Indians Confidential

It’s just too bad that Paul Byrd couldn’t pitch every game vs the Tigers. For whatever reason, Byrd has the Tigers number, and Monday night at Progressive Field he was at it again against the Motor City Kitties, shutting them out for 7.2 innings as the Indians won the first of a four-game set vs Detroit, shutting them out 5-0.

Byrd was helped out by an offense that used the long ball, with Kelly Shoppach hitting his 9th homer of the year and that being followed up by a two-run shot by Asdrubal Cabrera, who hit his second of the year. Both shots came off of losing pitcher Kenny Rogers, who allowed all five Indians runs on 9 hits in 5.2 innings.

There’s been talk about the Indians moving Byrd, who is in the last year of his deal. If last night was any indication, he would have some value on the market. He threw 107 pitches, 70 for strikes. He raised his record to 5-10 on the season, and the big improvement was not giving up the long ball, which has been his issue all season. Pitching inside as well as he has all season, the veteran had the Tigers tied up all night.

The win puts the Indians back to 12 games under .500 at 46-58. The Tigers were lucky in that the White Sox lost, keeping them at 53-52, 6.5 back of Chicago in the Central. If they are not careful, they could find themselves 8-9 out by the time they leave town early Thursday evening.

The Indians will continue their series with the Tigers tonight. Matt Ginter, who’s 1-and-1 with a 2.45 ERA, will start for the Indians. The Tigers will send out Armando Galarraga, who’s 8-and-4 with a 3.27 ERA. First pitch at Progressive Field is set for 7:05 p.m.

Author Bill Gutman has released an interesting book that covers an “alternate” world of sports if you will - a book called “What if the Babe Had Kept His Red Sox.” The book, released by Skyhorse Publishing, is an intersting look at circumstances around the world of sports and what may have happened if they would have had different outcomes. Some of the circumstances includes:

- Vince Lombardi became coach of the NY Giants instead of the Packers?
- Muhammad Ali had lost to Sonny Liston?
- What if the Harlem Globetrotters had Joined the NBA?
- What if the NHL had stopped expansion at 20 teams?
- What would have happened if the Giants and Dodgers stayed in New York?

and of course the most obvious:
- What if the Red Sox had never traded Babe Ruth?

The Book is a solid list of these stories, ane while their are 12 different stories, they are all well written as each one is about 18-20 pages going into great detail about each circumstance as well as what could have happened if things would have happened differently.

The few stories on baseball are the best in the book in my opinion, and deserve to be read more than once. It seems that Gutman is a baseball guy, and that in the end he himself enjoys writing about America’s pastime more than the other subjects.

The book totals 290 pages, and also has a nice index at the end that allows readers to look up players, teams or historic events that makes it a fun read. If your Dad is a sports fan, take a look at this book for Father’s Day, as it’s a good easy read, and one that will keep your attention as the baseball season goes from chilly spring into hot summer.

Here is the link to order the book from Amazon.com

Indians pitcher Jeremy Sowers had his best game of the season today vs the Twins, and he took a no-no through five innings. He didn’t get the win, nor the team, but did show his best command in quite some time. After the game he spoke to the media about his outing and what has happened as of late to turn the season around. Click below to hear Jeremy in the Indians locker room.

 

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Even on a day when the teams starting pitcher took a perfect game into the 6th inning, the Indians were, as usual this season, looking up at another loss by the time the stands cleared at Progressive Field Sunday.  A Justin Morneau double with two outs in the 9th inning off Rafael Perez was the difference, as the Twins escaped a great outing by Jeremy Sowers to top the Indians 4-2 in front of 31,562.

Sowers had his best stuff of the season, throwing to and retiring the first 15 batters the Twins sent up to the plate.  His fastball was on, had great command, and was able to use both sides of the plate.  Not until Craig Monroe hit a bloop double to start the 6th did Sowers allow a hit.  From there a huge Nick Punto bunt single that Sowers and Andy Marte at third miscommunicated on opened the door as the Twins scored twice to go up 2-1.

