I made it to Houston — on a flight shared by Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs, no less.
As for the Indians’ bats, they must have slept through their alarm and missed that flight. They were virtually non-existent in tonight’s five-hit effort.
Here’s the rest of the story:
EXCRUCIATING MINUTIA OF THE DAY…
- Don’t look for Fausto Carmona to come out of the bullpen on Opening Day (not that you were looking for that scenario anyway). Carmona’s suspension from last September’s brawl with Gary Sheffield and the Tigers carries into this season. He has one game remaining on the five-game suspension, so he’ll participate in the opening ceremonies, then he must get out of uniform and leave the clubhouse. He is allowed to watch from the stands — if he can get a ticket, that is. The game is sold out, after all.
- Carmona went five innings, giving up a pair of runs on six hits with no walks and five strikeouts. He got eight outs on grounders, two on fly balls. In all, he walked eight batters in 27 innings this spring, and he had a 2.67 ERA. You have to feel better about Carmona going into the season than you did going into camp.
- Wedge and the players all seemed happy to get into a big-league stadium tonight. “Getting out here, you’ve got a couple extra decks and a little different environment,” Wedge said. “You look at this spring and everything, the good and the bad of it, and I think it’s good we’ve got a couple games here before we fire it up for real.”
- Anthony Reyes’ last spring tuneup will come Tuesday in Class A Kinston’s exhibition against Mount Olive College. That’s a private liberal arts school. And you thought Cactus League lineups were inferior.
- Ryan Garko hosted a correspondent’s piece on Jim Rome’s “Rome is Burning” show on ESPN this afternoon. The segment was taped in Goodyear last month. It was pretty bland, except for the part when Jensen Lewis criticized Kerry Wood’s NCAA bracket pool. When Garko pressed Wood for a response, Wood responded, “Jensen Lewis is irrelevant.” The makings of a nickname, perhaps?
- Speaking of Garko, Wedge doesn’t seem to know how much he’ll use him in the outfield this season. “I can’t [say] right now, and I’m really not trying to withhold anything from you guys,” Wedge said. “I’m still trying to get [Trevor] Crowe in my head, and him being a part of this team was unexpected. That changes things a bit. I think [Garko] is going to be out there, but I can’t speak on how much.”
- Kelly Shoppach’s brother, Kyle, is the high school football coach at Westside High School, not far from here. Shoppach stopped over there today to see his brother and talk to some of the kids.
~AC
