Roster Update: Shelley Duncan returned from his paternity leave and Jason Donald was optioned to AAA Columbus.

Player of the Game

Shin-Soo Choo runs away with tonight's Player of the Game. Choo contributed 2 singles, an RBI, and a run scored in tonight's loss to the Rays. His score of 2.57 gives Choo his 5th PoG award of the season.

Feathers Up

After losing 2-0 before batting, the Indians tied the game at 2 in the bottom of the 1st inning. Shin-Soo Choo scored on a double play ball by Travis Hafner and Asdrubal Cabrera scored from 3rd on a balk.

Feathers down

Justin Masterson got to a rocky start in tonight's game. He gave up a lead off single to Desmond Jennings, who advanced to second on a wild pitch. Jennings later scored on a Ben Zobrist home run, giving the Tampa Bay Rays an early 2-0 advantage. He gave up 2 more runs in the 3rd inning after allowing 2 more singles, a walk and another wild pitch. Masterson only pitched 4.1 innings before giving up 8 runs on 9 hits and walking 4. On a positive note, Masterson struck out 7 Tampa Bay batters.

Nick Hagadone entered the game in the 5th inning in relief for Justin Masterson. His appearance was not any better than Masterson's. Hagadone  pitch 0.2 innings in which he gave up 2 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs.

Play of the Game

Asdrubal Cabrera makes a nice bare-handed catch and throw to first.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 - Tampa Bay Rays 10

First off, big thanks go to Erin and Mike of the Cleveland Indians for getting us into the Suite and the Cleveland Indians organization itself for running with such a cool idea. Burning River Baseball spent the the final game of the Indians - Angels series in the Social Suite and had a great time. Like all suites there was the option of sitting outside in the heat (92° is scary for those who live in Ohio), or inside in the air conditioning, but we watched the whole game outside rather than watch on tv in the cold.

There were two other groups in the suite as well including a couple that had just won the tickets a day before. A fan in the suite next to us even caught a Travis Hafner foul ball on the fly. The seats were very comfortable and there was a nice ledge for the laptop so I could live tweet the game and write the post game article.

The game was a good one. We saw the return of Pronk (we took pictures of every pitch in the long at bat hoping he would do something, but he just walked). He did have a good day overall as he walked a couple of times, scored a couple runs and had a hit in his first game back.

Derek Lowe pitched well, despite my misgivings in the sixth inning and there were a couple of three run homers to back him. Beating the Angels isn't like beating the Yankees, but destroying a highly rated team like that is always fun.

I did get to see the Cuyahoga river for the first time in awhile and it turns out it's not on fire. We may have to change the name of the site to Heavily Polluted River Baseball

It's official. Burning River Baseball was here.

Player of the Game

Josh Tomlin won tonight's Player of the Game with a stellar pitching performance and one of his best games of the year. Tomlin only allowed two hits and one earned run as he threw 7 innings and earned the win.

Feathers Up

Tampa Bay's usual DH played first base tonight in an effort to change things up. It aparently wasn't very successful as Luke Scott set a new team record by going 38 straight at bats without a hit.

Josh Tomlin was stingy with the baserunners toinght, allowing only two hits and no walks through 7 innings. The secret to his success? He threw 58 strikes and just 30 balls.

Feathers Down

The Indians scored all their runs off home runs tonight, the only problem was they were all solo home runs. Maybe try to hit one of those with somebody on base next time guys. This doesn't go for Shin-Soo Choo as he hit his to lead off the game.

Play of the Game

Travis Hafner hit a giant home run to right announce his return the the Tribe and give the Indians a 3-1 lead. Pronk is back!

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 - Tampa Bay Rays 1

A very impressive series win over the usually tough Angels has kept the Indians virtually where they were before at two games behind the Chicago White Sox. This isn't a bad place to be as the Tribe just got Travis Hafner and Carlos Santana back and are looking to make a move to bring in another offensive player within the coming weeks. The starting pitching has also gotten back to strength, most recently with Derek Lowe going 6 innings and only allowing 3 runs. Keeping the Angels to just 11 runs for the series was a feat in itself, made more impressive by the fact that the Indians scored 12 in the final game alone.

The Tribe will head into the final series of the half with the Rays next. They have already played half their games this year and are three games above .500 through 81. The All-Star break is the unofficial half way mark and will be a good respite for most of the Tribe as Michael Brantley, Shin-Soo Choo, Jason Kipnis and Carlos Santana have been forced to play just about every game this season. Asdrubal Cabrera and Chris Perez won't be getting a break this year, but I'm sure they don't mind either as they will be heading to Kansas City for the game itself. On to the matchups.

