Player of the Game
With a sacrifice fly and a two run double, Jack Hannahan practically won the game by himself and thus deserves the honor of tonight’s Player of the Game award. His final score was 4.50, just above winning pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez‘s 4.03. Chris Perez had an identical line and score as the night before, 2.02 points for a strike out and a save. Shin-Soo Choo and Carlos Santana both put forth great efforts as well, earning over 1.00 a piece and combined have only had 3 negative scoring games this season.
Feathers Up
Milestone: Travis Hafner‘s single in the 4th inning was his 1,000th hit as a member of the Cleveland Indians. It was his 1,015th hit in his career. Congratulations go to the longest tenured player on the Cleveland Indians. He is the 35th member of the Tribe to get 1,000 hits with the team.
Jack Hannahan has gone on a nice little offensive streak, either knocking in or scoring a run in each of his last four games. He has at least 2 total bases in each of his last 3 games and has been on base in his last 8.
The bullpen did their job tonight, which apparently is to let the other team make it as close as possibly while still winning the game. Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez were very strong to end the game.
Feathers Down
Indians pitchers are still having trouble throwing strikes. Ubaldo Jimenez walked 5 hitters today and both Tony Sipp and Joe Smith walked a batter.
Jason Donald is having the opposite type of streak that Hannahan is having. He has left a runner on base in scoring position at least once in 3 of the last 4 games including three in tonight’s contest. He has also struck out 5 times over the last two games.
Play of the Game
Just a reminder that this section is for my personal favorite play of the game, not the most important. Jason Kipnis stole second on a pick-off move, then scored on the next play as Shin-Soo Choo singled to right.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 4 – Oakland Athletics 3
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