“It’s going to take a lot of scoreless innings to bring that average back down to a respectable level,” cackled a gleeful Steve Stone from the booth in the 4th inning of an Opening Day Cleveland RHP Fausto Carmona (0-1, 30.00) would prefer to forget. Allowing 10 runs on 11 hits, including bombs to Adam Dunn and Carlos Quentin, the 27 year old Carmona’s sinker, not unlike my Bohemian’s grandmother’s dumplings, did more floating than sinking.
Sox offense, jolted suddenly awake after a spring training that saw only 11 wins, feasted on the offerings, producing expectations that unlike the past five, this Pale Hose April would be different. The team’s propensity for sleepy early seasons has irritated the South Side while it has given the Twins and Tigers the leads they needed to pull away into the playoffs in the up-for-grabs division. One 8 run inning can lead one to guess that’s over.
After one strikeout, Adam Dunn’s (4 RBI) casual swing sent what looked at first like a pop-up 10 rows back over the left field wall. Quentin’s (5 RBI) tater tagged the yellow line in right, sending the replay machinery into action before the index finger was ultimately twirled. Belts by every starter but Alex Rios piled into an 18-hit showing by the day’s end.
But after Mark Buehrle’s (W 1-0 6IP 8H 4R 1BB 0K) departure, the Tribe’s hits came at a similar pace, adding up to 10 runs from the 6th on. Recent North Side acquistion Will Ohman looked especially hapless, earning 3 runs and a 40.50 ERA before being sent into the Cleveland afternoon to hunt area thrift stores for Pere Ubu 7 inches.