One Hit Wonders

Here's the thing about baseball. With such a long season, not every win is going to be pretty, but they all count the same in the standings, and if the Tribe is winning I'm happy.

Having said that, Sunday's 2-1 victory over the White Sox, ending the team's "10-game homestand" that actually featured 3 games at Jacobs Field, made for a bizarre afternoon at the ballpark.

The official game boxscore would like you to believe a crowd of just over 14,000 fans attended the ballgame. I can tell you, officials closed the ENTIRE upper deck of the stadium for the game and the lower deck was less than half full. The picture here shows evidence:

As you can see, the game is already in progress and the crowd can be generously described as "sparse." I had flashbacks to my childhood attending games in old Municipal Stadium in the '80s.

As far as the game goes, there were "42s" everywhere. It was Jackie Robinson day and several players on both teams changed their uniform numbers to "42" for the occassion.

Grady Sizemore, wearing number 42, led off the bottom of the first inning by ripping a double to right field - and that was it. No other Indian player managed a base hit the rest of the game.

In the words of Harry Doyle, "One hit?" "That's all we got is one G** D*** hit?!"

Somehow - thanks to masterful pitching by Sabathia and the four butchers the White Sox call infielders kicking the ball all over the field - the Tribe managed to steal and ugly 2-1 win making me 1-0 on the season in games attended.

Despite the lack of offense Sunday, the Tribe took two of three from the division rival Sox for the second time this season already. They ran their record to 6-3 as they travel to New York to begin a tough series in Yankee Stadium.

Lets quickly run down my likes and dislikes so far in the young season.

Likes: PITCHING! Tribe pitchers held a potent White Sox lineup to just one run over the final two games of the season. In fact, the only pitchers who have just looked bad so far are a washed up Roberto Hernandez (what did you expect) and Fausto Carmona (probably still traumatized from his closing stint disaster last year). Unfortunately, Wedge seems to think Pops Hernandez makes a better setup man than the unhittable Fernando Cabrera.

Dislikes: SITUATIONAL HITTING. I don't know what the Indians are hitting with the bases loaded so far this year, but its gotta be something like 0 for 19. I've never seen a team squander so many bases loaded chances as this team. You cannot win consistently all season doing that. They don't move runners along or sacrifice nearly as often as they need to.

I'm a little concerned about Andy Marte coming down with Russbranyanitis - the disease when you literally try to hit every pitch you see out of the area code. It normally results in a batting average around the .208 mark. He needs to shorten his swing and "settle" for base hits every now and then.

As I've mentioned before, hate Roberto Hernandez in our bullpen. We have some good arms out there (Cabrera, Mastny). I just hope it doesn't take until August, and countless blown ballgames, before Hernandez is either moved from the setup role or released altogether. He scares the shit out of me.

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Final note on the Jake Westbrook signing. I'm torn, on one hand it is so good to see Dolan spend some money, I almost feel bad for offering any criticism. On the other hand, $11 mill per for a career 3-4 starter seems a tad excessive. That contract set up Sabathia to demand something in the $15-18 million a year range. I'm guessing that is not a price tag the Tribe will even consider. In other words, enjoy C.C. while you can Tribe fans!