Three Is a Magic Number

"Three is a Magic Number" - Schoolhouse Rock

Three is now the magic number for the Cleveland Indians to clinch the American League Central Division after yesterday afternoon's victory over the Motor City Kitties.

After spotting the Kitties a 2-run lead in the top of the third inning, the Indians came back off Goggle Boy Nate Robertson with a solo home run by Casey Blake in the bottom of the inning to cut the deficit to 2-1. The Indians took the lead in the 5th with three runs. Key hits were back to back doubles by Gutierrez and Michaels and an RBI single by the Beaded One, Asdrubal Cabrera.

CC Sabathia went 7 strong innings, giving up 5 hits and 2 runs, striking out 7 and walking only 1, turning in another ace-like performance. CC Sabathia knows how to Beat Michigan. Senor Slow came in and pitched an uncharacteritically tense 8th inning, loading the bases before getting Marcus Thames to fly out to end the rally. Joe Knows Closing pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to send the fans out to get an early start on celebrating happy hour. Jason Michaels got served Leadership Pie.

The Tribe now has the opportunity to clinch at home this weekend without anyone's help by sweeping the Oakland Athletics.

A few words about the Tigers. It strikes me that their window is closing while the Indians' is opening. The Tigers took a risk by signing expensive free agents that priced themselves too high for anyone else (Rodriguez and Ordonez), and it paid off last year. Everything went right for the Tigers last year - their young pitching matured all at once, and all their overpriced veterans stayed healthy and produced.

The problem with depending on overpriced veteran free agents, especially older and/or injury-prone ones is that eventually they do experience a drop in production, and they may not stay healthy. This year, unlike last year, their overpriced veterans did not stay healthy (Kenny Rogers, Gary Sheffield).

Their young pitching also got hurt or was not nearly as effective (Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney both spent significant time on the DL, Jeremy Bonderman spent the last couple months in a funk before being shut down, Nate Robertson was ineffective most of the season, Mike Maroth is now a Cardinal).

Kenny Rogers is finally showing his age, leaving a void at the top of their rotation. Andrew Miller wasn't ready this year - he might be next year. How badly is Bonderman hurt? Was their pitching staff a victim of overuse last year? The Tigers will probably come to regret giving up top pitching prospects for Gary Sheffield, especially if Sheffield continues to miss games at the rate he did this year while their prospects go on to shine for the Yankees.

Pudge Rodriguez is a shell of his former self, both offensively and defensively. Craig Monroe and Marcus Thames had career years last year, and both came crashing to earth, Monroe crashing so hard that he was dealt to the Cubs.

The Tigers have a solid core in Granderson, Verlander, Ordonez and Bonderman. However, they have a lot of questions - is all the hype on Andrew Miller legitimate? Can they find a shortstop that will give them enough offense to allow them to move Carlos Guillen to first base to keep him healthy? Can Ordonez continue to avoid injuries? What do they do with Pudge now that he's lost it? How long can they keep riding Todd Jones at closer, and is Zumaya really ready to close? Can they put together a decent enough bullpen to get games to Rodney/Zumaya/Jones?

It will be a critical off-season for the Motor City Kitties that determines how well they continue to stay in contention.

Chicks Dig the Long Ball - Magic Number Now 5

Jake Westbrook walked a tightrope for 5 innings, Jensen Lewis shut the Motor City Kitties down for the 3 more to secure his first major league win, and the Indians beat the Tigers 7-4 behind 4 home runs by 4 different players off Tigers ace Justin Verlander.

The homers:

• Inning 2 - Ryan Garko (solo) - tied game at 1
• Inning 3 - Pronk (3-run) - tied game at 4
• Inning 6 - Victor Martinez (solo) - gave Indians 5-4 lead
• Inning 6 - Franklin Gutierrez (2-run) - gave Indians 7-4 lead

Three of the four home runs (Garko, Pronk, Gutierrez) were measured at over 400 feet. They were, indeed Mighty Clouts.

The Tigers stranded 10 runners and had several opportunities to put the game away in the first five innings against Westbrook, but were unable to get the big hit, and the Indians came back with a mighty clout in the bottom of every inning that the Tigers scored to keep the pressure on.

