I'm not saying that he rode the short bus, but to call Matt LaPorta a mongoloid would be an insult to mongoloids everywhere. Now, do not get me wrong, the kid can play defense and he is showing some liveliness as the plate. Still, whenever he is called upon to use some baseball smarts, he comes up lacking. Why, why oh why, would you turn to look at the other runner? Throw the GD ball to O-Cab and let him make the decision with everything in front of him. I almost punched out my flat screen.
On top of the ire inspired in me, the play totally took Carlos Carrasco (5.18) out of the game. It was not as if Carrasco was mowing the Rangers down beforehand and he completely fell apart afterward. This came to a head when he could not even bring himself to shout "Hold the ball!" to Carlos Santana. God damn it. I am not a Carrasco fan. In fact, at this juncture, I am calling for his demotion. I will not argue with his stuff, although he did not register a strike out tonight, but the guy simply does not know how to pitch. Too many missed spots. Too much pitch repetition. The third time through the lineup Texas was 5-for-7. If you cannot think ahead and set up hitters for the next at-bat while continuing to retire them, then you belong in the bullpen. Send Carlos down. Even his best day is sloppy. Recall Zach McAllister. He has earned it.
The Tribe has now played 54 games to a 33-21 record. Over the first 28 games (19-9) they committed 13 errors in the 26 games since (14-12) the team has made 20. For all of the talk of starting pitching or batter regression, the major difference has been in the field. If the Indians cannot recover defensively they will have to hope that 15ish games over .500 (that's 90-72) is good enough to take the division.
All that being said, it certainly does not help when your 1-thru-3 hitters bat 1-for-14 (4 K) and the oppenents 6-thru-9 produce 8-for-14 with 5 runs scored and 3 RBI.
Time to buck up again and take the series.
Seriously, send Carrasco down. Now.
Cheers.
It is still surreal that this team has the best record in the american league. in june. i refuse to feel any anxiety or cleveland sports angst towards this team until they are on pace to win less then 80 games, as we all expected. i think the playoffs are a huge bonus at this point, with the major victory this year just being a fun season to watch, not the abortion we all expected.
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