Player of the Game

Jeremy Accardo was today's Player of the Game with a score of 1.03. In his solo inning pitched, he gave up a double and struck out 2. Accardo now has 2 awards on the season.

Feathers Up

The Indians managed three walks (two of Carlos Santana) against David Price, even though he is a notoriously accurate thrower. Jose Lopez also had a single in the 5th inning to break up the no hitter.

Feathers Down

Luke Scott (aka Sabertooth) has been fairly terrible all season against every team but one. Scott has destroyed the Tribe this year, hitting another home run in today's game giving him a batting average of .424 against the Indians this year along with 9 RBI, 3 home runs, a triple, 4 doubles and 5 runs scored. The team he has played next best against is the Toronto Blue Jays where he has hit .219 with 2 home runs and 10 RBI in 8 games so far. Even Ryan Reynolds with laser eyes couldn't defeat Luke Scott at this point if he put on an Indians jersey. Thankfully the Indians are done playing Tampa this season.

Ubaldo Jimenez turned a 'meh' start into a bad one as he allowed 4 runs to score in the 6th inning after he already had two outs. Scott Barnes came in for relief but allowed the 4th run to score. Barnes is only on the team right now because Nick Hagadone punched a wall and will likely be sent back to Columbus for more work in a day or two when Rafael Perez returns.

Play of the Game

Ubaldo Jimenez tagged out Desmond Jennings as he tried to score from third on a safety squeeze by Sean Rodriguez.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 0 - Tampa Bay Rays 6

Player of the Game

Carlos Santana is back and better than ever as he wins his first Player of the Game in about 60 games. In the first 32 games this season Santana won 5, but he had been shut out to this point in the year. Tonight he earned his score of 7.73 with a three run home run to increase the lead in the 7th and an RBI single in the top of the 9th.

Feathers Up

After ending his second 10 plus game hitting streak of the season on Monday night (5 walks this series but no hits), Michael Brantley hit a triple to lead off the second inning tonight. Of course the Indians were unable to score him from third even though their two best power hitters (Carlos Santana and Travis Hafner) were coming to bat, ruining what should have been a joyous occasion.

Esmil Rogers came with the bases loaded and one out in the 5th inning and proceeded to strike out Elliot Johnson and get B.J. Upton to ground out to end the inning with no damage. He then went on to pitch the next inning and struck another batter out while only giving up a single walk.

Feathers Down

There are no complaints about the umpires tonight. Justin Masterson earned all 7 of his walks tonight.

Tony Sipp has been ineffective most of the season and has pitched in two straight games, yet Manny Acta went to him first once the Tribe took the lead. Sipp gave up a single and a walk and was quickly removed. Joe Smith, the pitcher that should have been brought in in the first place, quickly got a double play and was out of the inning with only a single run scored.

Acta did it again in the 9th as the Indians increased their lead past the point of save eligibility so the manager brought in Jeremy Accardo instead of Chris Perez. There are players you can trust in this bullpen and those you cannot. The trust list currently consists of Perez, Pestano, Smith and possibly Rogers with no one else even close to making the list. Pitchers not on the list should not see game time while the Indians have a lead of less than 8 runs until they can prove themselves in no risk situations. Accardo did finish the game, but he allowed a run on a walk and a double.

Play of the Game

Jason Kipnis hit an RBI single up the middle to knock in the game tying run in the 7th inning. He ended up scoring on a Carlos Santana home run after the Tribe took the lead on a Michael Brantley single. The play also earned Joe Maddon an ejection from the game.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 10 - Tampa Bay Rays 6

Lou Marson has been the Indians back-up catcher since 2009 and he is finally starting to deserve all the at bats he has been given through the last four seasons. Although his playing time has been very limited this year (after starting the first two months batting under .200) he is now on pace for career highs in runs scored, hits, triples (already tied for career high), walks and all his rate stats (AVG, OBP, SLG) are already at career highs. This is not coming at an increase in playing time as is usually supposed (he has played less this year than the previous two seasons), but at a change in strategy against right handed pitchers. Over his career, Marson has hit .206 against righties, but this season he has turned things around and is currently hitting .322 on the season.