Jensen Lewis knows how to Beat Michigan, taming the Kitties by retiring 9 of the 10 batters he faced, with the only blemish an errant pitch that plunked Placidao Polanco. For his efforts, he was rewarded with Leadership Pie, and the Indians dropped their magic number to 5. Joe Knows Closing pitched a reasonably uneventful ninth for his league leading 41st save.

In another good sign, Jacobs Field was full, with over 5,400 walk-up tickets sold on Dollar Dog Night at the stadium.

The Indians have a chance to drop the magic number to 3 with a noon game. Sabathia vs. Robertson.

Mojo Watch -

Pronk:
Good timing for the Pronkmeister.

Tribe:
Still rollling with Full Elvis.

Tigers: Right now, the Motor City Kitties got no Elvis. They are Michael J Fox.

Lucky Number 7

The Indians reduced their magic number for clinching the American League Central Division by beating the Tigers 6-5 in 11 innings on a walk-off home run by Casey Blake.

The Tigers led most of the way, as Kenny Rogers' Deal With Satan continued long enough to allow him to agetreacheryguile a 5-2 lead after 7. The Indians were clubbing the ball the last three innings Rogers pitched, but right at the Tigers' fielders. Paul Byrd, after being deserted by his defense in the 4th inning, allowed 5 runs (4 earned) and agetreacheryguiled his way through 7 -1/3 innings. Aaron Fultz pitched out of a two-on, one-out jam in the 7th.

That's when the fun began. The Tigers brought in Joel Zumaya, a hard thrower who has been known to hit 100 mph on the gun, to start the 8th. He walked the Sizemore, and Cabrera followed with a single. Hafner advanced the runners to second and third on a groundout. Martinez also grounded out, scoring Sizemore, bringing Jhonny Peralta to the plate as the tying run with two outs. Jhonny proceeded to zhoom one of the park, his second home run of the game, tying it at 5.

Joe Knows Closing came on in the 9th, and, of course, that always means excitement. This time, Sean Casey, pinch-hitting for Timo Perez, lined a one-out single up the middle. Cameron "Beanstalk" Maybin, pinch-running for Casey, stole secong base, giving Cabrera an elbow to the head while popping up on his slide and forcing Cabrera to drop the ball. The next batter, Marcus Thames, grounded to short. With the play directly in front of him, Beanstalk tried to take third anyway, and was cut down by a good throw by Peralta, as justice for his assault on Cabrera. Brandon Inge flied out, ending the threat.

Indians 9th - on comes Zach Miner. Indians get winning run to second base with one out. Sizemore flies out, Cabrera walks, Hafner grounds out. Bonus baseball ensues.

Detroit 1oth - on comes Rafael Betancourt (Senor Slow). Polanco doubles with one out. Sheffield Ks on a high fastball, nearly screwing himself into the ground. Ordonez flies out.

Indians 10th - Peralta walks with one out. Josh Barfield is paroled long enough to pinch run for our most productive hitter of the game. Inning ends on a strike-em-out, throw-em-out doublte play with Gutierrez striking out and Barfield, who got a horrible jump, getting thrown out at second.

Detroit 11th. Guillen flies out. Next two batters K'd by Senor Slow.

Indians 11th - Lofton grounds out. Blake launches one into the left field bleachers. Game over. Mass hysteria. Dogs and cats sleeping together. Casey Blake gets the Leadership Pie. Magic Number at 7.

Casey Blake and Jhonny Peralta Know How to Beat Michigan

Mojo Watch:

Cleveland Indians:
This team still has the Full Elvis going strong. Different hero every night. Looking like a Team o'Destiny.

Pronk:
Mojo Shrinking. Maybe Pronk lent his free-floating mojo to the University of Michigan so they could finally win a football game.

Good Thing STO Isn't Doing Your City's Fireworks

I hope for you that the fireworks show you're going to see tonight (or saw last night, in the case of those of you who might have gone to Red, White and Boom in Columbus) is run much more effectively than SportsTime Ohio ran their broadcast last night. Otherwise, you might miss the finale completely. After the Indians defused a bases loaded/one out threat from the Motor City Kitties, STO did not come back for the top of the 11th, instead broadcasting static.

