Indians Confidential

In a season that has seen the Indians win just 55 games, the one shining light continues to come out every five days, and his name is Cliff Lee.  Friday night vs the best team in baseball record wise, Lee was on his game, again, going the distance as the Indians topped the Angels 3-2 at Progressive Field.  The numbers on the now 17-2 Lee are amazing.  His 17 wins leads the American League, and ties him with Brandon Webb of the D’Backs for most wins in the Majors.  It also was his third complete game of the season.  He allowed two earned runs on 8 hits, walking two and striking out eight.  He also got the help of the defense behind him, as there were four double plays, and an amazing play by Asdrubal Cabrera to save a hit.

Lee was good enough, and while the offense scrapped for a couple of innings, they finally got to Angels starter Jeff Weaver in the sixth, enough for manager Mike Scioscia to pull him and put in Jose Arredondo, who allowed a hit and three walks, one of which was Cabrera’s with the bases loaded that gave the Indians the lead for good.  On the night the Indians only managed eight hits themselves, but walked five times and showed patience at the plate to allow the Angels pitchers, who are usually dead on, to hang themselves.

Jhonny Peralta smacked a double in the 4th off of Weaver that tied the game at one.  Peralta was thrown out at second on the play, but nevertheless got the RBI and was 2-for-4 on the night and is now hitting .278 on the season.  Juan Rivera hit a solo homer off of Lee in the 5th to give the Angels a 2-1 lead.  It was the last mistake that Lee would make on the night, and the defense and offense backed him up and got the run back with another in the 6th to win the game.

Ryan Garko singled home the tying run off of Arredondo to make it 2-2 in the 6th.  With the bases loaded, Cabrera watched as Arredondo threw four balls that allowed the game winning run to score.  The Indians improve to 55-66 on the year, and have won 7 of their last 10.  The Angels drop to 75-45.  Tomorrow at 3:55pm it’s Fausto Carmona (5-4, 4.91) for the Indians vs John Lackey (9-2, 3.15) with the game nationally televised on FOX.

Paul Byrd continues to be a bright spot in a season gone wrong for the Indians, as Saturday he threw a six-hitter vs the Blue Jays in the Indians 4-2 win at the Rogers Centre.  “I had a really good curveball today,” Byrd said. “I used it to left-handers a lot. I got a strikeout on it, a number of outs on it. I got some first-pitch strikes on my curveball, I thought that was key. It’s probably not in the scouting report for them over there.”  It was the 4th straight win for Byrd, who had at one point lost five straight from June 11th to July 4th.

He moves to 7-10 on the season, it was his first complete game since a 7-0 win last season vs the White Sox on September 1st.  He allowed two runs and six hits, walked none and struck out two. He threw 93 pitches, 67 for strikes.  He set down 12 straight batters and 21 of 22 overall when Lyle Overbay hit a two-out single in the ninth. Overbay was thrown out by left-fielder Ben Francisco to end the game as he tried to stretch the hit into a double.

The Indians offense did a nice job getting Byrd the win, as they scored three runs in the 6th inning to turn a 2-1 deficit to a 4-2 lead.  Jhonny Peralta led off with a single and Choo followed with a grounder to short that left runners at first and second after John McDonald threw high to Inglett as he tried for the force. Francisco bunted to advance the runners before Garko and Andy Marte hit run-scoring singles.  Asdrubal Cabrera walked and Garko was forced out at the plate on Grady Sizemore’s fielder’s choice before David Delluci drove in a run with a bases-loaded walk.

The Tribe has owned the Jays this year, as they are 5-1 against them, and have outscored them 30-8 in the six games.  Sunday they look for the sweep as 15-2 Cliff Lee goes for the Indians vs Scott Richmond (0-1, 4.91) for the Jays, making his 3rd career start.

David Dellucci’s two-run homer in the top of the fifth snapped a 2-all tie and the Indians held on for a 5-2 win over the Rays in the opener of a three-game series at Tropicana Field.  The Indians have had the Rays number this season, as after last night’s win the team is 5-0 against them this season.

Cliff Lee hurled seven innings of two-run ball to become the second 15-game winner in the majors.  Asdrubal Cabrera hit a solo shot and Kelly Shoppach plated two runs for the Indians, who have split their last four contests. 

Rafael Perez threw two scoreless innings to notch his second save.  Aki Iwamura had a two-run single for the Rays, who had won five in-a-row.  Matt Garza allowed four runs over five frames to take the loss.

The Indians continue their series with the Rays tonight.  Fausto Carmona, who’s 5-and-3 with a 4.19 ERA, will start for the Indians.  The Rays will send out Edwin Jackson, who’s 7-and-7 with a 4.20 ERA.  First pitch at Tropicana Field is set for 7:10 p.m.

Home cooking is starting to taste good again to the Indians, who Friday night in the kickoff of Beach weekend (whatever) took advantage again of Twins pitcher Livan Hernandez in beating Minnesota 5-2.  The Indians roughed up Hernandez back on June 12th, as they scored 7 runs against him on 12 hits in just three innings in a 12-2 win.

Tonight they jumped on him for four runs in the first inning to set the pace, also sending 8 men to the plate.  Ben Francisco hit a sac fly with two on that scored Grady Sizemore from second when Carlos Gomez slammed against the wall and laid on the ground hurt.  Shin-Soo Choo hit another sac fly to make it 2-0 that scored Jamey Carroll.  Kelly Shoppach two batters later hit a double that scored Jhonny Peralta and Casey Blake to make it 4-0.

