Indians Confidential

Gas prices going up, disagreements between Democrats and Republicans, and the Indians offense putting up about 1-3 runs and 4-8 hits. These things in life you can count on these days, as Wednesday night in Chicago once again the offense did nothing to give fans confidence that there is going to be October baseball in Cleveland in 2008.

Now yes, it may seem harsh, but following the latest setback, 7-2 to the White Sox, the Indians now sit entrenched in third place in the AL Central, 3.5 back of the White Sox, who are rolling winners of seven straight. Following an impressive homestand in which they went 6-1, the wheels have come off in a hurry. They have dropped five straight, their longest losing streak of the season, and in those five losses have scored a whopping 12 runs. In the 6-1 homestand it looked as if they were finally getting the bats warmed up, as they scored 31 runs in 7 games.

Wednesday night, the team did build a 2-0 lead and seemed to be doing just fine behind starter Paul Byrd, who threw only 55 pitches till the sixth and didn’t allow a hit till Nick Swisher singled in the fifth. Then the bottom fell out, as in the 6th Byrd allowed a single and a walk, and then it was back to doing what he unfortunately does best right now - give up a home run. The latest blast belonged to Jermaine Dye, whose three-run shot made it 3-2.

After a Jim Thome single and Paul Konerko single, Byrd was done for the night. Jorge Julio came in, and didn’t fare much better, allowing a Joe Crede double that made it 4-2, then after an intentional walk, a sac fly by Alexei Ramirez made it 5-2, ending the night on the scoresheet for Byrd. Chicago kept on the hitting parade, hitting two solo homers in the 6th as Dye and Thome each went deep off of Julio and Craig Breslow to make it 7-2.

The offense didn’t do much against White Sox starter Javier Vazquez, putting up two runs on four hits. Michael Aubrey hit his second homer since his call-up, and Travis Hafner showed signs of life with a double in the 6th that made it 2-0 until the Sox finally woke up. On the night the team put up seven hits, drew two walks, and struck out nine times. If it seems like you’ve heard this story before - you have.

Thursday night the teams wrap up their three-game set, as Aaron Laffey (2-2, 1.35) tries to stop the bleeding for the Indians vs Mark Buehrle (2-5, 5.27) for the Sox at 8:11pm.