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.
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™).