Indians Confidential

The Indians get at least a series split as they beat the Boston Red Sox 9-1 at Fenway Park last night in game three of the four game set. There were no bench-clearing brawls the likes of Tuesday night, just the Tribe’s bats punching balls all over the place.

The Tribe started their attack in the top of the third inning as third baseman Andy Marte scored on a throwing error by Sox starter Jon Lester who falls to 11-7, with a 3.07 ERA in the loss. Then in the fifth inning, catcher Lou Marson scored on a sacrifice fly by short stop Asdrubal Cabrera.

Later in that inning second baseman Jason Donald scored on a Shelly Duncan double to deep right field. Jayson Nix, in the designated hitter role, hit a solo home run in the sixth inning. The Indians scored five more times in the seventh inning capped off by a three run homer by Marte.

The only run Boston scored was on a solo shot by David Ortiz in the bottom of the sixth. Starter Justin Masterson improves his record to 4-10, with a 5.40 ERA in the victory. This is the second time this year he has defeated his former team. Tony Sipp, Joe Smith, Jensen Lewis, and Hector Ambriz all had scoreless outings in relief.

Indians fans had to think they were seeing things when they looked out at the pitchers mound in the ninth inning of their Thursday night disaster at home against the Yankees.

The team had already taken it on the chin, trailing 11-1 at that point, and had already lost starting pitcher Mitch Talbot to a mid-back strain that had put plenty of strain all night on a bullpen that for the second straight game had to hold down the fort.

So maybe it was not such a shock when standing on the mound to throw the ninth inning was none other than usual third basemen Andy Marte. Yes, a position player that had never thrown a pitch in his pro career was going to try and shut down a Yankees lineup that had already put up 11 runs on 12 hits.

Piece of cake.

In a rather amazing turn of events for a season that has had quite a few amazing moments, Marte was able to get the Yankees 1-2-3, throwing a bunch of fastballs at one point hitting 88 miles per hour on the radar gun.

“That’s something that I don’t like doing,” Acta said. “I try to stay away as much as I can from that, I did it because I had to. At times I feel that it looks like a mockery of the game and I don’t like it.”

Marte was the sixth Indians pitcher of the night, as a nightmare of a seventh inning that saw the Yankees put up seven runs turned a competitive 2-1 game into a laguher as the Yankees won three of four over the Indians.

“I’m glad it didn’t get any uglier, because the people that pay their money they don’t deserve to watch a position player pitch,” Acta said. “I really try to stay away from that kind of stuff, some people may find it funny, but it’s not funny to me.”

The real reason Marte was forced to take to the mound was due to the fact that Wednesday night Fausto Carmona only lasted just 2.2 innings, and Thursdays starter Mitch Talbot left after two innings with a mid-back strain. The bullpen was simply gased, and someone, in this case Marte, had to come in and help out. He did what he was asked to do.

“We had no choice given that game yesterday and guys that were left in the pen, so we talked to Marte, and say ‘hey, throw the ball over the plate,’ and kind of a pretty good example of what you can do if you throw strikes,” Acta said.

While it may not have been funny to Acta, there was no way Marte and his teammates did not get a kick of our seeing the teams third basemen try to quickly learn how to pitch. Acta asked Marte in the eighth to go out there, and it was panic time quickly as Marte needed to learn how to throw. Fast.

“He asked if I had pitched before and I said ‘no way,’ and I looked for (Fausto) Carmona to teach me a pitch,” Marte said.

Throwing almost all fastballs, Marte got leadoff hitter of the inning Robinson Cano to groundout, and then in a shocker, he got Nick Swisher to strike out on three pitches.

“I just wanted to try and throw strikes and see what happens,” Marte said.

The final out of the inning saw Marcus Thames line out to Jayson Nix at third, and you could not help but see how relieved and happy Marte was to walk off the mound without allowing any major damage or making any embarrassing mistakes.

