Indians Confidential

In the final home game of the unofficial first half of the season at Progressive Field, the Indians whimpered out to a pitcher they had never heard of, and once again provided their ace, Cliff Lee, with little offense and a severe lack of run support in the teams latest setback – 5-2.

Lee was once again not nearly as impressive as he was earlier in the season, as he went six innings, allowing three runs on 8 hits with four walks and three strikeouts. He threw 112 pitches in the six innings to an A’s team that was losers in 8 of their last 10 games, and had struggled in the first two games at Progressive Field over the weekend.

The Indians offense basically took a day off, as Oakland starter Gio Gonzalez, who entered Sunday with an ERA of 7.27, held them in check for a good portion of the day. Gonzlaez went 6 innings, allowing two runs on six hits. He walked just one and got the free swinging Indians to wiff on a career-high for him 8 strikeouts.

The win for the A’s pitcher was his first of the season, and came at a time where the Indians had found some offense, scoring 20 runs in two games over the weekend to date. Maybe the club had used all their fireworks Friday and Saturday, and couldn’t afford many more runs as they get set to head to the road before the All-Star break.

Lee has had two tough outings in losing two in a row after two straight no decisions. Against the White Sox June 30th he allowed 7 runs on 11 hits in just three innings. While he clearly was better against the A’s, he still seemed to be a bit off, and the fact the offense did little probably didn’t give him much confidence to work with.

Oakland scored a run in the first off Lee, then the Indians tied it off Gonzalez with a Grady Sizemore double to bring in Jamey Carroll. Oakland put up single runs in the 5th and 6th to make it 3-1, but again the Indians rallied. They got a homer from Jhonny Peralta (5th) to make it 3-2.

The A’s though got a run in the 8th off a double play ball, and then in the 9th sealed the deal with an Orlando Cabrera homer (3rd) to make it 5-2. The A’s lone All-Star, pitcher Andrew Bailey stopped the Indians with 1.1 innings allowing just one hit to close out the Oakland win.

The loss puts the Indians at 33-50 after 83 games. They will play in Chicago on Tuesday after a day off Monday.