A walk-off WHAT?!

The walk-off is one of the most exciting plays in baseball. Because it can only happen in the bottom of the ninth inning (or the bottom of an extra inning), only the home team can win on a walk-off, which adds to the excitement because the home fans get to celebrate along with the winning team. The walk-off home run is undoubtedly the most exciting way to win in walk-off fashion, but walk-off hits are fun too, especially if there's a play at the plate. You'll occasionally see a walk-off walk, which if you're not a fan of the winning team is disappointing and anticlimactic.

But a walk-off bunt single? I'm pretty sure I've never seen that before. Yes, it happened in Major League, but that's fiction, and even that game didn't end until Willie Mays Hayes rounded third and headed home, drawing a throw from Klu Haywood at first. Anyway, that's how the Indians lost to the Angels last night, as Howie Kendrick laid one down against Chris Perez that caught the entire infield defense napping. Once the ball got past Perez, it was over with.

Unbelievable.

Masterful Masterson?

On the surface, Justin Masterson turned in a pretty darned solid performance last night against an explosive offensive team in the Los Angeles/Anaheim/California Angels. Masterson, acquired in the Victor Martinez trade, went 6 1/3 innings, giving up just one unearned run on three hits. But Masterson only struck out three hitters while walking four. That's way too many walks. Usually, if you do that against a team like LA/A/C, you're going to get burned in the butt. Still, holding the Angels, who had eight .300 hitters in the lineup, to three hits is impressive, so I don't want to be too negative.

The real story last night was the Indians' offense, which has chugged along all season, no matter who is in the lineup. It was looking like a pretty good pitchers' duel until the sixth, when the Tribe hitters blew it wide open. The Indians hit four singles and three doubles in the inning, with a walk for good measure, in the course of batting around and putting a 7 on the board. Even the outs were pretty loud in the inning. Kelly Shoppach's sacrifice fly to deep center was the first out, and Shin-Soo Choo's liner to shortstop was the second and third outs, as Asdrubal Cabrera got doubled off second. Shoppach was the only hitter in the lineup who didn't reach base in the inning. The Tribe wound up putting 11 on the board for the game.

Garko goes; Tribe rolls on

It came as a bit of a surprise that the Indians traded Ryan Garko yesterday. No one had been talking about Garko as possible trade bait. But as usual, it's about salary. Garko is making less than half a million this year, but he's going to be much richer next year, as he is eligible for salary arbitration for the first time. He's hitting .285/11/39 so far this year, which are decent numbers but nothing special for a part-time first baseman who's no wizard with the glove and can't run.

In return, the Tribe got 21-year-old A-ball pitcher Scott Barnes, who went 12-3 with a 2.85 ERA and 99 strikeouts in 98 innings for the Giants' California League affiliate in San Jose. Those are fine numbers, and Barnes appears to have a lot of upside. But it needs to be said that a 21-year-old pitchers' arms are fragile things, and I just hope Barnes stays healthy.

After the trade was announced, the Tribe brought up Andy Marte, who's been a colossal flame-out so far in several shots at the majors, but was tearing it up for AAA Columbus this year. Marte was hitting .327 with 18 home runs and just 50 strikeouts in 300 plate appearances for the Clippers. He'll take Garko's spot at first base, and I have some hope that he'll actually succeed this time. If he does, the trade will have some positive value, regardless of what Barnes does. So in summary, it's a bit of a risk, but all trades are, and I'm optimistic about this one.

Whether this is Shapiro's last deal before Friday's trading deadline or not, we'll just have to wait and see. I remain hopeful that we can be contenders next year, which should mean he'd have to be blown away to trade Cliff Lee or Victor Martinez. We'll see.

In unrelated news, the Tribe pulled out their fifth straight win last night, after many Northeast Ohioans (myself included) had already gone to bed. The aforementioned Martinez hit a three-run homer off All-Star closer Brian Fuentes in the top of the ninth to make it 7-6, and a Jhonny Peralta solo shot tied a bow on it, to make it 8-6. It was Peralta's fourth hit of the game, as he and Shin-Soo Choo (also with four hits) led an eye-popping 20-hit attack off the Angels' pitchers.