“Everybody was laughing, I was too, I was happy,” Marte said.

Marte became the 21st position player to pitch for the Indians, the last being former catcher Tim Laker in a game against Kansas City in April of 2004. For Marte, after going 1-2-3 against the Yankees, he may want to consider a change in careers. Then again, maybe not.

With Trevor Crowe, Andy Marte, Anderson Hernandez, and Jason Donald in the starting lineup for today’s game against the Red Sox, everyone is wondering when Carlos Santana is going to join them on the big league club.

The 5′ 11”, 190 pound switch hitting catcher is still playing at AAA Columbus Clippers. When skipper Manny Acta was asked if there is a chance of him being brought up soon he said, “maybe”.

When he was asked when he said, “sometime between today and September first”. The organization has no worries about him hitting in the majors, but they seem to think his defense needs to be a little more polished.

They think there might be a problem in the fact that he tries to throw the ball too hard. Acta said, “He’s trying to throw it a hundred miles an hour out there”. He is working on shortening his throwing motion and creating a quicker release. With not much “buzz” down on East 9th and Carnegie, bringing him up sooner than later might create more interest in this somewhat lost season.

The Indians today activated Andy Marte from the 15-day disabled list. In a rather surprising move the team sent Matt LaPorta to AAA Columbus.

Marte was placed on the disabled list on May 15 (retro to May 12) with a non-baseball medical issue. So far this year with the Indians he has hit .208 (5-24) with 4 runs scored, a triple, a home run and 7RBI in 15 games. Yesterday he made his only rehab appearance prior to today’s activation as he went 2-4 with 2 runs scored and a walk for the Lake County Captains in their 8-4 win over Wisconsin in Classic Park. He also played in a game Saturday that was suspended by weather.

LaPorta has hit .218 (26-119) with 13 runs scored, 4 doubles, a home run and 7RBI in 35 games with the Indians this year (.277slg/.290ob/.567ops).

The Indians now have 3 players (Cabrera, Reyes, Sizemore) on the Major League disabled list.

With an offense that has been anemic at best all season, Sunday the Tribe finally got some hitting from their bottom spots in the lineup, helping the team break their five-game losing streak with a 7-4 win over the Tigers. The win wraps up their homestand at 2-8, but in retrospect it’s better than 1-9, which is what it seemed they would be if they couldn’t get their bats on track like most of the homestand.

“Last week or so, week and a half we’ve found ourselves behind the 8-ball so to speak, getting down 3 or 4 runs early,” secondbasemen Mark Grudzielanek said. “It was nice to jump on them there and get ahead, get a lead, get our pitcher a little confidence, get him comfortable as possible.”

That pitcher was Mitch Tablot, who maybe got too comfortable as the team had a 4-2 lead after a four-run second inning, but Talbot allowed Detroit to get back in the game with a run in the 3rd and then two in the fourth. He was able to get the win however when the Indians scored a run in the 5th to go ahead 5-4.

They added two more in the 7th to go up 7-4, and relief pitchers Aaron Laffey, Kerry Wood, Tony Sipp and Chris Perez made it stand up. Sipp struck out the side in the 8th, and Perez allowed two runners on in the 9th, but was able to get out of the jam for his 5th and possible last save of the season.

After the game Manny Acta said that Wood will be the teams closer starting with their next game Tuesday night in Kansas City, and Perez will go back to a possible setup role.

The game was defined by the Indians 7-8-9 hitters, which combined to go 5-for-10 with 6 RBI, helped out by a rare big day for Andy Marte in the 8 hole, as he had a triple and three RBI. Grudzielanek had three hits and added two RBI, and over his last 12 games is hitting .326.

The club now is at 11-18 on the year, and will start a road trip with a series against the Royals in KC, and then will play in Baltimore and two in Tampa Bay before they come home for an 8-game homestand starting next Wednesday night.

