Game Twelve: Indians 7, Athletics 1

by Ryan on Apr 14, 2008 12:09 AM EDT in Game Recaps

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
Cliff Lee	.405	David Dellucci	-.085
Travis Hafner	.146	Victor Martinez	-.066
Grady Sizemore	.094	Jhonny Peralta	-.038

Once again, it was Cliff to the rescue, helping the Indians prevent an Athletics sweep. After watching three straight Indian starters struggle to throw strikes, it was rather refreshing to see Lee, even in tough conditions, forcing Oakland batters to hit their way on. The Athletics don't have a lot of power in their lineup, so their traditional patient approach is that much more important to their offensive success. That patient approach worked against Carmona yesterday, who allowed just two hits but walked eight, but not against Lee, who pounded the strike zone.

In some ways the weather was on Lee's side: the wind was whipping straight in, which combined with the cold made it virtually impossible for anyone to hit the ball in the air with any authority. But Cliff didn't really need the wind, as he was missing bats; he struck out eight, most of them swinging. While his velocity didn't seem appreciably better, opposing hitters reacted as though Cliff's fastball had much more life on it than in the recent past.

But even with Lee's eight strong innings, the game wasn't broken open until the bottom of the eighth, when Grady Sizemore and David Dellucci came through with two-out hits to turn a Joe Borowski save opportunity into a Rafael Betancourt mopup outing.

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God, this Cliff Lee business is surreal.

by afh4 on Apr 14, 2008 12:27 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Can't wait for Cliff's next start......maybe he just has the A's number.....but the way he was dealing today suggests that any offense would have struggled with the conditions and his pitches.

by mjschaefer on Apr 14, 2008 12:39 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

The march to 'Acceptance of Dellucci' continues!

by Toxicadam on Apr 14, 2008 12:57 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

I still see a guy who went 1 for 4 in the 2-hole (behind Grady and Carroll who both were on base all day). He is playing respectably, but I'm not ready to anoint him as "the answer" in left field (or batting second). The reason they scored runs in the game was that Grady played well and sparked them (as did Hafner). Dellucci had a nice hit late, but didn't do much earlier in the game when it was tight.

by peter m on Apr 14, 2008 10:48 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

No disrespect, but you sem like a guy who just looked at the box score and didn't watch the game.

He worked the count in almost every AB and put good wood on all of his flyouts. Just hit them at people. It's something he has been doing for the past week now.

by Toxicadam on Apr 14, 2008 10:59 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Btw, I was more talking about Dellucci's acceptance as a contributing player on this team. I think most fans would rather just DFA the platoon and put BenFran in there.

I have no delusions that he could be more than a bottom of the lineup guy. But if he can, great. Remember that Casey Blake was our #2 hitter for much of May (and we won a lot). If he gets hot .. ride him out.

by Toxicadam on Apr 14, 2008 11:02 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Amen. He's totally growing on me too. Solid atbats for the last little while now.

by supermarioelia on Apr 14, 2008 11:20 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Sorry. I did watch the game. He did have good at bats, but didn't produce. I'm not big on moral victories, to be honest, so he's got to do more than make the pitcher work to convince me. Blake gets a lot of deep counts too, but we're all correctly hard on him (Dellucci did look better than Blake generally does, to be fair).

by peter m on Apr 14, 2008 12:15 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

excuse me? "He did have good at bats, but didn't produce." Isn't that more likely the product of bad luck? If you have good at bats, production will come. It's not that hard.

Blake gets into deep counts because he takes absurd number of pitches. Blake is patient to be patient, not patient to be a good hitter.

Sizemore-Shapiro 2008. The Official Red Bull of Let's Go Tribe Game Threads.

by Gradyforpresident on Apr 14, 2008 1:03 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Although there are many different philosophies about hitting, literally every professional coach and scout in the game will tell you, he'd rather see good at-bats from a player than "results." This is the heart of both coaching and scouting and much of what separates astute observation from garden-variety crankiness.

by Jay on Apr 14, 2008 1:13 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

I guess I'd be more optimistic about and accepting of Dellucci if he didn't have a long and mediocre track record. He's 34 years old, has a career OBP of .346 (not great, not bad), and has career statistics that project to 58 RBI's and 65 Runs per 162 games. He's never shown much power, apart from that one anomalous year in Texas (gee!). In other words, his record is that of a nice role player (a term Jay used to describe him somewhere on this page). We can argue that his nice at-bats will eventually translate into more scoring, but his career numbers don't really point to that conclusion. I have no problem with him as a role player for the Tribe. What I don't see is his holding down the left field job as a regular who gets 400 or more at bats.

