Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! The Indians got their magic number down to four, no thanks to the worthless Twins who got swept in a double-header by the Tigers. But hey, it’s all good in Tribeland, so here’s a look at everything that’s been going down:
Indians 5, Royal(ol)s 2
Mike Clevinger threw a solid five innings an gave up just two runs. Carlos Santana broke the 2-2 tie with his 34th trip to Cloud City, and that three-run dinger proved to be the game winner.
Tribe news & notes
No manager blends the human and the math quite like Terry Francona | Fox Sports - There’s frequent and lively debate here at LGT about the effectiveness of Terry Francona’s managerial tactics. His ability to manage the human element with aplomb, though, is generally accepted. Ken Rosenthall argues that Tito is the man to thank, in large part, for things like Jose Ramirez’ breakout.
He might just be the best in the game at getting the most out of the random number generators.
Perez developing into elite pitch framer | Indians.com - It’s cool that this is a big part of Roberto Perez’ value, but is it weird to anyone else that we praise players for being good at encouraging umpires to make bad calls?
Terence Gore is human after all | Fangraphs - OK, so this article sounds like it’s focused on a Royals player, but it’s really an amazing breakdown of Roberto Perez gunning out the previously un-caught base stealing extraordinaire.
Looking back at why I bother to follow sports | Waiting for Next Year - It’s not explicitly baseball-focused, but this a really cool piece by Michael Bode and definitely worth the read.
Scoreboard watching and news from around the league
- The GD Red Sox won again thanks to the Orioles rolling over and getting swept
- By virtue of the Orioles losing and the the Twins also being worthless, the Tigers have now moved into the 2nd Wild Card spot
- Brazil used a flame-throwing 15 year-old in a WBC qualifying game
- Boston’s John Farrell is creeping up in the Manager of the Year power rankings that Terry Francona damn well better win
- Chase Utley threw someone out with his face in the dirt