Indians Confidential

It’s been talked about enough among the media that if the Indians are going to put the tough start to 2008 behind them and make a run at the White Sox in the AL Central, they are going to have to do it now.  So far, so good.  With the next five series’ all against teams that are under .500, the Indians won their second straight series on Sunday, topping the San Diego Padres at Progressive Field 7-3.

The win wraps up the homestand at 4-2, and puts the team back to 4 games under .500 at 33-37.  Maybe the most promising sign is the fact that the offense is finally starting to come around, and this without Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez.  The players now picking up the slack are Grady Sizemore, who hit another homer Sunday, Ben Francisco, Shin Soo-Choo, and Jamey Carroll.

It could be a season where if the Tribe is going to make a run, they are going to make it with lesser known players like Choo and Carroll having career years.  The starting pitching staff continues to have their moments, as Sunday C.C. Sabathia notched his 5th win against 8 losses.  He went 8 innings, allowing three runs on six hits.  He also had his fastball in high range, striking out 10 Paders.  He drops his ERA to 4.30.

He had one bad inning in which he allowed three runs on four hits, but otherwise was very good.  He got out of a jam with a Jody Gerut on third with no outs, and struck out the side, setting the tone for the rest of the day.  He struck out two in the 2nd, got a double play in the 3rd, struck out two more in the 5th, and got a K and double play in the 6th.

The offense was paced by Francisco, who hit a three-run homer in the third off of Greg Maddux to put the Tribe up 3-0.  After San Diego rallied to tie the game in the 4th, the Indians got single runs in the 4th and 6th innings.  Casey Blake hit a dribbler to Maddux to score Choo who had doubled to lead off the 4th, and then they made it 5-3 when Franklin Gutierrez singled to center.

Sizemore continued his torrid hitting when he homered to lead off the 7th vs Cla Meredith to make it 6-3.  After Carroll singled and stole second Jhonny Peralta four batters later doubled him in to give the team a 7-3 advantage.

The Indians are off Monday, as they continue their interleague play on Tuesday night with a trip to Colorado to take on the NL Champion Rockies.  Paul Byrd (3-6, 4.89) will go Tuesday for the team vs Greg Reynolds (1-4, 6.69) with a start time of 9:05pm Eastern.

On a day that had its share of downs with Victor Martinez and Josh Barfield finding themselves on the DL, the Indians put all that behind them and put on an offensive explosion in pounding the Twins 12-2 at Progressive Field. They put up a season-high in hits with 18, hit two homers, and everyone in the starting lineup minus Ryan Garko had a hit and scored at least one run.

Aaron Laffey made it a laugher as well, going six solid innings to improve to 4-3 on the season. He allowed just one run on five hits, walking one and striking out four. He also dropped his ERA to 2.83 on the year. Laffey is a player that will have to pitch great the rest of the season if the Indians want to contend the AL Central.

As for the offense, they hit early and often. They pounded Twins starter Livan Hernandez, hitting him up for 7 runs on 12 hits in just three innings. He also allowed two homers, one to Grady Sizemore in the 4th with no one on, and a three-run blast to Shin Soo-Choo in the 3rd and put the Indians up 6-0.
The Tribe scored a single run in the 2nd when Kelly Shoppach punched in an RBI single. They put up five in the third, with Choo’s blow being the biggest of the inning. Jhonny Peralta also had a big hit, a two-run RBI single that scored Jamey Carroll and Ben Francisco.

Carroll was impressive at the plate, going 4-for-4 and raising his average to .273. Francisco went 4-for-5 with three RBI, he’s hitting .309. Choo went 2-for-3 with three RBI and is hitting .333. Poor Ryan Garko could not share in the fun, as he went 0-for-4 with six men left on base. I’m sure he’s not all that upset about it.

The win wins the series for the Indians, as they get set for interleague play with the Padres coming to town for a three-game set over the weekend. Cleveland is now 31-36 on the year, closing in on the Twins for second, who fall to 32-35.

With the pitching staff banged up with two starters on the DL, the Indians could ill afford to have starters they are counting on come up short.  Wednesday night at Progressive Field, that is exactly what happened as Paul Byrd was once again ineffective as the Indians dropped a winnable game to the Twins 8-5.  Byrd was slammed for a big third inning in which he allowed five runs on four hits, the big blow a three-run homer by DH Jason Kubel.

