Cleveland Sports Forum

Asencio with a wild pitch to put a runner on 3rd. Missing that closing instinct today.

But.....there it is.

We win.

The Tribe is off to the KC airport for a flight to Seattle and an off day on Monday.

Tuesday we'll see Eric Wedge and Kevin Millwood and have to see all those hip coffee drinkers in the Seattle crowd.

We are now officially a .500 ball club.

How quickly stats change. Our 52 runs scored is 2nd only in the AL to the Red Sox who have scored 53. In the NL, only St. Louis has scored more.

We're just a game behind Chicago for 2nd place, and trail the Tigers by 1.5

Texas is the only team besides us to have a perfect road record.

...............

.........................................SWEEP!!!

Not that it matters, TFiC, but I was able to get the video for the entire game on my Macbook. Just wish I could have paid closer attention.

OPS:

Brantley 642
Cabrera 846
Mr.Choo 671
THafner 976
Duncan 1065
Kotchm 692
JKipnis 788
Hanahan757

Interesting stat. Kotchman with his 2nd steal of the year. Most in his career - 3.

VT'er wrote:Not that it matters, TFiC, but I was able to get the video for the entire game on my Macbook. Just wish I could have paid closer attention.

Thanks VT'er. I'm cleansing my laptop. I suspect I picked something up that was preventing the video, or maybe I just need to allow an update to something.

I'll worry about it Tuesday.


7PM start here in California. I suspect few back east will be tuning in for the 10PM EDT first pitch.

When I was a kid, I used to love the late night Tribe starts from the West Coast. Transistor radio, with the Civil Defense frequency marking, and an ear plug coming out from under the pillow.

TFISC- Got you beat, I used to listen on a tube type radio under sheets and blankets on Armed Forces radio. Heard Lary Doby hit a Homer to defeat the Tigers in Detroit, he was booed every time he came to the plate, then things got quiet after the crack of the bat. after a long silence the Detroit announcers said -so Doby puts the Indians ahead with that Home Run. I cried! Always rooted for the underdog. My parents would have killed me if they knew I was listening, it was late at night, probably delayed broadcast, we were in Germany at the time, and with my ear pressed against the speaker so as not to wake my parents it was amazing that I never started a fire or made it to school the next day.

I listened to yesterday's game on XM while driving to deliver a wood stove that I sold on Craigslist (clearing out a bunch of stuff to make our next move easier) . I had to take it way down to the plains southeast of Denver, about 75 minutes away. It was nice to listen as the Tribe bats woke up. The KC announcers could only shake their heads at the abysmal pitching performances of both teams.

loufla wrote:TFISC- Got you beat, I used to listen on a tube type radio under sheets and blankets on Armed Forces radio. Heard Lary Doby hit a Homer to defeat the Tigers in Detroit, he was booed every time he came to the plate, then things got quiet after the crack of the bat. after a long silence the Detroit announcers said -so Doby puts the Indians ahead with that Home Run. I cried! Always rooted for the underdog. My parents would have killed me if they knew I was listening, it was late at night, probably delayed broadcast, we were in Germany at the time, and with my ear pressed against the speaker so as not to wake my parents it was amazing that I never started a fire or made it to school the next day.

I remember when drug stores in The States used to have "tube test" machines for electronics.

I had always heard stories of how easy it is to pick up Armed Forces radio and American events in Europe. I was in Europe for the last couple games of the 1991 World Series. I casually followed The Braves in those years, attending maybe five to ten games a season. During the World Series games that year I searched repeatedly on the radio dial to try to find the broadcast...to no avail. I was in Switzerland, Austria and Italy for those games. I didn't know who won the series until I was listening to news in Italian while in Florence and heard a reference that my Spanish background gave me enough of a ground to interpret that Minnesota had won.

Switching, in 1965 during a game with The Yankees visiting Municipal Stadium, my Dad and I by happenstance ended up seated next to Lary Doby and his wife. I had no idea at first who he was, but my 8 1/2 year old mind noted that he must be someone important because he kept getting asked for autographs. Eventually, I learned. I have his autograph on a game program from that 1965 day.

TFISC- Neat!

