Indians Confidential

When Omar Vizquel played for the Indians in their glory days, scoring runs was not much of a problem.  Fast forward to the Indians of 2008, and this edition of the Indians have offensive issues, and once again in Omar’s return to Cleveland those issues reared its ugly head.  The Indians put up a bland two runs on Tuesday night, allowing Vizquel and the Giants to win game one of the two teams three-game set 3-2 at Progressive Fied.

Omar was the story, first with an extended highlight film before the first pitch to getting a standing ovation in his first at-bat, to laying down a perfect bunt that got a huge third run over in the 9th, this night belonged to possibly the most beloved Indian in franchise history.  Oh, he also made a great play in the 9th with the game still in doubt.  Same old Omar.

As for the Indians, it was a bitter pill to swallow as they return home for an interleague homestand that hopefully will keep them fighting in the AL Central.  This was not the way to start it.  They got a first inning run from the bat of Ryan Garko who drove home the run with a two-out single, but from there were shut down till their run in the 9th that got them close, but not close enough.

Three Giants pitchers, starting with Jonathan Sanchez, shut the Tribe down for a majority of the night.  Sanchez went 7.2 innings, allowing one run on five hits, walking two and striking out eight.  Aaron Laffey was okay, allowing one run on 6.2 innings.  He gave up four hits, walked three and struck out one.

The Giants plated a run each in the 8th and 9th for the win, the run in the 8th scoring on a silly throw from catcher Kelly Shoppach trying to nail a runner at second trying to steal with two outs.  The ball came in low, and he was charged an error, at the same time allowing a run to score to make it 2-1.

The ninth inning run off of Masa Kobayashi came when he allowed a walk, a single, then a ground out to put runners on second and third.  Omar then laid down a bunt that Casey Blake couldn’t handle, and it allowed the winning run to cross the plate.  In usual Indians fashion, they had the tying run on first with two outs in the 9th when Shoppach on a full count struck out to end the game.

The loss puts the Indians back at 7 games under .500, at 35-42.  Wednesday night it’s Jeremy Sowers (0-2 6.57) vs Barry Zito (2-11, 6.32) at 7:05pm.