Indians Confidential

Every once in awhile, the Indians show signs of being an actual baseball team. Saturday night was one of those nights, as they got 8 very good innings from Carl Pavano, as usual having to hang on in the end as they beat the Tigers 5-4.

The reason they had to hang on was – why else – the pitching of closer (and I use that term loosely) Kerry Wood, who allowed a two-run homer from Miguel Cabrera to make it a 5-4 game.

Wood though did enough to wrap it up, getting a fly out and line out to end the game. The save for Wood was his 12th of the season. As for Pavano, he was the story, allowing two runs on seven hits, not allowing a walk and striking out six. It was his best outing in some time, as his control was very good, and he stayed out of bad innings for the most part.

The win for Pavano improves him to 8-7 on the season, dropping his ERA to 5.13. On offense, the Tribe got a run in the first on a sac fly from Victor Martinez, then after the team fell behind 2-1, the got the lead for good when Travis Hafner got a two-run RBI single scoring Grady Sizemore and Martinez to make it 3-2 in the top of the third.

An Asdrubal Cabrera single scored another run in the 7th to make it 4-2, and a Jhonny Peralta double gave the team the 5-2 lead in the top of the 8th. Little did the team know that they would need each and every one of those runs, as Wood almost gave it all back in the 9th.

The offense outhit the Tigers 12-8, as Hafner went 2-for-4 to raise his average to .288. Cabrera is hitting .304 after he went 3-for-5. Sizemore is hitting .232 after going 2-for-5.

The team is now 35-53, 18 games below .500. They will have Tomo Ohka (0-2) vs Justin Verlander (9-4) Sunday at 1:05 in the last game before the All-Star break to wrap up this awful first half.