Cleveland Indians vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Friday June 12, 2009
Progressive Field - Cleveland, Ohio
David Huff vs. Joel Pineiro
Interleague play is back and the Indians will be taking on arguably the National League’s most historic franchise who arguably has the National League’s best player in Albert Pujols. This is definitely an interleague matchup to get excited about, not like the two vs. the Reds every year. This is when I kinda dig interleague play. The Indians are looking to win two in a row and start this nine game home stand at 3-1. A win tonight would be “nothing but a good time”, and hopefully David Huff isn’t on the “wild side” tonight to kick off 80s weekend at Progressive Field.
Here are some things that caught my script “I”, as well as Tron’s (this weekend only):
-I propose that instead of showing Major League on the scoreboard after the game tomorrow night, the Indians should show The Neverending Story in honor of this year’s injuries. In all seriousness, I give the real promotion an A.
-Jamey Carroll is a gritty guy but I’m definitely missing Asdrubal Cabrera leading off.
-A wild pitch combined with a walk usually come back to bite ya, as was the case for St. Louis, as Victor Martinez wouldn’t have scored from first, but did from second on Shin-Soo Choo’s single in the bottom of the first. Martinez was able to advance on Joel Pineiro’s wild pitch after walking. All of this happened with two outs.
-Rick Ankiel looked like #24 out there in center…wait, he is #24.
-David Huff was looking like he was back at UCLA pitching against the Washington State Cougars but Albert Pujols provided a remember you’re in the bigs now reality check with a solo blast in the top of the 4th, game tied at 1.
-I think instead of a Miami Vice themed bobblehead tomorrow, it should have been called Motley Choo and looked like a hair band rocker.
-Once again a two out walk dooms the Cards as guess who? Travis Hafner scores on Ben Francisco’s double after Hafner drew a base on balls with two outs.
-Joe Thurston could pass as Jermaine Dye’s brother.
-Trevor Crowe pinch running for Ryan Garko doesn’t pan out this time anyway as Crowe is thrown out at home on Mark DeRosa’s check swing roller to pitcher Jason Motte, who got to Progressive Field just in time coming from ESPN’s lumberjack challenge.
-Who da man? Choo da man! Shin-Soo Choo delivers a two-out bases loaded single in the bottom of the 7th, Indians 4, Cardinals 1. Three hits and three RBI’s the night after getting the game winning hit, that is All-Star caliber stuff.
-A run on a bases loaded walk is always a good thing, although in my opinion, I don’t think the batter should be credited with an RBI. Indians 5, Cardinals 1 still in the bottom of the 7th.
-Pretty good night for David Huff. 7 1/3 innings pitched, 5 Hits, 3 ER, 5 SO, and 5 BB. And other than the Pujols home run, most of the balls hit off Huff weren’t hit that hard. It could have been only 1 or 2 earned runs for Huff but Joe Smith came in and gave up back to back RBI singles and the game is interesting again. Cleveland 5, St. Louis 3. The Indians escape the top of the 8th with no further damage, but made it far too interesting for my liking!
-Indians load the bases in the bottom of the 8th off of a walk and two singles. The result: two runs on a Victor Martinez single, Indians 7, Cardinals 3. That was definitely the guy I wanted up in that situation, and like he usually does, Victor delivered.
-Nice 1-2-3 Inning for Kerry Wood. Indians win 7-3.
It was great to see David Huff pitch well and go deep into the game. The Cardinals tried to make it interesting as “the final countdown” approached, but they’ll have to wait “one more night” to try to get a win in this series. Up next: Shin-Soo Choo bobblehead night followed by Major League on the scoreboard after the game. So if you go to the game tomorrow and before you cross E. 9th to get to Progressive Field, ask a random stranger, “going somewhere meat?”. Hopefully he’ll answer, “about 90 feet!”.
Keywords: Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Cardinals
