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

The Indians had some ups and some downs in June. Here are the players that brought their batting averages up, ERAs down and those that were called up and sent down to and from Columbus. Same rules as last time, the ranking is for the entire year, the stat for the last month.

1. Jason Kipnis Even (0)

8 Steals: Kipnis lead the team again in June and retains his top spot in the player rankings. This month he stole 8 bases as he continues to lead the team in that stat among others. He was not caught stealing during the month of June.

2. Justin Masterson Above (+4)

2 Wins: Justin Masterson finally pitched like the ace he is this month as he only allowed 8 runs in 35 innings and earned two wins for his efforts. He did lose 3 games during the month due to lack of run support, but he showed a vast improvement in his overall results.

3. Shin-Soo Choo Above (+5)

.579 Slugging Percent: Choo really turned it on during the last two games of the month to make his numbers respectable. With those two games (10 total bases) he took over the team lead in batting average and slugging percent in June.

4. Asdrubal Cabrera Above (-2)

20 RBI: Cabrera lead the team in June in RBI batting out of the second spot in the lineup. The fact that he could do this at all goes a lot to show how successful Choo has been as a lead-off hitter and how well the bottom of the lineup is getting on base. Cabrera has had to his part too, by actually taking advantage of these scoring opportunities.

5. Vinnie Pestano Above (+4)

4 Hits Allowed: Pestano was dominant again in June and he only allowed 4 hits and 1 run in his 9.1 innings. He also added another 5 saves to his already impressive total.

6. Michael Brantley Above (-1)

10 Walks: Brantley improved so much in June that he was temporarily placed in the clean-up spot with Santana on the mend. The 10 walks match his total for the previous two months and show his improvement in maturity as a hitter.

7. Chris Perez Above (0)

0 Walks Allowed: Perez continued his streak of perfection as he saved another 6 straight games. During save opportunties he has been just about perfect and didn't allow a single walk all month.

8. Ubaldo Jimenez Above (+7)

.210 Batting Average Against: The former finally found his stride during the month of June and not only didn't allow runners on by hit, but also cut his walks down as he only walked 11 compared to 32 strike outs.

9. Derek Lowe Below (-6)

3 Losses: What happened to Derek Lowe? Reality. With rate stats of a 6.49 ERA, .317 BAA and 1.64 WHIP it is no surprise that Lowe lost three of his six starts. What is surprising is that he didn't lose all six.

10. Joe Smith Even (+4)

12 Games: Smith pitched in more games than any Indians reliever this month. He should be the Indians most used as he continues to keep batters off the bases and from crossing the plate.

11. Carlos Santana Below (New)

20 Strike outs: In limited playing time (20 games), Santana still managed to strike out more than all but two players on the team. This wouldn't be as big of a deal if he had more than 11 hits during the entire month.

12. Casey Kotchman Even (-2)

3 Home Runs: No one expected this type of power coming out of Kotchman this season, but it is a good thing he has been hitting the long ball as he isn't hitting much else. His .229 average during June is a far cry from the top ten hitter the Indians thought they were getting in the off season.

13. Jose Lopez Below (-2)

.273 OBP: What would be a fairly good batting average for Lopez is a terrible on-base percentage as he only managed to walk twice all month. Things were looking good with Chisenhall taking his place as back-up third baseman, but with Lonnie out for the foreseeable future, Lopez will have to step up his game over the next month.

14. Zach McAllister Above (New)

1 Start: McAllister only made one start during June, but it was a good one as he only allowed 2 runs and earned the win.

15. Josh Tomlin Below (-2)

.346 BAA: Tomlin and Lowe, along with Gomez have been the two Indians starters keeping the team down during the past month as their two aces have started performing. Tomlin has been especially bad as he allowed more runs and hits than any other pitcher this month.

16. Jack Hannahan Below (New)

0 Extra Base Hits: Hannahan missed the end of May and the beginning of June on the DL, but since his return he has made Indians fans wished he stayed there. He will see more regular at bats with Chisenhall out despite his .143 batting average that month.

