Game Sixty-One: Indians 4, Tigers 2

by Ryan on Jun 6, 2008 11:12 PM EDT in Game Recaps

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
Paul Byrd	.211	Ben Francisco	-.103
Casey Blake	.152	Victor Martinez	-.072
Ryan Garko	.101	Asdrubal Cabrera	-.039

Paul Byrd being able to outpitch Justin Verlander appears to break several laws of physics. But the guy who sits in the mid-80s and goes down from there was better than the guy who sits in the mid-90s and more or less stays there tonight. He got through 7 innings without really being in much trouble; the two runs he gave up were both on solo home runs. Normally Byrd is allowing a couple hits an inning, relying on high-pressure pitches to get him out of jams, but tonight the innings were stress-free.

Ryan Garko had his moment of the season in the eighth inning. After getting back on track in Texas with mainly opposite-field hits, Garko reacted on a pitch down and in, and jerked it out of the park, giving the Indians an important insurance run. The home run came after Garko fouled off several pitches that were on or just off the outside corner; that plate coverage kept him at the plate, and he didn't miss the mistake inside. The hours of frustrating batting practice suddenly became worth it.

Joe Borowski has also recovered his 2007 form. His fastball is back to sitting in the high 80s, and while he didn't have good control of his slider tonight, his velocity is now good enough to get by most nights.

The Indians are still in survival mode, with not a whole lot separating them from irrelevancy, but at least some players are finally turning things around. Hopefully the bottom has already happened.

0 recs | Comment 26 comments

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Casey Blake RISP:

1.487 OPS

.480 Average

What goes up must come down.

by gahnki on Jun 6, 2008 11:28 PM EDT 0 recs

In Casey’s case, what was down must come up. His career RISP were terrible, as I remember.

by odradek on Jun 6, 2008 11:45 PM EDT up 0 recs

That’s what I was trying to insinuate. That everything has an opposite. LOBlake has now become….I dunno.

by gahnki on Jun 7, 2008 12:02 AM EDT up 0 recs

Ducks Blake?

by odradek on Jun 7, 2008 2:01 AM EDT up 1 recs

Blake’s current BA with RISP is an excellent example of that “regression” phenomenon that you all talk about. If you get a big enough sample size eventually statistical swings tend to dampen out. If you couple regression with the “there is no such thing as clutch” concept then a players BA with RISP should approach his overall BA. Simple.

"the most vehement Yankee-hating guy I know" - Jay

by mauichuck on Jun 7, 2008 8:45 AM EDT up 0 recs

Seriously, for the love of Mike, can we please take 3 of 4 in this series? If not, a trainwreck of the next 3 games? Not to be borderline irrational, but with what I assume will be TJ surgery for one of our beloved 3 long term contract players who are all on the DL, it just would be nice to get some clarity in the next 3 games so we could go whole hog one way or the other.

I think we can still hang around and part of me wants to see the genius of Shaprio’s/Antonetti’s insistence on depth come through with a miraculous 86-76 division title where we take out the White Sox in the last week of the season.

But damned if we don’t appear snake bit with Westbrook/Adam Miller/Victor/Hafner/Carmona/Betancourt etc all either missing time with injuries or having their performance suffer because they’re dealing with lingering stuff.

by cheech99 on Jun 7, 2008 12:15 AM EDT 0 recs

And the White Sox meanwhile go blissfully along with, last time I checked, no injuries, a stable lineup and plus performances from three or four players (Pierzynski, Quentin, Floyd). They couldn’t trade Crede before the season because everyone was concerned with his back.

by odradek on Jun 7, 2008 2:01 AM EDT up 0 recs

It will catch up to them. Just wait. I remember hearing a few days ago that they’ve only used like 26 players all season because of their perfect health. I can’t wait until they start dropping like flies just as we start becoming relatively healthy.

by ahowie on Jun 7, 2008 1:52 PM EDT up 0 recs

Let’s hope so, but remember 2005. They were blessed the whole season and postseason.

by odradek on Jun 7, 2008 4:19 PM EDT up 0 recs

It was great to see Gootz get a few hits tonight. It should ensure him a few more starts this weekend and I feel a lot better with him patrolling right field.

by Toxicadam on Jun 7, 2008 12:24 AM EDT 0 recs

In honor of this game’s most momentous gamethread, I am now going to make a complete idiot of myself.

Hard truth: Your eyes lie.

by AngG on Jun 7, 2008 12:37 AM EDT 0 recs

I thought this photo would do a better job:

http://flickr.com/photos/asilvahalo/353482024/

Lookin good!

by Toxicadam on Jun 7, 2008 12:55 AM EDT up 0 recs

Sure, but I was trying to stay mildly topical.

Hard truth: Your eyes lie.

by AngG on Jun 7, 2008 1:04 AM EDT up 0 recs

Am still hoping upon hoping, to get back into the division race … but even if we don’t, let this series be the one that finished the Tigers season.

by talonk on Jun 7, 2008 1:09 AM EDT 0 recs

Oh, and one other note from the game … with this win Byrd now has 100 career wins … Congrats to the Cobra!!!!!!!

by talonk on Jun 7, 2008 1:15 AM EDT 0 recs

Garko is back!

by Toxicadam on Jun 7, 2008 1:49 AM EDT 0 recs

Great job by the photographer there; it can’t be easy to capture the majestic Garko in full flight.

Il faut d'abord durer.

by CU Adam on Jun 7, 2008 11:24 AM EDT up 0 recs

Hey Adam – you seen this?

"the most vehement Yankee-hating guy I know" - Jay

by mauichuck on Jun 7, 2008 11:31 AM EDT up 0 recs

Wow. I only made it a minute through before my roommate took my laptop away, though.

Il faut d'abord durer.

by CU Adam on Jun 7, 2008 11:50 AM EDT up 0 recs

Clearly, I need to develop some new teaching materials.

"Lotta heart in Cleveland." - Ian Hunter

by Denver Tribe Fan on Jun 7, 2008 12:04 PM EDT up 0 recs

Sizemore

It was nice to see Grady his a ball to the opposite field last night finally instead of flying out every other at bat.

by NJTribeFan on Jun 7, 2008 9:09 AM EDT 0 recs

Don’t get used to it, Grady is a pull hitter, and he’ll likely remain so for the most part. And we’ll all have to sit back and take it because he generates most of his home runs by pulling the ball to right field. I’d rather have Sizemore pulling the ball rather than him turning into Wally Joyner.

by hans on Jun 7, 2008 1:38 PM EDT up 0 recs

JoBo’s first three fastballs were 84, 82, and 84. Then he picked it up to 86-87. Just like other outings, his velocity is better than where it was earlier in the year, but not quite as high as last year.

Also, I don’t think I remember seeing him throw a slider at all. It was mainly fastballs and his other off-speed pitch, which is usally in mothballs. I think it’s a splitter. Either that was a calculated move or he’s not as confident in his slider right now.

by TribeJay on Jun 7, 2008 12:52 PM EDT 0 recs

Since his comeback (5 IP in 5 games), opponents are batting .211 and he has thrown 64 pitches (45 for strikes).

Encouraging.

by Toxicadam on Jun 7, 2008 1:08 PM EDT up 0 recs

If I’ve got a leaderboard in Post of the Season, this one tops it.

by fleerdon on Jun 7, 2008 1:27 PM EDT up 0 recs

I think that breaking ball was a slider,,,just a poor one. The base hit that he gave up was clearly a meatball slider it broke in and dropped, not to the severity of a curveball, nor straight down (and possibly away from the lefty hitter) as you expect the rotation of a splitter would cause. In fact I think he was throwing fastballs and the slider exclusively last night and was just missing the target with his fastball (like he was trying to hard to spot it) when he was facing MIggy. Thankfully Miggy swung at that last pitch that was way out of the zone.

by hans on Jun 7, 2008 1:42 PM EDT up 0 recs