Indians Confidential

For one night anyway, the Indians looked like a team that gave a darn about winning once again, and not making excuses as to why they had lost 10 straight.  They put a rather sound beating on the Tampa Bay Rays Thursday night, winning for the first time since June 27th when now former Indian C.C. Sabathia shutout the Reds.

Thursday’s win, 13-2, came complete with just about everything the Indians had not been doing over the last 10 games.  They put up a 5-spot in the 5th, a 7-spot in the 8th, hit a couple of long balls, had some two out hits, and got a solid pitching outing from starter Aaron Laffey and the bullpen didn’t blow it out of the water like it has on more than a few times this season.

They trailed 2-0 going into the 5th when David Dellucci hit a two-run homer to tie the game, then after Jamey Carroll hit a fielders choice to make it 3-2, Ben Francisco hit a two-run shot that gave the team the three-run lead at 5-2.  They added a spot in the 6th when Shin-Soo Choo hit a solo homer, and then put up another five spot in the 8th to put the game away.

That inning was highlighted by a Casey Blake homer, a run on an error, and a Francisco single that scored two more runs.  A Jhonny Peralta single scored another run, and then Blake, the 10th batter of the inning, hit a single that scored two more runs to end the frame to the first standing ovation the team has had for some time.  The 7 runs in the 8th was only the second time they have done that in 2008 - the last time - the season opener in the 2nd inning vs the White Sox.

Laffey went six innings, allowing two runs on four hits, walking three and striking out four.  He improves to 5-5, his first win since June 12th.  Even the bullpen, as bad as it’s been for the whole season, couldn’t blow this one, as Rafael Perez pitched two scoreless innings, and one of the newer Indians, Juan Rincon, finished off the win with a scoreless 9th.  The win puts the Indians at 38-53, dropping the Rays to 55-36.  Friday the four-game set continues at 7:05pm as All-Star Cliff Lee (11-2, 2.43) goes vs James Shields (7-5) for the Rays.

For those that were wondering where the money is going on the Indians roster this season, consider the following when it comes to what the following players are making, and where on the club they rank:

1. Jake Westbrook $10 mil per year - On the DL for the rest of the year after major surgery, and may not be ready to go again till the summer of 2009.

2. Travis Hafer $8 mil per year - Has never hit the same after getting his new deal, and was struggling before that. Is on the DL with a shoulder issue that really has never been fully disclosed.

3. Paul Byrd $7.5 mil per year - 3-10 this year w/ a 5.53 ERA. Was the subject of a steroids scandal story in the ALCS, and since then he’s been cleared, but has never pitched as well as last season.

4. Casey Blake $6.1 mil per year - Having a solid season, batting .279 with 8 homers and 47 RBI, but likely will be traded before the deadline.

5. Victor Martinez $4.4 million per year - Tweaked his hamstring opening day vs the White Sox, and has not been the same. Lack of power alarming as he’s hitting just .278 with no homers and 21 RBI. Also on the DL.

7. David Dellucci $3.7 mil per year - Has basically been a bust in the two seasons with the team, hitting just .220 with 7 homers and 27 RBI, was hurt a good portion of last season, and will be gone when his contract is up.

9. Masa Kybayashi $3 mil per year - Has had good and bad moments in his first year playing ball in America. Has four saves and an ERA of 3.21. The team has hopes that he may eventually be the closer.

10. Jhonny Peralta $2.5 mil per year - Hitting .250 with 14 homers and 40 RBI. Still blasted by many for his shoddy play at short and lack of big hits, Peralta has never regained his 2005 form when he hit .292 with 24 homers and 78 RBI.

The other two players in the Top 10 not listed are Cliff Lee and Grady Sizemore, two players that have lived up to or even passed expectations for this season.

As the Indians attempts to turnover their bullpen continues, their losing streak Saturday night at the HHH Metrodome continued. After taking a 5-2 lead after the second inning, and getting five ho-hum innings from Aaron Laffey, the bullpen imploded again, allowing five runs in three innings in the teams 7th straight loss, 9-6 to the Twins.

The bullpens culprits on this Saturday night included Tom Mastny, who allowed four runs on two hits in just 0.1, and Rafael Perez, who gave up one run on one hit in 1.1. The Twins moved to 5-4 after five innings, and then put the game away with a five run 6th to move to 49-38 on the season.

The Indians fall to 37-50, 13 games under .500 and 13 games back of the White Sox in the AL Central. The offense was highlighted by Grady Sizemore, who went 2-for-5 with his 22nd homer and RBI. Andy Marte showed signs of life at the plate, going 2-for-4 with his first RBI of the year, he’s batting .150.

The loss means that the Tribe, who were one game away from being the AL reps in the World Series just 8 months ago, now have the second worst record in baseball. “You can’t think about that now, ‘cause we’re here,” Grady Sizemore said. “You can’t be frustrated with the way things started because of the success last year. You have to move forward and find a way to make this year positive.”

It’s not getting easier to watch this team, and with C.C. Sabathia and probably at least 1-2 other players, like Casey Blake heading out the door to other teams in the next three weeks, it’s probably not going to get much better.

In a season of tough losses, Tuesday night’s 3-2 extra inning loss to the White Sox could very well be right near the top.  The Indians hung in there against a team that they are trying as hard as they can keep pace with, and on a night where they tried to get their deficit back down to 9.5 games, Joe Borowski did what some say he does best - blow a save.