17. Esmil Rogers Above (New)

1.74 ERA: The Rockies must be shocked as Rogers looks like a completely different pitcher for the Indians than he did in Colorado. His ERA this month is fairly significant as well as he pitched the third most innings of all the Indians relievers with 10.1.

18. Johnny Damon Even (-1)

12 Runs: Damon has struggled his whole time with the Tribe, but was a little better this month. Damon lead all players that aren't every day starters with 12 runs and 12 RBI.

19. Jeremy Accardo Below (-1)

12 Strike Outs: Accardo struck out 12 in his 12 innings pitched, but he also gave up 20 base runners. It's hard to give up that many runners with giving up runs and Accardo didn't prove that wrong as he had an ERA of 5.25.

20. Shelley Duncan Below (-4)

9 Hits: Duncan has been seeing less and less playing time since the signing of Damon and that trend will likely continue as more Indians come back from injury if he continues to bat near .200.

21. Lou Marson Above (+4)

.383 AVG: Marson made the biggest improvement of any Indian during June. After only 5 hits and 5 runs during the first two months, he hit 18 times in June with 10 runs scored. He also increased his extra base hits (5 in June after only 2 the previous two months) and RBI (4 in June, 1 in April and May combined). His biggest leap was in batting average where he increase his .147 average to .284 in just one month.

22. Nick Hagadone Below (-10)

12 Runs Allowed: Only three pitchers allowed more runs than Hagadone this month and all three are starters with more than over 20 innings pitched while Hagadone only threw 7. His failure has kept the Indians from using him in close situations this month after he was given two save opportunities just last month.

23. Aaron Cunningham Below (-5)

.139 OPS: This low of an OPS should not be possible in the Major Leagues. No value of late inning defense is worth the putrid batting abilities of Cunningham. He needs to be the next player out the door with his playing time given to Duncan to see if his season is savable at this point.

24. Tony Sipp Below (-5)

0.90 WHIP: Sipp finally stopped allowing so many runners as he recorded season lows in batting average against and WHIP this month. While he still allowed a lot of runs (5 on 4 home runs), the decrease in batters on base is a confident sign that he is improving and the runs should stop scoring as he continues his improvement.

25. Jason Donald DNP (New)

Jason Donald did not play this month as he was just added to the roster on the last day of the month. Donalds poor play early in the season was not enough to move him out of last place.

No longer with us (May Ranking in parenthesis):

Matt LaPorta Below (DNP)

Jeanmar Gomez Below (4)

Lonnie Chisenhall Even (21)

Scott Barnes Below (24)

Player of the Game

Shin-Soo Choo ruled this game as he did yesterday, but in even more impressive fashion this time. Choo had four hits and scored four times as well. He also hit a solo home run and knocked in another two runs as well. His final score was 9.48, his best game on the season. Lou Marson scored a 6.11 and was a home run away from the cycle as he went 4-5 with a walk, three runs scored and an RBI. Jose Lopez and Asdrubal Cabrera also had scores over 5.50 as they both knocked in and scored at least one run.

Feathers Up

The Indians out hit their performance last night with 19 hits and 11 runs scored during their day game today. Every player made it on base except for Aaron Cunningham (hitless in his last 8 appearances). Even more impressive, 5 different players scored runs (lead by Choo with 4) and 6 different players had RBI (lead by Choo and Lopez with 3 each).

Vinnie Pestano and Tony Sipp both made up for their previous outings where they gave up runs by throwing scoreless innings after the Indians had already run away with the game.

Feathers Down

Josh Tomlin was one player that was not amazing tonight as he threw just 6 innings and allowed 5 runs. He did however earn his fourth win of the season.

The Orioles will have a new DH for tomorrow's game. Indians fans know him well as the man who wouldn't retire when he should have. Jim Thome has officially been traded from the Philadelphia Phillies to Baltimore.

Play of the Game

In the bottom of the second with the score just 2-0 Wilson Betemit lined into a double play after an Adam Jones double. This play was basically the different between last night's game and today's.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 11 - Baltimore Orioles 5