Player of the Game
Lonnie Chisenhall takes home his first career ‘Player of the Game’ for a meaningless home run hit while down 3 in the 9th inning. The Chiz Kid also hit a single earlier in the game making this only his 3rd multi-hit game of the season. The home run was the second of his career and it came off Twins closer Joe Nathan. He earned 3.31 ‘POG’ points in this game and his season average of 0.85 points per game is already better than Jack Hannahan (0.79) Ezequiel Carrera (0.69), Lou Marson (0.66) and Austin Kearns (0.55).
Feathers Up
If the Indians can keep playing .500 ball while half the roster is out, they should be fine. Grady Sizemore, Michael Brantley, Travis Buck, Trevor Crowe and Mitch Talbot should all be back soon, so the guys playing right now just have to keep the team afloat until their return.
Travis Hafner was able to score on a passed ball after he doubled thanks to some aggressive baserunning. This was huge when it happened as it tied the game and with two outs in the inning. Carlos Santana ended up grounding out after the passed ball, so had Hafner not scored then, he never would have. It was Pronk’s great baserunning instincts and his sneaky speed that surprised Drew Butera and allowed him to score.
Hopefully by beating the Twins in the first two games, but letting them win the last two the Indians have heated up the Twins bats as they will go on to face the Tigers next. Of course if the Twins beat the Tigers, we will have to start rooting for the Twins to lose as well.
Feathers Down
The Indians outfield problems hurt the team again today as Luis Valbuena was forced to play left field with the absence of Shin-Soo Choo, Sizemore, Brantley and Buck. Both Brantley’s (stomach sickness) and Buck’s (headache) ailments are not serious so they should be fine to play on Friday with an off day tomorrow. If either one can not play then the Indians may make another roster move to bring up another outfielder. This could be either Shelley Duncan, Jared Head or Chad Huffman. There is a 99% chance it would be Duncan, but I just thought I’d throw some other names out there just to be sure.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 5 – Minnesota Twins 7
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