Gotta love the walk-off

Some quick thoughts:

• Going into the bottom of the ninth last night, it looked like another tough loss for the Indians, as Kerry Wood had come this close to saving the game, but with two outs and two strikes on J.D. Drew, he threw a slider that slid too much, hitting Drew; and then gave up a two-run homer to Adrian Beltre to give the Red Sox a 7-6 lead. But the Indians' offense roared back in the bottom of the ninth, loading the bases with nobody out against Daniel Bard. Bard then bore down and struck out Travis Hafner, then got Jhonny Peralta on a pop foul. Enter Russell Branyan, who roped a single to right that scored two runs and gave the Indians a walk-off win.

• The Tribe won despite committing four errors, three of which were committed by third baseman Andy Marte in the first inning. Two of those were on one play, as he failed to field the ball cleanly to score one run, then threw it away to score another. As a result, Mitch Talbot had to work a lot harder. He only gave the Indians four innings, giving up five runs, three of which were unearned. Marte is supposed to be strong on defense, but he sure didn't show it last night.

• The Indians are reportedly set to call up catching uber-prospect Carlos Santana in time for tonight's game against the Nationals. In the words of ESPN's Rob Neyer:

There are so many things to love about Santana, whose performance has improved as he's moved up the ladder. He was great in fast-A, greater in Double-A, and sublimely brilliant in 56 Triple-A games this year. He's 24, though — older than Matt Wieters and Buster Posey — and so it's time to move him up and see what he's got.

Couldn't agree more, Rob. They will presumably send down Lou Marson, who's been good with the glove (and the arm) this season, but terrible with the bat.

• Speaking of the Nationals and uber-prospects, Stephen Strasburg will get his second career start Sunday afternoon at Progressive Field. Strasburg struck out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates in his first career start, while walking zero of them, in seven innings. This kid looks like the real deal. I look forward to seeing what he's got. And I'm obviously not the only one, as the Indians have reportedly sold more than 8,000 tickets to that game since it was announced that Strasburg would be starting.

• Tom Izzo was in town yesterday, being wined and dined by the Cavaliers. It sounds like they're close to a deal. I'm not backing off what I said the other day, which was that the track record of college coaches who jump to the NBA isn't good, and therefore it seems a bit foolish to hire one, but Dan Gilbert seems to have his mind made up. Izzo apparently hasn't signed anything yet, but if he does, I hope he proves me wrong.