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Game #32: David Dellucci 3-run jack gives Tribe win over Yankees

By James Pete | May 6th, 2008

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CLEVELAND

NY Yankees

W: Rafael Perez (1-1) L: Joba Chamberlain (1-2) S: Rafael Betancourt (3) HR: CLE–Jhonny Peralta (6), David Dellucci (4)

Pinch-hitter David Dellucci launched a two-out, three-run homer off of relief pitcher Joba Chamberlain in the eighth inning, as the Cleveland Indians defeated the New York Yankees 5-3 Tuesday Night at Yankee Stadium.

The Indians, down 3-2 in the eighth, were facing the daunting challenge of Joba Chamberlain, who aside from the bug attack in the ALDS, has been as lights out as it gets. Grady Sizemore gave the Indians hope, however, as he drew a lead-off walk that inning. Jamey Carroll quickly got him into scoring position by sacrificing him to second. Jhonny Peralta followed with a walk of his own, putting runners on first and second with one out. Ryan Garko popped out a 2-0 pitch, giving the feeling that this ‘rally’ was going to take a familiar turn.

Eric Wedge then brought in the left-handed hitter Dellucci to bat for righty Franklin Gutierrez. Dellucci then took an 0-1 pitch into the right field stands for the three-run homer to give the Tribe the 5-3 lead.

Rafael Betancourt would close out the game in 1-2-3 fashion to give the Indians the victory.

Jhonny Peralta hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning to give the Indians a brief lead. Peralta was batting third tonight, thanks to Victor Martinez being out. It was good to see some power from a previous power-less slot in the order.

Rafael Perez had another solid outing, going two-innings for Cleveland, and only giving up a hit and a walk. Perez struck out three, and looked like his 2007, dominant-self.

Fausto Carmona continued his year-long struggle with control tonight. The Yankees, patient hitters for sure, magnified this problem as the game continued. He came into the game with twice as many walks as strikeouts, but still has found a way to pitch well this season. He didn’t help his walks-to-strikeout ratio tonight, as he walked five, and struck-out two in the game.

Carmona found himself in some serious trouble in the first inning. Derek Jeter hustled out a one-out infield single in the first. Bobby Abreu, playing statue, followed by walking on four pitches. Hideki Matsui then hit a lined single to Grady Sizemore. Jeter was held up at third, but eventually scored when Jason Giambi seemingly hit a double-play ball to first place, but beat the throw-back to get a run in.

Walks got Carmona in trouble again in the fourth, after Cleveland had taken a 2-1 lead. Matsui drew a lead-off walk, then Jason Giambi hit an opposite-field gapper that scored Matsui all the way from first to tie the score. After a Melky Cabrera ground-out moved Giambi to third, Robinson Cano singled the opposite way as well, to score Giambi and give the Yankees a 3-2 lead. Grady Sizemore saved Fausto Carmona with a fantastic catch on a drive by Johnny Damon to center.

Carmona again got out of a jam in the fifth inning. He gave up a one-out walk to Bobby Abreu. Hideki Matsui then singled, and Abreu was thrown out on a questionable call at third, for the second out. Carmona then walked Giambi, but managed to strike out Melky Cabrera to end the inning, and his night. It wasn’t pretty, but he only left with a one-run deficit. It could have been a lot worse.

Oh yeah, WHAT A CATCH BY SIZEMORE!

Victor Martinez was a late scratch tonight. VMart had a stiff neck (horrid memories of David Justice), and is considered day-to-day. Eric Wedge shuffled the lineup once again. It was an interesting early look, with Jamey Carroll batting 2nd, Jhonny Peralta batting 3rd, Ryan Garko batting 4th, Franklin Gutierrez batting 5th, Travis Hafner batting 6th, Ben Francisco batting 7th, Kelly Shoppach batting 8th, and Andy Marte getting a rare start, and batting ninth. VMart was available to pinch-hit if needed.

