Moments before the start of the Indians game Monday night against Detroit, we tweeted this.
A couple of hours later, two hits for the Tribe, 12 strikeouts, no runs and another loss – the Indians’ 15th in their last 20 games – and for the first time since April 7 the Tribe is not in first place in the Central Division.
Balls.
The ship be sinking, folks, and the Indians better come up with a solution in a hurry.
We’ve tried our best to stay out of all the hoo-haa surrounding the Miami Heat during the NBA playoffs.
Frankly, with the Indians racing out to the best record in baseball then squandering it away, the Champions League, the U.S. soccer team in the Gold Cup, Kent State’s baseball team just missing a trip to the Super Regionals and the Cavaliers winning the draft lottery, we’ve been occupied with other topics.
But we admit to feeling a sense of relief and schadenfreude after the Dallas Mavericks closed out the Heat with three consecutive wins to take home the NBA title.
The Mavericks proved, at least for another year, that a team can beat a group of individuals, no matter how talented. The Heat, primarily LeBron James and Chris Bosh, learned the hard way there are no shortcuts to success.
And that’s a rare lesson in this age of instant gratification.
Once LeBron decided to leave Cleveland via free agency, we tried to move on – what was done was done. And for the most part we did OK during the season.
But it was hard to quit James when he wouldn’t go away – most notably when he tweeted following a 55-point Cavs loss to the Lakers that, “Crazy. Karma is a bitch. Gets you every time. It’s not good to wish bad on anybody. God sees everything!”
James put out so much negative energy that it was only a matter of time before karma got back at him, and she waited until the finals to exact her revenge on James.
From Brian Windhorst at ESPN:
Just like last season in Cleveland where James’ performance in the clutch was the polar opposite of what his talent and history called for. Just like when the top-seeded Cavs got behind the Celtics, as soon as the Mavs turned the tables on the Heat midway through this series James’ swagger and game left him. When the Heat were beating the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls, series they took control of early, James was a brilliant frontrunner. At his best, really, finishing those teams off.
But as he went through another puzzling game Sunday — dishing repeatedly to Juwan Howard at the rim instead of taking the ball to the basket himself, passing up wide-open shots when the ball came his way, standing and watching on defense like it was a summer camp drill at times — it got more and more clear.
James couldn’t do it.
From Joe Posnanski at Sports Illustrated:
That’s why the sequence with four minutes left will stay with me for a long time. Miami needed a basket of course — being down eight with four minutes left is not life-threatening in the NBA, as we have seen time and again, but it is not ideal, either. Anyway, as much as the points, Miami needed a game-changing moment. LeBron James is breathtakingly good at making such moments.
Here’s what LeBron James did instead: He stood outside the arc, about 25 feet away from the basket. He did not move. And the two times the ball was passed to him, he passed it away instantly … as if playing hot-potato.
There was absolutely no other explanation that made any sense: LeBron James did not want the basketball.
I honestly could not believe what I was seeing. Maybe I should have expected it. Maybe I should have seen it coming. After all, I had seen LeBron James quit during the final minutes of his Cleveland career when the Cavaliers lost to Boston in the playoffs. I had heard him tell Cleveland fans that they expected too much of him. I had seen him take what looked like the easiest road to a championship when he signed on with Wade and Chris Bosh down in Miami. I had seen the disappearing acts he’d been pulling in the fourth quarters of this NBA Finals. Heck, throughout this game he seemed only moderately engaged. Still … I did not see this coming.
And Bill Simmons at Grantland:
Digging deeper: LeBron averaged 3.5 threes and 8.4 FT attempts during the regular season. In Rounds 2 and 3, he averaged 4.1 threes and 8.6 FT attempts. In the Finals, that flipped: 4.7 threes, 3.3 FT attempts. He stopped getting to the rim. You could say Dallas figured out how to defend him (to a degree, true), that the zone screwed him up (I guess), that Shawn Marion got into his head (possible), but really, he was afraid to attack the rim for whatever reason. Which, by the way, is his single greatest skill.
