Bleary eyes, sore elbows, can't lose for the Indians this morning

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Thomas Ondrey/ Plain Dealer

What a morning. What an evening? I don't even know, because waking up this morning after about 4.5 hours sleep was pretty tough. I actually had a dream in which I thought that I had dreamed that the Indians won, since I almost went to bed after the ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth inning. But no, this is real life.

But I didn't go to sleep. Like many of the Indians faithful in the seats and on their couches (and on Twitter, it seems), I stayed up and watched the Indians pull off the antithesis of an exciting walkoff, scoring on a Fukudome bases-loaded hit-by-pitch. in the bottom of the fourteenth inning. Whatever! Looked like it hurt for sure, and even though Kosuke had done nothing but strike out four times before the fourteenth, the last thing the Tribe needs is another subtraction from their income.

Either way, Tuesday and Wednesday were going to be big games because of the daunting prospect of Justin Verlander on Thursday. The rain delay took our ace Masterson out of the game, but the Bullpen Mafia lived up to their name, pitching an amazing twelve scoreless innings. Even though a few hits were scattered throughout, there was no serious Detroit threat to score.

What I won't dwell on is the botched suicide squeeze in the eighth inning. All I'll say is that if it had worked--and it easily could have--Manny Acta would have been seen as ballsy and smart. So with the Indians' bats virtually silent for six innings, let's not criticize him trying to manufacture a run.

Time for another cup of coffee. If someone in my office left an empty pot there will be hell to pay.