Indians Confidential

When your the worst team in baseball, defeats usually come easy. Even with that said, Tuesday nights 6-5 loss to the Royals easily could have been the toughest loss the Indians have had to swallow in a number of years.

Yeah, I know, you could have said that about the loss the other night in Tampa Bay when the team was up 7-0, but Tuesday night vs KC, the loss was as stunning as any we’ve seen for some time.

Why did it hurt so much? Well, the team took a 5-2 lead in the 9th after another solid outing by Cliff Lee, and turned it over to their biggest offseason pickup – closer Kerry Wood. Even though he had not had many save chances this season, Wood is a player that probably most Indians fans thought they could count on.

Not anymore.

Wood was as bad as any other bad Indians relief pitcher, as he allowed Mike Jacobs and Mark Teahen to hit back-to-back homers, then gave up a walk, a triple to tie the game, then a sac fly to end the shocker with a 6-5 setback. It happened just that quick.

How bad is this team right now? The bullpen has nine blown saves in 16 opportunities. Wood has blown two saves and has an 8.31 ERA. They flat out stink. The team is now 14-26, and is 8.5 out of first. It seemed like with the teams slow start they would be out of the AL Central race by Memorial Day…right now, it could very well be sooner.

Lee was very good – again. He went 8 innings, allowing two runs on 8 hits with no walks and three strikeouts. With the way things are going, he could be the second straight Cy Young award winner to be traded by the Indians before the trade deadline even hits. After all, if the team can’t feel they can re-sign him in two years, why not deal him now and rebuild.

All your doing is wasting him here, with a club that clearly is going nowhere.