Indians Confidential

The Indians dreams of a weekend sweep in L.A. vs the Dodgers were swept away by one bonehead base running decision by third base coach Joel Skinner in the 5th inning that allowed the Dodgers to escape with a 4-3 win to salvage the finale of the three-game set.  The loss puts the Indians back at 35-41, and they end the six-game stretch vs the Rockies and Dodgers at 2-4 when it could have easily been 3-3.

The mistake came with the Indians down a run, and Jhonny Peralta on first with David Dellucci at the plate.  Dellucci doubled down the first base line, and Peralta came racing around second to third.  Skinner waived him home, and Andre Ethier’s throw to second baseman Luis Maza came into the plate with plenty of time to spare, nailing Peralta and ending the threat.

Fromt there, the Indians had just one hit, a double by Peralta in the 7th with two outs, but from there, were shut down the rest of the day and never really came close to getting that tying run across the plate again.  The loss again was suffered by Paul Byrd, who allowed four runs on five hits in the first inning to fall to 3-8.  A James Loney RBI double brought in two runs, then catcher Russell Martin homered, a Byrd trademark, to bring in two more runs to make it 4-0.

The Indians did rally off of Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley in the third to make it 4-3.  Shin-Soo Choo hit a fielders choice to drive in a run, then a hit by Ryan Garko past short make it 4-2.  Casey Blake hit a ground out to short to make it 4-3, but as stated above, that was about all she wrote for the Indians offense for the rest of the day.

Four Dodger relief pitchers shut the Indians down, as they allowed just one hit, no walks and four strikeouts over the final four innings.  Byrd would have been great minus that first inning, as he went 7 innings, allowing the four runs on seven hits, not allowing a walk and striking out one.  His ERA sits at 5.21 following the loss.

The Indians get Monday off as they get back home for two more series’ vs the National League this week. Tuesday night it’s the return of Omar Vizquel to Progressive Field, as the 32-44 San Fran Giants come in for the first of three, then the Reds come in over the weekend for the rahter overrated “Battle of Ohio” part two.

The Indians offense, which it seemed had been making big strides in their recent six-game homestand, has gone backwards in the thin air the last two nights in Colorado. After scoring two runs on Tuesday night in a 10-2 loss, the offense was held in check again, this time by Jeff Francis and three Rockies relief pitchers in a 4-2 loss. The team has dropped three of their last four.

Cleveland wasted a pretty good pitching outing from Aaron Laffey, who allowed eight hits and three runs in six innings. He falls to 4-4 on the season, it’s his first loss since May 22nd, and just his second loss since April 28th. Laffey continues to be a guy that has taken advantage of his chances, but on this night, the offense gave him little to no support.

Jeff Baker also continues to be a thorn in the Indians side, as one night after an inside-the-park homer vs Paul Byrd, Baker hit a more normal homer vs Laffey, and also doubled in a run. Omar Quintanilla also beat up the Tribe, going 2-for-3 with two RBI. Jeff Francis, who was 3-5 entering the game, held the Indians bats down, going into the 7th inning, allowing just one earned run keeping them off balance with curve balls and fastballs.

The offense could have won this game, as the team put up three base runners in each of the 6th and 7th innings, but were only able to push across their only two runs of the night. Casey Blake was the only Indian with two hits on the night, going 2-for-4 with a run scored. Jamey Carroll doubled in a run and Shin-Soo Choo hit a sac fly for the teams other RBI.

It’s not a good time for the team to be back in a slump, as the Tigers, Twins and White Sox all have won two in a row, and don’t look now, but even the Royals have won four straight. The loss puts Cleveland at 33-39, back into fourth in the division, one back of the Tigers, three back of the Twins, and 7.5 back of the front running White Sox.

The Indians will conclude their series with the Rockies tonight. Jeremy Sowers, who’s 0-and-1 with a 7.23 ERA will start for the Indians. The Rockies will send out Glendon Rusch, who’s 1-and-3 with a 7.03 ERA. First pitch at Coors Field is set for 9:05 p.m.

You can take the Indians recent 4-2 homestand vs the Twins and Padres one of two ways - you can look as it as a step in the right direction that the team won two straight series’ and the offense is coming around, or you can simply look at it like they are just staying enough above water for Mark Shapiro and company not to pull the plug on the season and start looking to shop around players like C.C. Sabathia.

On a positive note, after being at and watching the last six games, if you don’t agree that Grady Sizemore is not one the five most exciting players in the game, then you don’t watch a lot of baseball. Sizemore almost lifted this team on his shoulders from an offensive standpoint over the last week, hitting .310 with 5 homers and 9 RBI. Sizemore simply took the offense to another level this week, and picked up the slack when the team needs it with Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner on the bench.

I enjoyed watching the youth of this team get going as well this past homestand, with players like Shin-Soo Choo, Ben Francisco, Franklin Gutierrez and Kelly Shoppach all having a part in winning games at the plate. The team scored 48 runs this past week, an average of 6.8 runs per game. That has got to be an encouraging sign to management and manager Eric Wedge.

