Roster Update: Prior to the game, the Indians demoted Scott Barnes and brought up right handed reliever Cody Allen from AAA. Allen was featured in this month’s Minor League top ten, which can be read here. He was just drafted last season and was a late round pick (23rd round). In recent memory I cannot recall the Indians bringing a player to the Major Leagues this soon after being drafted. In fact, only one other player from the 2011 draft has made it to the Major Leagues and he was the third overall pick in the first round. The Indians will most likely be looking for someone to fill the role of early inning pitcher (coming in for the 4th through 6th innings) who will throw strikes and not give up a home run per inning. He will probably just be a stop gap as Rafael Perez is scheduled to return within the next week although the Indians could always demote someone else (like Jeremy Accardo or Tony Sipp).
Player of the Game
Jack Hannahan wins the honor of taking the Player of the Game in one of the worst games for the Cleveland Indians this season. Hannahan hit a solo home run after the game was already decided and struck out in each of his other 3 at bats. Asdrubal Cabrera was a close second with another solo home run, but he managed to make 3 outs even though he only had two other at bats (strike out and grounded into a double play). The real difference maker between the two scores was Cabrera’s stupid play when he went home with a ball in the third inning that he should have thrown to first. The award is Jack’s second on the season and first in exactly 3 months.
Derek Lowe‘s score of -13.29 was the lowest score of any Indian this season and was enough to push him into negative numbers for the season as a whole. It was the fourth consecutive negative game for the Indians starting rotation and by far the worst of those games.
Feathers Up
The reason we all still remember Kevin Kouzmanoff hitting a grand slam on the first pitch he saw in his career is because that type of thing doesn’t happen very often. Cody Allen‘s Major League debut was not quite as memorable, but he certainly didn’t stink up the place as he pitched an inning trying to bail out Derek Lowe. He did allow Lowe’s inherited runner to score, but he also struck out his first Major League batter and didn’t allow a hti during the inning.
If you exclude the 3rd and 4th innings, the Indians would have played to a tie game at 2-2.
Chris Perez padded his stats with a scoreless ninth, striking out the side and only allowing a single hit in a non save situation.
Feathers Down
When Derek Lowe couldn’t get out of a pretty easy situation in the first inning (he allowed a run to score from third with two outs on a wild pitch) it looked pretty bad. When he gave up 5 hits (all doubles) in the first three innings it looked worse, but he finally showed how bad he could be by giving up a three run home run right before the end of the third and another solo shot to begin the fourth.
You can’t exclude the 3rd and 4th innings.
When the Tigers are playing the White Sox it should be a guaranteed win situation for the Tribe. Either way they would gain a game on one of the two teams. All they had to do was win. They didn’t win.
Play of the Game
Johnny Damon caught this foul ball in an attempt to save Derek Lowe’s life by sacrificing his own.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2 – Baltimore Orioles 10
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