No bang for the Tribe’s buck

JOSH WEIR
Canton Repository

July 30, 2008 07:14 am

— CLEVELAND — Every dollar counts in these trying economic times. Consider the return on investment at Tuesday night’s Indians-Tigers game.
Hot dogs were only $1.
Haircuts were offered for $5.
For the price of admission, fans got to watch Matt Ginter, Juan Rincon and Rafael Betancourt pitch.
Look, the bargains only go so far.
The Tigers built a comfortable lead and rode it to an 8-5 win at Progressive Field.
Detroit got its money’s worth against the Tribe’s pitching staff (with apologies to Jensen Lewis for his two scoreless innings of relief). The Tigers hammered seven extra-base hits, including two home runs, among their 14 overall hits.
Ginter (1-2) could not match the success of his first two starts, giving up four runs and eight hits in four innings. Rincon, making his first appearance in almost a week, and Betancourt allowed a pair of runs each as the Tigers kept the Indians at arm’s length.
“They’re a good hitting ballclub,” Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. “And they keep coming at you.”
Miguel Cabrera hit a 426-foot home run to left center to put the Tigers up, 1-0, in the second inning. The real damage came two innings later.
A single by Magglio Ordonez and a double by Matt Joyce put runners at second and third with one out. Ginter struck out Gary Sheffield and was one strike away from escaping the inning when Edgar Renteria doubled off the left field wall, scoring Ordonez and Joyce.
“It’s a game of inches,” Ginter said. “A little bit more in and he probably breaks his bat and hits a groundball. But he got to the pitch and drove it down the line.”
Brandon Inge followed with a double to make it 4-0.
Ginter, a self-proclaimed “contact” pitcher who doesn’t walk many batters, kept challenging the Tigers. Tuesday was just a matter of a talented Detroit lineup finally cashing in during the fourth.
“If you’re a contact pitcher and they hit your pitch, there’s not too much you can do about it,” he said.
Sheffield got some revenge in the fifth with a two-run double off Rincon. Inge later blasted a two-run home run off Betancourt.
Detroit rookie starter Armando Galarraga (9-4) dominated the Tribe for most of his 51¼3 innings. He retired 14 of the first 16 batters he faced. Back-to-back doubles by Grady Sizemore and David Dellucci in the fourth broke up that stretch.
The Indians got to Galarraga in the sixth. Jhonny Peralta hit an RBI triple just out of the reach of Tigers center fielder Curtis Granderson. Shin-Soo Choo followed with a solid RBI double to right, bringing a chorus of “Chooooooo” chants from the crowd and ending Galarraga’s night.
Galarraga, 26, is a perfect 3-0 in three starts vs. the Indians with a 3.57 ERA. Cleveland has 10 hits in 172¼3 innings off him. His nine wins are the most among AL rookies.
Two times after falling behind 6-3, Sizemore represented the tying run at the plate. Both times he came up empty. The Indians had two in scoring position with one out in the seventh, but Joel Zumaya retired pinch-hitter Franklin Gutierrez and Ben Francisco on seven pitches to escape.
Money must not be too tight. Tuesday’s attendance was 30,625, which included a season-high 4,294 walk-up sales.