For what it's worth, I try not to miss Dollar Dog Nights. The hot dogs are sub-par, and my body never likes me for it, but still. So I had my tickets to last night's game long before Chris Perez called out booing fans or before low attendance became the big story of our division-leading Cleveland Indians.
Besides the hot dogs, last night's win over the Motor City Kitties may have been one of the best games I've seen at Progressive Field. Zach McAllister pitched a great game from the beginning, throwing first pitch strikes and challenging hitters throughout the game. There were more miscues on the field than I wanted to see, but a 2-run Pronk bomb tied the game at 2-2 in the 6th.
Things got interesting in the 8th. With Prince Fielder up, Tony Sipp came in. Prince got to first despite a perfect shift with Kipnis playing short right field. Vinnie Pestano came charging in with his usual hustle, but Young and Boesch both reached on singles. Bases loaded, no outs, and 22,000 screaming got the Bullpen Mafia into form. A three pitch strikeout got he first out, a grounder to first got Fielder out at the plate and saved a run, then the inning closed with a full count swinging strikeout. At some point I realized I had already screamed myself hoarse, but more to come...
Jason Kipnis went 3 for 4 with singles in the 1st, 6th, & 8th -- undoubtedly the result of a pre-game offering of sacrificial rum to Jobu. In the 8th Kipnis broke the tie when he came around to score on a fielder's choice and a bad throw from the Tiger's mammoth first baseman and Cabby scored an insurance run on a Santana sacrifice.
Enter Chris Perez in the 9th, who has been nothing but class since his comments last week about negativity and poor attendance. The highlight of the night, for me, was after his last pitch when he saw the ball pop up he just walked straight off the mound toward Santana at the plate. Pure class and confidence.
This may have been the best game I've ever seen. Not just for the excitement of a nail-biter, but because the crowd was engaged. The people around me knew their baseball and were behind the players -- far better than nights when I'm surrounded by the bros who catch SportsCenter every now and then and check with the batting averages on the scoreboard before insulting the players.
Now all we can do is hold on and go for the sweep.
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