Recently most of Marson's starts have come against left handed pitching, although he does get a rare start against a righty every once in a while. In a recent tear, Marson had RBI in 4 consecutive games spanning from June 30th through July 7th. Three of those games featured left-handed starters and the Indians won all four of them, despite having a terrible record against left handed pitching this season (10-18 despite winning four of their last 6). Of the last four wins against left handers, Lou Marson went 1-3 with a double, walk and run scored against the Orioles' Bruce Chen (6/28), 4-5 with a double, triple, walk and 3 runs scored along with one driven in against the Orioles' Dana Eveland (6/30), 1-3 with an RBI and a steal against the Orioles' Brian Matusz and 1-3 with a double and a walk along with a run scored and an RBI. If he could do this every day then he would be an acceptable starter, but we already know he is incapable of that. As it is he deserves to take Casey Kotchman's place in the lineup for every game against a left handed starter, which will allow Carlos Santana to play first base. There is no question that Marson has been very instrumental in the Indians recent successes against left handed starters.

An aside for those of you calling for Lou Marson to take the starting job from Carlos Santana, here is a recent history lesson. Before Marson, the Indians had a back-up catcher named Kelly Shoppach, who had a decent season as a back-up in 2007 when he hit 7 home runs and drove in 30. He replaced super star Victor Martinez when he was injurred in 2008 and had a very good season hitting 20 home runs. This gave the Indians the confidence to allow him more at bats in 2009 by playing Martinez at first base almost half the time. Shoppach responded by batting .214 and the Indians were forced to trade him to Tampa Bay for Mitch Talbot. Before that the Indians had another catcher named Josh Bard who tried to cut it as a starter, but couldn't beat out Martinez either. Bard hit .193 in his final season with the Tribe before being traded for Kelly Shoppach. Skipping Tim Laker, who never tried to be a starter, will show the most offensive example of them all. Following the 2000 season the Indians decided they didn't need to resign their superstar catcher, current bench coach Sandy Alomar Jr, because they had the future in tow in Einar Diaz. Diaz played very well as a reserve in 1999 hitting .281 and 2000 hitting .272. Even in 2001 he was not terrible as he hit .277 and knocked in 56. Diaz then fell apart in 2002, batting .206 over 102 games with just 21 total extra base hits and only 16 runs knocked in. The best thing that every happened because of Einar Diaz is that the Texas Rangers were so stupid they traded Travis Hafner for him prior to the 2003 season. Alomar went on to play most of the rest of the decade, while Diaz retired after 2006.

The moral to this story is that a back-up catcher should stay a back-up catcher when playing behind a superstar, unless you can trade him for another superstar. No one has every said that Lou Marson could be a multiple time All-Star and possible Hall of Famer, but people have said that about Carlos Santana. Give him some time to recover from his injuries and let him get back to his old self. The Indians aren't the Browns and Santana isn't Tim Couch, I mean Kelly Holcomb, Charlie Frye? Brady Quinn? Derek Anderson? I guess it's Colt McCoy now isn't it. Feel free to constantly boo the current guy and beg for the next guy with the Browns, but the Indians don't work that way. When you get a guy like Carlos Santana for a player like Casey Blake, you keep him for as long as he will stay.

Player of the Game

Tony Sipp pitched strong in relief today, which was enough to win him Player of the Game honors. Sipp came on with 2 outs in the 6 inning and continued to pitched through the 7th. He did not allow a single runner and struck one out, giving him a score of 1.82. After 90 games into the season, Sipp finally wins his first PoG.

Feathers Up

Tribe hitters took advantage of walks as they inched their way back. Their first run came in the 4th inning when Jose Lopez hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded. Their next run came in the 5th inning when Jason Kipnis singled Lou Marson home. The Indians offense drew 4 walks in the first 5 innings.

Josh Tomlin has a wonderful moustache.

Feathers Down

Josh Tomlin is coming off of a strong start, but he quickly got behind in today's game. He gave up a lead-off single (Shelley Duncan's marvelous defense held him to a single) and then a 2-run home run to Carlos Pena, giving the Rays an early lead. The inning continued with a walk and a Luke Scott triple (which should have been a single if Shin-Soo Choo cut it off properly), giving the Rays their 3rd run of the inning. Josh Tomlin gave way to Tony Sipp in the 6th inning after allowing the Rays to score their 4th run.

The Indians only managed 4 hits today, one to each of the first 3 batters in the line up and one to Casey Kotchman. All of the hits were singles. They were lucky to score 2 runs on just the 4 hits. They did, however, have several opportunities to score with the bases loaded.

