Travis Hafner Likes First Pitch Fastballs

From watching Cleveland the past two years, it appears pitchers like to try and get ahead of Travis Hafner with a first pitch fastball before throwing all kinds of offspeed junk out of the zone in hopes he'll foul it off or miss. To a certain extent, it worked in 2007 as Hafner hit just .266 with 24 home runs and 100 RBI.

This season, in the at-bats I've seen, pitchers have a similar philosophy. It backfired Tuesday night on Justin Speier.

Speier, pitching for the injured Francisco Rodriguez, recorded the first two outs of the ninth to protect the Angels' 3-2 lead. Speier then committed a baseball mortal sin by walking a guy who rarely hits home runs (Asdrubal Cabrera) to face a guy that hits lots of home runs (Hafner). Worse yet, the home run hitter was up as the potential winning run.

Speier promptly got what he deserved on the next pitch as Hafner deposited the ball about 415 feet into the right field bullpen. The Indians got a win -- and a little revenge from Monday's debacle.

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