Indians Confidential

Keeping up the momentum of their 6-run 7th inning last night, the Indians offense came out with a bang on Saturday night, as they again scored six runs, this time in the first inning, topping the Blue Jays 12-0 at Progressive Field. Grady Sizemore, who was honored with Grady Sizemore Fleece Blanket night, started the fireworks fast with a homer to start the game for the Tribe. He then put the icing on the cake with a three-run homer in the 5th that made it 12-0.

Sizemore ended the night 3-for-4, two homers, three runs scored, and five RBI. He is now hitting .285 on the season. Aaron Laffey continued to impress as a starter at the Major League level, going seven shutout innings, allowing six hits, walking one and striking out two. Laffey now has an ERA of 1.83 in three starts, and in those starts has allowed a combined four earned runs on 13 hits in 19.2 innings. It will be tough at this point to remove him from the rotation.

The rest of the offense feasted off of Blue Jays starter Dustin McGowan. Victor Martinez continued the big first inning with a single that scored Jamey Carroll. Ben Francisco hit a sac fly to score another run, and Asdrubal Cabrera and Casey Blake added singles that scored runs to put up the six runs in the first. The Sizemore show continued with a RBI double in the 4th, and Martinez singled in Blake and Sizemore to make it 9-0. Victor was 2-for-4 with 3 RBI.

Both the pitching and hitting has been on target for the first two games of this four-game set. In all, the pitching has allowed just one run in the first two games, while the hitting has scored 18 runs on 20 hits. It is the best two-game stretch the team has had across the board in the first 36 games of the season, as they now sit at .500 at 18-18.

Sunday with rain expected most of the day, the team will hopefully be able to take the field with Fausto Carmona (3-1, 2.95) going up against A.J. Burnett (3-3, 5.19) with a scheduled first pitch at 1:05pm.