Indians Confidential

Dr. Cliff Lee was back in his office Wednesday night, otherwise known as the pitchers mound, once again performing surgery as he continued to look more like the best pitcher in the Majors than a pitcher who actually struggled in Triple A last season. In last nights 3-0 shutout of the Yankees, Lee was at it again, with seven shutout innings, six hits allowed, seven strikeouts and zero walks. The win puts him at 6-0 on the season, the best start for an Indians pitcher in 20 years (Greg Swindell 1988).

Lee dropped his ERA to 0.81, and what he continues to do start in and start out is get ahead of hitters, and once again vs the Yankees that was the case. He also has been dead on with location, allowing just two walks this season and four earned runs in 44.2 innings pitched. No one could have possibly expected Lee to get off to this type of start, but so far in this rather inconsistent season, he has been the brightest of bright spots for the Tribe.

The team was also on offense finally able to get to Yankees starter Chein-Ming Wang, who shut them out last Sunday at Progressive Field 1-0. The scored a run in the first after Grady Sizemore walked, went to second on a single, third on a fielder’s choice, and home on a sac fly by Victor Martinez. That run held up till the fourth, when Casey Blake singled in Jhonny Peralta with two outs to make it 2-0.

With Lee setting down the Yankees with what looked like ease, two runs were more than enough, but the team did add another in the fifth, when with one out David Dellucci hit a shot up the middle that brought in Andy Marte, who had actually got a hit, to make it 3-0. Lee did allow two singles in the 5th, and runners to reach second and third in the 6th, but was able to get out of both jams.

The bullpen for the second straight night did its job, as Rafael Perez pitched a scoreless 8th allowing one hit with two outs, and Rafael Betancourt earned his 4th save with his second straight 1-2-3 ninth. The win puts the Indians at 16-17, and it is their first season series win over the Yankees since 1992. They have not swept the Yanks in Yankee Stadium since 1989, but can do so today with Paul Byrd taking on Mike Mussina at 1:05pm.

Patience paid off for the Indians Tuesday night in the Bronx, as the Tribe drew two monster walks in the 8th inning, opening up the door for pinch-hitter David Dellucci to belt a three-run homer as the Indians top the Yankees 5-3.  Grady Sizemore and Jhonny Peralta both walked off of Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlin, setting up Dellucci for his 4th homer of the season, a shot to deep right that was just the emotional lift that the Wahoo’s needed.

The bullpen, a big concern as of late, did a nice job in the final four innings, allowing NY just two hits.  Rafael Perez, Jensen Lewis and Rafael Betancourt shut the door, not giving New York a shot to increase their lead or get back in the game once the Indians took control after Dellucci’s blast.  Perez gets the win to improve to 1-1 on the season, Betancourt earned his 3rd save of the year.

The Indians were outhit 8-6, but they got the big hits when they needed them.  Trailing 1-0 in the fourth, Peralta homered to deep center off of Andy Pettitte to give the Indians a 2-1 lead.  It was Peralta’s 6th homer of the season.  The Yankees came back with two runs in the bottom of the inning off of Indians starter Fausto Carmona, as Jason Giambi doubled in a run, and Robinson Cano singled in Giambi to make it 3-2.

Neither team was able to get another run across till the Indians were able to get to Chamberlin with the walks and then Dellucci’s homer to win the game.  The win puts the Indians at 15-17 on the season.  Wednesday Cliff Lee brings his 5-0 mark to the mound as he takes on 6-0 Chein-Ming Wang, who shut out the Indians last Sunday 1-0 at Progressive Field.  First pitch Wednesday night is 7:05pm.

You can do a lot passing the time waiting for a rain dealy to pass. While the delay never ended Friday night, I had the pleasure of dining with two of my favorite vets in the Cleveland media - Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer and Greg Brinda, sports talk host of ESPN 850 WKNR. While it was fun to trade some personal stuff with these solid vets, we also talked some Indians. Here is a quick set of highlights of our discussions:

Travis Hafner - We all agreed that the issues that are hindering Hafner are not issues that are going to be solved quickly. Travis’ problems that started last year are far and away a complete mystery as to not only why they started, but what he can do to get it turned back around. Hoynes compared Hafner’s sudden lack of power to fomer Indian Carols Baerga, whose issues off the field and lack of production eventually got him traded to the Mets in 1996.

The Closer Role - We all agree that putting Joe Borowski right back in the closer role is a risky call, but as Paul pointed out - could it get any worse than it is right now? We also all came to the conclusion that one wild card in the closer mix could be Masa Kobayashi, who seems to have adjusted nicely in the Majors. One thing appears for sure - Rafael Betancourt, Rafael Perez and Borowski don’t appear to be the answer.

Adding a Spark to the Offense - Hoynes thinks that Mark Shapiro is going to have to make a move and add a bat to the lineup, and I don’t disagree with that. Bringing up Ben Francisco and keeping him on the Major League roster is something that should be done soon. As far as some of the players that could be on the bubble of being sent elsewhere or even being shown the door include Jason Michaels (.207), Andy Marte (.077) and maybe reduced playing time for Jhonny Peralta (.229).

