Roster Update: Nick Hagadone found a way back to the Indians far before his ten days in AAA were up. Vinnie Pestano was placed on the 15 day DL today just prior to the game starting with right elbow tendonitis. He has been fighting the injury for years according to Pestano and has been kept out of action since April 29th because of it. Because Hagadone had only spent four days in the minors, Pestano's DL stint can only be retroactive to May 1st instead of the 29th.
Player of the Game
Asdrubal Cabrera went deep twice for the Tribe and scored later on Jason Giambi's two run single, scoring enough runs by himself to tie the entire A's team. Cabrera now has four home runs on the season and is starting to look more like 2011 and less like 2012. His final POG score was 7.13, vastly ahead of everyone else on the team. His third Player of the Game ties him for team lead with five other players.
Feathers Up
Award Time! Ryan Raburn took home the AL Player of the Week award for his work this past week. The award was well deserved for the Indians utility outfielder who went .591 with four home runs and 9 RBI, most of which came in a two game span from April 29th to the 30th. It is the 32 year olds first such award.
The Indians version of the bash brothers took it to the A's and Jarrod Parker in the first inning with both Jason Kipnis and Asdrubal Cabrera hitting solo home runs, back-to-back (and belly-to-belly, whatever that means).
Coming into the game, both starting pitchers had ERAs above 7.00, but only one left with one. Ubaldo Jimenez was strong again, for the second start in a row. He lowered his ERA to 6.37 on the season. He threw 5.2 innings and allowed just two runs. It is the first time he has had two consecutive good starts since last June when he beat the Tigers and Cardinals in straight starts.
Mark Reynolds is working his way up the left field bleachers. His last home run went about half way up and tonight's went even further, just about 5 rows from the scoreboard. The estimated distance on the blast was 466 feet. The official word isn't in, but it was likely one of the top ten longest home runs in the history of Progressive (Jacob's) Field. You have to see this.
Nick Hagadone came in tonight in his first game back with the team and immediately struck out Josh Reddick with the bases loaded to end the sixth inning. In the process he saved a possible three runs from being added to Jimenez's line and proved that he has what it takes to be a Major League reliever. He has proven this over and over again during the last two seasons, so hopefully this time he will stick with the Tribe.
Feathers Down
The Indians hit four home runs tonight, but they were all solo shots, limiting the scoring to just four runs. Outside of the long balls, the Indians had some issues getting on base and never had any real threats offensively against A's starting pitcher, Jarrod Parker.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 7 – Oakland Athletics 3
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