Game 123: Indians 6, Mariners 1

by afh4 on Aug 23, 2009 4:52 PM EDT in Game Recaps Comment 43 comments

The Tribe was clicking on all cylinders today, led by a 7.0 IP, 8 K outing from Fausto Carmona. It's hard to spin Fausto's outing as anything but positive: in a season where he's walked more batters than he's struck out, Fausto posted and 8:1 K:BB ratio today. Bearing that in mind, it's still worth pointing out that Fausto had a 6:7 GO:FO ratio. What, exactly, is going on with Fausto remains a mystery; he worked like a different pitcher than I've ever seen today, using his fastball to set up his changeup as an out pitch. The sinker was not featured. I'm not sure what the future holds for Fausto but his breaking stuff looked good today, as did the changeup, and it's always refreshing that he can routinely work in the low to mid-90s, unlike so many Indians' starters.

The offense had a great outing against one of the best pitchers in the AL, Felix Hernandez. LaPorta and Marte both had key hits in the four-run 6th; Hafner, Valbuena, Peralta, and Sizemore all had two hits and Sizemore and Valbuena especially are looking like they will be able to be key contributors to the offense in 2010.

Chris Perez and Sipp finished the game after Fausto's solid 7, with Perez striking out two in the ninth. The bullpen in 2010 might be terrible but it'll at least be fast.

290823105_mariners_indians_139460003_lbig_medium

HIghest WPA		Lowest WPA
Fausto Carmona	.271	Choo	-.270
Jhonny Peralta	.231	Carroll	-.083
Grady Sizemore	.091	Wyatt Toregas	-.024

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as i write this the indians are only 11 1/2 games back!

by gorilla_baller on Aug 23, 2009 5:30 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Steel Nick

by nickjs21 on Aug 23, 2009 9:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ahh, you NL west, you.

This is Victor's home. Victor Jose, you too.

by westbrook on Aug 23, 2009 6:15 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I watched his outing. Smoltz had a strikezone so generous, Tom Glavine in the late 90s would have been jealous.

by xrickx on Aug 23, 2009 6:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

i didn’t watch the game but the graphs at brooks didn’t seem to show anything too ridiculous… especially if you consider that the most egregious strike calls are probably swings

by gorilla_baller on Aug 23, 2009 6:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Over the NL Central they got the Cardinals, not too many teams in the AL looking as good as that.

/mauichuck

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

by Jay on Aug 23, 2009 10:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

18-12 (.600) in last 30 game, since the low point, 21 games under. If they keep that up over the last 39 games, theywould win 77-78 games.

Interestingly, their record after 123 games is identical to same point in 2003, Wedge’s first and worst year (68 total wins). If Wedge gets to 78 wins, he will match his 2nd worst year (2006).

by palcal on Aug 23, 2009 8:40 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

he worked like a different pitcher than I’ve ever seen today

I felt this way, too

by APV on Aug 23, 2009 8:44 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

i liked the way he worked it… no diggity

by gorilla_baller on Aug 23, 2009 9:14 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs

Bag it up

by Bernie19Kosar on Aug 23, 2009 10:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I’d like to this type of performance for a couple more starts, and against at least a decent offense, but yeah, that was impressive.

by Ryan on Aug 23, 2009 10:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

baby steps to the elevator…

I reserve the right to complain about Gimenez at 1B and Carroll in the OF, no matter the facts. - FredOx

by DontCallMeJoey on Aug 24, 2009 4:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I saw, earlier, a link to the FanShot of Lastoria’s piece about the deterioration of Carmona’s stuff. I remember the pulled quote being something like, “He didn’t have that sinker he had when he first came through A-ball.” It didn’t dawn on me, then, to say, “Good! He’d better throw something else. Turns out, the sinker sort of sucked!”

by fleerdon on Aug 23, 2009 11:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yes, but the sinker ran into one for a whole year once.

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

by Jay on Aug 23, 2009 11:48 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

and made all of us a little drunk (and Tori Hunter a little hungover)

by APV on Aug 23, 2009 11:50 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.

by fleerdon on Aug 24, 2009 10:49 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Tempted to post that giant cockroach picture again, but I won’t.

by Logodaedalus on Aug 24, 2009 12:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks for that.

