Cleveland Sports Forum

Tonight's game (April 10) between the Indians and White Sox has been postponed due to adverse weather conditions. Fans must hold on to their tickets from tonight’s (April 10) postponed game.

Dont think there were too many fans holding those tickets. No problem another day closer to the deadline so we can unload a few more of our players.

Indians RHP Justin Masterson faces White Sox LHP John Danks this afternoon

Published: Wednesday, April 11, 2012, 11:04 AM Updated: Wednesday, April 11, 2012, 11:13 AM
By Dennis Manoloff, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Indians play host to the White Sox today at 12:05 p.m. at Progressive Field. Indians right-hander Justin Masterson faces White Sox lefty John Danks.

Lineups:

White Sox -- 1. De Aza cf; 2. Morel 3b; 3. Dunn dh; 4. Konerko 1b; 5. Pierzynski c; 6. Ramirez ss; 7. Fukudome rf; 8. Viciedo lf; 9. Beckham 2b; and Danks lhp.
Indians -- 1. Brantley cf; 2. Cabrera ss; 3. Choo rf; 4. Santana c; 5. Hafner dh; 6. Duncan lf; 7. Kotchman 1b; 8. Kipnis 2b; 9. Hannahan 3b; and Masterson rhp.

Coming off the weather postponement Tuesday, the Indians stayed with Masterson, who started Opening Day on April 5. The White Sox stayed with Opening Day starter Danks on regular rest.

Nuggets:

*Masterson went 2-2 with a 1.61 ERA in four starts against the White Sox last season.
*Masterson owned the 17th-best home ERA in the American League last season at 3.25, but he went 4-5 in 19 appearances/18 starts. He received the league's 20th-lowest run support at home (3.63 per game).
*Pierzynski is 8-for-23 (.348) against Masterson.
*Danks is 3-7 with a 4.79 ERA in 13 starts against Cleveland.
*Konerko is tied with Luke Appling for second place on the White Sox' all-time total-bases list with 3,528. Frank Thomas leads at 3,949.

Tomlin time: Pitcher versus batter is a chess game played on a 60-foot, 6-inch board. Each tries to anticipate the other's upcoming moves to maximize strategic impact.

Sometimes, though, one side can over-think things. Instead of playing to strengths, too much weight gets placed on counter measures.

Indians right-hander Josh Tomlin admitted that he probably concerned himself too much with what White Sox hitters were thinking Monday night. The result was a season's debut in which he gave up four runs on seven hits in five innings of a 4-2 loss.

In the first inning, in particular, Tomlin said he gave too much stock to what he figures is underlined in the opposition scouting report: Throws strikes early in count, usually four-seamers or cutters.

"I'd never faced the White Sox, but they had to know I like to get ahead right away,'' Tomlin said. "I thought they'd be looking for the first-pitch fastball, so I changed my approach, especially to the lefties. I tried to throw stuff in the bottom half of the zone, away, in order to get a swing-and-miss or bad contact.''

Two White Sox lefties didn't bite. Leadoff batter Alejandro De Aza took a ball, got the count to 2-1, then homered to right. Four batters later, A.J. Pierzynski took two balls, then hit a two-run homer to right.

Both homers came off fastballs.

"Basically, I adjusted too quickly,'' Tomlin said.

Tomlin finished with one walk and, thanks to a nasty cutter, seven strikeouts.

"The strikeouts surprised me, because I'm not that type of pitcher,'' he said. "Striking out guys means I'm throwing more pitches than I should be. I'd rather go eight innings and strike out one or two than five innings and strike out seven.''

Tomlin threw 95 pitches against the White Sox.

Homer happy: As a strike thrower who does not overpower hitters, Tomlin was not overly concerned about having allowed 24 homers in 165 2/3 innings last season.

Nor was he going to fret over the two long balls Monday -- but for a different reason.

"I'm not worried about those because, when I went and looked at the video, the pitches were right down the middle,'' he said. "They were bad pitches, and they deserved to be hit out. The times you might wonder what's going on are when your best pitches are getting hit all over the place.''

Tomlin's 12-7 record and 4.25 ERA last season showed that the homers did not derail him. Fifteen were solo shots.

"I didn't want to get caught up in the total, but, obviously, I came into this year with a goal to reduce it,'' he said. "I'd tried to work on a sinker in the offseason, but that really didn't work out. So it's going to come down to making better pitches with the ones I already have. It didn't happen against the White Sox.''

Tomlin said that more than a few of his homers last season came on hanging changeups.

"You can't be giving up homers on your fourth-best pitch,'' he said.

Masterson is in big trouble right off the bat. Would have to be lucky to not be down by 5 after top half of the first.

Guess we're lucky, then. Only down by four.

Gift double.

Gift run!

Still plenty of good seats available, so if you're in the area...

Other than Hannahan, batting 9th and hitting 308, we have no one in the lineup (and these are the regulars) hitting over 222, and 6 of 9 with averages between 059 and 188.
Big hitters Choo and Hafner have no extra base hits, so does little hitter Kotchum.


Well, we can expect things will get better than that.

PRONK!!!

Indians have the lowest AL team AVG of 153 and lowest team OPS of 557, but we have outscored the Twins (14 runs to their 6) and WhiteSox (10) in the first 4 games of the season. We should remain in serious contention not to finish last in the Central.

Maybe that should be the rallying cry: "NOT LAST!"

Hafner HR followed by two hits and a bunt; 2nd and 3rd 1 out and Hannahan and Brantley leave them there.

And Sox get the run back, unearned due to a Kotchum error. One run in the first also UE due to Hanahan error. They're our best two defenders.

But Big Travis clears the bases with a 2-run Double after a pair of walks to Santana and Choo. Now 5-4. We've never topped 4 in a game yet this year and this is our chance to do so