Mom obvious catalyst as Indians thump Athletics
Thank you, Cindy Schlichting
The Cleveland Indians finally defeated the Oakland A’s tonight. The final score read 5-3, but after the A’s winning two nights in a row on walk-offs I think we can all agree that we’re happy about a win, whatever shape that it happens to be in.
Pitching
Jefry Rodriguez encountered trouble. He allowed three consecutive singles to the Athletics, resulting in two runs in the bottom of the third. This happened because Rodriguez caught much of the plate with his breaking offerings, and I will not begrudge him for that. He’s young, he’s got two pitches, and he needs to lean on them. From time to time, they will float over the middle-middle.
The third run came when Jefry floated another one over the center of the plate, low. Matt Olson took that one to the lumber yard.
It still all added up to a quality start.
This is more than we’ve expected from Jefry. Much, much more. We should celebrate what he has been able to give us so far this season. Who knows what else we can expect? Not me. Not you. Let’s just be content with the excellent stopgap he’s provided while Mike Clevinger and Corey Kluber have been hurt. He may be an excellent bullpen arm. He may be a viable starting option. We need to start accepting things as they are if we’re going to be able to watch this season.
Jefry was good. It was good. He is good? We will see.
Hitting
Francisco Lindor singled, which meant that Mike Freeman would walk. We all know that’s an automatic trigger because the battery of Lindor-Freeman has been anchoring the team since earlier today. Jose Ramirez struck out in order to fool Daniel Mengden into pitching to Carlos Santana, obviously.
Santana doubled to score Lindor. Carlos Gonzalez—yes, I still need to remind myself that he is on this team—drew a walk, and then Jordan Luplow gutenflopped a sacrifice fly to score the second run of the inning. The inning ended when Jake Bauers grounded out, but runs. Runs, people. Runs. Better than Yandy Diaz homers, duh.
Roberto Perez.
Seriously though, Roberto Perez.
He knocked a three-run dong for the team tonight, and it happened to be the most important at-bat of the night.
I’m not excusing the fact that he isn’t a great hitter. But the defense he gives behind the dish allows him to pick his spots. I just want to emphasize that he is not a black hole. He can hit. He’s been pretty good. He’s an elite defender. He hit a three-damn-run-jack today. So. You know. Berto.
Adam Cimber
He looked excellent today, retiring the side on only eight pitches when he came in for the seventh.
Nick Wittgren
We, as a fanbase, have found the frustration at times this season. On occasion we have yelled at one another.
Nick Wittgren is one thing upon which we can all agree on. He is good. Also, he is good at baseball. He entered in the bottom of the 8th inning tonight. He allowed just one hit but retired the side in order beyond that.
Indians offense update
You’ve watched this team, and yet you expected an update about runs scored after Roberto Perez hit a dinger in the sixth?
Brad Hand
Pinder grounded out.
Grossman flied out.
Laureano struck out looking.
Hand caught an alley-oop from the baseball gods and flushed it down with authority tonight. It’s his eleventh save on the season.
I have no tidbits to tribe
This team needs serious help at the plate.
However, we pushed a recent “bullpen” acquisition to make another start, and he made it “quality”. The bullpen came through to deliver him his first win.
The offense will start to come around... in some way.
Tonight was fun. We should enjoy it and let whatever fun we can find in this team carry us as far as it will go.