Player of the Game
Travis Hafner won today’s Player of the Game as he reminded everyone of what Pronk can do. Hafner hit a solo home run followed by a two run double for a PoG score of 6.06. Also in the running for the award today was Shelley Duncan who also hit his first home run of the season for a score of 4.94.
Feathers Up
Justin Masterson actually pitched a little better than his line shows. Of his 8 hits allowed, only one went for extra bases and many of the others were weak singles through holes in the infield. He didn’t have a whole lot of movement on his pitches, leading to the lack of strikeouts and his defense wasn’t strong behind him, but he maintains a 2.77 ERA for the season through two games.
With no one out and runners at first and second in the 4th, Jason Kipnis took a bad swing and whiffed on a fastball at his shoulders. Realizing he was outmatched, either he or Manny Acta called for a sacrifice bunt that Kipnis executed beautifully. If either Jack Hannahan or Michael Brantley could have went on to do something remotely positive, something good could have even came from it.
Aided by a postponed game yesterday and another day off tomorrow, Jeanmar Gomez was able to pitch out of the bullpen today. Gomez will still make his scheduled start Saturday, but his availability today allowed the Indians to save their normal relievers and get through a couple innings without incident.
Feathers Down
The Indians gave a couple runs away early in this game as Jack Hannahan botched a throw on a sacrifice bunt and Casey Kotchman dropped one from Asdrubal Cabrera. These two plays lead to two unearned runs in addition to the 3 runs that the White Sox legitimately scored off of Justin Masterson. The Indians also scored their first run on a gift from the White Sox. Asdrubal Cabrera was given a double on a bad play by Kosuke Fukudome and scored on a wild pitch.
The Indians had great chances to score in both the third and fourth innings, but were unable to come up with anything. When the team batting average is below .200 it is really tought to get more than one hit in an inning. The answer to this problem isn’t to try and miraculously get all their hits in the same inning, but rather to increase the team batting average by getting more hits in any inning.
Of course, the ultimate reason the Indians lost today didn’t have anything to do with any of that. The 5 run 6th inning provided by Dan Wheeler and Rafael Perez sealed the Indians fate.
Play of the Game
Travis Hafner made a return to Pronkville with this solo home run.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 6 – Chicago White Sox 10
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
