Indians Confidential

Indians CA KELLY SHOPPACH underwent successful arthroscopic surgery this morning on his right knee.

Indians Head Team Physician Mark Schickendantz performed the 30-minute menisectomy at the Cleveland Clinic to debride cartilage in his right knee.

Kelly will remain in Cleveland this week before reporting to Goodyear, Arizona for further treatment and rehabilitation. He will assume his normal off-season strength and conditioning program in 4 weeks.

Kelly hit .261 (92-352) in 2008 with 27 doubles, 21 homers and 55 RBI in 112 games and led all American League catchers in home runs. He caught the season’s final game yesterday in Chicago.

The Indians had one wild fifth inning Friday night at Kauffmann Stadium, seven consecutive hits, five successive RBI singles, six runs, as the Tribe topped the Royals 9-3. The fifth inning took what was an Indians 2-0 lead and extended it to 8-0. Pitcher Anthony Reyes wasn’t able to do much Friday night, as a sore elbow stopped him after just three innings. He is still having a solid year for the Indians, as he continues to make a push for a look at being in the rotation in 2009.

The win for the Tribe matches the fourth-longest road winning streak in franchise history and they now have won five straight and 13 of 18 overall. The win puts the Indians at 68-71 on the year, just three games under .500. They are still 10.5 games back of the White Sox, but are looking more and more like the worst they will be this year is a third-place team, as they are two full games ahead of fourth-place Detroit.

The offense for the Indians was paced by 12 hits. Everyone minus Franklin Gutierrez had at least one hit, and Jamey Carroll, Victor Martinez and Shin-Soo Choo each had two hits. Zach Jackson (0-1, 6.17) goes Saturday night for the Indians against Royals starter Gil Meche (10-10, 4.07 ERA) at 7:10pm.

The Indians today announced that JAKE WESTBROOK underwent successful right hip arthroscopic surgery in Nashville, TN. Dr. Thomas Byrd performed the surgery. Westbrook will be on crutches for 4 weeks before he can resume his normal strength and conditioning program. The surgery will not affect his return to throw program as Westbrook is scheduled to begin throwing off flat ground around Thanksgiving time.

Indians left-hander Cliff Lee, who went 5-0 with a 1.86 ERA last month, has been named the American League Pitcher of the Month for August 2008. This marks Lee’s second A.L. Pitcher of the Month honor of the 2008 season; he also won in April, when he went 5-0 with a 0.96 ERA.

In August, the 30-year-old Lee spanned 38.2 innings pitched, allowing eight earned runs on 36 hits with seven walks. The Arkansas native went at least seven innings in each of his five August starts and did not surrender more than two earned runs in any outing. With a 5-0 Cleveland win over the Chicago White Sox on Monday, September 1st, Cliff became the first Indians pitcher since 1974 (Gaylord Perry, 21-13) to become a 20-game winner. Lee is just the seventh pitcher since 1920 to win 20 of his first 22 decisions.

He went 8.0 scoreless innings against the Toronto Blue Jays on August 10th. On August 15th, Lee pitched a complete game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, allowing two runs and striking out six. On the season, Lee leads Major League Baseball in wins with a 20-2 (.909) record and has a Major League-best 2.32 ERA. He has fanned 149 batters in 194.1 innings and has posted four complete games, including two shutouts, in his 27 starts. Lee, the A.L.’s starting pitcher in the 2008 All-Star Game, has now won nine straight decisions. His only losses came on May 18th (at CIN) and on July 6th (at MIN). The last Indians hurler to win A.L. Pitcher of the Month honors multiple times in the same season was Charles Nagy, who won for May and September in 1996.

Others receiving consideration were Daisuke Matsuzaka (5-0, 2.25 ERA, 40.0 IP, 38 SO) of the Boston Red Sox, Roy Halladay (5-1, 2.06 ERA, 43.2 IP, 37 SO, 1 CG) of the Toronto Blue Jays, Gavin Floyd (4-0, 4.29 ERA, 35.2 IP, 30 SO) of the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins left-handers Francisco Liriano (4-0, 1.23 ERA, 36.2 IP, 29 SO) and Glen Perkins (4-0, 3.31 ERA, 35.1 IP, 13 SO).

* The twilight of the season has hit the Indians, as the team continues to put a positive spin on a season that has been a big letdown in the eyes of many fans.  One bright spot as of late has been the pitching of former Cardinal pitcher Anthony Reyes, who was impressive again Saturday in holding the Mariners to two runs over 7 innings in the teams latest 4-3 10 inning setback.

Reyes has stepped in and revived his career.  He has gone 2-1 with the Indians, and in all five starts has allowed two runs or less.  I could easily see him being the teams 5th starter last season if he can continue to get his pitches over and have the type of success he’s already had.  Let’s not forget he started game one of the World Series just two years ago with St.Louis.

* The team has been scuffling on offense the past two days, and manager Eric Wedge said yesterday that credit goes more to Mariners pitchers Felix Hernandez and Jarrod Washburn than the issues with the Indians hitters.  The team has been held to five runs in the last two losses after coming off a road trip where they scored 42 runs in 6 games in going 6-0.

* The team will make their call-ups in the next few days as they prepare for the final month of the season. Look for reliever Rich Rundles to get a call up from AAA Buffalo, where he has 57 K’s and an ERA of 2.82 this season.  The team will look to put as many band-aids on the pen this final month as they possibly can, and you can bet that is one area they will look to rebuild in the 2008 offseason.

CLEVELAND, OH — The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has activated CA VICTOR MARTINEZ from the 15-day disabled list. To allow room for Martinez on the roster the Indians designated INF ANDY GONZALEZ for assignment.

Martinez has been on the disabled list since June 12 and underwent surgery on his right elbow the following day. He began a 20-day rehab assignment on August 15 and appeared in 8 games at AA Akron and AAA Buffalo (.308, 8-26, HR, 3RBI) before today’s activation. Martinez hit .278 (55-198) with 11 doubles & 21 RBI in 54 games (.333SLG, .332 on-base) prior to going on the DL in June. It marked his second career stint on the Major League DL, his first since the 2003 season.

Gonzalez has been with the Indians since July 26 and appeared in 10 games (5-24, .208)

The red-hot Indians continue to put the heat on 3rd place Detroit, and Monday night in Comerica Park they flexed their muscles for a couple homer homers in a 4-3 win that took 10 innings.  The game-winner came in the 10th as Franklin Gutierrez hit a solo homer for the win to give the Indians their 8th straight victory.  Grady Sizemore hit two homers to join the 30-30 club, just the second player to have 30 homers and 30 steals ever in a season for the Tribe (Joe Carter in 87 was the other).

Sizemore is the first American League player to join the 30-30 club since Alfonso Soriano did it for Texas in 2005.  The Indians built a 3-1 lead after scoring single runs in the 1st, 3rd and 4th innings to give starter Zach Jackson a cushion.  He gave the runs back to the Tigers as Edgar Renteria hit a solo homer in the 5th and then Brandon Inge singled in a run in the 7th to make it 3-3.

Jackson went 6.1 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits, striking out six and allowing two homers.  Four other Indians pitchers held the Tigers in check, as Masa Kobayashi, Rafael Perez, Brenden Donnelly and Jensen Lewis combined to go 3.2 innings, allowing no runs on two hits, walking one and striking out two.

The win means the Indians are now just a half game out of third in the AL Central at 63-67, the Tigers are now 64-67.  They have their ace going on Tuesday as Cliff Lee looks for win #19 as he takes on former Cardinals first-round draft pick Chris Lambert (first start) at 7:05pm.