Everyone is looking for a reason why LeBron and the Heat came up short, and the answer is right there: karma.
After the game, James, as is his norm, was left looking for someone to blame. Last year, it was his Cavs teammates. He didn’t have that option this year because he chose his teammates, so he went after Cleveland (see what we mean about him not going away?)
“All the people that were rooting me on to fail, at the end of the day they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life they had before,” James said. “They have the same personal problems they had today. I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want with me and my family and be happy with that.”
Even though the Heat lost, this is not a victory for Cleveland, no matter how hard the national media tries to sell that story. It wasn’t a win for Cleveland when the Lakers beat Boston last season, or when they beat Orlando in 2009.
We’re not going to the team shop this weekend to pick up a Cavs 2011 NBA Champions T-shirt; our Sports Illustrated commemorative championship package won’t be arriving in the mail in 6-to-8 weeks.
There is one way Cleveland did win last night, however.
We’ve now made it through an entire season post-LeBron, we’ve gone through the heartbreak of the Decision, lived through the circus of the Heat’s first trip to Cleveland, and cheered (and jeered) our way through an injury-filled season of disappointment that became sweeter when the Cavs grabbed two of the first four picks in the draft.
It is now time for those last few holdouts to turn the page. Let’s cheer for who the Cavs are, rather than for who they are not.
Because you never know when karma is going to grow tired of hanging out in South Beach.
The Cleveland Indians lost again on Sunday, falling to the Yankees by the score of 9-1
The Tribe has now lost 14 of its last 18 games.
The offense struggled … again … some more on Sunday against New York.
The past two days the Indians have faced Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia, who are a combined 150 years old and were pulled off the scrap heap by the Yankees.
In 13.1 innings against the duo, the Tribe managed nine hits and one run, while striking out a dozen times.
Sheldon Ocker of The Beacon Journal assures us that the offensive slump will end. He’s covered the Indians for decades, so if you can’t trust the Socker who can you trust?
But it’s hard to see how the team will get this turned around.
Terry Pluto at The Plain Dealer followed our lead in wondering what the Tribe will do about Fausto Carmona, adding this nugget: The batting average against Carmona with no one on base is .212. With runners on base, .343. With the bases loaded, batters are 5-of-7. Yes, it is a matter of controlling emotions and confidence.
Luckily for the Indians, the Tigers also lost on Sunday, so the team’s remain tied for first place in the Central Division.
Worse-case scenario is the Tribe heads for Detroit after Monday night’s game against the Yankees trailing the Tigers by just one game.
With everything that’s gone wrong for the past few weeks with the Indians, that’s really not all that bad.
***
Switching to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Jason Lloyd in The Beacon Journal posits that the team may be looking to trade point guard Ramon Sessions if the Cavs, as expected, draft Kyle Irving with the first pick in the upcoming NBA draft.
Sessions’ agent, Chubby Wells (hey, he may just be big boned) hasn’t requested a trade for his client, but that could change after the draft.
The thinking is that Baron Davis will mentor Irving and keeping Sessions as a third point guard is a luxury that won’t work out.
We see one big problem with that scenario: it is highly unlikely that Davis will make it through a full season without getting hurt.
The 32-year-old Davis has only played a full 82-game season once in the past nine years. On average, he makes it through 62 games a year.
So what happens when Davis goes down to an injury this year and there is no one to share the load with Irving?
Yeah, that’s what we thought.
***
Finally, our latest on the situation the U.S. Men’s National Team finds itself in at the Gold Cup.
How do you solve a problem like Fausto Carmona?
As if the Cleveland Indians didn’t have anything else to worry about, with their division lead down to a half-game (pending Detroit’s game Saturday night) and the non-existent offense, now the Tribe has to worry about what to do with their “ace” pitcher.
Friday night against the Yankees, Carmona was, to put it simply, horrible. He threw 14 of his first 18 pitches for balls and walked three in a 40-pitch first inning that saw the Yankees take a 3-0 lead.
