Player of the Game
Carlos Santana took home the Player of the Game today in his first game at first base in 2013. Santana hit a huge home run to left in the fifth inning to give the Indians the lead and had doubled and scored earlier in the game. His POG score of 4.41 just beat out Yan Gomes who had a home run and triple of his own.
Feathers Up
When Lou Marson is set to come off the disabled list next week, maybe they should send him back to Columbus instead of Cleveland. Yan Gomes hit his second home run of the season today in just four games, giving him more home runs in his Indians career than Marson has had in the past three seasons combined (151 games). Going into the season it was obvious that Gomes was a better player now and had a higher ceiling than Marson and that fact is even more obvious now.
Mark Reynolds has only won one 'Player of the Game' this year, but has been the team's top offensive player to this point. His home run today gave him seven on the year (tied for the AL lead) and 18 RBI. He has been everything that was expected of him and more. His home run today gave the Indians back the lead after it was squandered by starting pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez.
Ubaldo Jimenez was not as bad as he was last time. Or the time before that.
Brett Oberholtzer may be a super star some day or he may be a career AAAA middle reliever, but he can always remember that the first Major League batter he faced was Carlos Santana and that he hit a ball as hard as humanly possible that was only stopped by a concrete wall well past the outfield wall.
For the first time since the second game of the season, the Indians went into the seventh inning with a lead of under three runs. One of the greatest parts of this Indians team is the back-end of the bullpen and that has been neutralized as there have been very few close games. Joe Smith, Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez got to do their jobs today with a one run lead and performed admirably, earning two holds and a save between them.
Feathers Down
Jimenez still wasn't very good. At one point he set down 14 straight batters, but it needs to be taken into consideration that he was facing the worst offense in the American League. He looked poised to pitch into the sixth and possibly earn a win, but a single and triple to lead off the inning forced him out of the game before he retired a batter.
Play of the Game
Drew Stubbs hit his first home run as an Indian and his 9th against Houston, but where it landed is what made this the play of the game. Check out the video here as a fan caught the home run ball in his popcorn. Don't worry, Fox Sports Ohio's own Katie Witham bought him a replacement box.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 5 – Houston Astros 4
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