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Game One Hundred Twenty: Indians 5, Tigers 2

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By Ryan

Recap
Box Score
Win Probability @ Fangraphs

Highest WPA:

Fausto Carmona .315
Franklin Gutierrez .186
Grady Sizemore .096

Lowest WPA:

Ryan Garko -.068
Jhonny Peralta -.057
Kenny Lofton -.056

Fausto Carmona has made the transition from thrower to pitcher very quickly. He struck out 10 Tigers tonight mainly because they couldn't sit on any one pitch. Brandon Inge was impressed:

"Whew, Carmona was something," Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge said. "First of all, he has an incredible sinker, but he's throwing a slider and changeup for strikes, too. All night, I saw one, maybe two pitches up in the zone. Everything else was on the black or at the knees -- and with movement."

In general, major-league hitters will tell you how effective a pitcher is. And given how foolish Carmona made the Tiger hitters look last night, he was on the top of his game. He's now missing bats on all three of his pitches, and still managing the best ground ball/fly ball ratio in the majors. I know every tall right-hander with a power sinker gets compared to Kevin Brown, but Carmona is doing a really good impression of Brown at his best.  

Travis Hafner's obviously not fully recovered from his knee injury. He supposedly can't hurt it further by playing, and he's under orders to run in first gear:

We wouldn't put him in there, if we felt he was putting himself in danger," said manager Eric Wedge. "It's about him having the discipline to stay within himself when it comes to running."

So what did Hafner do in his first at-bat Wednesday night against the Tigers? He doubled off the wall in left-center. He went in standing just as ordered.

Ryan Garko was removed in the eighth inning because of "soreness in his right groin."

Next Up: A trip to Tampa after an off day. Byrd vs. Jackson, 7:10 PM.

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