“I haven’t seen him so divorced from the strike zone as he was today in the two years I’ve been here,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “His loading the bases in the first inning did him in.”
In his past six starts, Carmona has allowed 33 earned runs in 35 innings for a 8.49 ERA. He has won since May 3 and, since then, has five losses and two no-decisions.
So what does the Tribe do?
It’s clear the Carmona of 2007 is gone, and he is not coming back. But Carmona’s numbers for this year project out to be not that far off than his average of the past four seasons, although he is on pace to give up 30 homers, almost double what he has given up, on average, over the past four years.
The options for the Indians are limited and none, basically. They could try and trade Carmona, but what would they receive in return? 10 cents on the dollar? 20?
They can’t send him to minors without exposing him to waivers and someone would almost certainly claim him. And they are not going to just release him.
Fausto is always going to battle some inconsistency with his delivery because he flies open a little,” Acta told The Plain Dealer. “It’s more about getting the separation right between his off-speed stuff and the sinker.
“We’re going to look at everything. He’s had some really good starts this year. We have to find a happy medium.”
We’d be happy if Carmona could just find some consistency.
Maybe the best, and only option, is to start skipping his turn in the rotation when the schedule falls correctly. That’s probably more of a band-aid that an actual solution, however. But the team needs to do something.
The Indians have lost 13 of their past 17 games. They were seven games up on the Tigers when the streak started; that lead is now gone.
Saturday, the Tribe was shutout for the fifth time in the past 15 games …
The offense is in shambles (the Indians have scored three runs per game in the 17-game stretch, hitting .227 …
Mitch Talbot was ejected for hitting Alex Rodriguez with a pitch (Rodriguez taking a dive that would have embarrassed an Italian soccer player certainly helped) …
Bartolo Colon worked 6.2 scoreless innings with six strikeouts and only two hits (boy, were we ever wrong about the Tribe having a pitching edge this weekend).
It just doesn’t get worse than that.
The good news is there are still 100 games to go. The division lead may be gone, but that doesn’t mean the division is still not up for grabs.
Having a seven-game lead provided the Indians with a cushion for a slump and while we wish they wouldn’t have cashed in the entire lead, there is still a lot of baseball to be played.
Plus, where would the fun be if the Tribe didn’t give us all a healthy case of agita each summer?
The Cleveland Indians head to New York this weekend for four games with a chance to get their season back on track.
The Tribe still holds a 1.5-game lead over the second-place Tigers, and as strange as it may sound, four games with the Yankees may be cure for the slumping Tribe.
The Indians have an advantage in at least three of the four pitching match-ups this weekend:
Even Monday’s match-up, Carlos Carrasco against A.J. Burnett, could favor the Indians if Carrasco keeps pitching the way he has lately (4-2 since coming off the disabled list).
Throw in the fact that the Yankee bullpen is a mess, with Joba Chamberlain likely out for the year with a torn ligament in his elbow, Pedro Feliciano out until July and Rafael Soriano still injured, and the Indians have an opportunity here.
Since sweeping the Reds, the Indians have gone just 5-11 and seen their seven-game lead evaporate. But manager Manny Acta is keeping a cool head amid the slump.
“Because it happens to every team in a 162-game season, and it’s not going to be the last one, either,” Acta told The Plain Dealer. “Usually, teams have two to three. Doesn’t matter who you are, big market, small market, young, old. It just happens. Teams went through it earlier in the year. We didn’t. Now we’re going through ours. We just have to fight back.”
With three games coming up next week against Detroit, now would be a good time for the Indians to start fighting back.
***
Big story out of the Gold Cup, as five players on Mexico’s soccer team, including goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, have tested positive for a banned substance and are out of the tournament – for now.
Decio De Maria, general secretary of the Mexican federation, said Ochoa, defenders Edgar Duenas and Francisco Rodriguez, and midfielders Christian Bermudez and Antonio Naelson tested positive for clenbuterol.
