Shaw stays hot. 3 up 3 down in the 8th. 2 K's

Shaw was just awesome right there.....

I certianly hope things start clicking in the right direction. Less than a week ago it looked hopeless....now????

4 games south of .500.....8 games back from 1st place....could be worse....we could have got Swept in Tampa and not played well up to this point of this game to inspire hope again....

But I think we had this conversation this time last month.....

Woo hoo!

We win!

We rule!!

We may never lose again!!!

Allen now 16 of 17 in save ops.

TFIR wrote:That really was hilarious. Great job by Bauer.
He copied Aviles, Kipnis and Raburn's batting quirks in that same at bat.
Never seen anything like that. The guys in the dugout were cracking up!

Then he dove back to first base on a pickoff attempt!

...............

Jordan Bastian ‏@MLBastian · 6 minutes ago
Pestano held CLE's relief record w/ 23 games in a row (2011-12) with 1+ K. Allen broke it and has extended it to 28 games in row tonight.

Imitation is the sincerest form of bat-tery for Cleveland Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer


PITTSBURGH -- Trevor Bauer pinch-hit for himself on Friday night. Multiple times.

First, he mimicked Mike Aviles' batting stance, with his bat waving high in the air above his head. Then, Bauer switched to Jason Kipnis' style, with the lumber pointed away from the pitcher. Finally, Bauer deployed his Ryan Raburn imitation, with the bat resting on his right shoulder and the tips of his elbows tapping together.

"Sometimes in the National League, I guess they pinch-hit for the pitcher or whatever late in the game," Bauer said. "So, I figured I'd pinch-hit and try to stay in as long as I could."

Bauer imitated his teammates' stances during his trip to the plate in the seventh inning of Friday's 5-2 win.

"Kip's is pretty easy," Bauer said, "but the Aviles, if you can get the Aviles down, that's probably the funniest one."

Tribe manager Terry Francona did more cringing than laughing.

"I probably don't laugh as much as the other guys," Francona said. "I probably worry more about the guys getting hurt because they're just not up there that much."

Bauer battled Pirates reliever Antonio Bastardo for nine pitches before he drew a walk. During the encounter, Bauer shuffled between the three approaches. At one juncture, he even switched from Aviles' stance to Kipnis' after the southpaw hurler stepped off the rubber.

"Everybody was laughing," Aviles said. "We were like, 'Wait, that's Kipnis. Oh, that's Aviles. Oh, that's Raburn.' It was cool to see him go through all three in one at-bat. He worked him pretty good. He masked his normal approach, so I don't think the pitcher knew what to throw. He had four hitters up there."

Aviles spotted Bauer practicing the routine in the dugout in Tampa Bay on Thursday.

"I was like, 'He's not serious,'" Aviles said. "He was."

To Aviles, imitation was a sincere form of flattery -- or something.

"It actually worked," Aviles said. "We were joking around, like, 'Ooh, you fouled that fastball off, just like I do.' We were messing with him."

Bauer said he has Roberto Perez's stance down pat, but he "didn't have a chance to throw it in there."

"I really don't expect myself to get a hit," Bauer said. "I don't think anybody really expects me to get a hit, either. So, I'm just trying to have some fun with it and keep things loose. It seems to be working for us recently. Everyone seems to be having a little more fun and joking around a little bit more."

I'm looking at that last paragraph.

I really hope those preseason expectations didn't put pressure on this team, causing them to be tight.

If so, I hope they are over it. They sure are a lot more fun to watch all of a sudden. And they do have the rotation to string wins together.

It really seems to be a characteristic of Tito's Tribe teams since he's taken over. The team goes on streaks where they teeter on being out of it. You swear they are out of it. Then they come back.

Bauer imitates batting stances to rave reviews


http://m.indians.mlb.com/news/article/1 ... ng-stances

What amazed me was how the kid kept his concentration that whole at bat!?!

In addition, it was pouring.

He fouled off pitches, took pitches. Sometimes did two imitations before the same pitch.

ALL with a straight face the whole time.

Then gets a walk. It really was outstanding theater.

The Aviles imitation might have been the funniest, but I liked the Raburn one best. The way he puts his hands below
the knob of the bat and flexes his fingers all over the place. C'mon. Bauer rocks.

Demonstrates that with all his strange warm up procedures and all, Bauer would probably be a good guy to have a beer with. And don't forget the drone!

The funniest part about it was the straight face. No one [at least no other than maybe his teammates] would have guessed Bauer was the team clown.

Another great pitching performance today. Unfortunately, the Pirates' starter is doing even better.
1-0, bottom of 7th.

It's over. 1-0 final in a game that only took about 2 hours!

They did make it interesting at the end there....

so we won what 5 in a row....guess it's time to lose 6 or 7 now.