A Tale Of Two Tribes In Tampa

When the Tribe bats came alive in the 10-8 loss to Toronto on Thursday 4th April, I expected them to continue their hot hitting and come out blazing against the Rays. What happened? The Indians offense were shut out two games in a row, 4-0 on Friday and 6-0 on Saturday. Our bats could not touch the Rays' pitching, going completely silent. However, in the third game of the series today the Tribe woke up and unloaded on the Rays for a 13-0 whoopin'. Here's my thoughts on this series in Tampa Bay:

Our Bats Go Slowly Into The Night... Twice

Game 1 against the Rays saw Matt Moore face off against our young righty Zach McAllister and it didn't go as planned for our boys. McAllister didn't pitch too badly, lasting 6 innings and only giving up 2 earned runs but he had trouble finding the plate at times and ultimately had no support from the offense, giving him the loss. The Tribe could only muster 2 hits all night, both by Michael Bourn. After all the good feelings the Tribe   lineup carried over from that final game in Toronto, they were gone just like that, a 2 hit shut-out. Game 2 didn't go well either. Trevor Bauer, called up to replace the injured Scott Kazmir in a spot-start, made his Indians debut and proceeded to walk the first 4 Tampa batters he faced, giving up a run. From my untrained eye it didn't look as if Bauer was missing by much. Sure he was nibbling the outside of the strike-zone but the umpire was tight all night, giving nothing on the outside edge. He squeezed the strike-zone the entire game and Bauer just couldn't adapt, finishing with 7 walks in 5 innings of work and taking the loss. Just like in McAllister's outing, the offense weren't there to support Bauer, recording only 4 hits against the Rays' Alex Cobb, 5 in total. Another shut-out, this time 6-0 to the Rays. All signs pointed to the Rays sweeping us today in the final game of this 3 game series, since they had reigning AL Cy Young winner David Price, historically very good against the Tribe, up against our Justin Masterson, historically very bad against the Rays. It didn't look good for us going in. But...

BOOM! The Bats Break Out!

I've just finished watching us destroy Tampa Bay 13-0, thanks to 17 hits and 5 home runs from the re-awakened Tribe lineup. What a way to answer back to two straight shut-outs by the Rays. Shut them out right back, but in style! Mark Reynolds had a monster of a game, hitting two enormous home runs and a double. His first was a 3 run bomb off of Price in the third inning to put us ahead 4-0 and it was game over after that really. Speaking of monster games, Carlos Santana went 5-for-5 at the plate this afternoon and couldn't miss, himself hitting a long home run to right field and finishing with 3 RBI. Lonnie Chisenhall and Michael Bourn also joined the homer club, both men hitting their first HRs of the season. Chisenhall's was particularly nice, a lovely 3 RBI effort, netting me some much-needed fantasy points! It was just amazing to see the lineup hit like this, especially against David Price. The star Rays pitcher collected his Cy Young award before the game and maybe the occasion got to him a bit, because we pounded him for 10 hits and 8 earned runs in just 5 innings. Out of all the games in Tampa the past three days, it was expected that today would provide the toughest test since Price is usually so good. But it just wasn't to be, the Indians batters had his number all afternoon. You don't often see an ace get rocked like this very often. Speaking of aces...

Magnificent Masterson

Justin Masterson, starting today 1-0 with a 1.50 ERA coming off his Opening Day win in Toronto, was pretty much perfect and pitched a beauty. He quickly retired the first two Rays batters in the first inning before getting sloppy, giving up a hit and walking two men to load the bases. Thankfully he escaped unharmed and was pretty much untouchable for the rest of the game. Masterson went 7 solid innings, surrendering only 2 hits and struck out 8 batters. He had his sinker working perfectly and attacked the strike-zone mercilessly. It was fantastic to watch, reminiscent of the Masterson of 2011, he flat-out dominated the Rays today. He's now 2-0 on the season and couldn't have started 2013 any better. Keep it up Masterson, you looked like an ace today.

So we're 3-3 after six difficult games on the road, against arguably the top two teams in the AL East. I would have taken that result before the start of the season to be honest. Up next we have the Yankees coming to Cleveland tomorrow for the Tribe's home opener but I expect you won't get a post from me re-capping the Yankees series since I'm going away this week and won't be able to post. Until then...

Thanks for reading.