The five players haven’t been suspended, just “removed” from the team and won’t be allowed to play during the investigation. They were expected to miss Thursday night’s game against Cuba.
“What is presumed … one had to ingest contaminated materials – meat or chicken,” De Maria said in published reports. “Now comes the tough part, taking the players off the squad and opening an investigation. Meanwhile, it is a disagreeable moment to take this kind of decision, but we have to take responsibility.”
The Mexican federation said the five tested positive in pre-Gold Cup doping tests conducted May 21. Officials said the substance detected was the banned anabolic agent clenbuterol.
“Everything points to it being an accident, very unfortunate,” De Maria said.
If the players end up being suspended for the rest of the tournament, that will remove an big obstacle for the U.S.
***
The rebuilding of Liverpool continues, as the club has completed a £20-million transfer deal with Sunderland for Jordan Henderson.
The 20-year-old midfielder if the club’s first signing of the summer, and joins fellow big-money signings Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez. That’s three high-profile, young players to join the club since Fenway Sports Group’s takeover and Kenny Dalglish’s return as manager.
The fact that the team is working to get younger is a positive sign that the club continues to move in the right direction.
***
Finally, we might have to bid on this vintage Cleveland Indians cookie jar – unless Cleveland Frowns beats us to it, of course.
(h/t Uni Watch)
Welcome to the big leagues, Cord Phelps.
The struggling, slumping, sinking Cleveland Indians – losers of 11 of their last 15 – finally made a move, reaching into the minor leagues and promoting Phelps.
Phelps will platoon at second base with Orlando Cabrera.
“The kid’s going to get an opportunity to play, and we’re going to have to see if he’ll take advantage of it,” Indians manager Manny Acta said in published reports. “For now, he’s going to play second base, and we’re going to give him the opportunity to play the majority of times against right-handed pitching.
“Orlando’s been there, done that. You can’t rule out Orlando coming back and playing every day. But this kid deserved a shot based on the way he’s played the last two years at Columbus.”
Phelps batted .299 with seven homers, 40 RBI and 31 runs at Columbus, playing shortstop (28 games) and second base (13 games).
Phelps got the start on Wednesday and fit right in with the current offense, going 0-for-4 in his debut.
“You’ve got to earn it,” Phelps told The Plain Dealer. “I was a little nervous at the start, but that’s to be expected. Overall, I felt pretty good. It was exciting.”
The Tribe is currently in a woeful offensive slump. In their last six games they have only scored eight total runs and barely avoided being swept by the last-place Minnesota Twins. Pretty much everyone not named Michael Brantley or Asdrubal Cabrera is struggling right now and it limits what Acta can do.
Look at the batting averages in Wednesday’s lineup: Grady Sizemore (.256), Carlos Santana (.228), Shin-Soo Choo (.240), Matt LaPorta (.240), Jack Hannahan (.231) and Lou Marson (.207).
The manager can move people around in the batting order all he wants, but if no one is hitting it doesn’t make much difference.
Phelps clearly isn’t going to turn the team around by himself, but at least the Tribe did something to try and right the ship.
The move certainly can’t make things any worse than they currently are.
***
Even though the NFL lockout is still going on, that doesn’t mean Browns general manager Tom Heckert isn’t thinking about all the things he can do once the league comes to its senses.
All the extra time has made him more prepared than ever for free agency – whenever it begins.
Most importantly, the Browns:
Knowing all that certainly makes it easier for us to sleep at night.
***
Check out this cool graphic showing NBA titles represented by championship rings.
(h/t Uni Watch)
***
Finally, our post on the U.S. opening game win over Canada in the Gold Cup is up at MLS Talk. Be sure to check it out.
The Cleveland Indians are obviously believers in the old axiom that you can never have enough pitching, as the Tribe has selected 15 pitchers with their first 24 picks in the amateur baseball draft.
After using their first pick on shortstop Francisco Lindor, the Indians selected right-hander Dillon Howard with their second pick.