The Indians scrapped a run in the 8th off of Twins relief pitcher Denys Reyes.  Asdrubal Cabrera singled, went to third on a Grady Sizemore single, then scored on a sac to center by David Dellucci.  It was the play by CF Denard Span, who crashed into the wall in the Tribe’s win Friday night that was the play of the game though.  It looked as if Dellucci’s ball would get down, and if it would have, Sizemore would have easily scored and the Tribe would have been up 3-2.  But Span made a huge catch, saving the game for the Twins.

Perez came in to start the 9th, and allowed a one-out double to Alexi Casilla that bounced into the seats in left.  Then after getting Mike Redmond to K, Eric Wedge let Perez pitch to Morneau, citing his success against lefties.  With a 3-1 count, Perez left a pitch up, and Morneau hammered it to left center, scoring the winning run.  Delmon Young singled in an insurance run to make it 4-2.

The loss drops the Indians to 45-58 on the season.  The Tigers come to Progressive Field for the first of four starting on Monday at 7:05pm.  Paul Byrd, (4-10, 5.28) who may be the next Indian to get traded before the deadline, goes for the Tribe vs Kenny Rogers (8-6, 4.48).

INDIANS SURPASS 2 MILLION TICKET MARK

The Cleveland Indians today announced they surpassed the 2 Million ticket mark this afternoon. The Indians didn’t achieve that milestone last season until August 12, 2007 and going back to 2005 didn’t hit that mark until September 27, 2005. It is the 14th time in club history the Indians have recorded 2 million or more fans in a season.

INDIANS TOP 100,000 THIS WEEKEND

The three-game “Beach Weekend” series against Minnesota this weekend exceeded 100,000 tickets sold. This weekend marks the 4th weekend this season the Indians have topped the 100,000 ticket mark.

When it comes to the return of pitcher Fausto Carmona, it will go down as a return he and the Indians will want to forget.  On a day when the team made a bunch of roster moves, the biggest trading veteran locker room guy Casey Blake, Carmona was rocked hard by the Twins for nine runs in just over two plus innings in the Indians 11-4 loss at Progressive Field.

Carmona was up in the zone for most of the 69 pitches he was in there, and went just 2.1 innings, allowing nine runs on seven hits.  He walked three, which all came in the first to get him in trouble, and struck out one.  The Twins batted around in a six-run first, the big hit being a three-run homer by Brian Buscher to make it 6-0.  After a 1-2-3 second, he ran into more trouble in the third, allowing a run scoring double to Mike Lamb, then a two-run single to Buscher to knock him out of the game.

Down 9-0, the Indians got a solo homer from Andy Marte in the 5th to make it 9-1, then a Jhonny Peralta single to left in the 6th scored two more to make it 9-3.  The Twins made sure there would be no miracle comeback, as they piled on two runs in the 8th off of Jensen Lewis to make it 11-3.  A Kelly Shoppach single in the 8th closed out the scoring to make it 11-4.

The Tribe used five pitchers, with Tom Mastny going 2.2 innings, allowing just two hits and a walk.  Lewis went 2.1, allowing two runs, and Rafael Betancourt threw two outs and Edward Mujica also got two outs in relief.  As far as the offense went, the team managed eight hits off of five pitchers, with Scott Baker going five innings for the Twins to get the win to improve to 7-3.

Just called up Andy Gonzalez did manage to get a hit in his first at-bat for the Tribe, a harmless single in the 9th off of Matt Guerrier.  The loss puts the Tribe back at 12 games under .500 at 45-57.  The Twins improve to 56-47, breaking their five-game losing streak.

Sunday in the finale of the three-game weekend set it will be Jeremy Sowers (1-5, 6.44) vs Nick Blackburn (7-6, 3.83) at 1:05pm.

Underachievers forced Dodgers to pick up Blake

For the Cleveland Indians, dealing Blake became a no-brainer after the team continued to founder in July and ace CC Sabathia was traded. Blake, one of the few proven bats on the market, triggered a moderate bidding war between the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Tampa Bay Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks, and was bound to net a couple of decent prospects.

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