Indians Confidential

Extra innings is always a strange animal.  In one swing of the bat in the 10th, the Indians looked as if they were going to go down to defeat 2-1.  Then, for the first time all year it seems, the team showed a great amount of patience at the plate in the bottom of the inning, and with it took advantage of the wild J.J. Putz to draw to an eventual 2-2 tie, and then one inning later Asdrubal Cabrera drove in the game-winning run as Jason Michaels came around to score to give the Indians a 3-2 win.

For 8 innings things seemed just fine at Progressive Field.  The Indians were winning 1-0, Paul Byrd had just pitched his most impressive outing of the year, and Rafel Perez got the team out of the 8th without any damage.  Enter the remainder of the bullpen.  It was the combo tonight of Rafael Betancourt (court was not in session) and Masa Kobyashi that allowed two Mariners runs to cross the plate in two very different ways to almost send the Tribe to a 2-1 loss.

The first Mariner run came off of Betancourt in the 9th with the Indians up 1-0.  Needless to say that Betancourt looks nothing like a closer so far.  Ichiro Suzuki singled, stole second, then stole third and on the throw from Victor Martinez, Casey Blake flubbed it at third and Ichiro came around on the error to score.  The Mariners went ahead much quicker in the 10th, when on the first pitch former Indian Richie Sexson took a Masa pitch and quickly belted it to the home run porch in left to make it 2-1.

The Indians though wouldn’t give in, and used two walks from a wild Putz, and a Ryan Garko and Franklin Gutierrez single each to get the tying run across, as it scored when Grady Sizemore drew a walk from Putz to make it 2-2.  Both Blake and David Dellucci struck out though to keep the epic affair going.  The 11th came quickly for the Indians, and a Jhonny Peralta walk, Travis Hafner double, Jamey Carroll hit-by-pitch and then Cabrera single to center sent the fans home happy.

Byrd dominated and has nothing to show for it.  He was quick to the plate and threw strikes, throwing 66 in 93 pitches, not allowing himself to really get behind in the count much if at all.  He allowed four hits in 7.2 innings, striking out four and walking one, and dropping his at one point high ERA to 3.74.  He has been solid in his last four outings, allowing four runs in 5.2 vs the Yankees last Friday, one run vs the Twins on April 20th in seven innings, and no earned runs vs the Red Sox on April 15th.  Despite that, he still sits at just 1-2.

The Indians scored in the 4th vs the M’s Miguel Batista, as Travis Hafner finally showed signs of life with a double that scored Victor Martinez to make it 1-0.  The game stayed that way till the ninth, when Seattle tied it.

They are at home for the next three days, as they welcome their whipping boys in the KC Royals, who they swept last week in Kansas City.  Friday night at 7:05pm it will be C.C Sabathia (1-4, 7.88) vs Luke Hochevar (1-1, 5.91).