Indians Confidential

Ah yes, nothing like a nice 4 hour 19 minute 9 inning game in 40 degree temps to make really appreciate the game of baseball. Okay, I’m kidding. Tuesday night was like going in to get a broken tooth fixed. There was not much good to talk about in the Indians 9-8 win over the Red Sox till the very bitter end, when Javier Lopez (no, not the guy who use to catch for the Braves, the Boston relief pitcher), dropped a routine ball that allowed the winning run to score to send the Tribe home a winner.

The game was anything but pretty till that point. Tribe starter Anthony Reyes and Red Sox starter Brad Penny made the first three innings seem more like batting practice. Add to that a Red Sox defense that threw the ball around enough to end the night with three errors, and you had yourself a 7-7 tie after three innings that officially ended a few minutes after 9pm. Yes, this was a 7pm start by the way.

Reyes was awful. He couldn’t control anything, and the Red Sox offense made him pay dearly. He lasted just two innings, allowing 7 earned runs on 9 hits with a walk and a strikeout. The Indians would have to go to a bullpen for the rest of the night, and up until this night that usually spelled bad news.

Not so, as the combo of Vinnie Chulk, Rafael Perez, Joe Smith, Tony Sipp and Kerry Wood allowed the Sox just one run on 5 hits with five walks and 5 strikeouts over the last 7 at-bats. The run came off of (who else?), Joe Smith in the 7th, but the Indians got it right back in the bottom of the inning when Mark DeRosa homered to tie the game at 8.

Wood, who was the goat Monday night, again got himself into a 9th inning jam, with runners on first and third with one out, but threw three heaters past Nick Green, and got Jacob Ellsbury to hit a soft liner to second to end the frame and get the Indians to the plate in a tie game.

The winning rally came about when DeRosa singled to start the frame, went to second on a sac bunt, and then after Grady Sizemore struck out, Asdrubal Cabrera hit a sharp groundball to Kevin Youkilis who snared it, and then underhand tossed it to Lopez, who played it like a hot potato and dropped it. DeRosa scored, and the Tribe secured it’s 8th win against 14 losses this season.

The offensive heros included DeRosa, who was 4-for-5 with a RBI, Ben Francisco who was 2-for-4 with three RBI, and Cabrera, who went 2-for-4 with a walk and a run scored. Wood got the win to move to 1-1 on the season, both decisions coming the last two nights.

So Wednesday it’s game three vs Boston, and the finale of the homestand. A win and they wrap up the 9-game spread at 5-4, which is okay, but they still have aways to go to get back in the AL Central hunt. For now, a win is a win, and for a team that had scored just 7 runs in four games entering Tuesday night – they will take what they can get.