[Brananorama]

4/17/15
Cleveland Indians (6-2) at Minnesota Twins (2-7)
Zach McAllister (1-0, 1.50) vs. Tommy Milone (0-1, 13.50)


The Indians have come running out of the gate to take over first place in the Central for the time being. This will be an important series for us, as while our record is awful, the division is still pretty closely knit, and a hot streak could swing things around at any moment this early in the year. (If we want any hope of relevance for longer than a month or two, early-season luck is the way to get it.) Trevor Plouffe hit a deep triple off the right-field overhang and scored on a groundout from Kurt Suzuki to give the Twins the first lead of the night. Suzuki had another opportunity in the next inning with the bags full and two down, and delivered an opposite-field bloop hit to make it 2-0 Twins.


The Indians got a run across in the fifth, Jesus Aguilar doubling home Jason Kipnis from first base and halving our lead. Milone induced a 6-4-3 to strand Aguilar at third and keep the Twins on top. Cleveland did wind up tying the game on a two-out single off the bat of Nick Swisher in Tommy Milone’s final inning. Aguilar added another extra-base hit with an RBI triple in the eighth off Caleb Thielbar to give the Indians a 3-2 lead. The Twins got pinch-runner Eduardo Nunez to second base after a dropped pop fly allowed Plouffe aboard with one out and the bottom of the order due up. Suzuki laced a double into left-center, tying the game. Hicks grounded out, but Danny Santana put the Twins on top with a base hit to center that made it 4-3 Minnesota. Glen Perkins came on in his first save opportunity and looked fine until two outs reached the scoreboard -- at which point he walked Yan Gomes, then allowed a game-tying triple to Michael Brantley. An infield single followed for Brandon Moss and just like that, we were losing again. Cody Allen entered to close out the ninth and set us down in order, complete with a pair of strikeouts, finishing off our fourth straight loss.
Cleveland 5, Minnesota 4
WP: Kyle Crockett (2-0, 2.70 -- BS: 1) / LP: Glen Perkins (0-1, 6.00 -- BS: 1) / SV: Cody Allen (6, 0.00)
League Notes: Tampa Bay first baseman James Loney will miss the remainder of the 2015 season with a ruptured medial collateral ligament. Jason Heyward’s diagnosis wound up as a fractured wrist, and he will be out of the action for at least six weeks.
~~~

4/18/15
Cleveland Indians (7-2) at Minnesota Twins (2-8)
Corey Kluber (1-1, 1.93) vs. Phil Hughes (1-1, 5.40)


The Twins have found themselves facing off against 2014 award winners recently this month, as both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young of last year’s American League have been in the opposing box score at one point or another. In addition, we entered today really needing to give our bullpen a break, as they’ve been a bit overworked over the first two weeks of this campaign. Unfortunately, a fluke balk gave the Indians their first run in the contest with two down in the first. Corey Kluber proved a little rattled in his half of the first, walking two in a row, then hurling a wild pitch past catcher Yan Gomes, and setting up a game-tying groundout off the bat of Oswaldo Arcia. Jose Ramirez gave the Tribe the lead back with a two-out single in the second. The game was tied immediately, however, with Trevor Plouffe’s first homer of the year over the porch in right -- just the sixth of the year for Minnesota. It was followed by the seventh, as Kurt Suzuki pulled one deep and made it 3-2 Twins. (I’ve actually been surprised with Kurt so far; I was expecting Josmil Pinto to finally win the job almost instantly, but Suzuki’s still hitting over .300 and leads the team in homers. I mean, we’re paying the man and I expected him to be earning that money as a prospect’s backup, but if he’s gonna put up solid offensive numbers again, I cannot complain -- nor can I give Josmil the job yet.)


Lonnie Chisenhall doubled and scored to tie it up in the third, but the Twins retook the lead in the bottom of the fifth on a very deep sacrifice fly thanks to Torii Hunter. At this point, Hughes was cruising, having walked none as per usual and struck out six -- but reached trouble in the top of the sixth, giving up a two-run homer to Jason Kipnis and giving Cleveland the lead right back. The Twins made a run for another score on the other side of the stretch, with Brian Dozier doubling Joe Mauer to third base. Arcia came through with a single over the second-base bag, tying the game at five. Hunter grounded in Dozier to give Minnesota the lead once again with just two innings to play.


Brian Duensing threw the eighth entering his second inning of work, and retired the first man he faced on a nifty play from short -- but Danny Santana began walking funny immediately after the play’s conclusion -- and shortly after that was resting on the ground waiting for the trainers. He was removed, and I’ll have more on his situation after the game. With lefties due up in the ninth and a one-run lead, Glen Perkins got his second save shot of the year -- and blew it again, giving up a two-out, two-run homer to Yan Gomes that made it 7-6 Cleveland.


Cody Allen entered for the ninth, and with one out, Dozier doubled Mauer to third for the second time in the game, putting the tying and winning runs in scoring position in front of a hot Arcia. On a 2-1 count, Arcia ripped one back up the middle that landed easily in center, plated both runs, and gave the Twins a much-needed exhale. It was a hard-fought win with a few more bumps than there probably should have been, but at least we added a third number to the win column.
Cleveland 7, Minnesota 8
WP: Glen Perkins (1-1, 9.00 -- BS: 2) / LP: Cody Allen (0-1, 2.45 -- BS: 1)
