Well Dana, you really did pitch well in spring training and you started the season well. I did enjoy watching you pitch, changing speeds and hitting spots, getting by with control and smarts. But I'm afraid, it is time for you to go. The Tribe has spoken. Well, perhaps not the Tribe but the rest of the league has.
Jesse Litsch can't be activated until June 3, but Dana's next start would fall on our off day, May 27, so if Cito wanted he could just skip Eveland the next time through the rotation. Then there would only be one more time that his spot would come up before June 3. Someone (Rommie Lewis? Brad Mills? Casey Janssen? Hugo?) could make that start. Cito doesn't have the patience for pitchers doing badly that he has for batters.
Other than Eveland, we had a pretty good game. Our bullpen pitched 6.2 innings, giving up just 2 hits, no walks and 6 strikeouts. Rommie Lewis pitched 3.2, giving up just one hit. Unfortunately the hit came with the inherited runners on base and cost Dana 2 runs. Casey Janssen, Shawn Camp and Jason Frasor each pitched a scoreless inning.
And we scored 5 runs. 4 in the 8th to make the game exciting for a moment or two. Edwin Encarnacion hit his 5th homer since coming back from the DL, 6 homers in 15 at bats, this time a three run shot. Aaron Hill hit a home run that same inning. Hill's had a tough time of it but he hit the ball hard a couple of times tonight. Hope he is coming out of it.
All the starters had 1 hit expect for Jose Bautista (0 for 3, with 2 SO) (he's been so hot he's allowed) and Adam Lind (0 for 4).
No Jay of the Day. Down by that much it is pretty tough to get WPA. Vernon Wells had the best number (.059). I think the bullpen and Edwin deserve honorable mention. Suckage Jay? I know this will come as a surprise, but Dana Eveland had the number (-.404).
Tomorrow at 4:00 Eastern, Shaun Marcum (3-1, 2.61) tries to end our 3 game losing streak. against Billy Buckner making his second start of the season.
I know we lost and that's three losses in a row, but we have a team that is great fun to watch. We never seem to be out of a game. And it is fun to guess which batter is going to come up with a big game next. We might not win 100 games but we are more fun than teams that will. We ride Cito pretty hard around here, but he's managed to make the games exciting.