Cleveland’s offense only had six hits tonight. Of course, when two of those hits give you five runs and a win, it’s hard to complain. On to tomorrow night’s match-up, that will have Cliff Lee on the hill for Cleveland, against Yankees’ ace Chien-Ming Wang. The two are a combined 11-0 this season. It should be a fun one to watch, if you like pitching.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 8:38 pm and is filed under Kelly Shoppach, Fausto Carmona, Travis Hafner, Joba Chamberlain, Victor Martinez, James Pete, Franklin Gutierrez, Cliff Lee, VMart, Tribe Victory, Jamey Carroll, Ben Francisco, Eric Wedge, Grady Sizemore, Jhonny Peralta, Derek Jeter, Chien-Ming Wang, Hideki Matsui, Jason Giambi, Robinson Cano, Bobby Abreu, Andy Pettitte, David Dellucci, Cleveland Indians, Andy Marte, New York Yankees, Ryan Garko, Tribe Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Game #32: David Dellucci 3-run jack gives Tribe win over Yankees”

Jackson Andrews says:

May 6th, 2008 at 11:05 pm

I was at the game — and will be in attendance tomorrow and thurs as well — and as pathetic as they looked tonight, i don’t know that I’ve ever witnessd anything as satisfying as the following three things: 1. Grady’s catch to save two runs in what was already a two-run inning. 2. Gutz’s assist (dude was safe…all the better!) and 3. Dellucci’s homer.

It’s almost worth not going to the games I hate Yankee fans so much (although I’m also jealous. Those fans show up ready to yell — either at the Yankees or the other team … but they’re THERE and LOUD). But those three plays made the place as silent as when we danced on the infield last year (with the exception of the booing after the put-out at third).

That said, I watched eight pretty uninspired innings of basebal tonight. More of the same.
Geoff Beckman says:

May 7th, 2008 at 4:04 am

I heard a new riddle yesterday at work:

Q. How do you know if the opposing pitcher is struggling?
A. The Indians score.

That is getting to be more than just a snotty joke. Both the fans and the broadcasters seem to be falling victim to Stockholm Syndrome or something.

Last night, Fausto Carmona pitched five innings and allowed three runs– not an awesome outing, but within the parameters of acceptable Pitched more than half the game, gave up three or fewer runs.

But the way people were carrying on, you’d think he got shelled: “It’s bad enough that he allowed one run (rabble, rabble, rabble)– but then he allowed the Yankees to score two more (rabble, rabble, rabble).

“Who does he think he is, wasting an offensive explosion like that? (rabble, rabble, rabble). If that pampered pansy expects a week worth of run support every night, who needs him? (rabble, rabble, rabble)”

Both the TV and radio guys (had to run an errand during the game) were rattling on like Ramon Romero was on the mound.

I understood the mindset– I thought the game was lost when the Yankees scored run #3 myself– but the reality is that a competent offense will score about 800-850 in a year. That’s about 5.0 to 5.3 runs a game.

It’s important not to lose perspective on what the problem is– to not point to the pitching every time they don’t put up a superhuman performance.

The challenge of being asked to hit third seemed to get Peralta’s blood up– he was actually working counts. Of course it helps that he was 5-11 against Pettitte, with a double, triple and two homers, going into the game..

But matchups can be overcome by determined effort. Travis Hafner was 15-38 lifetime against Petitte (.395), but “Punk” managed to hit only one single, just before the Yankee ace ran out of gas.

One other thought. If the Yankees don’t put Joba Chamberlain into the rotation pretty quickly, the Indians are very close to getting a significant edge for the next 10-15 years.

In 1995, I watched a good young pitcher named Troy Percival make his second career appearance against the Indians. He took a 5-3 lead into the ninth, only to see Wayne Kirby and Omar Vizquel single, Carlos Baerga walk and Albert Bell hit a walkoff grand slam.

In his next three outings against Cleveland, he didn’t allow a run. But in early 1996, he was working the ninth inning of a 1-1 tie, and gave up homers to Belle, Sandy Alomar and Jim Thome to lose.

Percival blew a save against the Indians in his next appearance and the Angels lost in 13 innings. After two more good outings against the Indians, Percival blew another lead– and the game– in September, giving up an RBI single to Jim Thome and a three-run walkoff shot to Manny Ramirez.

Percival had 29 more appearances against the Indians after that game and wasn’t worth a plugged nickel in most of them. Against any other team, he was a dominating closer, throwing balls that were nearly impossible to hit. But against Cleveland, his manager almost had to drag him out of the bullpen, and he had the look of a condemned man walking toward a firing squad. I always felt the Angels had a better shot to protect a lead with almost any other guy.

Chamberlain has faced the Indians six times, and they’ve hit him three times (twice in the playoffs and last night). And I saw that Percival “What is the deal with these guys?!??” look on his face after Dellucci homered last night.

A lot of relieving is mental– you need to have confidence that you’re going to get the opposing hitters out, or you’ll try to make every pitch perfect, struggle for control and wind up grooving a few balls. If a pitcher gets hit one too many times, it’s like a foxhound who loses the scent– he just can’t perform properly.

