mike hargrove unexpectedly retired. his last day of work, his team won its ninth consecutive game. as debatable a decision as it is, he goes out with class. as expected.

after losing two of three to the nationals in DC, the tribe has rebounded to win 6 of 7 at the jake. two of those games ended with a game winning, walk off home run. in the second game, it was the first major league HR for a young slugger. it was preceded in the fourth inning by the first hit, a single, of his career. in the first game started of his career. that young slugger is ben fransisco. the same ben who was tearing up AAA pitching all year before his recent call up.

notable players in ben's second game, a 3-2 victory by the tribe:

ben:
he hit a decisive double in the 7th inning. in his first AB, he struck out rather quickly. the bases were loaded. no one was out. kelly shoppach was up. he struck out. then came ben. he lasted slightly longer, before K'ing. same fate for barfield. inning over. still down 0-1. in his second AB, he grounded out. at least he made contact this time. kelly shoppach could not, in his second AB. it was like a rerun of his first AB. then on to the 7th inning. the score is 2-1. shoppach has just relived his first 2 AB's. then ben is up. he launches a deep shot, good for a double. james shields promptly exits the game. grady sizemore hits a 2 out single to plate ben. the score is now 3-1. that run ended up being the winning run.

kelly:
in that first AB, he came to the plate breeming with confidence. you could see it in his eyes. he WAS going to hit a grand slam. he is hitting over .380 on the season. .500 in his last so many games. his last hit was the 3 run blast that capped the 5 run comeback win vs the A's. that confidence was quickly shattered. then again. then for a third time. finally, he burst. he broke his bat bo jackson style, over his knee in disgust. but the tribe one this game because of defense behind cliff lee. kelly was not deterred by his offensive woes. he played good defense all game. he threw out gomes on a strike em out, throw em out DP. and in the ninth, he made the second out of the inning when he gunned down pinch runner dustan mohr. i say gunned down because the throw was not accurate. but he got it off so fast, and threw it even faster; that combined with an awesome play by jhonny peralta, mohr WAS out.

jhonny:
he did make an error in the ninth to start the inning. he made up for it by making that nice play on mohr. also by hitting a solo shot off of shields for the tribe's first run. that was his second homer in as many games against shields. that was a crucial blast as well. i wish he would not make an error in the ninth on the batter leading off the inning when a pitcher who gives up alot of base runners is on the mound. all series, the tribe pitchers have done an excellent job of keeping the lead off man off base. non coincidentally, the rays have struggled to score all season.

grady:
that key hit was a single, off a lefty, late in the game.

cliff lee:
he struck out the first 4 batters of the game, and 5 of his first 6 outs were K's. but in between, he gave up a solo shot to struggling carlos pena. overall, he went 8 innings, giving up only that run. he tied a career high with 9 K's. he pitched like an ace, going against tampa's ace. glad to have you back, cliff. i hope this time, the momentum carries over. he hit a brick wall after his shut out against the angels in his second start back from the DL. btw, he gave up four hits all day. against convention, righties were hitless against him. lefties had all the hits. strange days are these.

carlos pena:
he had struggled mightily all season against lefties. only one of his 18 jacks was against a lefty. now it is 2 of his 19 thanks to his second inning shot. the announcers were making it sound like a million to one shot that he would even get a hit. he proved them wrong. thankfully, nothing after that.

james shields:
kazmir has been bumped. shields is now the man for tampa. but he can give up a HR. he did today, after dominating. he started off somewhat ordinary. as mentioned above, he loaded the bases with no one out in the second. then out came the pitching coach. that coach is doing all right. at least for one game. shields proceeded to strike out the side. except for the jhonny shot, he was lights out afterward. right up to the AB where he gave up the fransisco double. then the pen let him down, thanks to grady's hit. just like they did the first time shields faced us in tampa. that was the day garko was king.

borowski:
lastly, but not leastly. he finished last in the 'who is the tribe's first half MVP on-line voting, he got the save again. he gave up an unearned run, but got the job done. in his fourth consecutive appearance. in those four games, he has three saves and one win. ERA, shmeeRA.