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.

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.

The Indians seemed to have the hot hand this year when it comes to hitting homers.  Today’s Spring Notes, which the team sends out to the media, states that the Tribe has hit 33 homers in 22 games this spring, which is tied for first among all AL teams in the spring with the Tigers.

Grady Sizemore leads the team with five homers this spring, and Andy Marte, who really needs to play well to probe his worth, has 4 homers, which is tied for third this spring in the AL.  Today the Indians play at 1:05 vs the Rays (remember, they are not the DEVIL Rays anymore) at Chain of Lakes Park – Paul Byrd starts for the Indians.       

If Cliff Lee was set to be the #5 starter for the Indians in two weeks when the season starts, one has to wonder if that was blown yesterday in the teams loss to the Phillies. Lee was not very good, allowing six runs on 11 hits over four innings. Eric Wedge gave him a vote of confidence in the post game, but bottom line is this looked like the Lee that got shelled enough to eventually put him in the minors last season.

Lee didn’t get any help from Andy Marte at third, who basically ole’d two balls in the second inning that allowed the Phillies to score five of their total six runs. Marte allowed one past him by Jimmy Rollins that allowed two runs to score, and then Shane Victorino hit one that Marte couldn’t come up with that allowed two more runs to score.

Some other notes from the loss: Jorge Julio left the game in the 8th with a blister on his right index finger. Aaron Herr hit a homer in the 9 hole for Lee in the fifth to make it 6-3. Victor Martinez also homered for the Indians in the 9th to make it 6-4, it was Victor’s first spring homer. Jhonny Peralta went 2-for-3 with a double and is hitting .296 for the spring. The team is off today, and will be in Port St.Lucie tomorrow to play the Mets.

Opening Day for the Tribe and the rest of MLB is now just over 3 weeks away. Today the Indians played a split-squad affair with the Nats, and earlier we had up the box from their 5-2 win. The story of the game was Jake Westbrook, who pitched three strong innings in the win. He allowed one hit, walked one, and struck out five in his second start of spring training. Josh Barfield and Andy Marte both also homered for the Indians. The Nationals won the other split-squad meeting between the teams at Viera, 9-0. Below is a recap of the game.

Westbrook pitches three sharp innings to lead Indians past Washington 5-2

Kobayashi throws: RHP MASA KOBAYASHI threw a 10-minute bullpen today and will also throw bullpens on Sunday and Monday. His catcher was VICTOR MARTINEZ.

Fresh Faces: Arriving into camp today – Jamey Carroll, Jhonny Peralta, Andy Marte, Andy Gonzalez, Brad Snyder

Here is a list of players in camp:

PITCHERS

63 BETANCOURT, Rafael, RH

47 BOROWSKI, Joe, RH

36 BYRD, Paul, RH

55 CARMONA, Fausto, RH

46 FULTZ, Aaron, LH

30 KOBAYASHI, Masa, RH

32 LAFFEY, Aaron, LH

58 LARA, Juan, LH

31 LEE, Cliff, LH

50 LEWIS, Jensen, RH

69 LEWIS, Scott, LH

40 MASTNY, Tom, RH

72 MILLER, Adam, RH

49 MUJICA, Edward, RH

53 PEREZ, Rafael, LH

52 SABATHIA, C.C., LH

64 SANTOS, Reid, LH

70 SIPP, Tony, LH

54 SLOCUM, Brian, RH

45 SOWERS, Jeremy, LH

37 WESTBROOK, Jake, RH

CATCHERS

41 MARTINEZ, Victor

10 SHOPPACH, Kelly

76 TOREGAS, Wyatt

INFIELDERS

29 BARFIELD, Josh

7 CARROLL, Jamey

25 GARKO, Ryan

15 MARTE, Andy

2 PERALTA, Jhonny

OUTFIELDERS

17 CHOO, Shin-soo

75 SNYDER, Brad

Non-Roster Invitees

Pitchers

27 BAUER, Rick, RHP

39 ELARTON, Scott, RHP

56 GINTER, Matt, RHP

34 HARRIS, Jeff, RHP

71 LOFGREN, Chuck, LHP

66 MARTIN, JD, RHP

61 RUNDLES, Rich, LHP

65 STEVENS, Jeffrey, RHP

Catchers (4)

74 CAMACARO, Armando

79 GIMENEZ, Chris

73 HAAD, Yamid

77 WALLACE, David

Infielders (5)

67 BROWN, Jordan

26 GONZALEZ, Andy