Player of the Game
Matt LaPorta won tonight’s ‘Player of the Game’ award, with a score of 2.82, more than 4 points less than he had in yesterday’s game in which he did not win. LaPorta was 1-4 with a solo home run and even with that low score, no one was really close to him. Travis Buck was the second best player of the night, he also scored a run and knocked in another, but he was taken out of the game in a clutch situation for Shelley Duncan. Carlos Carrasco’s score of -4.00 means that Indians starters have now had negative scores in the last two, four of the last five and six of the last eight games.
Feathers Up
When the Indians scored 3 runs in the 2nd inning, it all started out with Carlos Santana walking and Grady Sizemore hitting a double. Both players then scored on singles by Travis Buck and Orlando Cabrera. Santana and Sizemore have been nothing but consistant with Santana constantly drawing walks and Sizemore doubling all over the park. Carlos leads the team in walks and Grady now has twice as many doubles as singles.
Feathers Down
As Michael Brantley and Asdrubal Cabrera go, so do the Indians. This is true about most baseball teams 1 and 2 hitters and it is usually a good thing for the Tribe as both players have played remarkably this season. Tonight was another matter though, as they combined to go 0-10 with 3 strike outs and 3 runners in scoring position left on base. The most notable man left on was Jack Hannahan, who got to second with one out in the 9th and was stranded there.
While the athletic part of the defense played admirably tonight (Jack Hannahan and Joe Smith each made nice plays) the brains of the defenders didn’t seem to be working quite as well. Matt LaPorta allowed a run to score by not getting an out he should have at first and Carlos Santana did the same when he threw a ball he didn’t have to. Both of these costly mistakes could have been avoided had the other infielders informed these two of the situation. In both cases the fielder had his back turned to the action for just a second and it cost the Indians 2 runs in a game decided by only 3. Another run was scored when Rafael Perez looked at the base while trying to catch a throw from Matt LaPorta. As they say, “that’s the ballgame.”
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 4, Texas Rangers 7
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