Monday, June 15, 2009

A Tale of Two Ballgames

It was the best of games and then the worst of games.

With apologies to Charles Dickens, that pretty much sums up the Tribe's two-night stand on ESPN.

Sunday night, of course, Cliff Lee and Chris Carpenter were slinging.

Lee, as we all know, was throwing a no-hitter into the 8th inning. Carpenter, after a slow start in the first inning, pretty much kept pace with Lee pitch by pitch. The fielding was crisp. The time of the game was 1:58. I could have sworn I was watching Drysdale Vs. Gibson in the mid-60s.

Then, of course, there was tonight's "slugfest."

It was much more a walk-and-hit-by-pitch-fest, as the two teams scored 26 runs on 26 hits. That's either some pretty efficient hitting or the pitchers were letting a lot of guys on base gratis. Perhaps it was a bit of both

There were 12 walks, one HBP and four wild pitches.

One Brewer batter - I can't recall who off the top of my head - was so desperate to see a pitch he could hit that he swung and missed on a pitch that was so wide it eluded the catcher and went all the way to the backstop.

There were times during the 3-hour 56-minute crapathon, particularly when Greg Aquino and Luis Vizcaino were on the mound, when watching this game felt like undergoing root canal and a colonoscopy simultaneously - with no anesthesia administered at either end.

Raffie Perez, shell-shocked by his first-pitch, game-losing grand slam to Prince Fielder, was so bad for the rest of the inning he looked like he had never stepped on an ant hill, let alone a pitcher's mound, before.

Perez has quickly regressed to his pre-demotion self. And Indians fans, that aint good.

The bullpen was so horrible - 4 innings, 8 runs, 6 walks - it almost makes you forget that our No. 2 starter Carl Pavano was awful for the second straight time.

The Indians, have won 12 of their last 21, and for this team that qualifies as a making a run.

But these last two games were a microcosm of the Tribe's season to date (except for the 5 game losing streak to open the season). One step forward, two steps back.

Luckily, that seems to be enough to keep them in the Central Division race.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK - what the heck kind of lineup is that tonight - valbueana batting first .179 - 2 rookies in the lineup gimeniz and barfield against milwaukees best pitcher

last night was a stinker - glad I missed it - just when I think they are getting it together - they play a game like last

moose

Ron Vallo said...

I swear he picks the lineup out of a paper bag

Anonymous said...

ron

paper or plastic. Sometimes it looks like a garbage bag.

moose

Anonymous said...

UNBELIEVABLE - that is all I got to say about the lost to the Cubs today

Anonymous said...

where's the guy that writes these blogs. Is he so in shock over the games the last week that he can'r write !!!

moose

Ron Vallo said...

well moose, if you must know, my internet has been out more than it's been running over the past week.

the internet provider - which just coincidentally is owned by the same family (different branch) that owns our beloved baseball - can't seem to figure out how to keep me online.

changes will be made on that front next monday. so expect spottiness the rest of this week.

Ron Vallo said...

that should read our beloved baseball team