Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Perez powers Indians to game one win

Roberto Perez cranked two home runs off Chicago Cubs pitching and three Indians pitchers combined to keep the Cubs off the scoreboard as the Cleveland Indians won game one of the World Series 6-0 in Cleveland.
Perez finished with four RBI on the evening in another surprising power outing in the postseason for the Indian backstop.
Corey Kluber tossed six innings of shutout baseball before handing the ball over to Andrew Miller and Cody Allen to finish the game.
Game two starts tonight at seven,an hour earlier than expected due to forecast of rain late Wednesday evening with Trevor Bauer for Cleveland against Jake Arrieta and the Cubs.

Smoke Signals

1) Post season heroics often come from those that you wouldn't expect and Roberto Perez fits the ball.
Two homers from a guy that hit all of three in the regular season?
Brings back memories of Brian Doyle!!

2) 15 strikeouts of the Cubs combined between Corey Kluber,Andrew Miller and Cody Allen.
That's a lot of swinging and missing,but a good sign for the Indians to keep such a strong hitting club not only off the board,but frustrated as well...

3) I know it's been 30 years and Corey Kluber isn't going as long into games,but the current Kluber run makes me think of 1988 Orel Hershiser or even more the dominance of 1986 Mike Scott.
Scott so dominated the Mets in the 86 NLCS in winning games 1 and 4 that Davey Johnson went above and beyond in game six to win because they knew there was no beating Mike Scott in game seven.
Could it be that way again with Corey Kluber? We will see,but there are some parallels...

4) Andrew Miller worked his way out of jams and looked a little more human in loading the bases in the seventh and putting two on in the eighth,but still hung zeroes on the board.
Miller threw 46 pitches,so his status might be slated as unavailable for game two or at least limited to a batter or two.
In any event.Miller slammed the door on the Cubs when they could have gotten back into the game...

5) I watched some of this game with my buddy Derreck and Brandon Diehl at Buffalo Wild Wings.
It was really my first time watching an important game in such an environment and I found I enjoyed it.
You naturally don't watch in as much detail as usual,but it was great to hang out and talk sports where most of the people really care about the game....

6) Brandon predicted before the game that Jose Ramirez was sitting on a big series and he went three for four with an RBI that was more like a swinging bunt than a hit or a conventional bunt.
That hit in the first inning made me think that this was the Tribe's night...

7) I'm more than a little surprised of the Cubs use of Kyle Schwarber as the DH in the series.
Schwarber,who did have a hit in game one,became the first player to ever have a hit in the World Series after not having one in the regular season.
Schwarber had been playing in Arizona Fall League action in an attempt to prepare him for the Cleveland home games in the series,but I still wonder about playing someone with that much down time.
Schwarber was injured in the first series of the season for the Cubs and spent the season on the disabled list...

8) Can the Indians win this series?
I'll have a better take after tonight.
You had to think that you were going to get a good effort from Corey Kluber,but can you get one from the drone repairman Trevor Bauer?
Can you get one from Josh Tomlin and his finesse stuff?
A win tonight would go a long way in determining that dream...

9) I feel bad that I missed the Cavaliers opener (for the most part,it was on at BWW too) and ring ceremonies,but it is the World Series after all.
I plan on a Cavalier preview after the World Series is over....

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