Cliff Lee was on again for the Indians, as the Cy Young candidate went 8 innings, throwing another gem.  He allowed two runs on six hits, striking out 10.  The Tribe MVP improves to 14-2 on the year, the first pitcher in the Majors to win 14 games this year.  He allowed a single run in the 3rd on a Denard Span single, and another in the 6th on  Joe Mauer double, but other than that was again solid.

The Indians offense also got a homer from Franklin Gutierrez in the 9th spot in the order which made it 5-1 in the second.  They pounded out 12 hits on the night, with Blake, Peralta and Gutierrez all with more than one hit. Masa Kobayashi came in to take the final inning for Lee and quickly allowed a hit and a Justin Morneau homer to make it 5-4.   Delmon Young then doubled and Eric Wedge moved to Rafael Perez.

Perez got Mike Redmond to lineout to first, then got Brendan Harris to ground out to the pitcher to get two quick outs.  The threat was gone when Nick Punto grounded out to second on a great play by Asdrubal Cabrera to end the game.

The team, now 45-56, will look for two in a row over the Twins on Saturday night at 7:05 when it’s the return of Fausto Carmona (4-2, 3.10) from the DL vs Scott Baker (6-3, 3.26).

Indians manager Eric Wedge has preached throughout this tough season that his team was not going to give in, no matter what the circumstances. That theory was again shown over the weekend as the team returned to action to take two-of-three from the Mariners in a series between two teams going nowhere fast. They dropped the first game, but recovered nicely to win the final two games of the series to take the series and up their streak to winning six of their last seven.

Sunday it was All-Star starter Cliff Lee’s turn to take the hill, and while it for sure was not one of his best outings of the season, the lefty got the job done, allowing 11 hits, but going the distance as the team topped Seattle 6-2. The big hit of the day was a Kelly Shoppach three-run homer that made a 1-1 game a 4-1 Indians lead. That was all Lee would need to up his record to 13-2.

It’s amazing to think that the Indians, a team that is 11 games under .500, has a pitcher on staff that is 11 games over .500. That’s the case with Lee, who by far is the teams MVP this season. He threw strikes to 16 of his first 20 batters, and 41 of his first 50 pitches were strikes, showing how good his command was. Four of the Mariners 11 hits were infield hits, and only one batter all day saw ball three.

The Indians will now move to Anaheim, where they may find a lot more competition than the Mariners. Anaheim has the best record in the Majors at 60-38, a far cry from the awful Mariners who after yesterday are 38-60. Nevertheless, the team can hang its head high as they are playing some of the best ball we’ve seen all season, problem is it’s very likely too little, too late.

The Indians today outrighted INF JORGE VELANDIA off of the 40-man roster to AAA Buffalo. Please note that TOMORROW the Indians will recall INF ASDRUBAL CABRERA from AAA Buffalo. He will join the team tonight in time for the 5PM workout in Progressive Field before the team flies on to Seattle, WA.

In addition, Kinston OF NICK WEGLARZ has been named to the Canadian Olympic Baseball Team, joining Akron LHP TJ BURTON. OF MATT LaPORTA (AA Akron) & RHP JEFF STEVENS (AAA Buffalo) have been named to the United States 24-man Olympic roster.

Fri., July 18 at Seattle (10:10PM ET, WTAM/IRN, STO)

LHP Aaron Laffey vs. RHP Felix Hernandez

Sat., July 19 at Seattle (3:55PM ET, WTAM/IRN, NO TV)

LHP Jeremy Sowers vs. LHP Jarrod Washburn

Sun., July 20 at Seattle (4:10PM ET, WTAM/IRN, STO)

LHP Cliff Lee vs. RHP Carlos Silva

Make that two nights in a row that the Indians look like a Major League team that cares again.  With their All-Star pitcher on the hill, the Indians again made life miserable for the Rays on Friday night at Progressive Field, stunning Tampa Bay with another beating, 5-0.  The Indians have whipped the Rays, a team that was coming in alreday slumping, by outscoring them 18-2 in the first two wins of the series.

Cliff Lee, the likely starter for the American League All-stars in New York on Tuesday night, moved to 12-2 with another solid outing.  He went six innings, allowing no runs on five hits, walking one and striking out seven. With the outing the best pitcher on the team lowered his ERA to 2.31.  He was in control, and while the Rays had some baserunners, they never were able to get that big hit off of him.

Big hits have come in bunches over the last 48 hours for the Indians.  They scored a run in the first when Jhonny Peralta smacked a double off of Rays losing pitcher James Sheilds to quickly make it 1-0 as Ben Francisco came around to score.  They added two more in the third when Peralta was at it again, hitting his 15th homer of the season, again scoring Francisco to make it 3-0.

With Lee shutting the Rays down, the offense added to the lead in the 5th, scoring a run on a Francisco double to center that scored Jamey Carroll.  They wrapped up their third solid night at the plate with a run in the 7th as Carroll singled to center to score Grady Sizemore to make it 5-0.

Another positive again was the bullpen, which for the last two nights has been given leads and have held them with somewhat ease.  Tonight Lee handed off to Rafael Perez, who went 1.2 scoreless innings, and then in the 9th Edward Mujica allowed a hit but was able to get out of it to complete the shutout.

The win puts the Indians at 39-53 on the season.  They will look for three straight on Saturday night at 7:05pm as Matt Ginter is expected to take the now departed C.C. Sabathia spot in the rotation, for at least one night, as he’ll take on Matt Garza (7-4).