Friday, April 1, 2011

Thoughts on the Opener

Yep. We lost 15-10.

But let's look at some positives. And there are positives.

-Matt LaPorta had a great AB in the ninth. Facing Jesse Crain in the ninth with runners at first and second and two outs, LaPorta feel behind 1-2. But he able to work the count full fouling off some good breaking pitches. On the 8th pitch in the AB, he sends a hard grounder into left for a single and scoring Hafner from second. LaPorta had another single in the eighth. So, he finishes the day 2 for 5. He is a very important player for ttfc. If he has a breakout year, Cleveland will exceed all expectation for their offense.

-Carlos Santana 3 for 5 with a HR. Nuff said.

-Frank Herrmann - 2 innings, 2 hits, 1 ER, and 5 KOs. In the 7th, Hermann struck out the side on 10 pitches. 5 strikes were swings and misses. 3 called strikes, 1 foul, and 1 ball.

-Vinnie Pestano - 1 inning, 1 hit, and 3 KOs. Pestano got 8 swinging strikes in his 3 KOs. 14 pitches and 11 strikes in the inning.

It is great to see the young relievers come in and throw their fastballs by hitters. Again, if they can continue to do this, it bodes well for Cleveland year.

-We kept fighting after falling behind 14 - 0.

-Fausto wasn't that bad. No one hit the ball hard in the first. Adam Dunn hit a decent pitch in the second. The Quentin homer was on a bad pitch, and Fausto was out of gas in the fourth. He had 59 strikes in 88 pitches and had 5 strike outs. His only walk was in the fourth, and he was toast by then. His BAbip was .733. And Carmona had a good slider.

We will see what this does to his confidence. But I going into the season, I wanted Carmona to throw more strikes. If a couple of the grounders roll to someone rather than in the hole, and this is a very different game.

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