Final Game at Winter Haven & Things Don’t Go Well
As
mentioned yesterday the Tribe had their final spring training game in
Winter Haven Florida today. In front of a packed house of 6,728 the
Indians lost to the Tampa Bay Rays 7-9 in 10 innings,
ugh. Mr. 5th start Cliff Lee himself started today going 5.1 innings
giving up 4 earned runs on 6 hits, 2 of which were homeruns, he however
struck-out 6. Supposedly the 2 homers were the only real major mistakes
of the day for Lee, which isn’t surprising giving his tendency towards
the flyball. Julio came in and finished off the 6th inning, continuing
his successful spring thus far. The other concern in the box score is
the Indians’ recent acquisition Breslow. Going 2 innings giving up 3
earned runs on 2 hits (1 HR), walking 2, and striking out 2 earning,
which earned him the blown save. Breslow’s performance is unfortunate
but still too early to draw conclusions. However, Breslow’s HR was to
Carlos Pena, a left handed hitter, a good hitter but none the less
still a lefty. Not cool Craig, not cool.
One interesting player
not yet discussed here is non-roster invitee Andy Gonzalez. Gonzalez
has had a surprising spring playing multiple positions in both the
infield and outfield. Today was no exception with Andy hitting a grand
slam and drawing a walk. This brought his team leading HR total to 5
and team leading RBI total to 17 for this spring. Sure he hit an
amazingly poor sub .200 average for the White Soc last year, but if we
didn’t have to keep Marte on the roster Gonzalez may have had a chance
to make the team as the utility infielder.
Lee will make his
final pre-season apperance with the class A Kingston team Tuesday as a
final warm-up before the season begins for him.
Anyway
today marked the last time the above scene will ever be played out. The
new home of the Indians’ spring training is far away from the facility
in Winter Haven that I’ve heard so much bad stuff about and have never
seen myself. So while I’ll never visit the one Wal-Mart in town or the
supposedly rundown facility the Indians called home for the last 16
years I look forward to eventually vising Goodyear, Arizona where the
Tribe will be spending their springs at a new facility that has yet to
even be completed.
Final as a reminder only 3 days 18 hours.
until opening day If you actual care about season predictions for
baseball, which I tend to believe aren’t worth the paper they’re
written on (a slightly antiquated phrase), then you’ll enjoy SI’s Jon Heyman’s season preview. Just to ruin the surprise he picks the Indians to beat the Diamondbacks.
Go Tribe!
Go Tribe! 