Tribe vs Mariners 5/15 Closing homestand with a win edition

[British_Pharaoh]

Starting Lineups

* 1. Suzuki, RF
* 2. Figgins, 3B
* 3. Smoak, 1B
* 4. Cust, DH
* 5. Olivo, C
* 6. Peguero, LF
* 7. Ryan, SS
* 8. Saunders, CF
* 9. Wilson, 2B

Pineda, P


* 1. Brantley, CF
* 2. Cabrera, SS
* 3. Choo, RF
* 4. Santana, C
* 5. Hafner, DH
* 6. Cabrera, 2B
* 7. LaPorta, 1B
* 8. Hannahan, 3B
* 9. Kearns, LF

Tomlin, P




This could be agonising for the Indians. Pineda is electric and I think it's going to be difficult to know which tactic will worki better.

Swinging early in the count and jump on his fastball, putting him under early pressure and forcing him to pitch out of the stretch, or to be patient and see what he has and try to force him out of the game early with a high pitch count and pounce on the bullpen.

[British_Pharaoh]

Raining in Cleveland.

Also I jsut noticed Miguel Oliva batting 5th...rough

[Prosecutor]

Quick look at Pineda:

Home ERA: 2.21
Road ERA: 3.38

April ERA: 2.01
May ERA 4.85

Against left-handed hitters: .709 OPS
Against right-handers: .531 OPS

He's more effective early in the game. After 45 pitches opposing hitters are batting .309 against him.

So the way to beat this guy is to face him at home (check), with a left-handed heavy lineup (check) in May (check). Also, work him deep into counts to drive his pitch count up.

Too bad Grady is still out, that means we probably get Kearns again. I'd like to see Buck brought up to replace Kearns. I understand that we need a right-handed bat, but the guy is hitting .160 and we still have Duncan.

[skatingtripods]

Rain forecasted all this week while the Tribe's away. The weather we've had here has been simply brutal. I realize it usually sucks, but we've had precipitation for probably 75% of the days of 2011.

[British_Pharaoh]

Maybe they should play their home games in England during April and May.


I can't recall the last time it rained here in the south west, and temperatures are averaging between 68 and 80.

[BruceK]

At the moment, it is only drizzling in Lakewood - but the radar is clear to the west. Could be worse, there have been some days this spring when ducks were swimming in my backyard

[British_Pharaoh]

Rain falling at the Cincy game I'm watching, dont'know if it's heading to Cleveland are has come from that direction but yeah I'm finding it hard to catch any baseball game at the moment.

Missed 4 of the last 5 due to work and rain

[Erie Warrior]

After seeing the field yesterday, I can't believe this game will be played.

[motherscratcher]

Game scheduled to start at 1:50 according to twitter. And twitter never lies.

[British_Pharaoh]

Game scheduled to start at 1:50 according to twitter. And twitter never lies.

Status on MLB.tv under 'today's games' has switched from 'rain delay' to 'warmup'

Looking good :)

[shamwow imitator]

IF this one is canceled, both teams have an Off-Day scheduled for Thursday August 25, the next trip in for Seattle. Hoping we can avoid 2 double-headers that series and can push one of those Make-Up dates to that Thursday. Just keeping fingers crossed we can get this one in today. Jonesing for some baseball

[British_Pharaoh]

Weather looks horrible. Windy rain is the worst

[British_Pharaoh]

Tarp back on the field.

I don't see this game happening.

[Spanky]

The rain is actually coming out of the east. It's crazy. No way they play this one today.

[The Brook]

They put the tarp back on the field. Rain delay again.

[T_N_T]

How fun is this? Seems like its raining everywhere today....

[British_Pharaoh]

Loving the unis in the Phillies - Braves game

[British_Pharaoh]

Twins losing again already in the first.

[T_N_T]

Loving the unis in the Phillies - Braves game

They are quite nice

[Prosecutor]

Watching the Barker perfect game on STO. Never saw it before. A couple of observations from 30 years in the future:

1. Long hair, mustaches, and tube socks.
2. More white guys, more black guys, hardly any Latin guys.
3. Some closed batting stances. You never see that anymore.
4. Barker's high leg kick. His knee is actually at the top of his head when he starts his forward drive. You don't see that much anymore, if at all.
5. Good to see the old Municipal Stadium again. Just like I remember it, complete with acres of empty seats.

[OldDawg]

Watching the Barker perfect game on STO. Never saw it before. A couple of observations from 30 years in the future:

5. Good to see the old Municipal Stadium again. Just like I remember it, complete with acres of empty seats.

And about 100,000 old timers who still swear they were there that day to witness the perfect game!! LOL

[T_N_T]

Game postponed for second day in a row

[Kingpin74]

They've rolled snake eyes with the weather this year. I think out of the 21 scheduled home games so far, there has been nice weather in about 6 of them. The rest have been absolutely horrid.

[skatingtripods]

A five-game series if we're still in the hunt is brutal. Might have to call up two starters or throw a young arm on short rest more than 2/3 of the way in to the season. We're coming off six road games within our division and won't have an off day from August 15 to September 12. I know that we can't do much about it but damn, what an unfortunate situation.

[Prosecutor]

A five-game series if we're still in the hunt is brutal. Might have to call up two starters or throw a young arm on short rest more than 2/3 of the way in to the season. We're coming off six road games within our division and won't have an off day from August 15 to September 12. I know that we can't do much about it but damn, what an unfortunate situation.

Seattle is in the same boat, but I think we have the advantage because of better starting pitching depth. Also, if we're going to get rained out I'd rather it happen when Grady is dinged and can't play.

But you're right, it sucks to lose your only off day in 30 days. But we will be able to expand the roster Sep. 1 and that will help a lot, especially since we'll be bringing up major league caliber guys from Columbus.

[skatingtripods]

Just read now that they're talking about a doubleheader during the August series and then making up yesterday's game on a mutual day off on Sept 19. It's our last off day of the season before hosting Chicago and Minnesota. Seattle would come in from home and come all the way here before heading to Minnesota.

[Toxicadam]

Maybe it's all karma. In 2007, we had a few games cancelled due to weather against Seattle and we had a brutal August/September of making a bunch of games up.

[skatingtripods]

Maybe it's all karma. In 2007, we had a few games cancelled due to weather against Seattle and we had a brutal August/September of making a bunch of games up.

Won't lie. First thing I thought about on Saturday when I looked at that flooded outfield.