I don’t expect much from Chang, but never expected much from Urshela either.

(Someone should piss test that dude)

Too late for me...but Zach Plesac...wow!

Trout being out helps but yes, very impressive!

Not much to the Angels without Trout, but still nice work by Plesac. Last rookie to throw a 9 inning shutout: Jeremy Sowers. Sowers is one of a bunch of guys, see David Huff, Aaron Laffey, etc. who had one good season and then the league caught on. We'll see how Plesac responds to the league's response next year. So far so quite [somewhat unexpectedly] good

I think what makes it all the more impressive is that it was on September 10, a complete game, when all recent minor leaguers should be dead on the vine!

good points, but on the other hand he was pitching against a team that was out of the running so not necessarily inspired and with the Greatest Baseball Player of All Time out of the lineup. Regardless, however, it was a fine performance and bodes well for his future.

Hand-free win for the Tribe; Wittgren, Perez and Cimber combine for a scoreless ninth, Cimber with the save fans Pujols.
Hand sent back to Cleveland for an MRI.

Forum has either:
a] switched to football, or
b] gone to be early;
No game time posts while they're playing out west. But that's the end of the quick and successful west coast journey.
No gains in the standings as Tampa and Oakland match us. We did gain on the Twins but 4 behind is likely insurmountable; only possible way to match them is to sweep the 3 games this weekend as step one.

West Coast pretty much puts me out of the picture gamewise. Though I did watch most of the game last night.

Plutko did a nice job surviving a pretty shaky outing was my takeaway. Then Lindor did the damage.

We knew Brad Hand had to be hurting.

TFIR wrote:West Coast pretty much puts me out of the picture gamewise. Though I did watch most of the game last night.

Plutko did a nice job surviving a pretty shaky outing was my takeaway. Then Lindor did the damage.

We knew Brad Hand had to be hurting.

Or a mystery injury to save face.

An MRI taken Wednesday on Brad Hand's left arm turned up negative, per Indians manager Terry Francona.

Hand was sent back to Cleveland at some point Wednesday after complaining of arm fatigue. There is no structural damage, but Francona noted that his closer has to "build back up," and there are only 15 games remaining on the Indians' regular-season schedule.

Nick Wittgren, Oliver Perez, and Adam Cimber all pitched in the ninth inning of Wednesday night's 4-3 victory over the Angels, with Cimber getting the save. It could be a closer-by-committee situation the rest of the way.

This may seem weird to "build back up" when he is being diagnosed with arm fatigue. I've had very similar type injuries, as a lifelong serious tennis player in my right arm so I'll give this a shot. In fact just finished physical therapy for a similar one.

What happens is that you get some inflammation in your arm and other muscles compensate for the "fatigued/stressed" muscles. After awhile other areas of your arm start to ache from over-compensating.

Meanwhile the original stressed muscles atrophy since the other muscles were carrying the load. The physical therapy targets those original muscles to build back the strength in them so they can carry their usual load and free up the ones that were compensating. You are probably all familiar with those resistance bands - activities with those are what is used to target specific arm muscles. Obviously massage helps the process as well.

But step 1 is to shut it all down so that the inflammation subsides. He may even get a shot too for that, but at the very least strong anti inflammatories. THEN, and only then, can you get going on the physical therapy (re) strengthening.

You can imagine throwing a baseball and serving a tennis ball are actually very similar. Of course a major league pitcher throws with far more force than I do (although not more than a pro tennis player would). All the worse of course. The overhand motion is quite stressful on an arm.

So the thing is, with a cortisone shot he might....I emphasize might....be able to speed this process up since there is so little time left this season and he can put off the REAL healing until the offseason and fight through in the meantime. Pretty dicey for his long term health but obviously possible. Teams tend to NOT do that these days.

Final observation, injuries like these tend to last months, not weeks. Yes, he might keep pumping anti inflammatories while strengthening on off days and might get by at 80% (wouldn't surprise me if that's what he is already doing) but true healing takes more time than the time left in this season.. more like in terms of a month at the very least.

seagull wrote:

TFIR wrote:West Coast pretty much puts me out of the picture gamewise. Though I did watch most of the game last night.

Plutko did a nice job surviving a pretty shaky outing was my takeaway. Then Lindor did the damage.

We knew Brad Hand had to be hurting.

Or a mystery injury to save face.

seagull - that's unlikely. Actually (other than our friend Salazar) we complain all the time about players NOT sitting out when they are injured. Then subsequently sucking. I want them out if they are injured...they end up helping no one (except Kirk Gibson of course ).

Most athletes error towards playing when they shouldn't. And he probably already did that.

And doctors (orthos) with MRIs, and physical therapists with muscle strength tests, are very skilled at sniffing out muscle issues. They will know exactly what it is and how to target it. When they use the term "strengthening" it's a giveaway. Sadly first the rest - then strengthening - has to be done gradually. At least ideally.

If there's a complaint here it's that they didn't do this earlier, but Hand might not have been willing to be checked.

Well this game started off fun. Twins scored 2 top of 1st. Tribe came back and scored 2 in bottom of 1st. Both teams are ready for this big series.

I don’t understand why Tito and other managers trot their starter out when they know there is rain in the area and there is probably going to be a delay. Use an opener that day, a couple relievers to start, then bring your starter in after the delay.

As it is we may only get a few innings out of Civale tonight. And are going to have to burn up the pen.

Or not!

I am liking this trade - this puts Odorizzi out of the picture now.