Lame duck and old Byrd lead Tribe

Two guys who will have no impact on the Tribe's future had quite an effect on their present tonight. Paul Byrd has now strung four good starts together - the latest being tonight's 7-inning 1-run outing against the Twins. Byrd has now given up just 5 earned runs in 25 innings (1.73) over the past four games, winning three of those contests. Byrd keeps building his case with the various contenders who may be looking to the waiver wires to find an extra arm to get themselves into the post-season. (Let me stop right here to mention I just saw Manny lift one deep into the leftfield seats at Chavez Ravine for his first Dodger dinger - a two-run job. It was accompanied by the typical Manny 5-year-old-girl-like celebration with his new buddies in the dugout.) With stomach turning let me continue. Offensively, the Tribe was led tonight by another not-in-the plans veteran, fan favorite David Dellucci, who - for one night - gave Tribe fans something to appreciate. Dellucci went 3-for-4, including a 2-run dinger and a double. Jhonny Peralta drove in the first run of the game with an opposite-field double that tied the score 1-1. Peralta has been doing a lot of that opposite-field stuff lately and his BA is showing it. It's almost enough - in fact his resurgence may be enough - for me to stop agitating for the front office to trade the guy. He's been hitting for about six weeks now, showing a better eye and a willingness to hit the ball where it's pitched. If he continues his conversion into a professional hitter with pop (instead of a guy just swinging for the fences) his shortcomings at SS just may be more tolerable. (Let me just interrupt myself again to say I just watched Casey Blake lift a flyball down the left field line which landed about 6 rows deep just to the right of the foul pole at the The Ravine - much more fun to watch than the HR I mentioned earlier.) Probably the best news for the future coming out of tonight's game was the two-run homer by Kelly Shoppach who just continues to rake and is making a case for himself to be the starting catcher next year - which would mean a move to 1B for Victor Martinez and a trade (?) in Ryan Garko's (o-for-4 .243) future. Shoppach hit .318 (1.066 OPS), with 6 HRs and 14 RBIs in July. He's 3 for 7 so far in August. With the a stick like that, the Tribe's FO may have to look at making him a full-timer next year, especially with Garko being such an absolute bust this year and Victor probably being better off physically playing at 1B. And, Adrubal Cabrera had two more hits tonight and is hitting .278 since coming back to the bigs, with an OPS over .800. Andy Marte took an 0-for-4 and has started to look lost up there again lately. (Casey just hit a ground-rule double to right-center. He's up to about .350 with the Dodgers.) Marte looked for a short time like he might be coming around with increased playing time, but there just doesn't seem to be any consistency there. He's now 2 for his last 28 and I would say he is well on his way to blowing his longest, and final audition with the Tribe.