Indians Confidential

With the month of April gone, the Indians looked to start May on a high note. Well, it wasn’t exactly the way they wanted it, but they got the job done on Friday night in Detroit, topping the Tigers 6-5. The game seemed similar to the one they lost Wednesday vs the Red Sox, as they had a 5-0 lead before Boston came storming back and eventually got the win.

This night, the Indians got that big 6th run in the 7th, and even though they led 6-0, they would need them all by the time the “bullpen from Hell” almost gave it all back. Detroit put up a five-spot in the 8th, as (who else) Rafael Perez and Jensen Lewis gave them almost enough runs to tie the game.

Thanks though to Rafael Betancourt and then Kerry Wood to close it out. Betancourt got the last out in the 8th, and then Wood recorded his 5th save of the year with three outs in the 9th to get the Tribe the win. They move to 9-14 on the season, and drop the Tigers to 11-11.

There were some offensive highlights that deserve mention:

Jhonny Peralta had a RBI single in the second, then hit his first homer in the 3rd to make it 5-0.
Mark DeRosa was 2-for-5 with two runs scored
David Dellucci (a sight for sore eyes), played his first game coming off the DL and was 4-for-5 with a run scored.

Overall the team put up 12 hits, and put up plenty of chances to score, but in the end were able to push across 6 runs to get the win. Another positive was the pitching of Carl Pavano, who got his first win as an Indian. He went 7.1 innings, allowing two runs on 5 hits. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out three.

While he’s had his moments, there’s no denying how bad this bullpen is. Why Eric Wedge keeps running Perez out there is beyond me, and he’s going to lose games the more he puts him out there. Let’s look at Perez – he wasn’t able to get an out, allowed two hits, two runs. He’s got an ERA of 13.50, and in 11 games has given up 15 earned runs. If this guys doesn’t get sent down to AAA soon, it’s a joke.

Okay, let’s stay positive here, the team got win one of the road trip out of the way, and game two tomorrow will see Aaron Laffey, the teams best starter so far this season, against Zach Miner at 3:40pm.