"You Can't See Me!"

Memorial Day as the "unofficial start of summer" did not disappoint at Progressive Field. The Justin Masterson jersey and the afternoon holiday game drew a good-sized crowd of just over 25,000. Following the rather ill-advertised links on the Indians' web site let me register for a pre-game photoshoot with Joe Smith. And a hot, sunny day made me appreciate the freezer-pop vendors more than ever.

Tomlin's return from the DL went as well as could be expected with a limited pitch count, lasting 5 innings and making 4 strike-outs while yielding 2 walks, 4 hits, and 4 runs. Kipnis continued his recent offensive tear going  scoring two runs and going 3 for 4. With Hannahan on the DL, Lonnie Chisenhall made his return to the show and hit a single homerun on his third Major League pitch of the year. #LopeyTime continued as Jose Lopez singled twice and reached on an error. It was not always pretty baseball, but it was certainly fun.

Chris Perez cheering last out.
Photo by Chuck Crow, The Plain Dealer.

An 8-5 lead after 8 innings brought Chris Perez charging in from the bullpen. A fun game and an energetic crowd met him with standing cheers, well deserved both for his ongoing streak of 17 consecutive saves and for his comments that did just as much to energize Cleveland's fans. Perez continued to dominate the 9th, throwing only 9 pitches and each one a strike. Facing the bottom of KC's order, Perez got a groundout on an 0-2 pitch to Brayan Pena, a 3 pitch strikeout facing Jarrod Dyson, and then two called strikes on Alcides Escobar. The 0-2 pitch was hit weakly on the ground to first, and, although Kotchman probably could have made the put-out unassisted, he lobbed the ball to Perez who was covering first. Perez exploded cheering, nearly tripped over himself while screaming and celebrating, and managed to add controversy when striking out Jarrod Dyson by waving his hand in front of his face  with the "You Can't See Me" move of professional wrestler John Cena.

Apparently, Jarrod Dyson didn't like this. According to Jordan Bastian's write-up on mlb.com, some in KC were not happy that in his comments on attendance and attitude Perez pointed out that Cleveland was leading the AL central, unlike KC

Perez had heard from Tony Sipp that after Perez's comments on attendance

"Dyson said their team's coming for me," Perez said. "So I said, All right, you're coming for me? I'm coming for you. If I strike you out, you're going to get the 'can't-see-me face.' That's what happened. Three pitches, and you can't see me."

Dyson said it was a good thing he did not see Perez's gesture while on the field.

The tough talk was echoed by other Royals players.  Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star writes that catcher Brayan Peña reacted by saying

"That is just a sorry guy looking to be loved... Nobody pays any attention to him so he has to do stuff like that. You don't see guys who people know, guys like Mariano Rivera, do that, do you?"

My first thought was "Brayan who...?" Luckily I keep score -- cause you can't tell the players without a scorecard -- and he was the recipient of Perez's first three strikes that inning. Right.

There is much intelligent debate about Perez, ranging from discussion of his mentality going into games to statistical analysis of his pitching peripherals as predictors of future performance. Dyson and Peña aren't contibuting to such intelligent conversation.

Ok, Perez also tweeted that we're going to retaliate if your pitchers go after our players, and that the KC promotional slogan "Our Time" needs to be ignored because it's Tribe Time.

But one the greatest gifts Perez brings to the game is the simple fact that he enjoys it. He plays hard and enjoys winning. He cheers for and with his team. Winning is a thrill and he's not going to hide that. I sometimes wonder if he's having more fun that we are in the stands -- not that he shouldn't! I only wish we all could get that excited over an out.

Perez, to his credit, pretty much brushed this off. According to Dutton's article, Perez responded

“What, they’re not trying to get me now? . . . Every ninth inning, they’re trying to get me. I’m the closer. They’re trying to win the game. … It could work to my advantage, because they might try to do too much. . . . I really don’t care. The way I look at it is, every time I pitch, they’re trying to get me. And if they’re not, it’s on them. They should try to get me every time."

Ok, Royals. Come and get him. We're ready, waiting, and excited.

Go Tribe.