 balls out of the infield) rid his stomach of fluttering butterflies and will come to the park tomorrow ready to mash.  Still, it was beyond awesome to see him wear the Wahoo again. If I had been surfing the NC tonight, I would have made it my business to help welcome Mr. 601 back into the fold.  Serendipitously the Thominator's return fell on Dollar Dog Night and the pairing produced a sellout, just the Tribe's fourth of the campaign.

On the field, the top third of the Indians' lineup combined for a solid 0-for-13.  Asdrubal Cabrera (.281) is hitless in his past 13 AB's and is stuck in his first real slump of the season. At least he has stopped slamming the bat down after every at-bat.  Luckily, Captain Jack Hannahan (2-for-3, RBI, .236) continued to lead the charge.  Jack has hit in 9 of 10 for a .419 clip and turned a couple more of his standard highlights at the hot corner.  I have always said that a huge key to the team's success is the 5-8 portion of the order.  Tonight, they were 7-for-12.  They might have produced another run or two, except Steve Smith has, apparently, forgotten what the stop sign is.  Even Carlos Santana, as he scored run #1, would have been cut down without a fantastic hook slide.  I am all for being aggressive, but maybe you choose not to run on the league leader in outfield assists.  Maybe...

Ubaldo Jimenez claims that he was able to get ahead of hitters tonight.  While this is flagrantly untrue (16 2-0 counts), the first pitch is phenomenally important for the erratic right hander.  Hitters stroke .406 off of Ubaldo on the first pitch, compared to a .331 league average and .310 after a 1-0 count, versus .274 AL wide.  What does this mean?  Simply put, if Jimenez (7 IP, 7 H, ER, BB, 10 K) does not have command of his fastball, cannot throw it in a good spot for strike one, then he is going to get the shit kicked out of him.  Against the Royals, he was able to establish that command after surrendering the blast to Eric Hosmer and escaping a very shaky fourth inning.  During innings 5 through 7, big U fanned five while allowing one hit.  That is the kind of dominance that the organization paid for.  We need that every 5th day.

In case you missed it, Josh Tomlin (sore right elbow) and Michael Brantley (sore right wrist) have ballooned the Indians' disabled to seven players.  LHP Nick Hagadone was in the bullpen tonight, though he will likely depart when Tomlin's spot in the rotation comes up.  Hopefully, Carlos Carrasco is ready to pitch by Tuesday, as neither Jeanmar Gomez nor Zack McAllister seems like a positive choice.

Here's to Matt Underwear whipping his dick out on air.  That one moment of discomfort would be well worth never having to hear him blather again.

Cheers.