It was a bad start for Carl Pavano, who's had a lot of those lately, as he gave up back-to-back-to-back homers in the second inning on the way to surrendering six runs in six innings, but Jose Veras and Kerry Wood combined to shut out the Angels over the last three frames, and that was huge.

Yes, we're out of the race, and yes, we're losing key pieces left and right as we rebuild. But this team is fun to watch right now.

Oh, well

I guess the Tigers won't go 0-162 after all, after beating the Red Sox 7-2 yesterday for their first win of the season. But the Motown Bengals are still off to an unbelievably bad start. The national prognosticators all picked the Indians or Tigers to win the AL Central, but teams that start 0-7 generally don't get to the playoffs. The Tigers' seven runs yesterday were almost half as many as they scored in those first seven games. With now 22 runs in eight games, that works out to 2.75 runs a game. And this was supposed to be some sort of offensive juggernaut. They're offensive to the Detroit fans, but ...

The Indians aren't exactly on fire themselves, of course, with a 4-5 record after yesterday's 9-5 loss to the Los Angeles-California-Anaheim-Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Paul Byrd couldn't keep the ball in the park, giving up three home runs, including Mike Napoli's grand slam. He's off to an 0-2 start with an ugly 11.05 ERA. And he walked two hitters in his three innings of work. Byrd was supposed to be the guy who never walks guys, but he's walked two guys in each of his two starts, for four bases on balls in 7 1/3 innings. That's not good, obviously, because he gives up a lot of hits. But he knows that. In Byrd's words:

"I'm trying to figure out how to get the ball down," Byrd said. "I'm making a good pitch, but then I leave the ball sitting on a tee over the middle of the plate. And I can't do that. When I do miss, it's like batting practice and you just watch them go over the wall."

The Tribe did get 12 hits off the Halos, including Jhonny Peralta's second home run of the season, and Kelly Shoppach's first. They were a little bit unlucky to have only scored five runs. And they still have a 3 1/2-game lead over the Tigers. Yes, the Royals are in first place, and yes, they're better than they've been the last few years. But unless they're still in contention in June, I still think this will be a two-team race, and it's nice to be ahead.

Pronk!

It sure was good to see Travis Hafner hit what turned out to be a game-winning two-run homer in the top of the ninth last night. Not just because it won the game, but because Pronk had an off-year (for him) in 2007. But we know all that.

Not to be a wet blanket, but this doesn't necessarily mean he's turned the corner. We're only eight games into the season, but Hafner's hitting .267 so far -- one point better than his average in '07. Last night's dinger was his second of the season, in 30 at-bats, or one per 15 ABs. That's an improvement over last year, when he hit one per 22.7 at-bats, and it's actually better than his career average of one per 16 at-bats. But 30 at-bats is practically nothing, and I'm perhaps doing him and you a disservice by drawing any conclusions from 30 at-bats. I'm just observing what there is to observe.

Jake Westbrook made his second solid start of the season, which was also good to see. He had a better year last year than his 6-9 record would indicate, but it was still something of an off-year for him. If the Indians can win the AL Central and nearly go to the World Series with Westbrook and Hafner having off-years, imagine what they can do if those guys have a good year.

One other note: The notoriously slow-footed Hafner got thrown out by a mile at home in the first inning, trying to score from second on a base-hit to right by Victor Martinez. Play-by-play announcer Matt Underwood originally thought Pronk ran through Joel Skinner's stop sign, but it turned out Skinner did send him, he just didn't use his usual windmill motion to do so. Most people would say that was stupid, challenging Vladimir Guerrero's famous gun with a lumbering DH like Pronk. And it's easy to say that because he was thrown out. But I liked it. There were two outs, Guerrero's arm isn't always accurate, and if he'd stayed at third, it's relatively unlikely that he would have made it across the plate.

I recently read this post by someone identified as "Pizza Cutter" about how third-base coaches are generally too conservative, and I will excerpt a little bit:

In 1993, there were 329 times when a runner was held at third on a fly ball. (I only had hit location data on 251 of them). So league-wide, third base coaches cost their teams about 120 runs on would-have-been sac flies by being too conservative. Over 28 teams (in 1993), that’s a little more than 4 runs per season. And that’s just one of the calls that a third base coach has to make.

Of course, 1993 was a long time ago, but I don't think third-base coaches have gotten a whole lot more daring since then. And it's easy to understand why. If a guy gets thrown out at the plate when he could have stayed at third, the base coach takes the heat. If he gets stuck at third when a teammate can't get a hit to bring him in, nobody remembers the decision not to send him on the previous play -- they just remember the hitter's failure to get the RBI.

So I say, attaboy, Skins. It didn't work out this time, but it might next time.

Joe Bo a no-go

I know people who believe Joe Borowski had a great year last year as the Indians' closer, because he got 45 saves and only blew six. But he did it with an uncloserly 5.07 ERA. And some of his bad outings were really, really bad. He remains the Tribe's closer this year, despite the fact that there are better pitchers in the bullpen. Rafaels Betancourt and Perez, for example, had better years than Borowski in '07. And so did Jensen Lewis. And so did Masa Kobayashi, albeit in Japan.

Borowski did it again last night. After the Indians scored three runs in the top of the ninth to take a 4-2 lead, Borowski poured gas all over the lead and tossed a match on it. After getting the first hitter, Chone Figgins, to hit a foul ball that was caught, Joe Bo failed to get another out. He walked Gary Matthews Jr., then gave up a single to Vladimir Guerrero, then walked Garret Anderson to load the bases. Torii Hunter came up next, and hammered a 75-mph meatball into the left field seats. It wasn't fair by much, but it didn't have to be. That pitch was right down the heart of the plate, and I don't know if it was supposed to break, but it sure didn't.

Any pitcher has to accept that you're going to give up hits to a great hitter like Vlad Guerrero, and Torii Hunter's going to hit the occasional home run. But doggone it, a closer can't be walking two hitters in the ninth inning -- especially if the second walk loads the bases. That's going to kill you almost every time.

Borowski has now pitched in three games in '08. He's saved two of them. In one of those saves (on opening day), he was asked to protect a three-run lead, which it seems to me should hardly qualify as a save. He gave up one run in that game, on a solo home run, and then walked a guy, so he let the tying run come to the plate despite the three-run lead. His other save came Sunday against Oakland, and he did protect a one-run lead, but he also walked a guy. So he hasn't appeared in a single game in which he hasn't walked at least one guy.

Borowski's ERA is an ungodly 19.29. That'll come down -- it could hardly do otherwise -- but I think it's long past time for the Indians to look at someone else to close games.

Today in sports history

Happy 40th birthday, longtime major league first baseman Jack Thomas Snow Jr., aka J.T. Snow.

J.T., the son of former NFL wide receiver Jack Snow, was drafted by the Yankees in 1989 after three years at Arizona, and broke into the majors with that hated franchise in 1992. He was then traded to the Angels (with two other players) for Jim Abbott, and played four years in Anaheim. The Angels dealt him to the Giants for two players you've never heard of, Allen Watson and Fausto Macey.

Snow played nine years in San Francisco, and he had some good years there, even finishing 26th in the MVP voting in 1997. He then finished up with a rough partial season with the Red Sox in 2006. He played in 1,715 games, and never played a defensive position other than first base. A career .268 hitter, he finished with 1,509 hits, 189 home runs and 877 RBIs.

He was a rare animal, a slick-fielding, light-hitting first baseman. He won Gold Gloves in six straight years, 1995 to 2000. And he did once lead the league in an offensive category -- sacrifice flies, with 14 in 2000.

Baseball fans will never forget how Snow may have saved 3-year-old Darren Baker, son of manager Dusty Baker, from injury during Game 5 of the 2002 World Series. Darren was toiling as a bat boy, and on Kenny Lofton's triple that scored Snow, the little guy ran out onto the field to collect Lofton's bat before the play had concluded. Snow picked him up by his jacket and carried him off to safety. The look on Dusty's face was priceless. He was mortified.