It occurred to me that I neglected to even give the score of yesterday's game, so here's a quick recap of tonight's game.

Gorzelanny was lights out for 7 innings. Nitkowski got through the 8th, but gave up three hits to start the 9th.  Bayliss came on and with a runner on first, walked Ruben Sierra.  He then gave up a hard double to score the tying run.  Scott Strickland looked awful in giving up the winning run in the bottom of the 10th.  Wings win!  Uhh, I mean, Indians lost, 4-3.

The hitting was again worthy of a shrug.  Boeve went 3-4 and flied out to the warning track for his only out.

But Gorzelanny was as advertised.  7 IP, 101 pitches, 67 strikes, 10K, 1 BB, retired the last 10 batters in a row.  He gave up two hits, but one was clearly an error by Chris Richard.  He overthrew Gorzelanny by about four feet as he was covering first on a grounder to Richard.  It looked like something out of a blooper reel.  The only other hit was an opposite field single by Ruben Sierra.

Gorzelanny threw 20 pitches in the first inning, 9 of which were either 91 or 92mph.  He also threw four offspeed pitches, one 76mph, the other three 79.

In the 2nd, he fanned Ruben Sierra with 93mph gas, his fastest pitch of the evening.  He changed speeds well here.  His 14 pitches ranged from 80 to 93 and were scattered in that range.

He struck out the side in the third on 15 pitches that ranged from 78-92.  Twice he got hitters to wave at 78 or 79mph curves.

Of his 10 K's on the night, 9 were swinging.  Dude misses bats.

The 4th was interesting in a possibly negative way.  He got the first two hitters on a strikeout and soft liner to second base.  Then, after getting ahead of Kevin West 0-2, he threw four balls to walk him.  Jeff Andrews visited the mound.

From my seat in the second row behind the Indy dugout, Gorzelanny was clearly red-faced.  I wonder if he has a maturity issue.  Here he was, not cruising but more like steamrolling through the Red Wings, and he walks a guy and needs a visit from the coach?

I'm sure he wished and thought he could have and should have put the batter away, but he has to shake that off.  After a single by Ruben Sierra, he got another K to end the inning.  That gave him 8 K's in four innings.  The 24 pitch inning and micro-meltdown didn't bode well for the rest of his night.

But... maybe he doesn't have a maturity issue.  He went through the 5th and 6th in 17 total pitches (no K's).

His 7th and final inning may have been his best.  He threw 11 pitches, five of which were 90-92mph.  He was in complete command, getting the first two strikeouts (including Sierra again) in 9 pitches and the final out on nubber to SS.

Bayliss actually pitched better than his line will show.  Check out this sequence to Ruben Sierra:

93, 94, 70--fooled so bad on this pitch he threw his bat almost to first base.  It was a devastating change.  Then, 77, 94, 93, 72--walking on that last change that looked like it just missed, as did the fastball before it.

The other BB in his line was intentional.  His three outs were on two K's and a blooper caught behind short on a nice running grab by Furmaniak.  The double he gave up to tie it was a clean hard shot.  It happens.  He again looked like he had the goods to pitch in Pittsburgh, perhaps with a little more refinement.  If he can change speeds as dramatically as he did on Sierra, he'll play a long time.

Scott Strickland threw mostly junk.  He threw 20 pitches, 11 of which were between 80-82mph.  He threw one pitch 91, and the rest between 86-89.  It's a miniscule sample size, but off this viewing I'd say his otherwise good figures on the season are due to being a vet that knows how to get lesser AAA players out.

Maybe he just didn't have it tonight, but I see no reason to think he could help the Pittsburgh pen at any point.

After the game I waited for Josh Sharpless to walk in from the bullpen.  

He was carrying a Barbie suitcase, which is just a stupid ritual, but whatever.

He was walking really slowly and I thought I detected a slight limp.  I asked if he was hurt and he said "no" with a headshake as if to say, `no, why would you even ask?'  I asked if they were making him a starter and he said no, again, with a different headshake as if to say, `no, they dumped that idea.'

If you take out my body language-reading, the point is that he answered a fairly emphatic "no" to each question.  Hopefully I'll get to see him pitch tomorrow or Friday.