P.M. Cleveland Indians links: Fireworks will come from pyrotechnics, if not Tribe bats

At least the Indians can guarantee some form of fireworks tonight and Saturday, even if it's not set off by Tribe bats.

Cleveland, Ohio -- The consensus is that if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is, "Boy, what great cinematography," the flick itself probably stank.

Now, in deference to a certain filmmaker friend of Starting Blocks, we'll concede the cinematography IS an important part of moviemaking, but we still contend it works best as a complement to the movie, not as the focal point.

Which, believe it or not, really does have something to do with today's Indians links. Yeah, the Seattle Mariners, who are four games worse than the Indians in the win column, are in town for three-game set at Progressive Field starting at 7:05 tonight.

But what the Indians are hyping isn't the ballgame; it's that the first two games of the series are "Rock 'n' Blast Friday & Saturday," featuring thousands of pyrotechnic devices (i.e. fireworks, explosions and assorted boom-booms) "spread out over a total of 99 positions, including 34 from the roof of Progressive Field." It'll all take place to the accompaniment of bits and pieces of 60 songs from 58 Rock and Roll Hall of Famers.

In other words, GREAT cinematography.

Told ya so
Buck Showalter, who fell one game shy of tying Davey Johnson's record for the best 10-game start as a Baltimore Orioles manager, knew what his Birds would be up against when Jeanmar Gomez took the mound at Progressive Field Thursday night.

All Gomez did in beating the Orioles 4-1 was surrender one run in six innings and run his record to 3-0 and drop his ERA to 1.54. The Baltimore Sun's Jeff Zrebiec explains Showalter's inside info:

As a member of Triple-A Columbus on June 15, Gomez threw seven shutout innings against Norfolk, the Orioles' top affiliate. However, Showalter was one of the few people in the visiting dugout familiar with the right-hander, aside from what the players watched on video before the game.

Showalter, who was a special assistant for the Indians after he was fired by the Texas Rangers, scouted Gomez at Single-A Lake County in 2007 and turned in some positive reports on the pitcher.

"I got that one right," Showalter said. "I wish he would have waited a little bit. Anytime you see a young pitchers, you can only look at so much tape to prepare. He had good late life on his fastball, and he got a lot of outs on the ground. He pounded the strike zone, too. I was impressed by him. You can see why they're so high on him."

With Johnny Carson having gone on to that great "Tonight Show" in the sky, maybe Showalter could get the Carnac gig?

A look ahead

The website WaitingForNextYear.com is already PlanningForNextYear.now. In today's post on Thursday's game, the site suggests a few changes for the 2011 installment of the Tribe:

When Grady Sizemore comes back next year, he should be moved to left. All you need to do is watch (Michael) Brantley move in center and watch his arm. While Sizemore's arm is borderline at best, Brantley has a rifle.

"It's only a matter of time for him," said (manager Manny) Acta. "It's going to take a while before he can look up at the scoreboard and see a higher batting average, but it's there and it's not going away. I think he feels comfortable right now. He's swinging the bat well and getting things going for us in the leadoff hole."

As long as he stays away from teacups, mirrors and camera phones, he should be fine.

From The Plain Dealer
Beat writer Paul Hoynes spent a large portion of his game story talking about young Gomez, who's performing much better than he oughta this early in his career. But Hoynsie also spent a good deal of time talking with skipper Manny Acta on moving usual leadoff hitter Trevor Crowe to the middle of the batting order.

"We traded two guys [Jhonny Peralta and Austin Kearns] and we had two other guys get hurt [Travis Hafner and Carlos Santana]," Acta said. "That makes four guys who were hitting in the middle of our lineup."Crowe is second on this team in RBI [30]. He's been very good with runners in scoring position. He's second on this team with doubles [18]. Right now I feel he makes us better hitting in the middle of those guys."

Oh. We thought it was something like that.

Hoynsie also talks about ex-Indians farmhand Luke Scott, whose 21 homers are seven more than that hit by Shin-Soo Choo, whose 14 dingers are tops on the Tribe roster. Choo is the ONLY Indian in double-digits, even.