The Indians offense actually climbed back in the game and made it 5-4 in the 7th after Grady Sizemore hit a three-run homer for his team-leading 13th of the season.  They had runners on in the bottom of the 8th, but Jhonny Peralta and David Dellucci each struck out to end the threat.  Joe Borowski then imploded in an inning where Eric Wedge was simply trying to give him work.

The “closer” came in and closed out any chance the Indians had, giving up three runs on three hits, and also failed at all to keep runners on at first, basically allowing two stolen bases.  It was that type of night for the Tribe, who fall to 30-36 with the loss. Back to Byrd, he allowed five earned runs on six hits in three innings, walking one and allowing the homer to Kubel.  He falls to 3-6 on the season, and his ERA jumps to 4.89.

Sizemore had two hits and three RBI on the night, while the bottom of the order actually put up decent numbers, with Casey Blake going 3-for-4 and Jamey Carroll going 3-4.  The rest of the lineup did little against five Twins pitchers, led by Nick Blackburn, who went six innings, allowing two runs on seven hits, walking one and striking out five.

Thursday night the series vs the divisional foes wrap up at 7:05pm as AL Rookie of the Month Aaron Laffey (3-3, 2.98) goes for the Indians vs Livan Hernandez (6-3, 5.32).

The Indians found a new way to lose on Friday night at Progressive Field, as they were able to put up 9 runs, the problem was they allowed 13 in losing their 7th straight, falling to the Texas Rangers 13-9. The night started bad (four runs in the first), and never really got better in the 4 hour 9 minute affair, the second longest game in the ballparks history.

Fausto Carmona was battered early before leaving the game with a hip strain. He allowed the Rangers the four runs in the first inning before many of the 39,947 were even sitting down. The Indians offense actually showed signs of life, getting two runs back in the bottom of the first on RBI from Ben Francisco and Travis Hafner to make it 4-2.

It looked as if the Indians were going to get back in the game for good in the 2nd, as they again got a run, this time off a Hafner sac fly to deep center to make it 4-3. That’s when the bottom dropped out. In the third, the Rangers sent 11 batters to the plate, the highlight of the inning coming when light hitting catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia took a Jorge Julio pitch 380 feet with the bases loaded for his first career grand slam to make it 9-3.

Carmona had left the game two batter before Saltalamacchia with what was told to us was a hip strain. He is day-to-day. The line on Carmona was awful - two innings, five hits, six runs, three walks and one K. He suffered the loss to put him at 4-2 on the season. Even worse though was Julio, who at this point simply has to be the next to go off this roster.

The journeyman reliever came in and allowed six Rangers to either get hits or walks before finally retiring a batter. He lasted 1.2 innings, allowing five runs on six hits, three walks, one K and the grand slam. The night for him was mercifully over, but not before he cemented the fact that he should be the next to be shown the door.

Down 11-3 the Indians made it somewhat interesting, scoring three in the bottom of the third when Grady Sizemore homered to make it 11-6. No more runs were scored till the teams traded runs in the 6th to make it 12-7, and then in the bottom of the 7th Jamey Carroll doubled in two more to make it 12-9. The Rangers made sure they wouldn’t lose this one, as they scored a run in the 8th off of Rafael Perez to end the scoring at 13-9.

The now 7-game losing streak is the longest the Indians have had since they lost 9 in August of 2004. The team will once again try to rebound on Saturday as Cliff Lee will go for the Indians vs Scott Feldman at 7:05pm.

You know it’s bad when even Cliff Lee can’t stop the bleeding.  Sunday in Cincy, Lee was hit hard for the first time all season, allowing a couple of homers and six runs as the Indians were swept by the rival Reds 6-4 at Great American Ballpark.  Lee lost for the first time all season, allowing six runs, five earned in 5.2 innings.  He gave up 10 hits, walked one and struck out two.  He falls to 6-1 on the season, and his ERA finally moves over 1, at 1.37.

There were able to get a few runs off of Reds starter Edinson Volquez, who came in at 6-1.  The Indians got to hiim for two runs on four hits on 6 innings.  They got two more runs in the bottom of the 6th when it was 6-2 Reds, as Jamey Carroll and Victor Martinez got singles off of the Reds pen to make it 6-4.  The bullpen for Cincy was able to close it out, giving them their 21st win against 23 losses.  The Indians fall to 22-22 on the season.

