Player of the Game
Even with the rest of the team failing around him, Michael Brantley still managed to have a great game, going 2-2 with two walks and a home run. In addition to the solo home run, Brantley’s second walk came with the bases loaded, giving him his team leading 32 RBI, good for sixth in the AL.
Feathers Up
Terry Francona mixed up the Indians line-up today after a long struggle to get the players expected to power the lineup to actually do so. Nick Swisher was dropped from second to sixth, Carlos Santana was dropped from fourth to seventh. In their places, the hot hitting Mike Aviles and the extremely cold Ryan Raburn were moved up. For some reason, despite his torrid start, Lonnie Chisenhall was kept as the 8th hitter. Asdrubal Cabrera and Yan Gomes received much needed days off in preparation for Detroit coming into town tomorrow.
Tired of being stranded on base, Michael Bourn said “do I need to do everything myself” and launched a solo home run to right center to start the game. If he actually thought that to himself, he may have been right as the run was the only one scored until Michael Brantley added a solo home run of his own in the fifth.
Feathers Down
While changing the lineup was a good thing, there are plenty of improvements still to be made. Batting Raburn fourth was a huge mistake as the .184 hitter killed multiple rallies today, batting between the Indians best two hitters, Michael Brantley and David Murphy. Chisenhall is also still being disrespected, and was able to add a meaningless double, made so by being surrounded by sub-.200 hitters. Had Chisenhall been the fourth or fifth hitter, he would have likely had at least two RBI in this game. While lineup structure can be overrated, when there are players on the team that are physically incapable of getting a hit, like Raburn and Santana, they need to be kept as far down in the order as possible, while good hitters like Chisenhall should be rewarded. Swisher ended the game 0-4 with four RISPLOBs, an error and an earned run out of the six hole.
Justin Masterson had his walking shoes on today and they certainly seemed painful. He walked five batters in the first five innings and while the first two, both Coco Crisp, who also walked in the fifth, were eliminated with double plays, both his walks in the fourth went on to score. Masterson got a double play to end the fourth as well, but not before a John Jaso double and Josh Reddick single brought home the two batters walked to begin the inning. Crisp scored after his third walk of the game as well, proving yet again that walking batters is not a successful pitching strategy.
Of course, all the hits Masterson allowed didn’t help much either and the Athletics finally took advantage of all their base runners in the fifth inning, when they pushed four runs across and Masterson from the game. Brandon Moss and Yoenis Cespedes hit back to back doubles with one out to score the runs and for the third time this season, Maserson was unable to make it past of the fifth inning. His final line was 4.1 IP, 7 ER, 1 K, 5 BB.
In addition to the odd lineup, Terry Francona furthered his mistakes by leaving Raburn in during the sixth, when the Indians had bases loaded and the DH was coming to the plate. Despite batting under .180 coming into the at bat with two strike outs already on the game, Raburn was left in to face Fernando Abad, who promptly struck him out. Abad is a left handed pitcher and the Indians had Yan Gomes and Asdrubal Cabrera on the bench, both of whom have been heating up lately. Even Jesus Aguilar, who is yet to record his first MLB hit, would have been a better choice as he could hit a home run on any given pitch. Instead, Raburn and Francona turned what could have been a big inning into a wasted opportunity, still down by six runs.
To be fair to Masterson, the bullpen wasn’t much better. Josh Outman did strand Masterson’s last base runner, but then walked two of his own and gave up two runs in his next inning. In a similar situation, Scott Atchison stranded Outman’s runner, but gave up a run the next inning off a Nick Swisher error and a double. Cody Allen beat them all however, loading the bases and giving up a two run double to Cespedes without getting an out. Kyle Crockett then relieved Allen and gave up one of his runners, giving the A’s a 13-3 lead. Crockett was actually the Indians best reliever on the night, striking out his first Major League batter without allowing a base runner.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 – Oakland Athletics 13
On Deck: The Motor City Kitties will roll into town tomorrow, with Drew Smyly facing Corey Kluber in the opening game at 7:05 PM in Cleveland.
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