Injury Notes: Unfortunately for Danny Santana, a rough beginning to 2015 gets even rougher, as he’s strained his oblique and is going to hit the disabled list for about three weeks. He’ll join Jordan Schafer as the second Twin to go down this April, and this transaction necessitates an addition to the 40-man roster, as the only position player in this group not on the active list is catcher Chris Herrmann, who is himself injured in Rochester. Rather than opt to get a look at a prospect, I’ll be bringing up Triple-A shortstop Argenis Diaz, who has little to no hitting potential but can more than hold his own at both shortstop and third. This will mean Eduardo Escobar gets a spot in the starting lineup for a while, and Diaz will serve as defensive bench depth.
Transaction Notes: I was pleased to see that starting pitcher Yadier Alvarez has accepted our offer to play in our international complex. He’s been added to the roster for this year’s Dominican Summer League and will look to begin a long journey building up his pitches to major-league quality. (He has 9/10 potential for his fastball and slider, with not much in the way of movement or control. I’m interested to see how he develops.)
League Notes: Another injury to a major National League pitcher has been revealed, as Nats’ Stephen Strasburg will miss the remainder of the season, a year in which Washington is expected to make a serious run at the pennant. As the Nationals had previously been considering trading one of their six incredible starters for more offensive depth, this may have made their decision a little easier, and they might run through the rest of the year with the remaining five men.
A surprising trade was also heralded today, as the Detroit Tigers are parting ways with Victor Martinez, who they’d signed to a four-year extension this winter. V-Mart goes to Baltimore in exchange for Travis Snider and catching prospect Chance Sisco, who will begin play for his new team at Single-A Lakeland.


4/19/15
Cleveland Indians (7-3) at Minnesota Twins (3-8)
Trevor Bauer (0-0, 7.71) vs. Ervin Santana (0-1, 4.85)


We have our shot today at winning our first series of the season, and I don’t want to pass it up. It’d be a big morale boost for both the team and myself. With Daniel-San out for the time being, my lineup looks a little funky, as I’m just batting Eduardo Escobar leadoff, due to similar speed and switch-hitting as his predecessor, pre-injury. Brian Dozier has been slotted down to 8th due to his slump and Kurt Suzuki is batting fifth behind Torii Hunter until he decides to cool off. Oswaldo Arcia has taken over the third slot. The lineup hasn’t really churned out much so far so I’m not really sure what direction I want to take it. At the moment it looks a little sloppy, which I don’t like. We’ll see how this batting order does until Danny comes back and then we’ll assess from there, but for the most part I don’t want to do any shuffling unless we get some sort of striking negative trend.


The one constant in our lineup so far has been Arcia, who unloaded on a fastball to dead center, scoring himself and Joe Mauer on a two-run shot in the bottom of the first. Jason Kipnis evened the ledger with a two-run shot of his own the next inning. Torii made an incredible catch at the right field wall but collided into the padding pretty harshly in the fourth. He was taken out of the game, replaced by Shane Robinson, and we’ll see what HIS deal is after this one ends. It wasn’t until the sixth that the Tribe were one-up on us, as an RBI groundout from Nick Swisher made it 3-2 Cleveland. Ervin Santana was having an overall good game, with no walks and three K’s, although a few too many hits than I would have liked (eight by the end of the sixth.) Caleb Thielbar stranded a pair of Indians on the corners in the eighth to keep it a one-run game. The Twins tied the game in the bottom of the eighth, when Aaron Hicks doubled home Dozier and advanced Trevor Plouffe to third. The bases were loaded with two out for Arcia, who delivered once again with a two-run hit to center.


With the Twins up 5-3 in the ninth, but Glen Perkins both tired and in a bit of a funk, I left Thielbar in to work a second inning in relief. Something I’m looking to do with this pen is squeeze a few more outs out of them than I might normally ask; if only because I’m not 100% confident in this rotation and need to know that my pen guys can handle higher workloads without blowing out their arms. Thielbar delivered a perfect ninth, and the Twins won the series over first-place Cleveland.
Cleveland 3, Minnesota 5
WP: Caleb Thielbar (1-0, 1.42) / LP: Trevor Bauer (0-1, 6.57)
Injury Notes: Here we are again with more injury notes. Torii Hunter has been diagnosed with wrist tendinitis and will miss the next two weeks. I’ve decided to give both Shane Robinson and Aaron Hicks some starting time as a result, with the former slotting into right field during Torii’s fortnight of absence. As it stands, I still need a bench bat to cover Robinson, who serves as our regular cross-outfield backup. I’ll be calling up another man to the 40-man, this time AAA outfielder Eric Farris, whose only major-league action has been fourteen games with Milwaukee between 2011-2012. Farris is a swift defender who can cover all three outfield positions, just like Robinson had been doing off the bench. At the moment my call-ups have been reserved to those minor-league names who don’t have much of a future with the contending version of this ballclub in a year or two, as I’d like to get as much development as possible out of the big names before bringing them up.
League Notes: The Twins place 26th in this week’s Power Rankings, dropping a slot from last week. Andruw Jones signs back with an MLB club, as he’s elected to pen a one-year, $1.95MM deal with Arizona after two 20+ homer seasons in Japan. Out of Washington, the starting pitcher trade wound up going through after all, and one might wonder if the Nationals had decided they were parting ways with one of their starters even before Strasburg went down. Washington ships out 29-year-old Gio Gonzalez to the Angels in exchange for 2B Grant Green and relief prospect Chris Ellis.