Michael Kulpa Died

Vinnie Pestano, Tony Sipp to close until Chris Perez returns: Cleveland ...

CINCINNATI, Ohio -- The Indians bullpen, which has been the strength of the team this season, will be without closer Chris Perez for the next couple days.

Perez left the team following the death of his grandmother in Gainesville, Fla. He was placed on the bereavement list and is expected to miss games tonight and Saturday in Cincinnati against the Reds. The Indians hope to have him back for Sunday's series finale.

Manager Manny Acta said Vinnie Pestano and Tony Sipp will split the closer's duties until Perez returns. Perez is the only Indians pitcher with a save this year.

MLB's bereavement rules say a player must stay on the list for at least three days. Perez left the team on Thursday so he should be eligible to pitch Sunday.

Right-hander Josh Judy was recalled from Class AAA Columbus to fill the roster.

Judy is 2-2 with 12 saves and a 3.30 ERA in 27 relief appearances at Columbus and has a 1.08 ERA since May 13. He has not allowed an earned run in his last eight appearances.

This is Judy's second time with the Indians this season. He was called up May 21 and made his Major League debut against the Reds on May 22 in Progressive Field, allowing two hits in one scoreless inning. It was his only appearance before returning to Columbus.

Tonight's lineup:

Indians (42-37): LF Michael Brantley (L), 2B Orlando Cabrera (R), SS Asdrubal Cabrera (S), 1B Carlos Santana (S), CF Grady Sizemore (S), RF Travis Buck (L), 3B Lonnie Chisenhall (L), C Lou Marson (R), RHP Justin Masterson (5-6, 2.98).

Reds (42-40): LF Fred Lewis (L), 2B Brandon Phillips (R), 1B Joey Votto (L), Scott Rolen (R), RF Jay Bruce (L), CF Drew Stuff (R), SS Edgar Renteria (R), C Ryan Hanigan (R), RHP Bronson Arroyo (7-6, 5.10).

Him vs. me: Scott Rolen is 2-for-4 with one homer against Masterson. Travis Hafner is 7-for-13 with four doubles and one homer and Grady Sizemore is 5-for-15 with three homers and four RBI against Arroyo.

Lefty righty: Lefties are hitting .313 (73-for-233) with three homers and righties are hitting .189 (31-for-164) against Masterson. The Reds have four lefties in the lineup.

Lefties are hitting .331 (60-for-181) with 11 homers and righties are hitting .257 (53-for-206) with 10 homers against Arroyo. That's right Arroyo has allowed 21 homers this year.

Umpires: H John Tumpane, 1B Derryl Cousins, 2B Ron Kulpa, 3B Jim Wolf.

did you tweet about michael jackson's death?

This past week or so has been pretty traumatic for some, what with the losses of Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, Billy Mays, and of course, Michael Jackson.

Up until the #moonfruit promotion had started (Tweeters would use the hashtag for a chance to win a free Macbook Pro), Michael Jackson or some version thereof was the top trending topic on Twitter after his untimely death.

So I give you, dear readers, this poll:

The reason I ask is because I happened to notice that many people truly did not send out even one single tweet about Michael Jackson. Sure, there were plenty of people being what I consider to be rude or disrespectful with their tasteless jokes and such… but I am honestly curious as to the percentages of people who did and did not tweet about “MJ” (as that was also in the trending topics, aside from his full name) after his passing.

Even if you only tweeted ONCE about it, please check the “Yes” box. I realize some people (like myself) tweeted about it several times. Also, even if your tweet was what I referred to above as rude or disrespectful, again, please choose “Yes” as your answer.

Happy Independence Day, America!

I haven’t been online much the last few week or so, but in any case it never occurred to me to tweet about MJ. I’ll answer your unasked question “why not?”: because I think there’s an element of jumping on the bandwagon with things like this. What could anything I or the hundreds of thousands of others who tweeted add to the total MJ media overload. What would be the point?