Baltimore pitcher Brad Bergesen throws a complete-game two-hitter against the Tribe.
View full sizeBaltimore's Brad Bergesen looked like Orioles' great Jim Palmer against the Indians in his first victory since mid-May. Cleveland, Ohio -- They're cracking the champagne in the Baltimore and offering up toasts to the Indians and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Indians because the Tribe's inability to connect against a second-year pitcher and the Bucs for losing to the San Diego Padres.
That combination means that the Orioles, who are on an 8-1 tear since Buck Showalter became manager, no longer have the worst record in baseball. The surging Orioles are now 40-74. The Pirates are at 39-73. The Indians, just in case you're keeping score, are at 47-67.
Birds' pitcher Brad Bergesen threw a complete game two-hitter at the Indians. Leading the Tribe's offensive onslaught: Luis Valbuena, who is hitting a robust .169 and drove in the Indians' lone run in Wednesday night's 3-1 loss.
Jeff Zrebiec's account of the game for the Baltimore Sun began with Bergesen's attempt to convince Showalter to leave him in to finish the game. Turns out, ol' Buck was leaning that way anyway.
When Orioles manager Buck Showalter walked back toward the clubhouse for a bathroom break before the top of the ninth inning, he spotted Brad Bergesen heading the other direction in the tunnel. Not knowing whether his manager had seen him, Bergesen circled back to make sure that he was again in Showalter's view.
The message the pitcher was sending was clear. It was his game, and he wanted to be on the mound when it ended.
. . . "He deserved to have that opportunity there; he worked too hard [not to]," said Showalter, who is 8-1 since taking over as manager. The Orioles (40-74) have won four straight games and clinched their third consecutive series victory for the first time all season.
'Course, it's easy to win when you a bring a giant killer like Bergesen, a guy with a 4-9 record who hadn't won since May, fer cryin' out loud.
Why's and whyfores
Although he came into the game with an ERA of 6.26 (it's now 5.84, courtesy of the Tribe), there might be a reason Bergesen did so well Wednesday night, according to Sheldon Ocker of the Akron Beacon-Journal.
it's not difficult to find rationalizations for the Baltimore Orioles' awful record and the dominance of starter Brad Bergesen, who spearheaded the 3-1 win.
In his previous two starts, Bergesen gave up only three runs in 14 innings to the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals, so maybe he has a thing for pitching against Central Division clubs. As for the O's march to 100 losses, if they petition the commissioner to play the Tribe a few more times, they probably won't have the lowest winning percentage in baseball.
Oh, now we get it. It's not what you throw; it's who you throw it against.
Dollars and sense
The website commonsforsale.com is offering a "game-used" Grady Sizemore bat for $6. That's it, just six bucks. Which is really weird because you'd think a nice, hand-turned wooden bat that has never been in contact with a baseball should be worth more.
From The Plain Dealer
When we first started in this business, covering high school sports and the Houston Rockets (it was a weird paper), the comment we most often got was, "Wow, you're lucky! You get to go to every game for free." Would really love to find something of those folks today and say, "Let me introduce you to Paul Hoynes, the Indians beat writer for The Plain Dealer." Yeah, covering sports IS great fun . . . most of the time. But you gotta watch a lot of Cleveland-Baltimore scrums between World Series. Take this from his game story: on the Tribe's 3-1 loss Wednesday night:
Wednesday at Progressive Field it was a pick-'em night viewed by an intimate gathering of 11,155. The options were a lineup featuring three starters hitting .178 or less, or right-hander Brad Bergesen, 0-7 in his last 12 appearances and winless in three months.
Sounds like fun, huh? But Starting Blocks confesses we've never heard Hoynsie complain . . . and we doubt if we ever will.
In addition to an explanation about why the Tribe demoted struggling pitcher David Huff to Columbus, Hoynsie's Indians Insider includes an item about injured catcher Carlos Santana visiting the clubhouse in a brace on his surgically repaired left knee that extended from mid-thigh to his ankle. Santana, who was hurt when White Sox rookie Ryan Kalish slammed into him at the plate, said through intepreter coaching assistant Ruben Niebla, "There might be some adjustments I can make and learn from that when there is going to be a play at the plate."
Gee, ya think?