The Indians will miss Yanks third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who will be out till mid-May after he has hip surgery to have a cyst removed. That could lead to a move where the Indians offer up Andy Marte, who the Indians have been trying to move since they decided that he won’t be playing third base for them in 2009.

GM Mark Shapiro said the Yankees have not called about Marte. But Shapiro added, “If they call, we’ll listen.” Marte is sitting in AAA Columbus, and out of options, he won’t be back with the big league club anytime soon.

If he starts the year in Columbus, he’ll be behind Wes Hodges at third base. Marte, 25, hit .221 (52-for-235) with three homers and 17 RBI for the Indians last season.

The Indians today acquired RHP JUAN SALAS from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for minor league INF ISAIAS VELASQUEZ. To make room on the 40-man roster for Salas, the Indians designated INF ANDY MARTE for assignment.

Salas, 30, who was designated for assignment by the Rays on February 13, spent nearly the entire 2008 season with AAA Durham, posting a record of 4-5 with a 2.62 ERA and 1 save in 28 appearances (44.2IP, 32H, 13R/ER, 11BB, 53K, .201 avg against) out of the bullpen for the Bulls. He also made 5 appearances (6.1IP, 5H, 5R/ER, 4BB, 8K) with the Rays over two different stints.

Originally signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Devil Rays in 1998 as an infielder, Salas was converted to a relief pitcher in 2004 and owns a career Major League record of 1-1 with a 4.44 ERA (52.2IP, 54H, 31R/26ER, 24BB, 42K, .255 avg. against) in 47 appearances. In 2007, he made 34 appearances with Tampa going 1-1 with a 3.72 ERA (36.1IP, 36H, 19R/15ER, 17BB, 26K, .248 avg. against).

In 2006, Salas participated in the Future’s Game for the World Team and was named to Baseball America’s All-Minor League Team as well as awarded MiLB.com’s Minor League Reliever of the Year. In his career at the Minor League level he is 13-7 with a 2.54 ERA and 20 saves (187.2IP, 134H, 66R/53ER, 77BB, 223K) in 135 appearances.

Sometimes the difference between good and bad teams comes down simply to clutch hitting and defense.  That was evident at Progressive Field on Saturday afternoon, as the Los Angeles Angels took advantage of four Indians errors and the fact the Indians couldn’t get a big hit when they needed it in their 4-3 win.

With the game tied at one in the third, the Indians put on one of the more uglier defensive displays you’ll ever see.  From Ben Francisco throwing a ball 15 feet short to the cut-off at third that allowed a run to score, to an Andy Marte short hop throw to first, to a wild pitch that allowed Vlad Guerrero to go from second to home, the Indians looked more like the Bad News Bears than a team trying to stay competitive.

Fausto Carmona threw that wild pitch, it was one of two for him on the day, but overall can’t be blamed for this setback.  He lasted seven innings, allowing two earned runs, four overall, on six hits.  He walked three and didn’t record a strikeout while falling to 5-5 on the season.  He was able to limit any damage the Angels did throughout, and deserved a better fate.

As for the offense, they were led by the long ball, as David Dellucci hit a solo homer in the first to tie the game at one, and then Ryan Garko hit a two-run shot in the fourth to make it 4-3.  It was the last run of the game.  The Tribe loaded the bases in the 7th off relief pitcher Darren Oliver, but a strikeout, a senstional play by short stop Erick Aybar, and then a ground out ended the frame.  Aybar was running at the popout in short left and made a diving play on a ball by Garko to save one or possibly two runs.

Francisco Rodriguez allowed a single to Jhonny Peralta (2-for-4) to start the ninth, but then the team was unable to get that clutch hit and it ended with the team dropping another one-run game.  The loss drops them to 55-67 on the season, the Angels improve to 76-45.

The series wraps up on Sunday with Jeremy Sowers (1-6, 5.70) vs Joe Saunders (14-5, 3.07) at 1:05pm.