In past drafts, there would only be a small offering of high-ceiling, projectable high school pitchers with good velocity to choose from in the first round. In 2011, there’s some depth in that category. Case in point is Howard, who doesn’t rank up with the prep arms being mentioned near the top of the draft, but isn’t far off, either. The Arkansas product has a fastball that will be plus, touching 95 mph at times. It’s not straight, either, with both sink and run to it. His hard curve, 78-80 mph, is a little slurvy now and is fringy average, but it’s got some depth to it and will be more than fine. He’s even got a good feel for a changeup, an offspeed pitch that should be a Major League average pitch as well. With a clean delivery, decent overall command — not as much with the curve — and the chance to have a solid three-pitch mix, Howard looks like he’s settled firmly into the first round, unless signability (he’s advised by Scott Boras) becomes an issue.
We’re all on board with the plan to stockpile pitchers; the more quality arms you have in the minors the better the odds you will find two or three that could reach the majors some day.
As for Lindor, mlb.com says:
He has the chance to be an impact player on both sides of the ball at a premium position. He’ll definitely be able to stay at shortstop with plus defense, showing outstanding range and a strong arm. At the plate, he’s gotten stronger and he could grow into enough power to hit 15 or so homers annually, enough to keep pitchers honest, along with hitting .290-.300 every year. While he’s a solid average runner, he could be a potential leadoff hitter in the future, thanks to his strike-zone knowledge and willingness to take a walk to go along with his ability to swing the bat from both sides of the plate. Lindor is a high-energy player with good makeup, one who is almost certainly the top high school position player, according to talent, in this draft class.
The Indians appear to be in good hands with scouting director Brad Grant. He drafted Alex White, Lonnie Chisenhall, Drew Pomeranz, Jason Kipnis and Cord Phelps.
We’ve already had a taste of White on the major league level and we like what we saw before he was injured. And it’s easy to look at the other names on that list and imagine them in Wahoo red, white and blue.
There’s no known downside to having a strong minor league system and that’s what the Indians have been building. If Grant can keep the draft magic going, the team should have a strong pipeline of talent coming to Progressive Field for years to come.
***
There was a good story by Heather Havrilesky in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine on why Friday Night Lights, one of the best TV shows ever, was mostly ignored by viewers while drivel like Glee is a ratings hit.
Yet thanks to disappointing numbers in its first two seasons, Friday Night Lights was farmed out by NBC to DirecTV, which showed each new season in the fall, after which they were replayed by NBC in the spring. So the fifth and final season of Friday Night Lights has already wrapped up on DirecTV, even as it’s now completing a zombie victory lap on the network. It’s still hard not to wonder why a show so humble and all-American has struggled so mightily to attract viewers. Where are the cheering, breathless crowds?
These days, you’ll probably find them singing along with the precocious teenagers of Glee. That show covers much of the same thematic ground — high school, troubled marriages, the joys of teamwork — but in a far more spectacular, flamboyant manner. The colorful musical dramedy has been a huge hit since it shoved its way onto the schedule in 2009 in a violent burst of sequins and jazz hands. If Friday Night Lights is as American as apple pie, then Glee is more like Ben & Jerry’s deep-fried caramel-apple whipped-cream-swirl ice cream (which doesn’t exist, but really should): a dense, flavorful, genre-bending extravaganza of one-upmanship, raging hormones, teary confessions and lip-glossed warbling.
It’s a good read, but the answer is actually quite simple. If you watched Friday Night Lights you had to think, and the majority of people don’t want to do that anymore – the ongoing popularity of Sarah Palin is proof of that.
With drek like Glee, people can mindlessly watch the pretty colors and don’t have to worry about using their brains.
It’s unfortunate, too, because as long as that is the case it will be harder to get shows like FNL, The Wire and Rome on the air.
And that certainly does not fill us with glee.
***
Finally, we made our debut at EPL Talk today, with a post on how the NFL lockout could have a negative impact on Randy Lerner and Aston Villa.