Millwood, Masterson ready as Mariners host Tribe
By Adam Berry / MLB.com | 4/15/2012 8:55 PM ET
Kevin Millwood isn't spending much time thinking about his last start, nor is he putting a lot of thought into his past with the Indians, as the Tribe visit Seattle to kick off a three-game series on Tuesday.

Millwood pitched for Cleveland in 2005 under current Seattle manager Eric Wedge and pitching coach Carl Willis, both of whom were with the Indians from 2003-09. Coming off a strong outing on Wednesday, in which he struck out seven over six innings of one-run ball, Millwood is far more focused on his start against his former team than the time he, Wedge and Willis spent with the Tribe.

"I don't really know anybody over there anymore," the 37-year-old Millwood said. "We bring up some stories from that year and whatnot, but we don't really get a lot of time to sit down and reminisce. We definitely have a few stories from a while back."

Millwood wasn't going to sit down and reminisce about his impressive Mariners debut, either, even though he did a nice job shutting down a potent Rangers lineup by retiring 16 of the 19 batters he faced. Millwood didn't receive a decision in the game.

"That definitely gives me confidence, but it's not going to get me any outs the next game. My next start, I still got to do the same amount of work for the next one," Millwood said. "I feel like I located OK, I had good movement on my fastball and I was able to mix it up when I wanted to.

"Next time out it's going to be pretty much all about locating. If I can locate my fastball, everything else kind of works from there."

Millwood will line up opposite Indians right-hander Justin Masterson, who might be a little more willing to look back into the recent past than Millwood -- so long as you consider the recent past to be Masterson's excellent 2012 debut instead of his relatively mediocre performance on Wednesday.

Masterson struck out 10 Blue Jays while giving up only one run on two hits and a walk over eight innings on April 5, but he coudln't repeat that success against the White Sox at home. Masterson allowed five runs (three earned) on eight hits with only two strikeouts over five innings.

"I got what I wanted. They just didn't go exactly where I wanted them to go," the sinkerballer said, referring to the ground balls he induced. "You never assume that they'll find this hole, find this hole and then go to this hole and this hole. The ball's got to go to somebody some time."

Indians: Homer-happy Tribe keeps going deep
• The Indians homered in each of their first eight games this season, giving them 15 on the year -- tied for the most in the Majors. That's also the club's longest streak to start the year since 2006.

Jason Kipnis is leading the way with three, and five Indians have clubbed two homers apiece: Asdrubal Cabrera, Shelley Duncan, Travis Hafner, Casey Kotchman and Carlos Santana.

If Cleveland homers in its next two games, the Tribe will tie the second-longest such streak (nine games) in club history since at least 1918. The '02 Indians homered in 14 straight games to start the season.

• The Indians scored eight or more runs in each game of their weekend sweep of the Royals. That's the first time in club history that Cleveland scored eight or more runs in its first three road games.

Mariners: Wedge still tinkering with lineup
• Wedge has had 11 games to get a feel for his hitters and how they might fit in his batting order, but that's not nearly enough time for the Mariners' skipper to make any final decisions. He's still toying with different ideas day to day based on his players' numbers against that day's starter, his gut feelings, their health and how they're holding up mentally.

"Early on in the year, you're going to have to play more lineups -- especially when you have a young team, especially when you come out [of] Spring Training," Wedge said. "Also to make sure these guys get in there, you play them all spring and then they're not playing for a while."

• The Mariners will be happy to see the Indians on Tuesday if only for one reason: They're not the A's. Seattle played Oakland in seven of its first 11 games to start the year, including the two-game opening series in Japan.

"Geez, I feel like we've played them every game so far," first baseman Justin Smoak said with a smile. "And we've had ... what? Three Opening Days with them so far? One in Japan, one in Oakland and one here. So it's going to be nice not to see them for a while. It's just one of those things.

"Uncle, you know? How many times can you play a team in two weeks? Now, we get to face some other guys and give them a rest for a little while."

Worth noting
• Jesus Montero's eight-game hitting streak ended Sunday with an 0-for-4 performance.

• Indians second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera has hit .304 (17-for-56) with three walks, four strikeouts and zero extra-base hits in 60 career plate appearances against Millwood, by far the most any Cleveland batter has against the Mariners right-hander.