Sidebars to
today's victory, during which Juan Uribe reminded everybody with his three-run homer that
¡Profundo! t-shirts are available for purchase!
Evidently, the Cleveland Indians don't think much of Scott Podsednik's arm out in left field. Or at least the broadcasters don't. This became evident when Travis Hafner hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning, as Tribe broadcaster Mike Hegan said, "Podsednik doesn't have any throwing arm at all" as Grady Sizemore ran home for the game's first run.
The booth added further criticism when Jhonny Peralta went from first to third on Josh Barfield's single, describing the scouting report as reading, "We're going to run on Scott Podsednik every chance we get." GM Mark Shapiro seemed to agree.
It's
not like this is new to us, but it's slightly disconcerting to hear it spoken about so plainly. That's one of the benefits of Extra Innings, since Hawk and DJ would never utter such words.
************
Speaking of outfielders, Darin Erstad had another 0-fer, and now has only one hit in his last 17 at-bats, watching his average has plummeted to .207 in the process.
Fortunately, he has two things going for him. He's catching everything in center field and not making anything look difficult in the process, and he managed to fool umpires twice tonight. He was caught trying to steal second, but managed to be called safe because he twisted his upper body and the glove missed him. The ump didn't see Peralta tag his leg before he was able to touch the bag, though. Later on, he avoided grounding into double play when he was erroneously called safe on a bang-bang play.
When I watched Tadahito Iguchi drill a grounder through the right side, I wondered once again why they were so averse to having him hit second for a third straight year.
************
I finally figured out who Paul Konerko reminds me of when he runs, which he did when barely advancing to second on a ball that got away from Kelly Shoppach.
I don't know if anybody remembers the short-lived early-'90s FOX show
Get a Life, but there was one episode where Chris Elliot's character found an alien named Spewey.
Absurd episode short, Elliot encourages the alien to run away from the feds, yelling, "Run, Spewey! Run like the wind!" Spewey doesn't get very far -- there's a lot of upper body motion, arms are pumping and the back is arched, but the lower body isn't carrying him anywhere.
Paul Konerko runs like Spewey. I can't find that exact moment, but I did find an
abridged version of the episode on YouTube. If I ever come across that particular scene, rest assured I will share it.
************
Minor league roundup:- Rochester 8, Charlotte 2
- Gavin Floyd was hit hard, giving up 11 hits and walking three in six innings. Somehow, he only managed to allow three runs thanks to three double plays -- one started by Ryan Sweeney -- and another outfield assist by Jerry Owens.
- Considering the weather -- 39 degrees at gametime, 18 m.p.h. wind blowing out -- it wasn't a night for pitchers, as Matt Garza struggled as well. He didn't make it through five innings.
- Josh Fields had a four-hit game to raise his average to .219. Pedro Lopez had three hits.
- The rest of the lineup went 2-for-25, with only Ryan Sweeney and Wiki Gonzalez adding base hits to the cause.
- Mobile 3, Birmingham 2
- Continuing to hit second, Robert Valido went 0-for-4 with a two strikeouts. His average dropped to .061 (2-for-33), and he had an error to boot (no pun intended).
- Valido is helping nullify Chris Getz's nice start. Getz added two more hits, and is batting .324 in the leadoff spot.
- Richardo Nanita raised his average above .300 with a 2-for-4 day.
- Wes Whisler gave up two runs in 5 2/3 innings, giving up six hits and one walk while striking out four.
- Edwardo Sierra took the loss by giving up a two-run RBI single in the seventh. Oneli Perez pitched a scoreless eighth.
- Kinston 3, Winston-Salem 2 (11 innings)
- Aaron Cunningham went 2-for-5, raising his average to .444. He has a hit in all seven games he's played, three have been of the multi-hit variety.
- Clayton Richard threw 5 1/3 innings in the no-decision, giving up two runs. He's only struck out four guys all year, but he recorded 10 groundouts to three flyouts, and his GO/FO ratio on the season is 2.86.
- Matthew Zaleski threw three scorless innings in relief, giving up only a hit and a walk, striking out two.
- Kannapolis 10, Savannah 4
- Everybody but John Shelby Jr. had a hit. Chris Carter had four of them himself.
- Michael Grace and Francisco Hernandez had three RBIs each; Hernandez earned his on one swing, his first homer of the year.
- Matthew Long is throwing strikes, but the results aren't there. While he didn't walk anybody, he gave up four runs in five innings, giving up eight hits while striking out five.
- Carlos Perez, Ryan Rote and Michael Rocco combined to throw four scoreless innings of relief.
I'll be catching the Knights' game against Rochester later today, and I'll have video and photos once again. While I'm planning to catch the next two Charlotte games, I have a hunch Sunday's will be postponed, as the forecast calls for rain and snow all day.