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June 25, Cleveland HotCut.

Today at 8:54 central daylight the steady drumbeat of the 'Cut started up again:  Cleveland HotCut.  It's a Sunday and I'm sitting at my little desk listening to Tom Hamilton relay the action.  It's the top of the second and Josh Tomlin is in a spot.  The Twins have pushed across two in this inning already and they have two men on, one out.  It's Dozier.  Ervin Santana allowed one hit in the first —.  There it is, a double play, Tomlin lives.

I have a couple of notes from the first inning.  Hamilton said that Jose Ramírez leads the A.L. in triples.  Not quite.  Charlie Blackmon leads all of baseball with ten triples.  Zack Cozart and Billy Hamilton each have five.  Then there's a gaggle of guys all with four triples: Arenado, Bogaerts, Broxton, Castellanos, Fowler, Galvis, Dee Gordon, Peraza, the aforementioned Ramírez, Yolmer Sanchez, and Trea Turner.  Blackmon is one of a kind in today's game.

Hamilton stated the Ramírez was tied for second in the A.L. with 23 doubles.  Correct.  Arenado leads all of baseball with 27, Betts and Herrera each have 25, Lowrie and Ramírez each have 23, Daniel Murphy and Schoop each have 22.

Dozier loses one in the sun, despite wearing sunglasses.  "It dropped three feet behind him."

Blackmon leads baseball with 100 hits.  Corey Dickerson and Ender Inciarte each have 97.  Murphy has 94, LeMahieu 93, Starlin Castro and Avisaíl García each have 92.

A very late strike call by homeplate umpire C. Fairchild.  Hamilton isn't happy.  "If a player showed up an umpire like Fairchild just showed up Austin Jackson, he'd probably get thrown out of the game."  Zimmer singles, Chisenhall goes first-to-third, Kepler's throw comes all the way into third, no one covers second, Zimmer takes second.  Zimmer is hitting .302.  Put him in the bucket of examples of guys whose high-minors numbers look lackluster and belie the player's capacity to produce in the big leagues.  I hear on podcasts that some players get bored in the minors and are only going to start putting up the numbers expected of them when they reach their final destination.

Santana fans Yan Gomes.  The Indians have gone 0-for-16 in this series with men in scoring position.

Hours later.  The Indians are down to their last strike, trailing 4-0.  Lindor goes 5-3 and the Twins have swept the Indians and in doing so the Twins are back in first place, by half a game.  Ervin Santana went six innings, allowing nine hits, zero walks, and zero runs while striking out seven.  "Big Erv" moves to 10-4.

On the audio dial, I slide on down to Orioles at Rays.  Joey Rickard sends a bouncing double over the wall, giving Baltimore the lead late.  Colomé now hits Schoop whilst the bases are loaded and "it's crumbling for the Rays here in the ninth."  I moseyed into this game not knowing precisely what the score was; I just picked the game that appeared to be closest to its terminus.  It is 7-5 Orioles, the bases are still loaded with only one out.  The Tampa Bay broadcasters sound exasperated, bemoaning the Tampa Bay bullpen, suggesting that cracks are starting to appear with Colomé as well.  Adam Jones hits a sacrifice fly and the Orioles have scored three runs now in the ninth.



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