TribExplosion

THE HITTING

Grady Sizemore went 2 for 4 with a lead-off homerun (the first since JULIO FRANCO in 1988), scored 3 runs, and knocked in 1.

Trot Nixon went 3 for 4, with hits in his first three at bats, scored 3 runs, before being taken out in the 8th inning for Jason Michaels.

Pronk went 2 for 5, with 3 runs, knocking in 1.

VMart went 2 for 4 with 3 RBI.

For those scoring at home, the top four Tribe batsmen went a combined 9 for 16, with 9 runs and 5 RBI. Cleveland will win a lot of games doing HALF of that.

Jhonny Peralta went 2 for 3 with 1 run and 3 RBI, and Josh Barfield went 1 for 5, but had an inning-breaker triple in the first with 2 outs that scored 2 runs.

Overall, Cleveland scored 6 runs with two outs. Listen folks, it's only the first game of the year, and often you get your hopes up or down too much based on one game. I'm not, but will say this. You win games when you score runs with 2 outs. Ask the Tribe of the 90's.

Jose Contreras left the game in the second inning, having pitched only 1 total inning (he didn't retire a batter in the 2nd), gave up 7 hits, 8 runs (7 earned), to the tune of a 63 ERA. Yeah, those numbers weren't great for Jose. Boy do they make me laugh though.

THE PITCHING

CC Sabathia didn't have the good stuff today. He led off the game giving up a double to Pablo Ozuna, and a home run to Darin Erstad. From that point on though, He was pretty good. He got out of the second with only a single. Paul Konerko hit a shot to left in the third. CC then got through the next 8 batters (one double play) by giving up only 1 hit.

In the sixth, with one out, he walked Konerko, gave up a single to Jermaine Dye, and a weak, infield single to Joe Crede. With one out, CC gave us a clue that this really may be his year. He forced Tadahito Iguchi to pop out, and struck out AJ Pierzinski. He came to pitch when it counted most. The bottom line here is that CC should have come in rusty after having to leave his last spring training start when he got nailed with the line drive. He was, but found it as he went on. When it counted the most, CC was up to the task. Nicely done.

Rafael Bettancourt came in in the seventh, and mowed them down with one strikeout.

Roberto Hernandez came in in the eighth, and struck Jim Thome out facing his first batter as an Indian, and went three up and three down.

Then came a pause when Joe Borowski came in for his first bit of work. Alex Cintron led off with a single, followed by Brian Anderson's (no, not that one) double. Bowrowski than gave up two sac flys, and mowed down Rob Mackowiak.

Don't make a thing about Borowski. We all know what it's like for a closer coming into a game with nothing on the line. It's different.

WHAT IT MEANS?

Not a whole lot. It's a microcausm of what we all know. Cleveland has a bunch of offense. Cleveland has good starters. Cleveland has some talented relievers, with a bunch of questionmarks.

But psssst. We hammered the hell out of the White Sox. Does it GET much better than that?

Welcome back Tribe, we all missed you.

And to the White Sox? Get used to this.