After checking to see that the problem was indeed with STO and not my cable (other channels were broadcasting successfully), I turned on the radio in time to hear Casey Blake smash one out of the Oversized Litter Box to give the Tribe the lead. Shortly after this occurred, STO realized, "Hey, we might have a technical problem! Better let people know!" and then a technical difficulty screen appeared on my TV. The picture came back as the Tigers were starting the bottom of the 11th.

What we could see of last night's game was exciting. I was out at a movie with my wife and missed the first 6 innings or so, but I saw on replays a great play by Kelly "Quadzilla" Shoppach to block the plate on Gary Sheffield to save a critical run in the fifth. The Ben Francisco "Treat" continued his run of stellar play with a pinch-hit home run to tie the game and send it into bonus baseball. Franklin Gutierrez caught a ball up against the fence in right field despite his best efforts to give himself poor position to make the play in the 10th. Tom Mastny pitched himself into bases loaded peril in the 1oth and then cleaned up his own mess.

Among the weirdness and mind games going on:

• The home plate umpire was truly incapable of providing a consistent strike zone, leading to much sniping from both sides.
• The umpires exercised an obscure rule that never gets enforced, probably at the instigation of Jim Leyland, that the pitcher has 12 second to deliver the ball or the umpire has the authority to award a ball to the batter. While I think it is unquestionable that Betancourt is one of the slowest and most deliberate pitchers in the league, the suddenness of enforcing this rule with runners on base in the 8th inning of a tie game in a critical game with pennant implications is pretty penny ante stuff. There has to be some way to retaliate against the Tigers for this pissy garbage. After the game, Wedge was actually angry. This is a big deal and it's not over yet. Maybe Wedge can have them impound Magglio Ordonez' bat and have it x-rayed for cork - there's something mighty suspicious about his .369 batting average.
• Catchers interference was called against Ivan Rodriguez during a plate appearance by Pronk in the 3rd inning, after which Pudge spent the rest of the game bitching to the home plate umpire that Pronk was out of the box on every subsequent plate appearance. The hit he was awarded on that catcher's interference call was Pronk's only hit of the evening.

About the previous night's game against the D-Rays, well, let's just say that right now the D-Rays are D-Moralized, as they played defense about as well as your average tee-ball league team and threw away the game. The Indians won 10-2 behind solid pitching by Carmona, who got picked up when he hit the wall by Rafael Perez. Perez pitched out of a bases loaded/no outs jam in the 7th to give the Tribe time to keep the Tribe ahead 3-2 and give the Tribe the chance to blow it open in the 8th with 7 runs as Tampa Bay's defense collapsed and the Indians' bats woke up, capped by a Sizemore grand slam.

Ben Francisco - 3/3, with a home run.

Pronk - 1/4 with a run scored.

The stands were packed with friends and family of D-Rays starting pitcher Andy Sonnanstine, a northeast Ohio native who went to Kent, and who pitched well against his hometown team, giving up 3 earned runs in 6 innings, and keeping his team in the game.

At any rate, the Indians are 3 games up on Detroit and as a team they seem to have their mojo working completely, and are now, officially, in the Tigers' heads. The Tigers are now 0-4 in their own stadium against the Indians. The Indians know how to Beat Michigan.

Pronk Knows How to Beat Michigan

Like Jim Tressel, Pronk knows how to Beat Michigan, or at least he did last night, going 2 for 3 with a monster two-run homer and a two-run single. In addition, he padded his league-leading walk totals, being allowed to trot leisurely to first base twice by the umpiring staff.

Pronk appears to be regaining Pronkitude, and it's thanks to you. You cannot slack off now.

If Woody were still here he would ask "What are you doing today to help Pronk Beat Michigan?"

And, by the way, LeBron knows a little bit about what it takes to Beat Michigan, too.

Pronk Still Needs You!

Pronkwatch: Yesterday (5/30, v. Red Sox) 3 for 5, 2 RBI, with 2 doubles.

Pronk made a big stride forward yesterday, and your positive energy helped. But it's just one day, and until Pronk makes an extended display of continual Pronkitude, we cannot assume that he is fully back.

Woody Hayes used to ask his team, "What have you done today to beat Michigan?" With the series with the Tigers starting tonight, I ask you, "What have you done today to help Pronk beat Michigan?"

Pronk is counting on you.