The Indians, at least I think it’s the Indians, are taking on Felix Hernandez and the Mariners today. It should go pretty bad. The Indians are essentially trotting out a Triple A lineup. Cord Phelps, Jason Donald, Ezequiel Carrera, Lonnie Chisenhall… Should be interesting and by interesting I mean if I were at home and not at work I’d run out of objects within reaching distance to throw by the fourth inning. Anyways, time to live blog it.
12:05: Choo is out today with left trunk soreness. What the hell does that mean? Is he an elephant? Someone needs to investigate this further. In other news, no runner has attempted to steal second base off of Josh Tomlin all year. That seems like a rather odd stat. Anyways, I bring it up because Ichiro is on first after singling to right. And out of nowhere Tomlin strikes out the side after the lead off single. Headed to the bottom of the first it’s 0-0.
12:21: Carrera walks. He’s had an outstanding series so far and with the exception of a few bone headed plays here and there and a few missed sacrifice bunts he’s had a pretty decent series against Seattle. Meanwhile, Cord Phelps pops out for the first out of the inning. Apparently the Indians have a case of the “popsies.” Santana pops out for the second out.
12:25 : Up to the plate steps Shelley Duncan who’s batting clean up. You know things have gone drastically wrong when you’re hitting Shelley Duncan clean up. And the reverse jinx works, Duncan gets a line drive single to left and Carrera goes to third on a bobbled error by the left fielder.
12:27: Kosuke Fukudome walks to load the bases with two outs. Up to the plate steps Lonnie Chisenhall. The Indians need a hit here. They need to get all over Hernandez before he can settle in and find his groove. It would also be nice to give Tomlin a cushion to work with. And just like that Hernandez baffle Chisenhall with a curve ball to end the inning. After all of that we head to the second inning still scoreless. Oh what the hell, I have plenty of things sitting on my desk to throw.
12:33: Josh Tomlin just struck out his fourth straight batter. He’s not a strike out pitcher… I think the world is about to come to an end. After a ground out and a walk to Wily Mo Pena, Tomlin strikes out of his fifth batter of the game to send us to the bottom of the second. I know I’ve brought this up before, but does Josh Tomlin remind anyone else of Charlie Nagy? For some strange reason he really makes me feel like that’s who I’m watching when he pitches. Maybe, I’m just crazy… that’s always a possibility.
12:45: Hernandez strikes out the side in order to end the second inning. It’s also his fourth straight strike out. I think I can feel the breeze from all of these fans down here in New Orleans. My worst fear is also becoming a reality. It appears that King Felix has officially settled into the game… unfortunately for the Indians it only took 2 innings. Good thing it looks like Josh Tomlin is ready to match him pitch for pitch.
11:51: Tomlin gets two quick outs and then the Mariners get two runners on but can’t do much of anything. We’re still scoreless. Tomlin has his stuff working today.
12:56: Ezequiel Carrera gets another base hit. He’s now 8 for 15 in the series. He follows that up by stealing second. Cord Phelps does his job and hits a deep fly ball to right that allows Carrera to advance to third. The Indians need to take advantage of this opportunity. A lot of the run producers are out of the lineup today so they can’t let these opportunities pass them by. And Carlos Santana strikes out. How hard is it to hit a fly ball? Looks like it’s up to Shelley Duncan…
BASE HIT! Duncan comes through and singles to center field, 1-0 Indians.
Fukudome grounds out to end the inning.
1:12: So much for Tomlin working on his home run problem. He serves up his 24th of the year to Wily Mo Pena. So much for getting out to a lead and letting Tomlin work with it. The Indians now trail 2-1. Looks like we’ll be coming back from behind… again. On a related note… DAMN YOU WILY MO PENA!!! Anyways, inning over.
1:17: Chisenhall leads off the bottom of the fourth with a double off of the wall in right. Here we go again. Time for LaPorta to get him over to third. How bad is it that all I’m hoping for from Matt LaPorta is a fly ball or ground ball to the right side to get Chisenhall over to third? Can we end this experiment already and get a legitimate right handed power hitter? Popped up on the infield… not even the infield. He popped up foul to the catcher. Matt LaPorta… you are a failure.
Ground ball single to center for Jack Hannahan. We’re all knotted back up at 2. Thank you Jack Hannahan for doing what Matt LaPorta could not.
1:44: The wheels have officially fallen off of Josh Tomlin seemingly out of nowhere. The Mariners have scored 4 runs with two outs to build a 6-2 lead. Acta has finally gone out to get Tomlin, marking the first time in his young career that Tomlin has not made it through the fifth inning of a start. Spectacular. Looks like we’ll be seeing Joe Smith. I do believe this is one of those worst case scenario type of situations. We needed Tomlin to shut the Mariners down, not serve up 6 runs… especially when you consider the lineup Manny Acta was forced to field today. Joe Smith gets a pop up to end this misery.
1:56: I won’t bore you with the details… because there were none. Cord Phelps reaches on an error and then the Indians go in order to follow. It’s still 6-2 Seattle heading into the sixth inning. We’re quickly approaching that point in the game where I begin to stare aimlessly into space and wonder why I continue to do this to myself. Yup, that would be Indians baseball. It’s fun for the whole family… especially if you’re the family from The Amityville Horror.
2:19: The entire 6th inning was a complete snoozer.On a side note, I do believe the Grim Reaper is standing off to the side of the Indians dugout getting ready to pull the plug on the life support machine. We’re about 3 innings away from the Indians season officially being dead.
2:32: It’s now 9-2 and if they don’t pull off a miracle, the Indians will officially be below .500. I think this is right about the time where I turn this game off and move on to better things.
Die-Hard Night 