Player of the Game
Shin-Soo Choo gave Indians fans something to be happy about with a three run home run that also won him tonight’s Player of the Game. The home run was his only real positive note of the night, earning him a score of 5.68. Asdrubal Cabrera also had a decent game with a double and a single, knocking in one run for a score of 1.96.
Feathers Up
Roberto Hernandez allowed five runs in six innings in what I guess we are calling his Major League debut. This may seem like a bad start, but keep in mind, this is his first start of the year, and hitters are always ahead of pitchers at this point in Spring Training. Also, this start was extremely better than two of the Indians last three starts, which should put it in some perspective.
Cody Allen had his worst game of his career and still made it through without giving up a run. Allen gave up a single and walked two, but ended the inning with a double play with no harm done. To this point he has thrown 12.1 innings of shut out baseball to begin his career along with 9 strike outs. Esmil Rogers also threw a scoreless inning. Hernandez threw two scoreless innings, the first and the fifth. I just thought that needed to be included for completeness. Of course Hernandez had four non-scoreless innings including one in which he allowed 5 runs (3 unearned).
Feathers Down
The Indians were unable to take advantage of their favorite Angels starter as Ervin Santana threw 7 innings, only allowing a single run. Santana has an ERA well over 5.00 against the Tribe in his career and prior to today had only one real outlier, a no hitter.
After a week of solid defense, the Indians completely lost it in the second inning. Brent Lillibridge had two errors that lead to three unearned runs and Carlos Santana had an error of his own. Santana had another awkward play as well when he and Hernandez cound’t decide who should field a ball that landed just in front of the plate.
Play of the Game
In the fifth inning, Kendrys Morales hit a double over the head of Shin-Soo Choo. What made this play interesting was when Choo threw the ball to get Morales at second, there was no one standing there (it was Brent Lillibridge’s responsibility to cover as the short stop). Jack Hannahan actually fielded the ball and threw to home where Torii Hunter was tagged out. Before the out call could be made, however, Hunter split open home plate umpire, Greg Gibson’s face with a wild slide. Gibson was replaced by Manny Gonzalez, the turning point in the game.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 4 – Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 8
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