Sunday, October 14, 2007

Back to The Jake knotted at one

Just as everyone predicted. Two pitcher's duels in the first two games.

Just as everyone predicted. Trot Nixon had the game-winning RBI in Game 2

Just as everyone predicted. In a game where both Jonathan Papelbon and Tom Mastny pitched in key spots late, Mastny comes out on top.

However they got to this point, the Indians leave Boston with the ALCS tied at 1 game each.
How sweet was it that Trot Nixon came through for his old fans in Boston? What a great night for him!!

Tom Mastny is asked to get Ortiz, Ramirez and Lowell in the tenth, when most of us thought we would never even see him again in this series unless it was a mop-up job. Ground out, popout, lazy flyball out.

And so who was the MVP tonight? One of the two guys mentioned above?

How about Grady Sizemore, who started off the seven-run 11th with a little old single? Overall Grady was 3-for-5 with 3 runs scored and a ribbie.


Maybe Jhonny Peralta, who bombed one to center in the fourth - a three-run shot that put the Tribe back out in front when it looked like the Sox had grabbed the momentum. Peralta was 3-for-5 with three runs scored and four RBIs - including one that kept the Ferris Wheel going in the 11th.

Victor Martinez was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a ribbie.


Franklin Gutierrez looked sickly most of the night, but manged to get his bat on a ball in the top of the sixth to drive in the game-tying run with a groundout. Then, of course, he put the cherry on top of the 11th inning treat with his three-run jack over The Monster.

Rafael Betancourt went above and beyond, going 2 1/3 scoreless and tossing 42 pitches to keep the game knotted up.

Jensen Lewis contributed 2 1/3 equally important and impressive innings.

There are some trouble spots to talk about (our two aces and Raffie Left), but let's let those keep until tomorrow.

Oh ya. One last thing. Anyone know how I can sign up for the Eric Gagne fan club?

PHOTO CREDITS: David Butler II-US PRESSWIRE

10 comments:

Chris Swartout said...

Loving the late night post game wrap up.

There are so many heroes tonight but you have to give the game ball to Betancourt (for that at bat against Youk alone) and Mastny, the pride of Indonesia. What he did in the bottom of the 11th was the closest thing I have seen to a miracle in my life. He set down Ortiz, Manny & Lowell 1-2-3. That allowed us to say goodbye to Papelbon and get to Gagne, who we beat up a little last night.

Mastny gets my game ball, but everyone else shares, as that is how this team keeps winning.

I'm watching the 11th again thanks to Tivo. It will never get old.

Chris Swartout said...

Oops. I meant the bottom of the 10th for Mastny. It's late.

Anonymous said...

MVP - lots of candidate - Ron impressed you are up late or early writing this. I must admit I fell asleep and so did my fanatic wife in the bottom of the nineth after garko hit a shot to third to end top of 9. So I miss bottom of 9 and all of 10 -which was the good pitched innnings woke up with nixon at bat in 11 and he gets the hit andflood gates open
he might get a start tomorrow night

MVP - how about borowski - he did blow the lead

the bullpens are pretty well spent
we may see laffey early next

for some reason I got a gut fell Jake will step up tomorrow and earn his $11 mill and we might see beckett on tuesday

indians will stay with 4 man no reason to change - for some reason fausto and CC were TOO strong too much rest

enjoy sunday a day of church, rest, browns, pats / cowboys, yardwork and maybe a sneak at our next opponent the colorado rockies!!!

this is really the moose forgot to switch user

moose said...

sorry thats borowski did NOT blow lead - but he was making my wife nervous - but not me - he had them all the way - I think he wanted to face big pappy and manny

cant wait to get my boston report

Ron Vallo said...

moose:

you must be getting older than I thought. How could you sleep through ANY of that game?

The main reason I posted afterward is because I had to bring my blood pressure down enough to fall asleep.

Swarty, with a little one I'm assuming you are used to being up any time of the day or night.

Anything that goes beyond 3 1/2 hours on a work night and I'm screwed. I won't be able to tear myself away and I'll be running on three or four hours of sleep the next day.

October's going to be a LONG month, and that's just fine with me!

bobbydb19 said...

OK, let me give you my week-end recap. Until I found this blog, I thought I was the biggest Tribe fan in the metro area. I was knocked down a rung and I may be the biggest Tribe fan in NJ. If not, then certainly Morris County.

With the MLB package, I must admit I have only missed a handful of games this year. We had plans to put an addition on to our house and sure enough, construction started during the ALDS. Now the Tribe is in the ALCS and I have no TV and no computer!! On Friday, I started out late (7:00) and went to a bunch of bars in my area. Every one was packed. No room at the bar. I drove around for an hour listening to the game. By the time it was 6-1, I just went home and helped my wife finish packing boxes and listened on the radio.

On Saturday, we had to drive to LI, sit in hours of traffic and just make it before 1st pitch. I was exhausted. The beers were not going down easy and the Tribe was down 3-1. Decide to leave the bar and head to the in-laws. Can't find the game on the radio because of the hockey games. Turns out Jhonny hits a 3-run HR in transit. Nice!

Doing my best to keep the eyes open. Mastny was nasty and pumped me up. In the 11th, after Sizemore got his hit. I shut my eyes for 1 second. I woke up to see the recap and I found out I missed everything!!

On Sunday while on LI, I took my boys for lunch. Just pulled into a small strip mall on 25A in Huntington and found a pizzeria. We walk in and the guy behind the counter has an Indians hat on and he went to Game 2 the night before! How awesome is that! Spent the whole lunch talking Tribe.

I feel pretty good. Our 2 aces pitched like crap and we still left with a split.

bobbydb19 said...

One thing I forgot about Mastny. He seems to pitch well against the Sox. During the game on May 30th, Byrd let up 3 straight singles to lead off the 7th. Bases loaded, no one out. Mastny came in and got Coco to pop out and struck out Youkalis. Fultz then got Ortiz to line out and no one scored. The Tribe went on to win 8-4.

Ron Vallo said...

well let's hope Mastny keeps it up.

With the top two starters getting bounced early, an 11-inning game two and Westbrook and Byrd coming up, we're going to need every arm we can get.

Laffey is the only guy that hasn't been in a game yet. He hasn't pitched since the last Thursday of the regular season. If they need him, I'm not sure he'll be ready to go, but I'd rather go with him than Fultz, who we know is not going to help.

Anonymous said...

I was back in Akron this weekend, and got to watch my first Tribe game on home turf in years at Scorchers in The Valley. Good crowd, very refreshing to be part of the majority fan base for once.

I'm pleased to report that Cuyahoga Falls and West Akron are both awash in Tribe logos.

Back to Yankeeland (AKA Astoria) to watch the rest of the series...

Ron Vallo said...

expat:

too bad you couldn't get another week off. it's always fun to be on the home turf for a big game.