Who needs affection when you can have blind hatred?

by ClemsonGirl on Aug 24, 2009 1:32 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

De La Cruz pitching in AZ tonight – two perfect innings so far

by APV on Aug 23, 2009 10:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

and by perfect, I mean one hit allowed

by APV on Aug 23, 2009 10:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

he better own the AZ league

by Roger Dorn on Aug 23, 2009 10:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

don’t look at the third inning, then

by APV on Aug 23, 2009 10:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Andy actually looks good out at first, but I miss watching his throws.

by fleerdon on Aug 23, 2009 11:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

A couple of notes:

Goldstein declares himself “a big Kipnis fan” (emphasis in original) in today’s article on BProspectus (pay).

Scott Lewis 2009 so far: 8 G, 27 IP, 11 ER, 21 H, 4 HR, 6 BB, 25 K combined for the AZL Indians, Captains, Kinston Indians, Aeros, Clippers, and Cleveland Indians. That’s 4.6 innings pitched per franchise. Niles must be disappointed.

by dgcambridge on Aug 24, 2009 4:15 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The entire Mahoning Valley is disappointed!

"You just gotta roll with the ounches." - Clemson58YearOldMan

by emd2k3 on Aug 24, 2009 4:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Tyler, was it you that was so high on Lewis?

Steel Nick

by nickjs21 on Aug 24, 2009 5:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It might have been me you are thinking of. I’m not sure if I was “high” on Lewis, as much as I repeatedly made the point that Lewis was putting up very good numbers at all levels of the minors and should be given the shot to fail or succeed at the big league level.

by APV on Aug 24, 2009 5:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

So… is this just injury recovery SSS?

Steel Nick

by nickjs21 on Aug 24, 2009 5:35 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I like to see anyone argue that it wasn’t a good bet to try Lewis. He has betting getting people out his whole career, and hasn’t stayed healthy. And now we have even more evidence that he is made of glass. Whatever we thought Scott Lewis was, he’s still that guy. His SSS this year is just more of the same: a 3.58 ERA, very few walks, too many HRs.

It would be foolish to depend on the guy, and foolish not to let him keep trying.

by dgcambridge on Aug 24, 2009 6:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yep

This is Victor's home. Victor Jose, you too.

by westbrook on Aug 24, 2009 6:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not so much “high on” as very disappointed that his elbow erupted again. I was hopeful he would just be over that, and I think that a healthy SLewis could have been one of those handful of pieces that kept this season together long enough to matter. But then, whatever it is you might consider to be my expertise, if anything … that sort of analysis is most assuredly not a part of it.

by fleerdon on Aug 25, 2009 1:16 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Perfect Lineup is at it again tonight. This seems to be the standard now. Gimenez was blindsided.

Steel Nick

by nickjs21 on Aug 24, 2009 5:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

thank goodness gimenez hung himself with that really long rope, or we might never have seen these guys….

by Brick. on Aug 24, 2009 5:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

We’ve got our ‘A’ lineup tonight:

CF Grady Sizemore, SS Asdrubal Cabrera, RF Shin-Soo Choo, 3B Jhonny Peralta, DH Travis Hafner, 2B Luis Valbuena, C Kelly Shoppach, LF Matt LaPorta, 1B Andy Marte.

by APV on Aug 24, 2009 6:22 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Hello, 2010.

by supermarioelia on Aug 24, 2009 6:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

My question: How good is that group defensively? Have we upgraded? Is it at least average?

by dgcambridge on Aug 24, 2009 6:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It may not be the greatest defensive group, but it’s our group goddamnit.

by supermarioelia on Aug 24, 2009 6:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I am waiting until the end of the season to take a look at a larger sample of defensive stats before evaluating. Right now a few guys are a little lower per UZR than I expected. Haven’t seen a plus/minus update since early June.

by Roger Dorn on Aug 24, 2009 7:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

keep in mind that the UZR values you see are based on league averages, before we make judgements on the values assigned to tribe fielders it might be worth looking around the league to see who is exceeding or failing to meet expectations… BtBS did a pretty good writeup on limitations of UZR

by gorilla_baller on Aug 24, 2009 7:19 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs