Game Thirty-Six: Indians 12, Blue Jays 0

by Ryan on May 11, 2008 12:28 AM EDT in Game Recaps

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
Aaron Laffey	.115	Ryan Garko	-.016
Victor Martinez	.114	Ben Francisco	-.016
Grady Sizemore	.106

The pitching was excellent again, but this time, the offense was as well. Grady Sizemore lead off the game with a home run, and before the inning was over, the Indians had a 6-0 lead. Blue Jays starter Dustin McGowan had no command of his fastball, which for a team that loves fastballs was a very welcome development.

But the twelve-run outburst shouldn't overshadow what Aaron Laffey's performance. Pitching with a huge lead most of the game, Laffey still maintained his game plan of attacking the lower portion of the strike zone. The Indians haven't missed Jake Westbrook, and that isn't demeaning to Jake; Laffey's allowed just 4 earned runs in his three starts.

Asdrubal Cabrera had two hits, but his defense was what stood out tonight. Cabrera, playing at shortstop, made several nice throws going into the hole between short and third. Though Jhonny Peralta playing shortstop makes sense today, Cabrera's the future at the position.

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tonight was a great night to be in cleveland. the cavs atmosphere, and the indians with 38k+ on hand. francisco saved a few runs with his fielding. the stadium went nuts when he threw the balls in from the outfield. he has quite an arm. i think he’ll be finding himself into the starting role by the end of the year.

by wendigo on May 11, 2008 12:34 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Yeah, after yesterday I thought “Why not just stop watching sports for the rest of the year?”

by dgcambridge on May 11, 2008 8:56 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Question, on the ESPN recap it said that Mastny stated that he was going to be send down to Buffalo…any idea who is coming up?

by cclemens31 on May 11, 2008 12:38 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Canton Repository says it will be a position player – leading candidates Barfield and Gonzalez

by palcal on May 11, 2008 12:54 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Great to see that recap, missed the game. Our pitching looks to be crazy strong this year … what to do when Westbrook comes back? Does Laffey go down and let Byrd keep his spot, protecting our greatest asset (pitching depth?) Obviously this is a great problem to have. How did Breslow look? 3 hits, but 3 Ks, too. Glad he got in a game.

Il faut d'abord durer.

by CU Adam on May 11, 2008 4:33 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Breslow looked okay to me. Some funky breaking pitches but not overpowering. Hard to judge someone who pitches so seldom and then only in a game where it’s clearly over. He did throw strikes, by and large, which is a plus.

by peter m on May 11, 2008 12:52 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

He seemed to recognize that these were fairly high-leverage innings for his own career, even if not for the game.

One of the three hits was a straight-up seeing-eye grounder, so from a pure pitching standpoint, you’d have to say he gave up two line drives while getting four groundballs and three strikeouts.

Against lefties: K, GB, liner.

Against righties: liner, GB, GB, K, GB, K.

by Jay on May 11, 2008 2:26 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Yeah, he was pitching for his spot, for sure (and held it, it appears). I don’t think he’s going anywhere soon, unless they make a trade of some sort.

by peter m on May 11, 2008 2:47 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs