Another Night, Another Bad Loss

I will say this, the pre-game Omar tribute gave me the chills. They gave #13 a beautiful video tribute highlighting his spectacular moments during his 11 years as an Indian, and then I had to sit in my seat, bored to tears, watching a putrid offense barely register a pulse and blow yet another great pitching performance for one of its starters in a 3-2 loss.

Every year it seems like its one pitcher in particular who doesn't get run support. This year, while it seems to be all of them, the biggest loser seems to be lefty Aaron Laffey. In his 11 starts, the Tribe has scored three runs or less seven times. Last night was no different. He left with two outs in the seventh allowing just one run on four hits. Nothing like a 4-4 record with an ERA of 2.83.

Back to the offense. How many more 1-9 with RISP can we take? Kelly Shoppach was especially brutal last night as well. Not only did he K three times, including one with two on and two out in the ninth, but it was his awful throwing error that allowed the game-winning run to score in the eighth. More negatives:

Andy Friggin Marte - Enough with this guy already. I know he has only 50 at bats this season, but he went 0-2 with the bad strikeouts, moving his batting average to .14o. Not to mention the fact that he still hasn't driven in a run the entire year. I can't find the stat, but he has to be the only position player who made an opening day roster who hasn't spent any time on the DL and has yet to have an RBI next to his name.

Shin-Soon Choo - Don't look now, but Choo is in a massive 3-20 slump.

Kelly Shoppach - Is he getting exposed by playing everyday? All of a sudden, his defense has fallen off the table. Said manager Eric Wedge. "He's been erratic. He just needs to dial it in a little more."

Closer, We Need One - I know he looked shaky last night, but did you see the smoke young Giants closer Brian Wilson was throwing last night? Dude was touching 97 regularly in the ninth and picked up his 20th save in 22 chances. Enough with the garbage of the Wickman's and the Borowski's of the world, give me a hard-throwing dude all day long.

At least last night "Little O" got his due. The crowd of over 29,000 gave him several standing ovations, and he made two vintage-Omar plays: he laid down a beautiful suicide squeeze in the ninth to bring home the Giants third run and made a beautiful back-handed stop and jumping throw to second to get the second out in the ninth.

It was a perfect evening for Omar. Jhonny Peralta had to be miserable.