Chamberlain is a great young pitcher– but so was Percival. This might be something to keep in mind if he comes in tonight or tomorrow.
Chet Wheeler says:

May 7th, 2008 at 7:29 am

Jackson, how do you rate? Getting to go to Yankee Stadium in its last season, two games in a row! Did you go over there just for this series or is it a baseball lover’s dream vacation tour?
Barry says:

May 7th, 2008 at 8:49 am

Geoff makes a good point. It’s pretty bad when a guy gives up three runs, even if it was a pretty ugly performance, and it seems like the PITCHING was letting us down. If that mentality starts creeping into the pitchers’ heads, this team is in big trouble.

But, hey, a W is better than an L, right?
Chet Wheeler says:

May 7th, 2008 at 9:07 am

At least it made the ESPN lead page — have to play the Yankees for that. If they’d have beaten Joe Nathan and the Twins you might’ve been able to find it on the main baseball page.
Geoff Beckman says:

May 7th, 2008 at 5:09 pm

The first prize for stupidity goes to the ESPN guy who pointed out that “All the Indians starting pitchers except Cliff Lee have struggled this year– and even Lee had some problems last time out.”

Gotta love these former players and their insights. Carmona and Westbrook have ERAs under 3.00. One guy has had control problems; the other has a losing record because no one has scored for him.

Sabathia had a bad start; since he fixed his mechanical issues, he’s been dominating. Byrd had two bad starts when he thought he was going to be suspended for HGH use– and his ERA is now 3.74.

And the first time Lee allows more than one run in a start– he allowed 3 in six innings– you call that a “struggle”? What term to you apply to Kenny Rogers and his 6.27 ERA, dummy?

Runner-up would be the local folks who pointed out that Carmona probably would have been knocked out if his teammates hadn’t thrown out two Yankees on the basepaths and gotten the Sizemore catch..

Yeah, that’s right– a pitcher should never get any help from his defense (even when they’re not hitting). It’s the pitcher’s fault if Wedge calls the infield in– and Robinson Cano hits a double-play grounder that Peralta, as a result, can’t field (not that he tried) and a run scores.

I guess this is how you must need to think to calculate pitching as being 90% of the game.

By the way, Barry, two comments about Xavier Nady, which I forgot to respond to.

1. Until Neal Huntington makes some deals, I can’t guess what it would take to entice him. It’s important to see some trades– and some rejected offers– to get a mental fix on what he likes.

By the way, the front office adamantly insists that there was never any discussion of Lee + Shoppach + Francisco/Gutierrez for Jason Bay– that those reports were all coming from Pittsburgh writers who must have been talking to hotdog vendors.

I tend to believe that, because it is unusual for them to comment directly on a trade. Usually they’ll say “We talked about lots of things”, without providing any specifics. In this case, they actually mentioned specifics and said “that never happened”.

2. I don’t think Nady will keep hitting .362, but he’s always been a solid prospect who has never really had any help from his team.

He has a career OPS of .888 in the minors– even though he was rushed from A ball to AAA at 23, and it took him (like Asdrubal Cabrera) 1.5 seasons to recover. (His OPS was .900+ and it dipped into the .700’s).

He comes up and has to compete with Ryan Klesko and Brian Giles for at-bats– two good players, but both 34 at the time– and he’s in a park that isn’t good for hitters.

He goes to the Mets in 2006 and his power goes way up– when he’s traded to Pittsburgh for Oliver Perez, he needed some time to adjust to that (wouldn’t you be upset?).

In 2007, he does what he was doing for the Mets– but since Dave Littlefield and Jim Tracy were enamored with the modest talents of Chris Duffy (and refusing to shuit down Bay, no matter how badly he was hurt) he had to compete with Nate McLouth for playing time.

This year, management talked about how much they liked him and installed him in right– putting McLouth in center. He’s finally been able to relax and perform.

Nady has hit .280 for two years and slugged .480. What’s keeping him from being an elite hitter is lack of walks (which would also give him better pitches to hit and bump his average and power)..

He hasn’t made any progress on that count this year. Walks made up 52 points of his OBP last year (.330 OBP -.278 batting average = 52) and they’re only up to 61 this year.

And he’ll turn 30 in November, so he probably has only 3-4 years left as a frontline player. He’ll probably go when Andrew McCutcheon is ready (although Bay might get yanked first).

Still, I’d be very happy to have him. Nady actually is what people think Ben Francisco might become, and he’d certainly be an asset.