part II of the season has now commenced for the tribe. and barfield has been warned. when it is his turn to deliver a walk off, game wending hit; garko declared 'he better have his head on a swivel."

that is because ryan produced tonight's game ending, walk off single that scored pinch runner mike rouse. he then was bumped to the ground by a charging josh barfield. the drama was possible at the expense of a jake westbrook victory. it would have been his first since coming back from the DL.

actually, he deserves three wins since he has been back. he could have easily won his first game if our offense had not gone in a funk in DC. there was the game against tampa that was knotted up at 1-1 when ben fransisco did his thing by making his first major league HR a walk off. the drama (and lack of a W) was made possible by an inept offense once again. then there was tonight, where joe attempted his first save in the first game after the break. instead he gave up the tying run. instead of getting the save, he stole the W from jake. i had seen where joe had a low 2 ERA in his last umpteen appearances. not a good start joe. but we picked you up. jake was not pretty tonight. but he is still in comeback mode. he had not pitched in a week. he gave up 5 walks to a team who is not adept at taking them. but he battled thru it and rebounded strong in finishing 6 innings of work.



of course, props must go out to recently locked up travis hafner. in his first AB as a much, much richer man, what should have been a walk was called a strikeout. he drew what should have been his second walk, but was hitless in 3 other AB's when he stepped to the plate in the 9th. he lashed a double. rouse was running for pronk.

as seems just slightly over average, we left 12 men on base. we need to get that number down. raising our .26something average with runners in scoring position will do it. considering pronk is at .191, a resurgence by him and everyone else staying consistent would do the trick. i think a resurgence is very possible. so did an ESPN blogger. .191. i was amazed when i just now checked it out.

so, our road woes continued after winning game 1 in detroit. we lost our next 3, won a game, then lost the rubber game to toronto 0-1. we must start doing better on the road. that means we must start hitting better on the road. this time, pronk can't single handedly pick us up. actually, his average is much better on the road (.283) vs at the jake (.239). this must be a team effort. towards the end of the season, a majority of our games will be on the road. it is very possible we will still be in a tight race with detroit at that point. if that is the case, we can't be going 1-2 in road series then. it will be a battle of wills between the 2 teams. minnesota, if recent history is a precursor, could possibly be in the 'rear view mirror'. chicago could very likely get hot and start playing like they are capable. if the the rookies in KC get comfortable and the pitching continues to improve, they will be tough to beat. we have only one series with them, but we must exact vengeance on NY. but the pin stripers have showed signs of regaining form.

i like how things have gone so far, but i hope they can improve. i think they can. u gotta believe. apparently, hafner thinks the situation (and future) in cleveland is good.