Player of the Game
With one at bat, Mike Aviles took the Player of the Game award from this miserable baseball game. As a late game defensive replacement, Aviles got one chance and hit a two run home run for a score of 4.50. Ubaldo Jimenez had the second worst game of any Indian this year with a final score of -7.63 for his 6 runs allowed in 4.1 innings.
Feathers Up
The Indians took advantage of some lucky bounces and good base running to come back and tie the game in the first inning after falling behind by three. Asdrubal Cabrera was safe on a ball that hit second base, sending Michael Bourne to third (he walked to lead off the inning), then Bourne scored on a Jason Kipnis sacrifice fly. Nick Swisher had a solid single to left, followed by a Michael Brantley infield single that got lost between first and second. Swisher scored the final run of the inning on a Mark Reynolds sacrifice fly.
Carlos Santana walked twice and singled in his first three at bats today, leading him to reach safely in eight straight at bats going back to yesterday afternoon. In that span he hit three singles, two doubles, a home run, walked twice, knocked in three and scored three times. His streak was ended with a strike out in the eigth inning.
Feathers Down
Travis Hafner came back to Cleveland today, making his first appearance at Progressive field as a member of the visiting team. He made he presence felt during the game as well, hitting a three run home run to give the Yankees the lead in the first inning (his 100th career home run in Cleveland). He later hit a single to knock in the Yankees fourth run as well.
This may become a theme all season with Ubaldo Jimenez, but as always when he can't throw strikes early in the count, he always gets beaten with his fastball. The fact is that 90 MPH isn't blowing anyone away, so when a batter knows it is coming, they hit it far. This was the case with Hafner's home run and will continue to be the case until Jimenez starts throwing more strikes to lead off the at bat.
Jimenez continued another trend as well and was terrible at controlling the run game. Vernon Wells stole a base in the first and Carlos Santana had no chance of throwing him out, although he was ultimately stranded at the end of the inning. The steal that hurt was the catcher, Chris Stewart, taking second with two outs in the fourth inning. Jimenez never attempted to keep Stewart on first and he was safe at second before Santana had a chance to even throw the ball. He then scored on a bloop single to center by Brett Gardner.
Carlos Santana was removed from the game in the ninth inning after being hit on the wrist by a pitch while catching. The Indians were already a man short as they are waiting for Jason Giambi to return from the disabled list tomorrow. Lou Marson came into the game, despite having a neck injury that occured during the Rays series.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 6 – New York Yankees 11
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