CC goes to the mound for the ninth inning and the Indians leading by one run, 4-3.

The first batter hits a rocket to the left field fence and Dellucci makes a valient effort to catch the ball. The ball hits the heel of Dellucci's glove and bounces off, Dellucci's slams into the left field wall very hard. I just hope Dellucci was playing deep enough because the first hit in the ninth should fall in front of you not get by you.

Dellucci appears to have made a straight lateral run for the ball so he might have been playing deep enough, I'm not sure.

LOL, Wedge immediately ran on to the field to see if CC was ok. Dellucci looks like a cartoon character that just got a waffle iron to the face, he's kind of out there in left field looking dazed and confused after a full speed collision with the wall, and Wedge rushes out to check to see if CC is ok. It's really funny when you visualize it.

Jhonny Peralta created bad karma around himself for what he did, or didn't do in the previous game. In the previous game (or was it Thursday night, I think it was Thursday night during the Cavs game four loss) Jhonny hit a grounder towards second. Casey Blake was on first and it was a hit and run play so Casey had broken for second. Since the second baseman was on his way to second to cover the bag the ball ended up right in his glove, but because Casey has some speed and was running on the play Casey was able to barrel into the second baseman in an effort to break up the double play.

Meanwhile, it appeared to me that Jhonny didn't really run out the ball that hard. That is UNFORGIVEABLE! When a teammate is trying like heck to break up a double play grounder that YOU HIT, you don't jog to first base. I would have suspended Johnny for one game for that.

But it appears that Jhonny was forgiven, and THE TEAM paid the price the very next game. Because with no outs and the runner on second, the next hitter hit a clean grounder to Jhonny. The runner on second made a break for third, and those two or three steps he took were enough to confuse and distract Jhonny, and now both runners were safe.

I believe the same Jhonny Juice that makes Jhonny unaware that Blake was trying so hard to break up the doubleplay is the same Jhonny Juice that causes Jhonny to get fooled by the second base runner who takes a couple of steps towards third as the ball is going to Jhonny, and succeeds in causing Jhonny to make an error. If Jhonny hustles to first because he knows Blake is going to go hard into second to break up the double play, than that Jhonny is the same Jhonny who won't let a runner on second base make him mess up an easy grounder. The two actions relate. Wedge appears to have done nothing after the first one, and the result is another bad play the very next night. [img]mad.gif[/img]

Now with runners on first and second there is a bunt, and the runners are moved over to second and third.

They on the next play, the camera angle they showed is one they rarely use. It's a wide angle shot of the next base hit (after Jhonny's error at short) from behind the catchers vantage point and it shows that maybe Dellucci was slightly late reacting to the ball, nothing outrageously bad. I see the ball leave the bat and as it's rising Dellucci starts to run back. If anything, Dellucci was bouncing up and down in at his postion and as the ball was hit. Dellucci was in the middle of a bounce and that might have been what slightly slowed down his reaction on a ball that was hit behind him.

Once again, Dellucci just barely missed it, but was he any slower since he had just banged into the wall and might have been either woozy or just slightly in pain? Wedge needed to talk to him and ask him. Just the extra minute or two might have helped Dellucci recover his senses better.

It was a ninth inning that could have been won, I wonder if that inning is a tell tale sign that if we make the playoffs we just won't have the intangibles to win the close games.