A Quest Called Tribe

Josh Tomlin pitches to contact.  He's going to give up the gopher ball.  We know this.  With a fastball that barely grazes 90 on his best day, Tomlin relies on throwing strikes and hitting his spots.  Tonight, with the exception of a couple of second inning solo jacks, he baffled the Royals for six innings.  As expounded on by Manny Acta, Josh has a very short memory.  The homers did not shake him at all, nor did the multitude of foul balls contacted by the Royals.  Of Tomlin's even hundred pitches, 73 were for strikes and he never allowed KC to get a real rally going.  The win tonight was his 4th of the season.  Acta says that he expected the tandem of Tomlin and Justin Masterson to be 9-0 at this point.  Yeah, right.  Still, it rocks.  I'm on friggin' cloud nine.

Tomlin's counterpart, Jeff Francis, topped out at a lowly 84 this evening and relied mostly on a 69 mph slow curve as his out pitch.  Francis did not get a lot of outs.  The Indians sent ten men to dish in the first, plating five highlighted by a bases clearing double from Orlando Cabrera.  Francis was gone a batter into the 4th having gotten knocked around to the tune of ten hits.  It honestly looked as if the man was throwing BP.

Acta announced after the game that a move to bring another reliever up from the minors will be announced tomorrow morning, seemingly because he cannot agree with GM Chris Antonetti on exactly which one.  That is striking as the only three AAA relievers on the 40-man are Frank Herrmann, Jess Todd and Josh Judy.  Todd has been an abomination thus far and Judy has zero major league experience.  Herrmann, on the other hand, was demoted only because Joe Smith came off of the DL.  If there is a discussion to be had, I have no idea on the argument.  Whoever gets the call will likely be around for just two days before returning to Clippers in exchange for Saturday's starter.  That is still expected to be Alex White, but I suppose Manny could just go ahead and start Justin Germano (please, no).

The Tribe has won nine in a row at home.  Everyone else in the AL Central lost tonight, so the lead grows to three and a half games.  The Indians are now officially the only team in the division above .500.  Keep on keepin' on boys.

In case you were wondering, Jack Hannahan leads the American League in hitting against left handed pitching.  Jack is 9-for-17.  That's .529.  Nice.

Cheers.