The Kent State baseball team finally ran out of steam in the 100 degree heat on Monday, losing to Texas to miss out on the first visit to the Super Regionals in school history.
The Golden Flashes had two chances to advance, but lost to the host Longhorns, the No. 5 team in the nation, Sunday night, forcing Monday’s winner-take-all game, which Texas won, 5-0.
Kent made the Longhorns use six pitchers in the shutout, including their top two starters, but couldn’t break through against any of them.
“We’re disappointed to be in the position that we are in,” said KSU coach Scott Stricklin. “To have to be beat twice, it’s tough to handle, it really is. We felt like we were in good shape, and we were. We had a chance to be in both games, and we just couldn’t come up with the big hit. A lot of credit obviously goes to Texas’ defense and its pitching.”
The Flashes ended the season 45-17, becoming just the second team in school history to reach the 45-win mark, joining the 1992 team at the top of the school’s rankings.
They are ranked No. 24 in the nation, earned a No. 3 seed in the national tournament for the first time in school history, won their 11th MAC regular season title and ninth tournament title (their third in a row) and are the first team to win the regular-season and tournament titles in the same year since 2005.
And to think they did it without cheating or lying.
***
So linebacker Matt Roth is resigned to leaving the Browns as a free agent?
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out of town.
We’re sure the Browns can find a way to replace the personal fouls and silly penalties Roth committed on a regular basis last year (on second thought, let’s hope they don’t).
And there’s no doubt they can live without his 3.5 sacks (2 against Cincinnati in one game, 1.5 the remaining 15 games of the season).
Roth is one of those players who thinks he is better than he is; so if this is the end, farewell.
The Browns will be fine without him.
***
Now that Plaxico Burress is out of prison, people are going to try and put the Browns as one of the teams that should sign the wide receiver.
While there’s little doubt the team needs help at receiver, we just don’t see Burress as the answer.
He’s a 34-year-old receiver that hasn’t played the game in two years and who hasn’t actually been in a situation where he could stay in game shape. We remember when Jamal Lewis was released from prison reading stories about how prison diets are intentionally loaded with the types of foods that keep inmates sluggish.
And with training camps most likely going to be shortened this year because of the ongoing lockout, the last thing the Browns need is to wait for Burress to work himself into shape.
With a rookie head coach in Pat Shurmur and a second-year quarterback in Colt McCoy running the offense, the Browns don’t fit what would appear to be the right situation for Burress.
We just don’t see him as being worth the effort for this team right now.
***
Spain definitely taught the U.S. a lesson over the weekend in its 4-0 beating in a friendly at Gillette Stadium.
“Spain is a great team,” U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. “It is a tough test to play them any time. We have always chosen to take these kind of challenges and to play the best teams and it is the best way, to see what the game at the highest level is like, and to improve.
“When you challenge yourself against the best teams, you have to expect difficult moments. If we couldn’t handle that, we wouldn’t play them.”
The U.S. opens group play in the Gold Cup on Tuesday against Canada, which should be a good cure for any hangover from the Spain game. The two teams haven’t played each other since 2007. Canada washed out at the qualifying stage for last year’s World Cup and the Canadians are not exactly a powerhouse.
With the tournament being held at home, the U.S. team has a good chance to right itself and build on some of the public attention it received during last year’s run in the World Cup.
Let’s hope they are quick studies.
It was a tale of extremes this weekend for two of the local nines as they battled in and against Texas.
After being so strong at home, the Indians finally crashed in a four-game sweep at the hands of the Rangers.
As for Kent State, the Golden Flashes were loving the Lone Star state this weekend.
The Indians continue to struggle offensively, as the Tribe only put up six runs in the four-game series, and were shutout Saturday and Sunday.
The Tribe only put up five hits on Saturday – three from Asdrubal Cabrera – which means hitters three through nine in the lineup were a combined 1-for-23.
It was much the same on Saturday, another five-hitter by the Tribe, with five through nine in the lineup combining to go 2-for-16.
Sunday? Try three hits, with five through nine combining to go 1-for-14.
