The B-List: 5/3

FINAL             1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Indians (20-8)    0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 4 12 0
Athletics (15-15) 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1  5 0
W: Carmona (3-3) L: Fuentes (1-3) S: C. Perez (8)

The only team playing better than the Cleveland Indians right now might be … the Cleveland Indians’ AAA affiliate, the Columbus Clippers.

1) Fausto and the Inning of Minor Intestinal Discomfort™

Back in the day, I used to refer to C.C. Sabathia’s tendency to be rolling along, then somehow cough up an ungodly hairball of an inning, lovingly termed the Inning of Crap™.  Sabathia, being who he was, would then as often as not right himself and return to his normal, dominant form, leading me to wonder what the heck happened in that inning.  I mean, he throw five shutout innings, then give up 3 runs on 5 hits (2 doubles), then throw two more shutout innings.  It was infuriating, but in a masochistically amusing way.  (Perhaps it was more amusingly infuriating.  It was kind of a while back.)

Last week, we talked a bit about how Fausto appeared to lose focus a couple times in his last start, and while it’s true his fourth inning included a pair of hits, his only walk, and some very unorthodox defensive strategy, this is hardly a guy losing his stuff.  The first single was well-struck, but the second single stayed in the infield.  He then allowed a runner-advancing groundout, and had Jack Hannahan been able to field the next ground ball a little more cleanly, he may have had a shot at Daric Barton Fink rushing home.

In fact, on the night, Carmona allowed a total of 5 singles in 8 full innings of work, and THREE of the singles DID NOT LEAVE THE INFIELD.  TWO of them were by HIDEKI MATSUI, who is occasionally pinch-run for by a Cherrystone clam.  While his overall GO:FO ratio of 10:8 wasn’t very high, the A’s hit a large number of balls without an real malice, and Carmona had five innings in which he faced the minimum (4 perfect, 1 with a strike-‘em-out-throw-‘em-out double play).  Take away the minor-league version of the Inning of Crap™ and Carmona pitched 7 shutout innings with 2 singles, 0 walks, and 4 Ks (he struck out 1 in the Inning of Minor Discomfort™).

The B-List: 4/29 - 5/1

FINAL           1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  R  H E
Tigers (12-14)  2 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0  5 13 0
Indians (17-8)  0 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 4  9 11 2
W: C. Perez (1-1) L: Benoit (0-1)

FINAL           1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13  R  H E
Tigers (12-15)  0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  0  0  0  0  2 11 1
Indians (18-8)  0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0  0  0  0  1  3 10 0
W: Sipp (1-0) L: Villareal (1-1)

FINAL           1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Tigers (12-16)  2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 4 10 1
Indians (19-8)  0 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 X 5  8 0

W: B. Squirrel (1-1) L: Benoit (0-2) S: C. Perez (7)

Cleveland scored as many runs after the 6^th inning as Detroit scored all weekend (11).  Note: Cleveland only scored 2 runs in each game before the 7^th.

1) Fortune smiles

In one inning, starter Jeanmar Gomez gave up two singles and a double.  In another, he gave up two doubles and a single.  In those two innings combined, Gomez gave up … one run.

Gomez ended up having one of those game which sportswriters in my youth would have dubbed a “scattering of ten hits.”  He didn’t quite finish his 6^th inning of work, so he was one out short of a Quality Start, but then, he only gave up two runs as well.  He left two men on base to Chad Durbin, so I feel he ought to get extra credit for that.  He did give up a two-run homer to Miggy Cabrera in the first, but after that, the Tigers did not score again off Gomez or, for that matter, anyone else, either.

Here’s something to take from this outing that might not be immediately obvious: while Max Scherzer was sawing through the Indians’ lineup the first couple times en route to collecting 7 Ks in 6 2/3 IP, Gomez was simply plodding along, giving up his 10 hits.  He had one inning out of six in which he didn’t give up a hit.  He threw to an astonishing 10 batters with a runner in scoring position.  He actually gave up 3 hits to these 10 batters.  However, two of these were singles that only advanced the runner from second to third, so only Cabrera’s blow actually produced any runs.

But here’s a stat to keep in mind: