CLEVELAND — The Indians heard plenty of “boos” at their home opener Monday afternoon, but there also were quite a few fans chanting “Choo.”
Right fielder Shin-Soo Choo — the object of the sellout crowd’s affection — was the lone offensive bright spot for Cleveland as it lost 4-2 to the Texas Rangers in 10 innings.
The South Korean scored both Tribe runs in a perfect day at the plate, going 3-for-3 with a single, double and home run. He also walked and stole a base.
“There is a reason why he hits third in our lineup,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “He is a guy that is one of the main keys to our team and he’s been swinging the bat much better the last couple of days.”
After starting the season in a 2-for-18 slump (.111), Choo’s bat has come alive in the Indians’ last two games. He belted a solo home run Sunday in Detroit, then ripped another in the team’s 2010 debut at Progressive Field.
The latter blast was especially impressive as the rest of the Wahoos went 4-for-31 against Rangers pitchers Rich Harden, Dustin Nippert, Darren Oliver, Frank Francisco and Neftali Perez.
“I had a really good spring training, but when the season started, I tried too hard,” said Choo, who hit .393 with 16 RBIs in Cactus League play. “Guys like (Mark) Grudzielanek and (Mike) Redmond gave me a lot of help, and I feel a lot better at the plate.
“Today is just one game, but I saw the ball better. I put my front foot down a little quicker and was able to find the fastballs, instead of starting late and fouling them off like I have been.”
The performance upped Choo’s season average to .250 and helped him take over the team lead in homers (two), on-base percentage (.419) and slugging percentage (.542).
Those numbers should have added up to a great day for the 27-year-old, but the Indians’ bad karma even prevented that from happening.
Choo made a major mental mistake in the third inning after working Harden for a one-out walk. Travis Hafner followed with a routine fly out to left field, but Choo never headed back to first base. In fact, he was standing at third when the ball was thrown back to the infield to complete the double play.
“Hopefully I’ll never make a play like that again,” he said sheepishly. “It was my mistake. I thought there were two outs. After the inning, I told (the team) it was my bad. I felt very bad about it.”
So did Acta, but not for the reason one might expect.
“The mistake he made, it happens in the game a lot,” the first-year Indians skipper said. “I feel bad for him because it happened here in our home opener, but it’s nothing to worry about. He’s a good player for us and he’ll continue to be all season.”
Contact Brian Dulik at brisports@hotmail.com.