The offense pounded out nine hits in the loss.  Carroll was 2-for-4, while seven other players each had one hit.  The pen did a good job, as Jensen Lewis, Rafael Perez and Jorge Julio held the Reds to just one hit over the last 2.1 innings.  They did allow two walks, but neither were able to score, so they meant little.

The road trip continues for the Indians as they move to Chicago for a three-game set vs the White Sox on Monday night.  C.C. Sabathia (3-5, 5.47) takes on Jose Contreras (4-3, 3.35) at 8:11pm.

Extra innings is always a strange animal.  In one swing of the bat in the 10th, the Indians looked as if they were going to go down to defeat 2-1.  Then, for the first time all year it seems, the team showed a great amount of patience at the plate in the bottom of the inning, and with it took advantage of the wild J.J. Putz to draw to an eventual 2-2 tie, and then one inning later Asdrubal Cabrera drove in the game-winning run as Jason Michaels came around to score to give the Indians a 3-2 win.

For 8 innings things seemed just fine at Progressive Field.  The Indians were winning 1-0, Paul Byrd had just pitched his most impressive outing of the year, and Rafel Perez got the team out of the 8th without any damage.  Enter the remainder of the bullpen.  It was the combo tonight of Rafael Betancourt (court was not in session) and Masa Kobyashi that allowed two Mariners runs to cross the plate in two very different ways to almost send the Tribe to a 2-1 loss.

The first Mariner run came off of Betancourt in the 9th with the Indians up 1-0.  Needless to say that Betancourt looks nothing like a closer so far.  Ichiro Suzuki singled, stole second, then stole third and on the throw from Victor Martinez, Casey Blake flubbed it at third and Ichiro came around on the error to score.  The Mariners went ahead much quicker in the 10th, when on the first pitch former Indian Richie Sexson took a Masa pitch and quickly belted it to the home run porch in left to make it 2-1.

The Indians though wouldn’t give in, and used two walks from a wild Putz, and a Ryan Garko and Franklin Gutierrez single each to get the tying run across, as it scored when Grady Sizemore drew a walk from Putz to make it 2-2.  Both Blake and David Dellucci struck out though to keep the epic affair going.  The 11th came quickly for the Indians, and a Jhonny Peralta walk, Travis Hafner double, Jamey Carroll hit-by-pitch and then Cabrera single to center sent the fans home happy.

Byrd dominated and has nothing to show for it.  He was quick to the plate and threw strikes, throwing 66 in 93 pitches, not allowing himself to really get behind in the count much if at all.  He allowed four hits in 7.2 innings, striking out four and walking one, and dropping his at one point high ERA to 3.74.  He has been solid in his last four outings, allowing four runs in 5.2 vs the Yankees last Friday, one run vs the Twins on April 20th in seven innings, and no earned runs vs the Red Sox on April 15th.  Despite that, he still sits at just 1-2.

The Indians scored in the 4th vs the M’s Miguel Batista, as Travis Hafner finally showed signs of life with a double that scored Victor Martinez to make it 1-0.  The game stayed that way till the ninth, when Seattle tied it.

They are at home for the next three days, as they welcome their whipping boys in the KC Royals, who they swept last week in Kansas City.  Friday night at 7:05pm it will be C.C Sabathia (1-4, 7.88) vs Luke Hochevar (1-1, 5.91).

The slump for the big boys in the Indians lineup continued Monday night, and right now despite what Eric Wedge, there really appears to be no end in sight. Wedge said postgame that he feels the letdown at the plate as of late is not like earlier in the year when the team couldn’t get anything going offensively, but the numbers appear to point out otherwise. Let’s call it what it is - the offense is going nowhere fast.

The worst part is the lineup is being undone by players that the team truly is counting on and needs to hit, otherwise it’s going nowhere fast in 2008. Ryan Garko, who got a specific comment Monday night by Wedge in the post game as someone who is struggling, was the teams most productive player at the plate through the first two and a half weeks of the season, but now is in the midst of a 0-for-23 slump.

Add that to the on-going lack of production for Travis Hafner, (.219, 21-for-96) and the awful start for Jhonny Peralta (.247) and it’s easy to see why the starting pitching has gone mostly undone by the lack of hitting. Take a look at some of the other soft numbers at the plate:

Jason Michaels 11-for-55 .200 0 homers 8 RBI
Jamey Carroll 7-for-32 .219 0 homers 3 RBI
Asdrubal Cabrera 16-for-73 .219 0 homers 8 RBI
Ryan Garko 20-for-88 .227 2 homers 12 RBI