This began as a comment on "the acceptance of Dellucci." So, what does that mean, exactly? That he is an acceptable member of the team? Sure, if he keeps hitting at something resembling his career pattern, he'll be useful player. That he is an acceptable "almost" regular left fielder? That's the interpretation I'm having trouble accepting on the basis of a week's worth of pretty good play.

by peter m on Apr 14, 2008 2:04 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

There has been a fairly steady drumbeat to dump Dellucci since his first or second month here. "Accepting" in this case means not constantly calling for him to be benched, dumped, traded, drawn, quartered, etc.

by Jay on Apr 14, 2008 3:37 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

I accept that definition of acceptance and accept Dellucci as acceptable. But, only within acceptable limits.

by peter m on Apr 14, 2008 4:01 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

I can accept that.

by Jay on Apr 14, 2008 4:42 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

true in some respects but if ascab can produce in the 2 hole, delucci wouldnt be that bad in the bottom of the lineup behind peralta or garko to break up the righties

As General Manager of this team, I demand to know when I'm getting a start.

by bigbrabbs on Apr 14, 2008 10:59 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

But is there any real reason not to do it the other way around?

by Jay on Apr 14, 2008 11:06 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

I'm not that suprised by Lee's outing. Yeah we all hate(d) him for sucking it up last year and starting crap with the team, but man he has something to prove. That intangible has proven to be the X-Factor as of late for our pitchers. Look no further than our No. 2 pitcher who rebounded from a poor season in 06 and capitalized when trying to prove his worth last year. I had a feeling Lee would be good this year but did not know he'd be this good!! Of course Im not holding my breath in anticipation for 18 wins, but he may have given us a little boost going into the Sox series.

by lesterjl on Apr 14, 2008 2:05 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

I'm calling it the Minor League effect. This year, our offense is struggling to put up early numbers, so our pitchers who have spent the past couple years trying to get the team a chance to win are stressed and giving up big numbers (CC, Byrd, and to some extend Fausto). On the switch side, the pitchers that spent some time in AA, focusing on good numbers (ie low runs no matter what), are doing better, because they're keyed in to letting few runs cross the plate, no matter what the offense did. Remember that wins don't really matter when you're trying to work your way up to the Bigs...

Winning Formula: Long fly ball... Deep ______ Field... Awaaaayyyy back! Gone!

by Justin Higgins on Apr 14, 2008 6:30 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Didn't have a chance to follow the Saturday game at all... Fausto walked 8? Geez. Maybe I should hold back on that new carmona jersey.

Burn on, big river, burn on...

by Turkmenbashi on Apr 14, 2008 9:10 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Buy low.

by fleerdon on Apr 14, 2008 9:10 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

If only it worked that way.

Burn on, big river, burn on...

by Turkmenbashi on Apr 14, 2008 9:24 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Lordy, I'm not gonna make a big deal out of it for anti-jinx purposes, but the Tigers have now been out-scored 78-33. (We're still 6 runs off break-even ourselves.)

by fleerdon on Apr 14, 2008 9:23 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Everyone is focusing on the lack of run production, but the more worrying thing for a Tigers fan should be that pitching staff. Team ERA of 5.45 and giving up 6.5 runs per game.

by Toxicadam on Apr 14, 2008 9:44 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

So they really are on pace for 1000 runs.

by SuddenSam on Apr 14, 2008 11:11 AM EDT up reply reply 1 recs

early potw nominee

by Jay on Apr 14, 2008 11:20 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

This is great, really, but I just can't shake the sensation that Cliff being good is a cute little affectation he'll get over with time, like baby-talking or Canadian sovereignty.

by fleerdon on Apr 14, 2008 10:29 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Yeah, especially since I just picked him up for my fantasy team.

DRINK

Burn on, big river, burn on...

by Turkmenbashi on Apr 14, 2008 10:39 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Oh Turk .. why did you? This is the end of Cliff Lee.

by Toxicadam on Apr 14, 2008 11:00 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

I thought that before I picked up Bannister...

by lesterjl on Apr 14, 2008 6:40 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Let's just hope he continues to pitch well. If CC and Carmona straighten out to be who we think they are, Lee becomes a great 4. Even better, he increases his trade value, if need the FO decides to deal him.

by talonk on Apr 14, 2008 1:46 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

We're still talking about trading Lee?

by fleerdon on Apr 14, 2008 2:16 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Didnt say we should, I said IF the FO decides to.

by talonk on Apr 14, 2008 2:55 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

I wouldn't, not this season anyway. If he has a good year and they decide they have depth enough, they could consider trading him next off-season on the grounds that it's wise to "sell high." I doubt it, though, as Byrd will be gone and CC may be too. Let's hope we have actually to think about whether or not to trade Lee after a good season!! A nice problem to have.

by peter m on Apr 14, 2008 2:21 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs