Indians Confidential

While Sunday nights game vs St.Louis was a pitchers duel in every stretch of the word, Monday’s matchup with the Brewers was more like a bad beer league softball game. Walks, blown leads, six homers, and 26 runs later, the Indians again have only themselves to blame for a sickening 14-12 setback to a Milwaukee team that looked like more than once they were ready to pack it in for the night. The Indians blew some big leads – 8-3 in the 4th and 12-7 after 6 innings.

They still lead 12-8 heading into the 8th, when the bullpen from Hell, who had been doing much better as of late, went back to the form that gave the team this lousy record in the first place. Luis Vizcano started the inning for the Indians, and got an out but then allowed two walks. Matt Herges then came in and gave up another walk to load the bases, and then a sac fly to make it a 12-9 game. Enter Rafael Perez. The matchup for Perez is one that he probably wishes wouldn’t have happened, as power hitter Prince Fielder took his first pitch, a rather weak attempt at a fastball, and deposited it 400 feet into the stands for a grand slam and a 13-12 Milwaukee lead.

That wasn’t all.

Perez then allowed a single, a walk, and then another single by Matt Gamel to score another big insurance run to put the Brewers ahead by two at 14-12. Perez, was loudly booed by the Indians faithful at Progressive Field as he left the game, and he deserved it. The Indians were able to get out of the inning, but by then the offense was pooped after putting up 12 runs and could do no more, finally settling for the two-run setback.

The offense can’t be blamed, as the team hit four homers (Shin-Soo Choo, Victor Martinez, Mark DeRosa, and Travis Hafner), and had 11 hits. They were able to build those big leads, only to see the pitching staff, led by starter Carl Pavano who has now had two bad starts in a row, give it right back, and then some. Milwaukee seemed dead after they were able to get to 8-7 in the 6th, and then DeRosa and Hafner each homered in the bottom of the inning to build on the lead to 12-7.

The team got just five innings out of Pavano, who allowed 6 earned runs on 9 hits, walking one and striking out two.

The Tribe is now 29-37 on the year, and 4-3 as the homestand enters its final two games vs Milwaukee Tuesday and Wednesday night both at 7:05pm.