Player of the Game
Travis Hafner takes home tonight’s ‘Player of the Game’ on the strength of his first inning 3 run home run. Hafner also walked later in the game, but the bulk of his 5.40 ‘POG’ score came from the home run. Carlos Santana came in a close second with a score of 5.06, but was denied yet again even though he played well. Santana has now had a score of 4.70 or higher in 3 of the last 4 games, but has not won a ‘Player of the Game’ since April. After another bad outing, Fausto Carmona’s season ‘POG’ score is now -18.8. He is currently one of three Indians with negative scores along with Mitch Talbot (-1.4) and Chad Durbin (-1.4)
Feathers Up
The Indians did a great job scoring repsonse runs tonight, plating 3 after the Rockies scored in the first and 2 more after the Rockies scored 6 in the 5th. These runs really kept the Indians in a game that could have become a blowout. They also scored one run in the 8th inning after the Rockies got an unearned run off of an errant throw by Lou Marson.
The Rockies are a really talented offensive team and the Indians are lucky that they only have to face them once every couple years and that this year the games are taking place in Cleveland instead of Colorado.
After Chad Durbin had two of his worst outings of the season in consecutive appearances (6/10 and 6/12), the Indians gave him a week off either out of fear of putting him in a game or to give him a chance to get himself back together. Whatever the reason, it apparently worked and Durbin has now made two successful outings in consecutive days. Tonight’s appearance was especially strong as he went 2 innings, allowing only one hit, stranding a runner that Carmona left on and striking out 3.
Feathers Down
Fausto Carmona dug his own grave tonight. After pitching 4.2 very good innings, Carmona walked two and gave up 5 hits, all with two outs and nobody on in the 5th. This was capped when Jason Giambi hit a giant 3 run home run. Carmona hasn’t had a decent start in his last 5 games and hasn’t had a really good start in his last 8. You have to wonder just how long the Indians will allow Fausto to keep pitching at this level.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 7 – Colorado Rockies 8
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