Tribe Starts Strong

Wow.

Thats the way you want to start a season.

Grady Sizemore shrugged off his tough Spring Training and blasted a bomb right out of the gate as the Tribe pounded the Sox 12-5 on Opening Day. Talk about a tone-setter.

A few notes after Game 1:

-CC didn't appear to show any ill effects from his Spring Training near-injury. He didn't have his good control all day, but he was still throwing hitting mid-90s regularly and his "slurve" seemed to have its typical break. In the first inning he hung a couple of bad breaking balls to Erstad and he hammered the last one, while the blast to Konerko was just a fastball right down the middle. But its tough to come in the game somewhat cold after your team just batted around, and he still turned in a quality start under difficult circumstances.

- Just as a gut reaction the infield defense looked a lot better than last year, but we won't get a good read until we see them with many more opportunities. With ground-ball pitchers Westbrook, Byrd, and Sowers coming up they will definitely get that chance. But its worth noting that the Joe Crede ground ball up the middle in the 6th inning that Josh Barfield kept in the infield would have definitely gotten into center last year with Ronnie Belliard, and even though it went as an infield hit Barfield probably saved a run.

-David Delluci had a tough one yesterday going 0-4 with 2 strikeouts, and generally looking flat-footed in the field. One interesting note though, in yesterdays "Daily Diamond" on ESPN former Rangers pitching coach (and Cleveland Indian) Orel Hershiser called David Delluci one of the top 10 teammates he had ever been associated with in all his years in baseball, in terms of leadership and intangibles and the like. Considering the years he's been in the game thats a pretty nice compliment.

Off day today, and back to it tomorrow with Westbrook facing off against Jon Garland.