City of Brotherly Love likely to embrace the Indians during the Tribe's first regular-season visit. "Embrace?" "Strangle?" What's a word between friends.
View full sizeJamie Moyer, who is the same age as the parents of most of the Inidans, has a 10-7 career record and a 3.92 ERA against the Tribe. He's on the hill for Philadelphia tonight when the Indians visit Citizens Bank Park.Today's big headline: The Indians didn't lose last night. That puts their loss-free streak at one day in a row. That could come to a screaming halt tonight, when the Tribe makes its first regular-season appearance at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park.
CBSsports.com, in previewing tonight's 7:05 game, took a look at the pitching matchups:
Philadelphia will send Jamie Moyer (7-6, 4.76 ERA) to the mound as the veteran looks to build on an excellent performance in his last outing. The left-hander allowed two runs and three hits in eight innings of a 6-3 road victory over the New York Yankees on Wednesday.
Moyer has gone 7-0 with a 2.33 ERA in his last 11 starts against the Indians.
Cleveland (26-42) is at the bottom of the AL Central and has lost six of seven, falling 5-3 at Pittsburgh on Sunday.
The Indians will give the ball to Mitch Talbot (7-5, 4.21), who is coming off his worst game of the season in an 8-4 loss to the New York Mets on Wednesday. The right-hander gave up career highs of eight runs and 13 hits in 5 2-3 innings.
Personally, Starting Blocks is kind of excited. At last, the Indians are facing someone in the Majors with a lower batting average than Luis Valbuena's. Moyer is batting .095; Valbuena is at a dizzying .167.
Choo-sing an All-StarA blog on the website waitingfornextyear.com notes that the Indians will get one rep on this year's All-Star team, while pointing out that whether the Tribe should have a rep is debatable. But if so, the best bet: Shin-Soo Choo.
Choo is certainly the most valuable Indian, if such a dubious honor were to be awarded. On the season, he's hitting .289/.388/.405--good for a .373 wOBA. Translated that to wRC+ (weighted runs created adjusts for his home park and relative to others at his position), he's been 34 percent better offensively than the average right fielder. Defensively, Choo has saved the Indians 4.5 runs with his glove and arm--by far the best performance turned in by Cleveland's putrid defense. All told, he's been worth 2.5 wins above replacement on the year, which, again, represents the most valuable contribution from an Indian this season.
All due respect to Choo, but SB thinks the distinction of most valuable contributor should go to whoever hides Valbuena's bat.
It's all in the timingOn that great, underrated TV show, "Hee Haw," one particular skit involved a song where a repeated line was, "If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all." Mayhap the Tribe should adopt that song. The Indians make that first visit to Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park tonight, and as luck would have it, they could end up facing Phillies sparkplug Jimmy Rollins, in his return from the disabled list.
Paul Hagen, writing for phillynews.com, put it this way:
Jimmy Rollins isn't Superman. He's not a savior or the magic elixir that will cure everything that has been ailing the Phillies during their monthlong swoon.
He is, however, a spark-plug leadoff hitter. The Phillies were 103-34 (.752) when he scored a run over the last two seasons, both of which ended in the World Series. He has won three straight Gold Gloves at shortstop, a crucial defensive position. He also possesses an intangible effervescence that can energize an entire roster.
J-Roll has appeared in just 11 games this season. That isn't the only explanation for the fact that the defending National League champions open tonight's interleague series against the Cleveland Indians in third place, 5 1/2 games behind the pace-setting Atlanta Braves. But it's as good a place as any to start.
. . . It can't happen a moment too soon for a team that has lost 19 of its last 30 games.
All that's known for sure is that he played five games on a rehab assignment with the Clearwater Threshers. He flew back to Philadelphia on Sunday. The right calf he strained moments before the home opener and then aggravated less than a week into his comeback has been re-evaluated.
Perfect. Next thing you know, former Phillies stars Steve Carlton and Grover Cleveland Alexander will announce comebacks, too.
From The Plain DealerBeat writer Paul Hoynes, whose pain threshold must be as high as the Terminal Tower, is headed into Philly with the Tribe tonight. For today's set-up story, he talked to Tribe skipper Manny Acta about managing an AL team under NL rules – meaning pitchers have to bat (Starting Blocks always wondered how Bob Feller would've felt about giving up his stick to let some other punk hit; dollars to donuts he would not have been happy about it).
Hoynesie also has an online piece about the Tribe recalling reliever Joe Smith, who will fill the roster spot vacated when David Huff was sent down to Columbus. Smith will be in the pen with the big team, but just who will fill Huff's spot in the rotation hasn't been announced.