Play of the Game

Shin-Soo Choo sldes to cut off a ball and misses, allowing a single (or double) to turn into a triple.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2 - Tampa Bay Rays 4

Player of the Game

Zach McAllister took his second consecutive Player of the Game and his 4th win of the season. McAllister pitched 6 innings and struck out 5 while only allowing a single Tampa Bay run. His only weak point was his control as he walked 4 batters, but who didn't during this game. A few other players had games worth mentioning as Shin-Soo Choo, Jason Kipnis, Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez all earned more than 2.00 Player of the Game points. McAllister finished ahead of every one with 6.16.

Feathers Up

Rafael Perez threw his second inning of relief in Akron today and has only allowed a single hit in two outings thus far. He will need to throw a few more times in AA to be ready, but the Indians can definitely use him now that Nick Hagadone has gone and punched himself out of the big leagues.

Michael Brantley walked three times while Travis Hafner walked each of his first two times up. Shin-Soo Choo, Jason Kipnis, and Casey Kotchman all took bases on balls as well. Exciting baseball tonight at the Trop. Don't worry, no base runner scored for either team after getting on base via the walk.

Milestone Update: Johnny Damon's 522nd career double ties him with Ed Delahanty and Garret Anderson for 41st all time.

Feathers Down

A challenge on the first play of the game slowed things down and they never sped up as each pitcher dealt with a strike zone the size of a cantaloupe. Alex Cobb was pulled from the game in the 4th inning after walking 5 and throwing balls for exactly half his pitches. McAllister didn't have it any easier as he threw 6 innings and walked four as well, throwing 42 of his 99 pitches for balls.

McAllister held the Rays hitless for the first three innings, but that isn't as impressive as it sounds. Three Rays starters came into the game with batting averages below .200 and only two hitters were above .260. When they did start hitting in the 4th they started hitting Zach. McAllister took a hard line drive in the arm that allowed the Rays first run.

The Indians starting lineup was an odd mix today as Jose Lopez hit higher in the order than Travis Hafner and Carlos Santana. It's nice that Lopez has played better than expected, but on no planet is he better than either Hafner or Santana. In tonight's game he managed to line, ground and strike out into double plays after striking out his first time up.

The Indians had a lot of chances they weren't able to cash in on tonight, the most egregious one being a bases loaded no out situation in the 4th during which the Indians were unable to score. The biggest villain of the night was Asdrubal Cabrera who went 0-5 with 4 strike outs and 4 runners left in scoring position.

This may seem like a lot of negatives for an Indians win, but here's another. This game lasted almost four hours so I had plenty of time to write down every bad thing that happened.

Play of the Game

Jeff Keppinger hit a foul ball against Vinnie Pestano that landed about an inch outside of the line in the 8th inning. The play occured with a runner on second that would certainly have scored the tying run. Keppinger later flew out to center.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 - Tampa Bay Rays 2

Nick Hagadone had it made. He was a huge piece of the a trade that sent an Indians superstar (Victor Martinez) away and the Indians always over value the players brought back in such deals. He pitched well in a short time in 2011, and well enough this Spring to make him the first relief pitcher called up from AAA this year. In the pros he was good enough to earn the top left hander spot in the bullpen as Rafael Perez was injured and Tony Sipp has been inconsistent. Scott Barnes, who was also pitching well during the early part of the season got blown out once and was sent down, thus alleviating any competition for Hagadone on the 40 man roster. All he had to do was sit in the bullpen, warm up when he was told and pitch to the best of his abilities when called upon.

Instead this idiot punched a wall (or something else hard enough to break his arm). Hagadone will now be out for the season, placing him in the same place next year that he was this year (fighting for a spot in the bullpen) instead of working on his game in the Majors, trying to get better. Now he has to sit for the next two months without even holding a baseball and will need to rehab after that. The Indians have placed him on the disqualification list meaning they don't have to pay him until he comes back from injury and they are completely justified in their actions. Hagadone was purchased (for a very large price) from the Red Sox as property and he has made that property useless. If this was accidental it would be a totally different situation, but this was a conscious decision to hurt his pitching arm with full knowledge that he would probably hurt himself and that he would lose all respect of the Indians front office.

Good luck to Hagadone in 2013. He is still welcome to pitch for the Indians, he just needs the rest of the year as time to cool off. He had it made, but overreacted after a small failure (2 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs allowed in 0.2 innings) and showed everyone a little bit more of his character. Hopefully during his time off he can spend some time with Josh Tomlin to learn how to be zen. Nick Hagadone was supposed to help the Indians in their playoff chase. Now he can just sit back and watch and think about what an idiot he was.