The Indians took a 2-1 lead in the top of the 10th when Casey Blake hit a solo homer to left.  Borowski came on, and gave it back, but of course not till he got the first two outs, making it even tougher to swallow.  He got Joe Crede to ground out, and then struck out Nick Swisher.  Then with the game looking like it belonged to the Tribe, Jo-Bo imploeded, giving up a solo homer to Alexei Ramirez, just his 6th of the year.

As if that was hard enough to watch, the implosion continued.  Pinch-hitter Dewayne Wise singled, stole second, as everyone usually does vs Borowski, then scored when Orlando Cabrera singled to center, and Wise came in with the winning run to make it 3-2.  They don’t come much tougher than this.

As they have done a ton of times this season, the Indians wasted a good outing from Cliff Lee, as he went 8 innings, allowing one earned run on six hits, walking one and striking out three.  Lee dropped his ERA to 2.26, but could not get any run support to move his record past 11-1.  He allowed a run in the 2nd, then the Indians tied it in the 6th when Kelly Shoppach hit a homer to left to make it 1-1.

All that aside, the end was painful to watch.  The team falls to a full 10 games under .500 at 37-47.  Instead of being 9.5 back of the Sox if they could have hung on to win, they now fall 11.5 back, and are still in last in the AL Central.  The time to start making moves is nearing, and games like this one only made that point all the more clear.

We all know that if there is one player on the Tribe that will get a ton of looks it’s C.C. Sabathia, but now rumors are popping up that the next player that could be on the move from Cleveland could be third basemen Casey Blake.  Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports says that three teams - the Dodgers, Mets and A’s could all have their eyes on Blake because of his ability to play both first and third.  Here is the link to the column, which of course also talks about Sabathia and where he may end up.

As the Indians continue to try and fight and stay in the AL Central race, the two things they seem to have going for them as of late is the pitching of starters C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee. Last night it was the pitching of Lee that led the team to a 4-1 win over the Giants, and Friday night it was Sabathia’s turn - giving the team another strong outing as the Tribe spanked the Reds 6-0.

Sabathia, who continues to hear his name in trade talks almost non-stop by the local and national media, remanis focused on the task at hand. Friday night he went 8 innings, allowing 0 runs on 4 hits, and striking out 11 while walking 2. It’s the fifth time this season he’s thrown double digit K’s, and over his last three starts he’s 3-0, allowing just 4 earned runs. He moves to 6-8 on the season.

On offense, the team put up a crooked five spot in the 6th off three Reds pitchers to blow the game open. They batted around that inning, putting up the five runs on four hits to go along with a Reds error. The big hits were a Casey Blake two-run single, and a Grady Sizemore double that scored two more runs. Sizemore opened the scoring in the 5th inning with a solo homer off Reds starter Daryl Thompson, his 18th blast of the season.

Overall the offense put up 10 hits on the night, Jamey Carroll continued his hot hitting with three hits, and is now hitting .304. Shin-Soo Choo and Blake each had two hits, as did Sizemore. The win puts the Indians now at 37-43 on the season, 2-2 on this homestand. They still trail the White Sox by 7.5 in the Central, as Chicago of the AL topped Chicago of the NL Friday afternoon.

Two struggling pitchers go at it Saturday night at Progressive Field, as Paul Byrd at 3-8 with a 5.21 ERA takes the hill for the Indians vs Johnny Cueto (3-8, 5.01) at 7:05pm.

1. Injuries: Jake Westbrook (elbow surgery) out for a year, catcher Victor Martinez (elbow surgery), Josh Barfield (finger surgery) out for a few months, Travis Hafner (shoulder) out for who knows how long, Adam Miller (finger surgery), Fausto Carmona (hip) having another “setback,” his return time is now the middle of July.

2. Bullpen: Currently ranks second worst in the American League in Earned Run Average. Once was a stable entity in the past. They are also last in the A.L. in saves.

3. Hitting: Indians currently sit last in the American League in hits and 11th out of 14 teams in the A.L. in on-base percentage. The injuries have taken there toll on the offense!

4. Void fillers: Guys like Peralta, Blake, and Garko have continued to struggle in the absences of Hafner and Martinez. In the past these players have stepped up when others were slumping, which has not been the case this year. None of these three players are currently hitting over .270.

5. Can’t win the Close ones: The Indians are currently 6-8 in games decided by one run. To be a contender these are the games you must win. (See Bullpen above)

6. Slow Start: With the high expectations for this team going into the year the Indians needed to jump out early. With the team being fairly young in age it was imperative for them to have some success in the early months of the season. March-May their record was 25-30.

7. Streaks: The Indians have gone on 2 runs this year in April they won 5 straight, however in May they lost 7 straight.

8. Struggling Ace: C.C. Sabathia has since turned his season around, but he began the season 1-5. His earned run average was 7.51 at that time and this did not bode well for the Tribe, nor the reigning Cy young Award Winner. His E.R.A. is currently 4.06.

9. Can’t Capitalize: The Indians are in the second worst division in all of baseball, yet they can’t seem to make ground on the other teams in the Central. The Detroit Tigers also came into the season with high hopes and they got off to an even worst start than the Tribe, but they now sit a game and half ahead of Indians in the standings.

10. Consistency: This team has not found any one thing that they are good at and consistent at. This has made Eric Wedge’s job more difficult and even more impressive.. If the team is good at one aspect of the game, then he could rely on that one thing and dwell on the many others. When it is all said and done, this could be Wedge’s best year in terms of managing because of the way that he has dealt with all of this teams obstacles.