Injury Update
Thursday was another tough day for the Tribe as far as injuries are concerned as Ryan Raburn suffered a minor set back and Zach Walters had something a little more major go wrong. Raburn caught a cleat running between first and second on a double in his first at bat and hurt the knee he had surgery on during the off-season. Raburn had the knee drained and some fluid injected today, but that was unrelated to yesterday’s stumble. He will likely miss a few games, but should be back soon.
Walters, on the other hand, might not be. He tweaked the same oblique that he dealt with at the end of the 2014 season early in the game and was in significant pain after fouling off a ball during his third at bat. This is the same injury that seemed to sap his power towards last September and Jason Kipnis showed last year as well what happens when you try to play through it. While the general consensus is that it takes at least a month to recover from a strained oblique, recent history has proven it can take much longer. It is still a little early for declarative statements, but if this was as bad as it looks right now, Walters’ slim chance of making the 25 man roster out of Spring has been eliminated.
In positive Indians injury news, Josh Tomlin has recovered from his shoulder injury and threw off a mound yesterday. In addition, Brandon Moss, who was held out of today’s game with the flu, is expected to be back in the line-up tomorrow.
3/13 at Cubs
One of the joys of Spring Training is the Split Squad game and today is the only one for the Cleveland Indians in 2015. While most of the regulars stayed at home in Goodyear, a very interesting and talented team traveled with Terry Francona to Mesa to face the Cubs. Of those who will make the 25 man roster, Yan Gomes and Mike Aviles played and while Gomes did hit a solo home run, the bigger story was Clint Frazier playing in his first Major League level game. In his second at bat, Frazier blasted a three run home run off Jeff Lorick as part of a four run inning.
The Cubs had issues with pitchers from the start as Tsuyoshi Wada hurt himself after allowing the home run to Gomes and a walk to Jesus Aguilar. With less than an inning from their starter who was expected to throw at least three, they were forced to use pitchers they weren’t expecting to. Making matters even worse, the Cubs were also split squad with half the team heading to Las Vegas to play the Athletics.
T.J. House made the start for the Tribe in Mesa and was electric, striking out six in 4.2 innings including the side in order in the third. While House did give up a solo home run to Matt Szczur, he allowed just two hits total, no walks and no other runs. While no announcement has been made, the injury to Gavin Floyd essentially guarantees House a spot on the team and he showed that he still deserves it by dominating a potentially powerful Cubs order.
After the starters were removed, the Indians got even younger, fielding a group of recent top draft picks with similar results. Bradley Zimmerman and Bobby Bradley hit back-to-back again with the second Bradley ripping an RBI single. Mike Papi and Taylor Murphy also got some action towards the end of the game.
3/13 vs Diamondbacks
While the kids were across town, the top of the Indians line-up put on a show against Arizona back home. Matching Gomes and Frazier, Jose Ramirez and Michael Bourn each hit home runs against the D-Backs with Lonnie Chisenhall and Jason Kipnis hitting doubles (Kipnis hit two). Spring Training invitee, Brett Hayes also added a three run shot of his own in the third as part of a 6-2 Indians win.
On the mound, Zach McAllister added to his argument to make the team (something he will almost certainly do now that Gavin Floyd has been removed from the discussion) with four shut out innings, striking out three. McAllister allowed just four baserunners and generally looked good against an Arizona line-up that featured a few starters like Paul Goldschmidt, David Peralta and Cliff Pennington. Austin Adams, Scott Atchison and Nick Hagadone followed with scoreless innings of their own, allowing just two hits between them while striking out three.
While we generally don’t mention Spring wins and losses, today was a good showing of the Indians overall depth by beating the Cubs and Diamondbacks by a total of 13-6, using 43 different players(22 vs AZ, 21 vs CHC).
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