Roster Update: Before the game today, the Indians made the signing of Johnny Damon official and announced that he will work out in Goodyear for the time being. When he is ready to make the team he will likely take the either Jose Lopez‘s or Aaron Cunningham‘s spot on the roster. The Indians also placed shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera on the bereavement list as he went to Venezuela to deal with the death of a family member. Nick Hagadone has been brought up from Columbus to take his place on the 25 man roster and Jason Donald will man short in his stead.
Player of the Game
Carlos Santana becomes the first player to win two Player of the Game awards in 2012. Santana scored 5.73 PoG points mostly via a 3 run home run that brought the Indians to within one run of the Mariners. He also walked in the first inning. Shin-Soo Choo, Jason Donald and Michael Brantley all had scores above 3.00, while Justin Masterson‘s -8.97 cancelled out his great Opening Day start and gave him a negative score for the year. The rest of the bullpen picked him up, however, scoring a combined 8.55 between the 5 pitchers used.
Feathers Up
For just the second time this season, Michael Brantley lead off the game by getting on base and just like the first time, he scored in the first inning. While the rate of occurance isn’t very high (2 out of 8 times), it does show what kind of damage a leadoff hitter who can get on base can do. Brantley also stole his first base of the season.
Jason Donald filled in well for the missing Cabrera, knocking in the tieing run in the 5th with a sacrifice fly and the go ahead run in the 7th with a single. Donald also hit another single earlier in the game and scored a run as well. Nick Hagadone also played well in his first game of 2012, bailing out Justin Masterson by stranding two of his runners. Overall Hagadone pitched 1.1 innings with 2 strikeouts. Both players were in the game due to Asdrubal Cabrera’s absence.
Feathers Down
Justin Masterson looked absolutely awful in the 4th inning as he was completely unable to throw strikes. Masterson walked in a run and hit a batter to score another one. The Indians scored 7 the next inning to take him off the hook, but no amount of hitting could save his sub-3.00 ERA.
Jack Hannahan made his fourth error of the season today. Lonnie Chisenhall has 4 home runs and is hitting .380 in AAA right now. This will be the first of as many notes as it necessary for Hannahan to be replaced by the player who was named the future at third base by Tribe management just one year ago. You should definitely be amazed that I made it 8 games into the season without bringing this up.
Play of the Game
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 9 – Seattle Mariners 8
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