The Indians will be going to St. Petersburg for the first time this season coming off a tough series loss to the Blue Jays. The loss dropped the Indians behind Detroit for the first time in a long time and puts them 4 games behind Chicago for the lead in the AL Central. It isn't exactly what the Indians wanted, but it also wasn't big enough to make a big deal of. The Blue Jays did throw out a left handed starter in each of the games they won, continuing on with a trend it looked like the Indians had at least slowed down. The Rays will have two lefties going in the four game series, one of which is the currently unbeatable David Price.

July 16, 7:10 PM EDT: Zach McAllister, RHP, 3-1, 3.40 ERA vs Alex Cobb, RHP, 4-5, 4.89 ERA

McAllister had one of his better starts this year in his last time out, even though the results wouldn't show that. Errors lead to four unearned runs, but outside of that he struck out 8 and didn't allow an earned run. During the game he pushed his ERA to a season low. He continues to impress in just his second Major League season.

Alex Cobb has also been impressive in his second MLB season, although less so. His last game out was a win against the Indians in the series before the All-Star break, but the win was mostly due to a large outpouring of run support. The Indians did manage to score three of the right hander on six hits in six innings. 

July 17, 7:10 PM EDT: Josh Tomlin, RHP, 5-5, 5.45 ERA vs Matt Moore, LHP, 5-6, 4.42 ERA

Tomlin has earned wins in each of his last two starts, the last of which came against these Rays. He now has decisions in 7 of his last 8 starts, a testament to him staying in late in the game or getting blown out early. He will need to keep things close late in this game as the Rays will be throwing one of their top starters out there and a left hander to boot.

The Indians did beat Moore in his last outing, scoring 5 runs in less than 5 innings against the lefty, giving some reassurance that they had gotten over their south paw issue. Since this theory has been thoroughly eradicated during the Toronto series, look out.

July 18, 7:10 PM EDT: Justin Masterson, RHP, 6-8, 4.14 ERA vs Jeremy Hellickson, RHP, 4-6, 3.48 ERA

Looking into the second half it was obvious that the Indians #1 and #2 starting pitchers would need to step up. One did and the other fell backwards. Hard. Masterson was great in his performance to begin the second half. Masterson threw 7 shut out innings, a great reponse to his last bad start against Tampa. He will face Tampa again and they know what to expect, so he will need to bring his A game. Last time out he walked four and gave up two home runs in route to the rout. In order to avoid that he will need to throw more quality strikes, by getting his sinker ball to sink and keeping it low in the zone.

Hellickson has lost four consecutive starts and all of his last six decisions after starting the season 4-0. He has seen some bad luck in his last couple as he did throw 6 innings in each but lost 3-1 in both games against the Indians and Red Sox. He will look to get back in the win column, but it should be hard as the Indians have their ace going and the left handed batters should be ready to go after taking a day off and expecting another day off after this game.

July 19, 12:10 PM EDT: Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP, 8-8, 5.09 ERA vs David Price, LHP, 12-4, 2.80 ERA

I could write a paragraph here about how the Indians should just forfeit this game rather than be made to look silly, but then I may be the one to look silly when Jimenez throws 7 shut out innings. Ubaldo has become impossible to predict and the fact that almost every hitter on the Tribe has now had some success against left handers means you can't predict any one game anymore. That being said, the odds are stacked against the Indians in the series finale.

Player of the Game

Derek Lowe had a quality start today, winning him his 4th Player of the Game of the season. His score of 1.51 included 6 innings pitched, allowing 3 runs on 3 hits and striking out 5.

Feathers Up

Carlos Santana proved that he can beat a shift when he bunted down the 3rd baseline for an easy single in the 4th inning.

Joe Smith pitched a rare 2-inning appearance in today's game. Though he did give up 2 doubles, he did not allow any runs and struck out 2.

Hit Streak Update: Michael Brantley doubled in his first at bat, extending his hit streak to 13 games.

Feathers Down

The 3rd inning proved costly for the second game in a row. The Blue Jays scored all 3 of their runs in the 3rd, but not without help from Derek Lowe. Lowe gave up 3 singles and walked 3, included a bases-loaded walk. The Blue Jays also stole 2 bases in the 3rd.

The Indians offense was lacking today. They were shut out for just the 3rd time this season and were only able to get 5 hits. 

