Indians Confidential

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.

It seems like forever a go that the Indians had won five straight games. The locker room at the time was full of players that were ready to make a run at a title, like C.C. Sabathia, Paul Byrd, Casey Blake, and players like Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner  were healthy. In other words - it was a time when the Indians felt they had a shot in the AL Central. Fast forward to August 12th. The team has moved the first three players on the list, while the other two are on the DL. Nevertheless, this Indians squad now simply playing out the season is at least showing some signs of life.

Tuesday night against the equally as bad Baltimore Orioles, and just about three hours after moving Byrd to the Red Sox, the Indians built an early 4-2 lead and led at one point 5-2, but like Monday night saw the game slip away only to then regain the lead late for a 7-5 win. The team gave up the 5-2 lead by allowing the O’s a single run in the 5th and two more in the 7th to tie the game at 4. The Tribe offense continued to stay hot, as they scored twice in the bottom of the 8th to seal the deal.

Shin-Soo Choo was hit by a pitch, then Andy Marte bunted Choo to second. Asdrubal Cabrera stayed hot, hitting a single to center that scored Choo with the winning run to make it 6-5. Two batters later the team added an extra run when Ben Francisco singled to left that scored Cabrera to make it 7-5. Jensen Lewis pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to earn the save and send the Indians to their second straight over the birds.

Jeremy Sowers went for the Indians to start the game, and was good after a shakey first that saw him allow two runs. He lasted 6.1, allowing four runs on six hits. His fastball seemed to have pretty good movement, and he continues to make progress in his development in trying to make sure he’ll be a part of the starting rotation in 2009. The bullpen of dispair saw Masa Kobayashi not retire a batter and allow a run on two hits.

Rafael Perez, who is the best of the pen’s bunch right now, went 1.2 scoreless innings, and picked up the win to improve to 2-2. Lewis’ 9th inning gave him his second save of the season. It’s the second night in a row the team threw him out in the 9th, and the second time he was able to come through with a good outing. The Indians will continue their series with the Orioles tonight. Anthony Reyes, who’s 3-and-1 with a 3.86 ERA, will start for the Indians. The Orioles will send out Jeremy Guthrie, who’s 9-and-8 with a 3.26 ERA. First pitch at Progressive Field is set for 7:05 p.m.

Paul Byrd continues to be a bright spot in a season gone wrong for the Indians, as Saturday he threw a six-hitter vs the Blue Jays in the Indians 4-2 win at the Rogers Centre.  “I had a really good curveball today,” Byrd said. “I used it to left-handers a lot. I got a strikeout on it, a number of outs on it. I got some first-pitch strikes on my curveball, I thought that was key. It’s probably not in the scouting report for them over there.”  It was the 4th straight win for Byrd, who had at one point lost five straight from June 11th to July 4th.

He moves to 7-10 on the season, it was his first complete game since a 7-0 win last season vs the White Sox on September 1st.  He allowed two runs and six hits, walked none and struck out two. He threw 93 pitches, 67 for strikes.  He set down 12 straight batters and 21 of 22 overall when Lyle Overbay hit a two-out single in the ninth. Overbay was thrown out by left-fielder Ben Francisco to end the game as he tried to stretch the hit into a double.

The Indians offense did a nice job getting Byrd the win, as they scored three runs in the 6th inning to turn a 2-1 deficit to a 4-2 lead.  Jhonny Peralta led off with a single and Choo followed with a grounder to short that left runners at first and second after John McDonald threw high to Inglett as he tried for the force. Francisco bunted to advance the runners before Garko and Andy Marte hit run-scoring singles.  Asdrubal Cabrera walked and Garko was forced out at the plate on Grady Sizemore’s fielder’s choice before David Delluci drove in a run with a bases-loaded walk.

The Tribe has owned the Jays this year, as they are 5-1 against them, and have outscored them 30-8 in the six games.  Sunday they look for the sweep as 15-2 Cliff Lee goes for the Indians vs Scott Richmond (0-1, 4.91) for the Jays, making his 3rd career start.

Paul Byrd played with fire for much of the night, but in the end was good enough as the Indians continued their hot streak with a 5-2 win over the Angels in Anaheim Monday night. The Tribe is as hot as at any point in this letdown of a 2008 season, as they have now won 7 of their last 8 after they had dropped 10 in a row. Byrd allowed 9 hits, but only one run in the 5.1 innings pitched. The former Angles pitcher improved to 4-10 on the season.

The offense was paced by the long ball, as three Indians homers paced the win. Casey Blake hit his 11th of the year, a two-run shot, and Jhonny Peralta hit his 17th in the 8th inning, a solo shot, while Andy Marte went 2-for-4 with his 2nd homer, a solo shot in the 4th. Blake’s two-run blast in the 5th off losing pitcher Ervin Santana (11-4) made it 4-1 and it was all the Tribe would need.

The bullpen did a nice job for Byrd, as Rafael Perez, who’s had a tough 2008, threw 2.2 innings, allowing one run on one hit, a solo homer to Howie Kendrick in the 8th that made it 5-2. Masa Kobayashi threw a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his 6th save, striking out the side to shut the door and put any doubt out of the Angels mind about extending their 5-game winning streak.

The win puts the Indians one little percentage point behind the Royals for 4th place in the AL Central at 44-54. They are still 11 games back of the White Sox in the Central, who lead the division by only .5 over the Twins. The Indians will continue their series with the Angels tonight. Matt Ginter, who’s 1-and-0 with a 0.00 ERA, will start for the Indians. Jered Weaver, who’s 8-and-8 with a 4.03 ERA, will start for the Angels. First pitch at Angel Stadium is at 10:05 p.m.

Coming off their awful 0-6 road trip, the Indians look as if they will make some roster moves that could help the bullpen, and possibly the offense. Paul Hoynes’ Insider today says that the team will activate closer Joe Borowski today, this after he pitched a scoreless inning Wednesday night for Akron. Jo-Bo also looked close to ready when he pitched Monday night in Lake County. With the hitting null and void, the bullpen has also started to scuffle as of late, leaving the team hoping that Borowski, despite his issues already this season, can add a spark to the team. It’s been said all along that he’ll be the closer upon his return.

As for the offense, Eric Wedge also said that we could see our first appearance of outfielder Shin-Soo Choo in 2008 soon. Choo is on a 20-day rehab assignment in Buffalo, and could be with the team shortly. You can also expect Jake Westbrook to be back soon, meaning that Aaron Laffey’s spot in the rotation will be gone and he’ll likely be back at AAA Buffalo. As for who goes where when Borowski and Choo may be ready - Michael Aubrey, who showed some pop in his bat with two homers on this recent road trip, will probably go down. Hoynes also says that it could be time to cut the cord with Andy Marte. He has no options left, meaning that the team can’t send him down unless they designate him for assignment and he’d likely get picked up by another team.

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.

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).