Player of the Game
In what could be his last game as a starter, Shelley Duncan went 2-3 with a double, home run and walk to win tonight’s Player of the Game. He earned a total score of 4.68, aided by his two runs scored and the RBI from the home run. It was his highest score since April 15th and the first Indians home run in over a week. With a -4.45, Asdrubal Cabrera had a game to forget about. He went 0-4 without hitting a ball out of the infield and had an error that lead to three unearned runs.
Feathers Up
The removal of Jose Lopez from the roster rather than Aaron Cunningham will allow the Indians to platoon Shelley Duncan and Casey Kotchman at first, with Johnny Damon splitting time with Duncan and Cunningham in left. This will allow the Indians to keep Duncan’s powerful bat in the lineup on a daily basis and avoid having Kotchman’s.
I rarely have as mixed feelings about a player as I do about Jairo Asencio. He started the season by losing the opening game, but only after pitching two good innings. Since then he’s had three good appearances followed by a bad one, then two more average appearances followed by an absolutely terrible inning where he gave up 4 hits and 4 runs. Asencio pitched well again today, but it’s impossible to get a feeling on him, whether he will be lights out or get his lights knocked out.
Feathers Down
There must be things that Manny Acta cares more about than winning, otherwise he wouldn’t play the back up catcher the day after an off day and move the number 2 hitter down to 7th so the utility infielder could hit second.
Shin-Soo Choo did not make his return tonight as promised. The Indians are claiming that he will be ready to start tomorrow night. Johnny Damon was also left out of the lineup, although he was available to play.
Ubaldo Jimenez still can’t throw strikes. He was removed before the end of the fifth inning as he had already thrown over 100 pitches and walked 6 batters.
With bases loaded in the 9th and two outs, Manny Acta showed that he had already given up as he let Lou Marson, who hasn’t had a hit in two weeks, bat instead of pinch hitting either Choo, Damon or Jack Hannahan (the team leader in RBI). Somebody should tell Manny that his goal should be to win games, not to play little league coach and make sure everybody gets their playing time.
Play of the Game
In the 7th, Alexis Rios hit a shallow pop to second base where the Indians catcher, Carlos Santana misjudged it, allowing it to fall for an error. This is the play of the game because it exemplifies this game as good as any other. Why was Carlos Santana trying to catch a ball at second? Why did Alexis change his name to Alex? Who is John Galt?
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2 – Chicago White Sox 7
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