Let’s forget about the lack of offense for a moment.  We have plenty of time to get to that.  Let’s just say that for one night, Rafael Betancourt picked a bad time to throw a fastball away that just wasn’t away enough.  And with that, three runs later after the Mariners Adrian Beltre took that fastball out of the park, the Indians are now in the midst of a three-game losing streak after their latest 7-2 home setback at Progressive Field.

The offense is just a whole other animal right now.  No one on this club is coming up with any sort of big hit at anytime, and while Eric Wedge is preaching that it’s up to each individual player to get it right, the team is just suffering badly at the plate, wasting night after night of solid starts by pitchers who have to be getting frustrated.

Look at the averages, and it’s not hard to figure out why the team is not winning games on a consistent level right now.  Looking down the one through nine lineup after the game, five of the players were batting under .250, with Asdrubal Cabrera, Casey Blake and Andy Marte batting .215, .208 and .077.  Bottom line is if these players keep up their current pace, changes will have to be made.

Back to the night, the Indians had a shot early to get to Mariners starter Carlos Silva, but they let him off the hook as they were able to push across one run, but a Jhonny Peralta double play killed any early momentum.  A Cabrera error in the 3rd opened the door for Seattle as a Jose Vidro double tied the game with two outs.

Seattle went up 2-1 in the 5th when another Vidro double pushed a run across to give the M’s the lead.  The Indians bats were as quiet as field mice, and it was not until the 8th that they finally were able to get the tying run across.  It came after Grady Sizemore, who was 2-for-4 in his first game back in the lineup after missing two games, walked, went to third on a David Dellucci single, then scored on a Travis Hafner ground out.

That inning again though, the team failed to take advantage of Dellucci being at second with one out, as Victor Martinez popped out, and Peralta struck out, allowing the inning to end 2-2.  It was then in the 9th when the flood gates opened, and the M’s scored five times to put the game away.

Wednesday Cliff Lee will look to start 5-0, as he will take on Jarrod Washburn 1-3 at 7:05.  The Indians are now 12-15, just 6-9 at home, and are 3 back of the White Sox in the Central.

Needing a spark in the worst of ways, the Indians finally got it on Thursday night in the finale of their seven-game homestand with that ends with a much needed 11-1 win over the rival Tigers. The spark came from starting pitcher Fausto Carmona, who picked up last night’s poor outing from C.C. Sabathia with a solid 6.2 innings of one run, 7-hit ball. He walked just one batter after issuing eight walks in his previous outing, and struck out two to move to 2-1 on the season.

The offense also came to life against Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander. Both Ryan Garko and Travis Hafner hit bombs off of Verlander, and every starter in the lineup had at least one hit. Franklin Gutierrez, Jason Michaels and Jamey Carroll all each had two hits. The Tribe put up three runs in the second, with Michaels, Casey Blake and Carroll getting RBI’s in the frame.

Garko’s two-run homer in the fifth made it 5-0 and gave Fausto some breathing room. After the Tigers made it 5-1 in the 6th, the Indians put the game away with a five-run bottom of the sixth that included a Carroll triple that scored a run, a Hafner homer that scored two, and and Michaels single that scored Jhonny Peralta and Garko to make it 10-1. The Indians pushed across another run in the 7th when Victor Martinez hit a double that scored Carroll to make it 11-1.

The bullpen did its job as well, as they got Jensen Lewis got one out, Masa Kobayashi pitched an inning, and then Rafel Betancourt pitched a perfect night to wrap up a night that the team sorely needed.

The team now heads on the road as they continue to try and work their way to .500 with games over the weekend vs the Twins, then they get their first look at the Royals for a three-game set starting next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday night at the dome in Minneapolis it’s Cliff Lee at 2-0 vs Francisco Liriano (0-1, 7.71) for the Twins.

It took all of one blown save for the Indians bloggers across the world to call for closer Joe Borowski’s head. Yes, I will be the first to admit that his presence in a ball game, a close ball game, in the 9th inning usually calls for a bottle of antacids. Last season with 45 saves for the AL Central Champs it always seemed that JoBo was finding ways to get in trouble in that final frame. It was like Borowski was the more in-shape version of Bob Wickman.

With that though, I am not going to panic just yet. Don’t forget last season when Borowski gave up an April slam to Alex Rodriguez in New York that lost the Indians a chance to salvage an early season game in the Bronx. These things are going to happen. Mariano Rivera lost a World Series game seven once, and he is a for sure Hall of Famer.

I’m not saying I want to go though another gut-wrenching, sweaty palms season every time Borowski comes in, but I’m also looking around wondering what choices the team has. Rafel Betancourt, Rafael Perez, Jensen Lewis, Jorge Julio? I guess for now I’ll take my chances with Borowski. After all, what choice does the team really have?

Who should be the closer for the Cleveland Indians?

Lots of stories today on the re-signing of a new deal for Rafael Betancourt, here are some of the bigger ones:

My good pal Chris Assenheimer’s story at the Chronicle - in which he makes a good point that the Tribe has not had an arbitration hearing since 1991:

One down, Casey Blake to go: Indians re-sign Rafael Betancourt, avoid arbitration again

Here’s Sheldon Ocker’s piece in the ABJ about Betancourt:

Indians relieved to sign reliever

And 3rd another good friend, Andy Call, from the Canton Repository, and his story on Rafael:

Betancourt takes roundabout route to new contract