Rain puts damper on Tribe's offensive surge

Maw call the kids!

Here's a chance to witness a bit of the old days. An actual single-admission, one-right-after-the-other twi-night doubleheader.

Thanks to the Mother's Day rainout at Progressive Field today, the Tribe will play an honest-to-God twin bill.

We'll get a chance to bring out all the old cliches that used to be uttered every Sunday (or really every Monday in the paper). Words like the aforementioned twin bill, or the 'nightcap,' meaning the second game of the doubleheader.

Of course since Monday's doubleheader is not on the original schedule and a bit of a surprise, there will probably be about 300 people in the stands for the start of the first game - which occur when most folks are at work.

Anyway. The rainout was a disappointing end to a great weekend. When the Tribe is scoring runs in bunches, you kinda want to have the games continue.

So far this series, the Tribe has scored 18 runs on 21 hits in two games against the No. 2 starting rotation in the AL - the A's being No. 1 and the Tribe No. 3.

The offense has come pretty much from all parts of the lineup, although the usual contributors - Victor and Grady - led the way. Sizemore, in fact, had a two-dinger game on Saturday. If anyone's going to hit a homer, it might as well be your leadoff hitter I always say.

Casey Blake keeps getting hits when they count. Blake is the club's RBI leader with 25, on 25 hits. I guess that's the definition of clutch hitting, but very unlike the Casey Blake we have gotten to know over years.

Ben Francisco is hitting some since being called up and Ryan Garko looked a little better in the past couple of nights, though he got whacked in the wrist in his last at bat Saturday.

Travis Hafner had two hits on Friday, and even though one was a dunker they both were to the opposite field and I thought they may be an indication that he has started to wait back and hit what the pitcher is giving him. But he went back to his new old self again Saturday and his contribution to the club still is very much in doubt.

Still, it was fun to watch the Tribe put some runs on the board two nights in a row.

On another subject, the Tribe finally sent Tom Mastny back to Buffalo to get some work. The move makes sense since Eric Wedge apparently had no stomach for putting Mastny into the game.

The recall of outfielder Jason Tyner to replace Mastny is, however, more than a little bit of a puzzle. He's hitting about 240 in Buffalo, with a bunch of stolen bases. Why Tyner? And why now? The outfield is getting a little crowded no? I just don't see where Tyner will be of any more use to the Tribe than Mastny was. They can't even use him for mop up.

One other thought. Wasn't it a heck of a lot of fun watching Asdrubal Cabrera play SS Saturday, with Jamie Carroll at 2B. Granted, in a 12-0 game it didn't matter that much that Cabrera made about four plays that Jhonny Peralta makes only in the middle of the night, flat out on his bed and snoring comfortably.

Not sure what to do about that, with Peralta clogging up the works, but it seems to me that a team that is pegging its fortunes on pitching might do better with a couple of vacuum cleaners in the middle of the infield.

Maybe Peralta and a pitcher could bring us a major bat that could be used elsewhere?