Jerry: "It's a minimum of six innings."
ETrain: "Six innings? That's ridiculous."
Jerry: "Well, I could give you a break if you weren't at opening day. Were you?"
ETrain: "Uh... Does it count if I don't remember it?"
Jerry: "As long as you're not wearing any Indians gear right now."
ETrain: "I really shouldn't wear my hat inside..."
Jerry: "Six innings! No matter how bad Fausto looks."
ETrain: "God damn it."
Ahh, the wisdom of Seinfeld. In the wake of the only two wins over the past 12 games coming by 1-0 scores, in the shadow of being 2-hit last night, under the weight of a 3-0 first inning deficit, the Indians played as we had seen play so often through April and May. They strung together hits. They did the little things. They kept everyone involved. And, hell yes, they won.
Orlando Cabrera had 3 hits and 2 RBI. He had produced 5 hits and one rib-eye all month coming in. Shin-Soo Choo reached base 3 times. He had not done so since May 22nd. He scored three runs. He had not done that all season. The game went so well that the official scorer took away Hannahan's error in the aftermath.
The bullpen mafia was out in full force. In his last two games Chris Perez has faced six hitters and struck out 5. Rafael Perez (1.32), Vinnie Pestano (1.52, nasty!) and Tony Sipp (2.22) put together three shutout innings to pick up the luckiest man on earth: Fausto Carmona. Carmona: 7 H, 2 BB. Mafia: 0 H, 2 BB. Fausto was "gutty" enough to earn the win tonight, but please realize that the man leads the league in earned runs allowed (59) and did little to help his cause this evening. Carmona (4-8, 5.79) actually saw his ERA rise from its pre-game level with the removal of the E-5 and he needed 103 pitches to make it through 5 frames and qualify for the win. Was it an improvement over his last 5 starts (0-5, 9.55)? Well, yes, but an invasion of CHUDs would have been as well. We shall see.
Cheers.