To recap: in the past three games, Tribe “hitters” five through nine in the lineup were a combined 4-for-45, an .089 average.
Is it really any surprise they were swept?
On the pitching side, things were just as bad.
Texas hasn’t shown much power on the road this year, coming into the series with just 16 home runs on the road. So, of course, they rip the Indians for six home runs on the weekend.
Actually, that may be a bit harsh as the starting pitching really wasn’t all that bad.
Friday night, Justin worked into the seventh and left with the Indians trailing 2-1. Tony Sipp came on with two runners on and Josh Hamilton, who was batting .179 against left-handers, hit a three-run homer and the rout was on.
Saturday, Fausto Carmona gave up two, two-run homers but pretty much shut down the Rangers. Sunday, it was Mitch Talbot going six innings and only giving up the two solo homers.
It was that kind of weekend for the Tribe, which is going through a really tough stretch right now. Over the past 10 games, second-place Detroit has made up three games in the standings and the Tigers now sit just 2.5-games behind – the closest anyone has been to the Indians since the end of April.
The good news is that the Indians now get last-place Minnesota (13.5 games back) for three games while Detroit has to go to Texas for three.
The Indians should be able to get things back on track against the Twins, and if the Rangers can keep the momentum going from this weekend the Tribe will see their first-place cushion get a little bit bigger again.
Kent defeated host Texas, the No. 1 seed in their regional and the No. 5 team in the nation, on the Longhorns’ home field Saturday night, 7-5.
“I thought that was just a wonderful ballgame all the way around,” said associate head coach/pitching coach Mike Birkbeck. “The Texas Longhorns did not give up. They got down to their last out. But we are thrilled to be in the position that we are in.”
The Golden Flashes rocked Texas ace Taylor Jungmann (13-1) for seven earned runs and eight hits in 5 2-3 innings for the Longhorns (44-16). It was his first career loss at home.
The No. 3-seeded Golden Flashes (45-15) advance to a regional final for the first time since 2001. The 2011 squad becomes the second in program history to reach the 45-win mark, joining the 1992 team in achieving the most victories in program history.
The Golden Flashes were scheduled to take on the Longhorns again Sunday night, after Texas beat Texas State in the afternoon to advance from the loser’s bracket.
The Longhorns took it to Kent, however, beating the Flashes 9-3 to set up a winner-take-all game this afternoon at 2.
Win, and Kent earns a spot in the Super Regional for the first time in school history.
We have to worry, though, that the Flashes lost their chance Sunday night.
“He doesn’t know it’s a damn show! He thinks it’s a damn fight!”
Apparently someone forgot to tell Spain this was supposed to be an exhibition.
The reigning World Cup champions dismantled the U.S. on Saturday, 4-0.
The friendly, before more than 64,000 at Gillette Stadium, was the first time the two teams have played since the U.S. shocked Spain in the 2009 Confederations Cup.
Spain clearly did not forget.
Santi Cazorla scored twice, and Alvaro Negredo and Fernando Torres also scored for Spain.
As for the U.S., Landon Donovan (illness) and Carlos Bocanegra (coaches decision) did not play, while Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley and Steve Cherundolo only saw action as second-half substitutes.
The U.S. was clearly holding players back in advance of Tuesday’s Gold Cup opener against Canada.
While winning a tournament is more important than winning a friendly, we have to wonder what the thinking was in scheduling Spain just a few days before the Gold Cup.
The only way the U.S. team is going to get better is by taking on teams like Spain, but if the top players don’t see the field, where is the value? Presumably the experience was still there for the second-level players on the team who saw game action, so that’s a positive.
And it’s not like Donvan, Dempsey, Bradley, etc., are lacking in big-game experience.
We still would have liked the U.S. team to enter the Gold Cup on a bit more of a positive note, as this loss puts more pressure on the team to put on a good showing.
Because if they don’t at least make the finals of the Gold Cup, today’s loss against Spain could have a lasting impact that the team was not expecting.
Red Right 88 