July 5th, 7:05 EDT: Jeremy Hellickson, RHP, 4-4, 3.44 ERA vs Josh Tomlin, RHP, 4-5, 5.84 ERA

Hellickson was removed from his last start after being hit by a batted ball and in fact has not thrown more than four innings in his last three starts. The worst start of the group was against the Mets where he threw 3.2 innings and allowed 8 earned runs. This was by far his worst start of the season and ballooned his ERA from 2.65 to 3.45.

Tomlin has pretty much been the same pitcher this season that he was last year and there isn't a whole lot more to expect from him. As long as he controls the things he can by keeping his pitches in the strike zone he will be as successful as he can be. He will always give up hits and home runs, but by not walking batters he should be able to keep those home runs to solo shots.

July 6th, 7:05 EDT: Alex Cobb, RHP, 3-5, 4.94 ERA vs Justin Masterson, RHP, 5-7, 3.92 ERA

Cobb's last two starts have come against the AL Central and and have been short of magnificent. He gave up four against Detroit and somehow 8 against Kansas City. This is just Cobb's second season for Tampa and his 18th career start.

By only allowing a single run against Baltimore, Masterson lowered his ERA to its lowest point since his third game this season. He will look to continue this trend against the tough AL East opponent.

July 7th, 6:05 EDT: Matt Moore, LHP, 5-5, 4.17 ERA vs Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP, 7-7, 4.59 ERA

Moore is also in his second season and is pitching fairly well after just one start in his career prior to this season. He has been very consistant on a game by game basis, keeping opponents under four runs scored in all but two games.

Ubaldo lost the one game of the Angels series that the Indians were unable to take, but it wasn't completely his fault as the Indians were held scoreless. He did keep LA to just three runs, which is a feat in itself.

July 8th, 1:05 EDT: James Shields, RHP, 8-5, 4.11 ERA vs Zach McAllister, RHP, 3-1, 3.93 ERA

Shields is the Rays ace and a former All-Star, but he has fallen off a bit this season. His ERA is currently about a run and half above last years career best and his WHIP is also almost a half a base runner worse than last year. He is still a formidable pitcher, but the Indians should be happy just to play against three righties out of the four games this series.

McAllister has been almost perfect this year, giving the Indians a chance to win every time out. If he can keep throwing strikes and only use his secondary pitches in good situations, he will continue on his positive run. The only trouble he got into last time out was after a two base error by Jack Hannahan on an attempted double play elongated an inning and allowed 5 runs to score.

Player of the Game

Casey Kotchman won today's Player of the Game in style as he hit a three run home run and added another single as well. His final score of 6.73 was just enough to beat out Michael Brantley who also hit a three run home run. The Indians total team score of 32.96 was the highest of any game this season.

Feathers Up

Burning River Baseball spent the game with a bird's eye view from the Indians Social Suite. The Indians really know how to treat a fan/aspiring writer.

Travis Hafner was able to take his first at bat back with the Tribe easy as he didn't have to run at all. He walked after a long at bat then scored off Michael Brantley's three run home run.

The Indians knocked starter Ervin Santana out of the game before the end of the second inning as they scored 8 runs against him in just 1.1 innings. By the end of the game every starter had either a run or RBI and each batter had a hit as well.

Feathers Down

For the second Indians win in a row, Chris Perez was kept out of the game.

Play of the Game

Johnny Damon threw out Albert Pujols from deep left field as he tried to turn a single into a double.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 12 - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 3

1997 Sandy Alomar is very excited about the Indians win.

International Free Agent signing season opened yesterday (7/3) and the Indians have quickly been making moves. Already the Tribe has signed Japanese pitcher Naoki Hashimoto and Venezuelan catcher Yoiber Marquina. They have also made agreements with four players out of the Dominican Republic including catcher Francisco Mejia, outfielder Hector Caro and infielder Grofy Cruz.

The International market has been a huge success in recent years for the Tribe as they have brought in such players as Rafael Perez, Fausto Carmona, Victor Martinez and Jhonny Peralta. I for one hope they do a background check on this Grofy character as there is no way that is his real name. We don't want to see another Roberto Heredia Hernandez here. The biggest signing of this group is Hector Caro who is 16 years old and will be making a reported $1.1 million signing bonus.