Play of the Game

Michael Brantley doubles in the 2nd inning to extend hit hit streak.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 0 - Toronto Blue Jays 3

Player of the Game

Shelley Duncan won today's Player of the Game with a score of 6.42. Duncan "drove in" the first Tribe run in the 2nd inning when he was hit by an Aaron Laffey pitch with the bases loaded. He also hit a home run in the 4th inning, driving in Michael Brantley. Duncan went 3-3 today with 3 RBI and 2 runs scored, awarding him his 6th PoG of the season. Michael Brantley came is second with a score of 5.97.

Feathers Up

Micahel Brantely and Shelley Duncan were the bright spots offensively for the Tribe today. They combined in the 6-7 part of the line up for 6 hits in 8 at bats. Each had a home run and they totaled for 4 runs scored and 5 RBI. Michael Brantley is leading the Indians with a .299 batting average. The #8 hitter today, Casey Kotchman, also added a home run, meaning that the 6-7-8 hitters each went deep.

At one point in the game, the Indians trailed by 8 runs. The offense kept fighting back to reduce the deficit to 2 runs in the 8th inning. The offense scored 9 runs on 12 hits today, which would usually result in a win, but the bad outing by Ubaldo Jimenez prevented that from happening.

Hit Streak Update: Michael Brantley has now hit safely in 12 straight games after he singled in his first at bat today. Lou Marson also got a hit today, bring his hit streak to 9 games.

Feathers Down

Remember that dominating pitcher the Indians acquired in a trade from the Colorado Rockies in July of last year for a couple very good pitching prospects? Well, he hasn't been so dominating for the Tribe. Ubaldo Jimenez pitched just 2.1 innings today. In his short outing, he allowed 7 hits, 6 of which were for extra bases. He also walked 4 batters and gave up 8 runs. It seemed like the bullpen could not get ready fast enough. Jimenez struggled throwing strikes all game, and when he did throw strikes, the Blue Jays were swinging hard. He now has an 8-8 record on the year with an ERA over 5.00, not exactly what you want to see from your #2 starter.

The 3rd inning appeared rough for not only Jimenez, but also for his relief, Scott Barnes. Barnes came into the game with just one out and a runner on second. He immediately gave up a double, allowing the inherited runner to score. He also walked a couple and allowed 2 of his own runs to scored. The Blue Jays scored 8 runs in the 3rd inning.

Pitchers had a hard time holding base runners today as the Blue Jays stole 3 bases off Tribe pitching. Two of the 3 steals were of 3rd base, and Tribe catcher, Lou Marson, had no shot at throwing any of them out.

Play of the Game

A pinch-hit RBI single by Travis Hafner in the 8th inning gets the Indians within 2 runs of the Blue Jays.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 9 - Toronto Blue Jays 11

Player of the Game

Justin Masterson pitched a masterful game as he ran away with today's Player of the Game. Masterson pitched 7 shut out innings, allowing just 5 singles, 2 of which were immediately erased by double plays. A majority of Masterson's outs were ground balls, as he only struck out 5 Toronto batters. Hopefully he can continue to look like the Indians Ace through the second half of the season. Masterson scored 8.35 PoG points, giving him his 9th award of the season.

Feathers Up

Travis Hafner enjoyed his rest during the All Star break. He was so rested that he came out swinging in his first at bat and hit a home run off a left-handed pitcher in just the second pitch he saw. Hafner gave Cleveland the early 1-0 lead, which was all that Justin Masterson would need.

Michael Brantley continues to tear apart pitching as he added 3 more hits today. Brantley currently has an 11 game hit streak and his batting average is inching up toward the .300 mark.

Chris Perez came back strong after blowing his second save of the season in his last appearance. Vinnie Pestano and Perez each pitched perfect innings, combining for 3 strike outs.

Milestone Alert: Pestano is now tied with Ricardo Rincon for 6th all time in Indians holds.

Feathers Down

As reporters and fans who no longer lives in the Cleveland (or Ohio) area, Burning River Baseball relies heavily on MLB.TV to watch or listen to every Indians game. Today, however, the MLB.TV program decided to have "issues," so that one could not watch or listen to the game. These issues were finally resolved in the 4th inning, but paying for a service and missing nearly half a game (including a Pronk home run) is very frustrating.

Play of the Game

Travis Hafner returns from the All Star break in style.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 1 - Toronto Blue Jays 0