News
Huff, Tribe bats too much for Cardinals
Rookie delivers terrific start; Choo, Martinez drive in five
By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com
06/12/09 10:52 PM ET
CLEVELAND -- No birds were harmed in the making of this win. It was just a good, old-fashioned, bird-free victory for the Tribe on Friday night at Progressive Field. |
Behind David Huff's solid start and the combined five RBIs turned in by Nos. 3 and 4 hitters Victor Martinez and Shin-Soo Choo, the Indians beat the Cardinals, 7-3, in the opener of a three-game Interleague set in front of 28,159 fans and no seagulls. It was the Indians' fifth victory in seven games and an important step in the Tribe's quest for three consecutive series wins. "Guys are playing with more confidence," manager Eric Wedge said. "Our young players are getting more comfortable and proving they belong up here." Huff is proof of that. He labored through four starts before posting his first Major League win in Chicago on Sunday, and now he has a win in two successive starts. And this win was a major achievement for Huff (2-2, 7.39 ERA), in that he lasted into the eighth. He hadn't gone more than five innings in any previous start. "I had pretty much inherited the nickname 'Five and Dive,'" Huff said. "So this is huge. Every time out, I'm getting more comfortable and confident. It's a huge difference right now from where I started." There was another huge difference in this game that had nothing to do with Huff or any player on the field. It was the noticeable lack of gulls hovering overhead or resting in the outfield grass. The organizational efforts to keep the gulls at bay (no pun intended) were apparently successful. Perhaps the fireworks the Indians set off every half-inning in an attempt to spook the birds were what got the job done. Those fireworks didn't come as a result of home runs by the home team, but the Indians did get plenty of timely hits to back Huff. The first of those hits came when Choo got the Indians on the board with an RBI single off Joel Pineiro that scored Martinez in the first. The Cardinals answered back with Albert Pujols' solo shot off Huff in the fourth. But the list of Major League pitchers victimized by Pujols is a long one, and that blast was about the only mistake Huff made in his first seven innings. In that span, he held the Cardinals to five hits, and, the homer aside, he didn't let a baserunner advance past first. "I was just trying to keep the ball over the plate and get the ball on the ground and pop-ups," Huff said. "I was real concerned with getting first-pitch strikes and making them work." Wedge found it enjoyable to watch Huff work this one. "He controlled the ballgame," Wedge said. "He definitely has a better tempo to him. You look at the way he's handled himself and what he's doing between innings and how he's handled situations, and all that shows his maturity." And Huff, of course, benefited from plenty of offensive support. In the bottom of the fourth, the Indians regained the lead when Travis Hafner walked and scored on Ben Francisco's RBI double to make it 2-1. And in the seventh, the Indians essentially put the game away. Trevor Crowe was thrown out at home while trying to score from third on Mark DeRosa's check-swing grounder to the right side. But Martinez drew a walk off reliever Dennys Reyes to load the bases, and Choo ripped a two-run single up the middle to make it 4-1. Choo has now driven in a run in 10 of his past 16 games, driving in 12 runs in that span. "He tries to do too much at times," Wedge said of Choo, "but he does a good job of not trying to do too much with runners in scoring position. He had a 2-0 count there, and, to be ready to hit and stay out over the middle of the plate in that situation, you can't do a better job." Following Choo's big hit, right-hander Kyle McClellan came in, walked Jhonny Peralta to reload the bases and walked Hafner to bring home another insurance run. With the 5-1 lead in hand, Huff seemed to run out of gas in the eighth, letting two runners on with one out. Reliever Joe Smith was summoned, only to give up consecutive RBI singles to Pujols and Ryan Ludwick to make it 5-3. And when Rafael Perez walked Chris Duncan to load the bases, the Cardinals had a chance to make this a ballgame. But Yadier Molina smoked a grounder to short, and Peralta was in perfect position to snag it and get the inning-ending fielder's choice at second. Besides, the Tribe bats weren't done. To allay any concerns over a full Cardinals comeback, the Indians brought home another two runs off McClellan in the bottom of the eighth. Kelly Shoppach was hit by a pitch and Jamey Carroll and DeRosa both singled to load the bases. Up came Martinez, whose double to center scored a pair and put this one to bed. "We had some timely hits," Carroll said. "You hope you roll with it. We've been looking to play like this all year long."
Anthony Castrovince is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
