Indians Confidential

As another fellow pointed out to me just minutes ago in the Indians press box – “This is going to be a long season.”

I’m not ready to give up just yet. After all, they are 0-5, have had good days of hitting, and some shallow moments of pitching, and there is a lot of baseball still to be played. On the other hand, this is getting frustrating.

Saturday was met with more concern over last seasons CY Young Winner from the AL – Cliff Lee, who was again not on, and was beat on for four runs on 7 hits in just five innings. His control was off again, walking four and striking out five. Lee threw 102 pitches in 5 innings, 57 strikes.

Lee has for some reason looked more like the 2007 Lee than the 08 Lee, and that is already a major concern. He is not hitting his spots, and in his first two starts the Rangers and Jays batters are catching up with him WAYYYY too much.

Kelly Shoppach didn’t exactly have a great day either. Dropping a ball on a sure out at home, striking out twice (once with two on with no outs), and then hitting into a 4-6-3 double play in the 9th, the catcher wins my vote as “goat of the day.”

The rest of the Indians offense didn’t give any support to Lee or the other two Indians throwers till the 9th, as they pushed across just one run, and that came when the team was already down 4-0 in the fifth. You had a sense that the game was already decided once Jays starter Roy Halladay and the team got that lead off of Lee.

It was good to see the team fight back in the 9th, as if it were not for Shoppach’s double play, the team likely would be celebrating their first win of the season. Mark De Rosa finally got a hit that meant something, as his two-out double got the team to one, but Victor Martinez’s strikeout allowed the Jays to escape 5-4.

So now this team really needs a win. Tomorrow Anthony Reyes gets his first start of the season, and he threw well at the end of last season. He goes up against David Purcey at 1:05pm.