It's amazing what one good game can do for you, just ask Lonnie Chisenhall whose 3 hit effort raised his batting average 40 points to .269. I continue to contend that, when Lonnie makes solid contact, the ball explodes off of his bat with a ferocity that is beyond rare in this game. It's a shame that he could not complete the first cycle in Cleveland since 1943, but Chisenhall is still 5-for-his-last-10 with 3 extra base hits. The situation with Cap'n Jack is somewhat tenuous as the organization told us this spring that they were comitted to Lonnie playing everyday. Well, they didn't run the kid out there for every start at third before Hannahan came back from the DL, so don't expect them to do so now. What they will do is play the hot hitter, which is inarguably the Chiz Kid right now.
When I heard that Carlos Santana was batting sixth, I was skeptical. I can't say that I agree that there would be less pressure on him given a drop in the line-up. If anything I would think that there would be more, first to regain his original spot and then the same associated stress to produce. Tonight, at the least, the ploy worked. Santana, who had not delivered a multi-hit game in a month and was mired in a .141 (9-for-64) slump, slashed two sharp singles against the Redlegs. Now, Big Smooth has not homered since that same May 17th contest with Seattle, so, hopefully, the power follows quickly on the heals of the contact.
Speaking of power outages, Shin-Soo Choo, now settled into the lead-off role, is second on the team with 4 home runs over the past month. Choo's quartet trails just Jason Kipnis' 5. Behind Choo are Chisenhall and Casey Kotchman (who also went deep tonight) with 3. The issue at large is with the 4 and 5 slots. Jose Lopez, tonight's clean-up man, sports just a .384 slugging percentage and Michael Brantley, entrenched in the 5 hole, only slugs .399 and that's after a pair of doubles off of Cincinnati. I love the dynamic that Choo brings to the top of the order. I cannot deny that. Even so, when a dude who is tied for second on a team that is second to last in home runs has driven in exactly 5 runs with his last 5 gopher balls, you might not have the luxury to bat him #1.
Again, my hat goes off to Vinnie Pestano, who would be the best thing about this team if he played a sexier position.
Bah. Well, I'm too tired to even rant about how Derek Lowe has a 9.36 ERA in his last five starts and has regeressed back into the case of used colostomy bags that we call a starting 5. Here's Denny Green to do it for me...
Roll Tribe.
Cheers.
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