Indians-Tigers, game three
C.C. Sabathia faces Justin Verlander today. I'll be checking in every half hour with my thoughts on this one. I listened to the ESPN radio feed of the game last night. Not sure who the play-by-play guy was, but the color commentator was former Marlin Orestes Destrade. During one of Casey Blake's at-bats, the play-by-play guy mentioned Blake was hitting .157 with runners in scoring position, the second-worst average in baseball.
Destrade: Yeah ... uh ... that's alarming.
It was nice to hear someone recite the stat, since none of the Indians announcers will ever even bring it up. Blake's done a solid job lately, but the stat is still important. (12:59)

- After an inning and a half, the Indians have a 2-1 lead. Victor Martinez slammed a Verlander pitch deep to right in the first. In the bottom of the inning, Placido Polanco hammered a homer to left ("fairly deep" according to Indians announcer Matt Underwood). In the second, the Tigers gift-wrap a run on an error and wild pitch, turning a one-out single from Ryan Garko into an Indians lead. (1:36)

- Three innings in, and the Tigers lead, 5-2. You hate to simplify things to make a point, but I'm going to. Because of one pitch, C.C. Sabathia shouldn't start the All Star game. With the score tied at 2 with one out in the third, he had Carlos Guillen down 0-2, and hung a curve that Guillen dropped into the left field stands. I was never too keen with the idea of Sabathia starting the game anyway. In 1996, Charles Nagy started the game for the AL (probably some confidence thing from Mike Hargrove) and got shelled. Anyway, the Indians pick Sabathia up by not even bothering to put the ball in play in the fourth. Ummm, why is Trot Nixon playing, again? Verlander looks to be in a groove. (2:15)

-Oh, right, the game. After Gary Sheffield's 2-run homer in the fourth, the Tigers went up 7-2. The Indians went in order in the top of the fifth, and I responded by turning down the sound and putting Magical Mystery Tour on the stereo. Justin Verlander is cruising along heading to the sixth, before allowing a leadoff double to Blake. Turning down the volume has its advantages, such as not hearing Underwood, or those miserable Alltel commercials with the four Chad stalkers. Anyway, Victor doubles in Blake to make it 7-3. As All You Need is Love plays, (Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game) Hafner bats. Hafner lines out to Sean Casey, bringing up Jhonny Peralta. Peralta grounds to third. You know, the Indians' clutch hitting has been pretty pathetic in this series. Here comes Garko. I put in Oasis (What's the Story). Garko gets hit, bringing up Nixon. Oh joy. I think you can actually see the Tigers leaving the field. Nixon flies out; inning (and probably the game) over. (3:02)

- Sigh. The Oasis album plays on, and the Tigers keep hitting. They greet the Indians bullpen "B" team (Edward Mujica and Jason Stanford) with five runs to turn the game into the Blazing Saddles (a laugher, which could be construed by some as offensive). It's 12-3 in the bottom of the seventh. The Indians got a double with one out in the top of the inning from Josh Barfield, but neither Grady Sizemore nor Blake could drive him in. (3:32)

Song Quote of the day
And I want you to know
I got my mind made up now
but I need more time -- Oasis (3:34)

-Mercifully, it's over. Verlander deserves to start the All-Star game. He went seven innings, allowing three runs, two of which were earned. Sabathia threw, without question, his worst game of the season. He threw four innings and gave up 10 hits, three of which were homers. Hopefully (if you're a Tribe fan) this was just a bad start, and he'll be back to dominating after the break.

-Other notes from the Box Score
* Grady Sizemore was a non-factor at the plate, going 0 for 4. His batting average is now .279.
* Trot Nixon was 0 for 4, dropping his average to .240. He left three on base.
* For the game, the Indians left 6 runners on base. For the series, they left 27.

Update
And who is on the cover of Sports Weekly? Sabathia.
"C.C. Sabathia rock solid as Indians ace."