Player of the Game

Shelley Duncan got lucky and played a short night, but still had enough time to win the Player of the Game. Duncan had 2 RBI from a sacrifice fly and a solo home run. The 4.47 score was good for his 4th award of the year, but just his first since May 25th.

Feathers Up

Zach McAllister was wonderful against tonight as he has been every time out so far. This time he threw 6 innings and could easily have thrown a shutout had it not been for a terrible throw to second base by Jack Hannahan. McAllister also struck out 5, including the first two batters of the game. Officially, he gave up three runs and 8 hits on the night. Not too bad against the Angels.

Progressive Field was rocking tonight, at least before the second rain delay emptied most of the crowd. The crowd of 29,292 was the most for a game that didn't occur on a Friday or Saturday other than Opening Day. The stands looked mostly full (outside of the extremities of the upper deck) and even Burning River Baseball was in attendance. We will be returning for tomorrow's game as well and will be in the Indians Social Suite for the Fourth of July game. Expect pictures from both games as well as a special report about the Suite coming soon.

Feathers Down

Aaron Cunningham deserves a blown save and a delay of game for that silly display of run scoring he put on in the 9th inning. With a very comfortable 3 run lead with Chris Perez ready to come in, Cunningham hit an RBI single, extended the game enough that another hour long rain delay was needed and increasing the lead by enough to keep Perez from increasing his league leading saves total.

Play of the Game

The Indians scored two runs on a ground out to first by Michael Brantley when John Hester was unable to corral a throw by Albert Pujols. Jason Kipnis scored easily from third, then Jose Lopez came around from second and beat the second throw to the plate which came from the backstop.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 9 - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 5

The real play of the game. The tarp coming off the field.

Zach McAllister started the game in front of a large crowd and earned the win.

Player of the Game

Joe Smith scored 1.99 points to win his third Player of the Game of the year. As always, it is a very bad omen when a relief pitcher wins this award as it means every other player had a terrible game. Ubaldo Jimenez wasn't completely terrible with a score of 0.82, but the entire offense was. Smith threw 1.1 innings and saved Ubaldo as he got the first batter he faced to ground out, keeping the bases loaded and stranding three runners.

Feathers Up

There was quite the pitching duel tonight and Ubaldo Jimenez held his own. Jimenez pitched into the 8th, the deepest he has this year, aided by a lower pitch count than normal as he was much more efficient with his pitches. Although the box score will say he walked 4, only one of those occured before 8th and two of the late walks were intentional as he pitched around the heart of the Angels lineup.

The Angels continually tried to run against Carlos Santana in his return to the lineup and he was up to the task. Santana threw out two attempted base stealers while only allowing one to reach second successfully. He also threw out Albert Pujols as he tried to take an extra base after a wild pitch.

Feathers Down

Since Columbus was rained out yesterday, Travis Hafner's rehab has been moved back a day and he did not make his return tonight. He should still be back at some point during this series.

The Indians had plenty of chances late in the game, but couldn't come through. In the 7th the Tribe loaded the bases with nobody out and in the 8th they had the first two runners on. Johnny Damon was the main culprit in the 7th as he grounded to third when even a double play would have scored a run. In the 8th the main blame fell on Asdrubal Cabrera who grounded into a double play with Shin-Soo Choo on first and Jack Hannahan on second.

Play of the Game

Ubaldo Jimenez walked Alberto Callaspo to score a run after intentionally walking the bases loaded.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 0 - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California 3

The Indians series win over the Orioles combined with the White Sox loss to the Yankees has put the Indians back into the passing lane for the Central Division title. Now only 1.5 games back, the Tribe will come back home to face the hot Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Angels have won 7 of their last 10 and made up for a terrible start by getting back within 5.5 games of the AL West leading Texas Rangers.

The biggest news going into the series is that Travis Hafner is scheduled to return for tomorrow's game. It is likely that Jason Donald will be sent back down to AAA now that he has given Asdrubal Cabrera a half game off, but it is also possible that the Indians could end the Aaron Cunningham experiment.

July 2nd, 7:05 PM EDT: Jared Weaver, RHP, 8-1, 2.31 ERA vs Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP, 7-6, 4.69 ERA

The perennial Cy Young candidate will be facing the Indians for the 14th time and to this point he has been fairly successful. During his career against the Tribe he has allowed 2.56 runs per 9 innings and kept Cleveland to a .258 batting average. This game may be tough to score in, but the Indians are hot and the return of Travis Hafner and Carlos Santana can only help. Santana and Shin-Soo Choo already have fairly good numbers against Weaver and they should be happy just to see some right handed pitching.

