Cleveland Sports Forum

Pestano leaves em loaded, with no runs in!

Aside from last week....it's been surpisingly nice that the tribe has been doing rather well on Sundays. I seem to recall almost automatically counting any Sunday afternoon games as a loss even when we were playing well.

4-0, heading to the bottom of the 9th.

First shutout of the year.

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

4 unearned runs [OK, so 1 is earned, not quite sure why] for a 4-0 victory. We accept the gift, thankfully. Lowe nears his 2011 victory total, he-'s 4-1, 2.17, did it with 1 K today.

I spent a bit of time today reviewing the history of the baseball field layout through the latter part of the 19th century. I'm full, teacher, may I be excused? I don't want to go read the rules for earned runs.

Lowe in control as Indians blank Angels

By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com | 4/29/2012 3:29 PM ET

CLEVELAND -- Derek Lowe was in vintage form on Sunday afternoon, holding the Angels to two hits and leading the Indians to a 4-0 victory at Progressive Field. In the process, Cleveland picked up its first series win of the season at home.

The Indians (11-9) remained atop the American League Central with the win, which was the second in the three-game set against the struggling Angels (7-15). Lowe, who was acquired by the Tribe in an offseason trade with the Braves, spun 7 2/3 stellar innings en route to his fourth win of the season.

Lowe used his signature sinker to induce 14 outs via ground balls and improved to 4-1 with a 2.27 ERA in the process. The Angels had no baserunners advance beyond first base until the eighth inning against Lowe, who issued two walks and allowed just three singles.

During one stretch between the second and seventh innings, the veteran right-hander breezed through 17 batters in a row without allowing a hit.

The Indians did not have much success against Angels right-hander Ervin Santana (0-5), but produced enough offense to pull off the win. Santana -- making his first start against Cleveland since spinning a no-hitter against the Indians on July 27 last season -- was charged with two unearned runs in seven innings, during which he allowed seven hits.

Indians leadoff man Michael Brantley saw to it that there would not be a repeat of last year, slicing a Santana pitch into left field for a single to open the first inning. Jason Kipnis followed with a base hit of his own, but Santana recovered with three quick outs to avoid any early damage. It was not until the fifth inning that the Tribe broke through for two runs.

With two outs and runners on first and second base, Asdrubal Cabrera lifted a pitch from Santana high into right field. Torii Hunter glided to his right and camped under the ball, but it quickly became apparent that he lost sight of the ball in the sun.

As Hunter crouched and shielded himself with his glove, the baseball dropped in, allowing the Tribe to score a pair of runs to grab a 2-0 lead.

That was a sufficient cushion for Lowe, who exited with two outs and runners on the corners in the eighth inning. Setup man Vinnie Pestano walked highly-touted rookie Mike Trout to load the bases, but ended the scoring chance with a strikeout of Howard Kendrick.

Cleveland added two insurance runs in the home half of the eighth inning, when Travis Hafner and Carlos Santana led off with consecutive singles against reliever Kevin Jepsen. Jack Hannahan followed with a sacrifice bunt back to the mound, but Jepsen misfired on a throw to first base, allowing one run to score. The Indians then took a 4-0 lead behind a sacrifice fly from Shelley Duncan.

Derek Lowe is our Dennis Martinez or Orel Hershiser of 2012. All we are lacking to match the teams of the late 90's are equivalents of Albert Belle, Carlos Baerga, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, Kenny Lofton.

civ ollilavad wrote:Derek Lowe is our Dennis Martinez or Orel Hershiser of 2012. All we are lacking to match the teams of the late 90's are equivalents of Albert Belle, Carlos Baerga, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, Kenny Lofton.

So yeah....anyone that can hit the ball...

VT'er wrote:I spent a bit of time today reviewing the history of the baseball field layout through the latter part of the 19th century. I'm full, teacher, may I be excused? I don't want to go read the rules for earned runs.

All I know about baseball field layout is that Oakland has a whole bunch of foul territory, and the new park in San Francisco has the bullpen closest to the playing field of any MLB stadium. Legend has it, that the architects of the quickly built San Francisco field did not know that baseball required a bullpen. Kudos to them though for building that entire glorious Park on just 13 acres.

Stats favor the pitchers.

Baron wrote:Aside from last week....it's been surpisingly nice that the tribe has been doing rather well on Sundays. I seem to recall almost automatically counting any Sunday afternoon games as a loss even when we were playing well.

Yes, and going back to the Eric Wedge days.

In 1995 my memory is that Tribe hitters raked on Sundays. Unresearched, of course.


I'm glad we have Derek Lowe. I've liked him for a long time. I just hope as the season goes on we are prepped to be ready to regularly expect to get six competitive innings from him, a quality start.

Maybe Damon will give the offense a veteran lift, too. He's supposed to be ready soon.

Acta has a problem tonight, with Sale, a pretty good lefty going against us, how does he start Damon?

One way would be to put Duncan at 1B, Damon in LF. Choo, by the way, does pretty poorly against Sale and might be a bit rusty.

Hope that is the kiss of life.