Player of the Game
Michael Brantley showed tonight what a good hitter does when you give him 6 at bats. Brantley won the ‘Player of the Game’ for getting 4 singles, 2 runs, 2 RBI and generally being the center of all the Indians offense on the night. Quite a few Indians had good offensive nights, most notably the bottom of the lineup guys, including Jack Hannahan (‘POG’ score of 2.60), Lou Marson (2.03) and late-inning pinch hitter, Travis Buck (3.00). Brantley scored 5.25 points for himself as the Indians went on to score 7 runs.
Feathers Up
Three New York Yankees, including starting shortstop Derek Jeter, have decided not to play in this years All-Star Game. The great news here is that Asdrubal Cabrera is the default replacement for Jeter, so he should get to start the All-Star Game after all. Also, since Mariano Rivera dropped out as well, Chris Perez is now the top closer on the American League roster.
Just like Travis Hafner, Matt LaPorta has come off the disabled list on fire. LaPorta has had 2 total bases in each of his first three games back including a run scored in both tonight’s and last night’s contests.
The Indians mounted another comeback tonight, in like fashion as the one last night. In the 8th inning, down 6 runs, the Indians had their first 4 hitters get singles, followed by a Travis Buck double to score three runs in the inning and make the game a little more manageable.
Feathers Down
Mitch Talbot pulled another stinker tonight allowing 8 earned runs in 5.1 innings. A couple of the runs could possibly have been considered unearned, but a scoring change switched a Jack Hannahan error into a single. Either way Talbot has allowed more than 6 runs in each of his last two starts. Talbot is a pitch-to-contact type of pitcher and much of his struggle has just been balls that were hit to the wrong place. He was also hurt tonight by some less than perfect defense mostly between the combination of Hannahan and Lou Marson.
Orlando Cabrera is leaving runners on base like it’s in style. Very rarely does a player get a chance to knock in 7 runners from scoring position in two days, but Cabrera not only had that chance, but managed not to knock a single one of them in. Over the last 2 games Cabrera is 0-8 with one double play and 7 RISPLOB.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 7 – Toronto Blue Jays 11
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