Earlier this year during spring training, the Indians gave Grady Sizemore a rather nice contract. It was for 6 years, $23.4 million dollars. It runs through 2011, and there’s a 2012 option. Watching this series, you should be able to see why they did it. Just in last night’s game, Sizemore went 3 for 3 with two doubles, a home run, he walked twice, did not strike out, and scored two runs. I’d say that was a pretty positive offensive evening at the ol’ ballyard. While he muffed a play in ceter field on a ball hit by Gerald Laird, and he was picked off first by Padilla, he’s something special. He’s only 24, and looks to be in the Cleveland lineup being productive for awhile.
However, it wasn’t just Sizemore that beat us. Vicente Padilla had his worst outing in awhile, as he’s been generally excellent recently. Padilla went 5.1 innings, but had a ton of pitches (112, and 91 after 4), allowed 6 runs, gave up 8 hits and walked three. We got down early, as Padilla gave up three runs in the first, another in the second, and it felt pretty deflating, we never seemed to get up off the carpet after that.
In fact, of our two runs, one was a solo home run by Ian Kinsler, a no doubter to the back of the seats in section 7. The other one was an RBI single by Carlos Lee (his 100th overall RBI in 06). We could never get anything going against Jake Westbrook, who I think would be a perfect pitcher for the Rangers in this ballpark. Unfortuantely, the Indians hold an 07 option on him, which I suspect they’ll take.
For the first time in awhile, I’m actually ready for football season to start, which is rather unusual for me, I’m not truly ready for that until after the World Series. I guess this dropoff at the end of the season has gotten to me more than I had realized.