Jimenez had a slight set back against New York, but it wasn't enough to ruin his great month of June. The Indians ace #2 is finally pitching like it and will need it against the vaunted Angels offense. Two of the hottest hitters on the Angels this year will be new to the Indians as two rookies, Mark Trumbo and Mike Trout have never played against Cleveland. The one hitter Jimenez has the most experience against, former National Leaguer Albert Pujols, he has actually pitched well against, keeping the three time MVP to a .267 batting average over 15 at bats.

July 3rd, 7:05 PM EDT: Dan Haren, RHP, 6-7, 4.53 ERA vs Zach McAllister, RHP, 2-1, 3.82 ERA

The Angels Ace #2 has not been performing up to his abilities as of late and the Indians may be able to take advantage. Haren has allowed at least 5 runs in his last three starts against some not so amazing offenses (meaning the Diamondbacks and Blue Jays). If the Indians can put 5 on the board against the starter, they have to feel good about their chances with their All-Star closer and his bullpen mafia.

McAllister threw well in his last outing and in fact has thrown well all season. Manny Acta has given Zach his confidence and stated that the starting job could be his for the rest of the season if he deserves it. He will certainly want to be at his best against the Angels to prove to everyone he deserves his spot on the pro team and avoid a return to Columbus this year.

July 4th, 4:05 EDT: Ervin Santana, RHP, 4-8, 5.12 ERA vs Derek Lowe, RHP, 7-6, 4.42 ERA

Santana has struggled as well this year, making it a little easier to understand how a team with this much star power could be in second place. Already he has given up 19 home runs, just 8 less than the most he has ever given up in a single season. This game will be number 81 for the Indians and 82 for the Angels so it can be expected that he will roughly double his numbers for the rest of the year. Basically what I am saying is that if Santana doesn't figure things out quickly, 2012 will be by far the worst season of his career.

This would be a great game for the Indians to show off how deep their bullpen is by getting Lowe out of the game early. In his last time out Derek was pitching fine until he was asked to throw the sixth inning. Lowe is an old man at this point and the Indians should start being very careful with him. If the other Indians starters are able to pitch an average of 6-7 innings per game the bullpen could easily take up the extra slack from Lowe's start.

All-Star Update: Asdrubal Cabrera and Chris Perez were named as reserves to the American League All-Star team for the second year in a row. The pair made the trip to Arizona last year as the Indians sole representatives and will make it a tradition this year in Kansas City as the pair was elected to go again. Texas is bringing a team high 7 All-Stars to KC, leaving little room for deserving players like Jason Kipnis.

Player of the Game

Justin Masterson pitched his way 8th Player of the Game of the year with another masterful performance on the mound. Masterson was dominant, pitching four perfect innings before allowing an error and a couple singles in the 5th. Overall he only allowed 2 runs (1 unearned) and struck out 6 while keeping the Orioles to 5 hits over 7 innings. His final game score was 7.06.

Feathers Up

Aaron Cunningham got a rare start today and made it count as he hit his first home run of the season, breaking an 0-12 streak that went across 8 games.

Manny Acta used today to give left handed hitting starters Johnny Damon, Michael Brantley and Jack Hannahan the day off and he couldn't have picked a better day. The Indians right handed heavy lineup scored 5 runs in the first 4 innings on six extra base hits taking left handed starting pitcher Brian Matusz out early in the game.

After starting the game out poorly Jason Kipnis decided to add as many stats on at once as possible. In the 9th inning he hit an RBI single and immediately stole second.

Feathers Down

As well as the Indians reserves played today on offense, they looked a little rough on defense. Justin Masterson was throwing a perfect game until Jason Donald booted an easy play at short. Donald then missed the tag on a steal for another chance to get that runner out. On the next play a ball dropped in front of Aaron Cunningham that he probably should have dove for considering the situation, but he just let it fall. Later in the game Cunningham did dive for a ball, but was unsuccessful in catching it. It was Cunningham's first time in centerfield since May 25th and was Donald's first game at short for the Tribe since April 22nd.

Injury Update: It was announced today that Lonnie Chisenhall's broken bone will take at least 10 weeks to heal after surgery, effectively ending his 2012 season. Hopefully the Indians will use him on the starting roster coming out of Spring Training in 2013 and stop playing around with him the way they have with some other young players.

Play of the Game

Aaron Cunningham hit his first home run of the season in no doubt fashion to deep left field.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 6 - Baltimore Orioles 2