Yes, there were moments of frustration, such as Paul Byrd having a poor outing on Wednesday night in the teams 8-5 loss to the Twins. Byrd is one player that has never got on track this season, and in his last five starts is 1-3 and has allowed 21 runs as well as 7 homers. One has to wonder if his time as a quality starter in the Majors is over. Byrd is a class act and has always spoken out when he has had poor outings, but if this team is going to make a run, his pitching simply has to improve, and he’ll be the first to admit that.

The bullpen continues to be the great unknown, as pitchers like Rafael Betancourt, Rafael Perez, and Masa Kobayashi have to be on the verge of giving Wedge an ulcer. You never know how these players will respond in tough situations. In the Saturday night loss, the team got into the 8th with a 3-2 lead, and Perez gave up a homer on the second pitch after a good outing by Betancourt. Then in the 10th, Edward Mujica walked in what was the game-winning run, and then made matters worse by allowing a grand slam.

One beat reporter commented to me that he has no idea what the team sees in Mujica, as he has been terrible this season, allowing three homers in 6 games he’s pitched in, and has an ERA of 9.00. Add to that the 8.31 ERA in 13 innings pitched in 2007, and the reporter who made that comment to me has a valid point, and one that the team should look at.

Overall though, I’d have to say the week had more positives than negatives, and the team did gain a game on the Sox to move within 5.5 of first. With the Rockies, Dodgers, Giants and Reds up next, all teams under .500, this team seems poised to finally tell us once and for all if 2008 is going to be a season of hope, or a season of despair.

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.

In a game that felt more like a double feature at the local drive-in, the Indians used two big Grady Sizemore homers and some clutch pitching from the bullpen to win their fourth game in five days, topping the Padres from San Diego 7-5.  The game got off to an interesting start, as after Jeremy Sowers got out of the first with a 1-2-3 inning, the Indians jumped up 1-0 on a Sizemore homer to start off the game.  Then the heavens opened.

The delay seemed to last forever, starting at 7:17 and going all the way till 10pm, two hours and 43 minutes in total.  It probably made it seem just like home to the Padres, playing a west coast game on the East, starting at 10pm eastern, 7pm San Diego time.  For the fans that braved out the delay, they were treated to a rather entertaining back and forth game.

The Indians went up 3-0 vs Padres pitcher Josh Banks with a two-run homer from Kelly Shoppach in the third inning.  San Diego clawed their way back vs Sowers starting in the fourth with a two runs, then taking the lead in the 5th 4-3 when Adrian Gonzalez slammed his 19th homer of the year to give them their first lead on the night.  Sowers went 4.1 innings, allowing four runs on 9 hits, walking none and striking out one.

Not to be denied, the Indians rallied for two runs in the 6th to make it 5-4, as Shin-Soo Choo came through with a clutch two-out single past first to put the Tribe ahead for good.  Sizemore wrapped up his big night with his second homer of the game in the 7th to make it 7-4.  Former Indians now Padre Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a solo shot in the 8th to make it 7-5.

The Indians wrapped up the scoring with Jamey Carroll’s RBI single to make it 8-5 in the 8th, then Ben Francisco hit a sac fly to give them even more breathing room at 9-5.  The bullpen accounted for 4.2 innings, allowing just one run on five hits.  Rafael Betancourt went 1.2 allowing just one hit, he gets the win to move to 2-3 on the season.  Masa Kobayashi worked the final 1.1 innings, allowing two hits and a walk and earned his 3rd save.

The win moves the Indians to 32-36 on the season, winners in 6 of their last 10 games.  They are now 3-1 on this homestand with two more vs San Diego.  They are still 6.5 back of the White Sox who won on Friday night, and one game back of second of the Twins.

With a short turnaround, the team will throw 10-1 Cliff Lee Saturday night at 7:05pm vs Cha Seung Baek (1-1, 3.97) for San Diego.

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.

The back and forth from Buffalo to Cleveland that has been the season for pitcher Jeremy Sowers continued on Sunday, and it seemed to drag on him, as he was ineffective and somewhat wild as the Tigers topped the Indians 5-2 at Comerica Park.  Sowers went over 90 innings in just four innings, giving up five runs on seven hits, walking two and striking out two.  He was 4-3 with the Indians Triple-A club, but that did not translate over Sunday in the heat in Detroit.

“[The Tigers] made him work all the way through,” manager Eric Wedge said. “A big part of that was he just wasn’t throwing his fastball where he wanted to. They’re a veteran club, a club you need to be aggressive with. You put them on the defense early in the count if you can.”

Armando Galarraga, who had already topped the Indians once this season in Cleveland, did it again on Sunday, keeping Indians bats silent most of the day.  He allowed just two runs on four hits in 5.2 innings.  Grady Sizemore had a RBI single in the 3rd that made it 2-1, and then Ryan Garko singled to center in the 6th to score Sizemore, but by then the team trailed 5-1 and the wind was out of their sails.

The only other Indians batter that really showed a pulse was Shin Soo-Choo, who went 2-for-4 with a run scored and is now batting .333 on the season.  If your looking for bright spots on this steam bath of a Sunday, the Indians two relief pitchers, Scott Elarton and Edward Mujica came up and only allowed one hit over the last four innings for Detroit while striking out four.

Monday the four-game series concludes at 7:05pm as the team, now 28-35, will try to at least get out of Motown with a split as Cliff Lee at 9-1 takes on Dontrelle Willis (0-0, 4.50).