Indians Confidential

For Jeremy Sowers as it’s been all season, it comes down to one inning. Wednesday night at Progressive Field, it was the 5th inning that did him in on a night when Jared Weaver was on his game, as the Indians fell to the LA Angels 3-0 for their second straight loss.

Sowers had allowed just two walks without allowing a hit in the first four innings, but it was that fifth inning that became his undoing. A walk, double, single, bunt single, sac to third, ground out to short and fly out resulted in three runs, and that was all the Angels would need.

The Indians again were soft at the plate, as they did have seven hits, but had three doubles, and for the 8th straight home game failed to go deep. They left seven men on base, and continued to not be able to come up with the big hit when they needed it. The top three hitters in the lineup, Grady Sizemore, Jamey Carroll and Asdrubal Cabrera went a combined 1 for 12.

Weaver went the distance to improve to 13-4, and came back nicely from a poor outing his last time out vs the Orioles. He walked just one and struck out three, and despite a hot night seemed to be cool and calm all night long in throwing 116 pitches to get the win.

The team is back to 17 games under .500 at 51-68, and they have lost this series losing the first two games. They will try to salvage the finale of the three-game set on Thursday as Justin Masterson goes for the Indians vs John Lackey at 7:05pm.

The opportunities were there Tuesday night for the Indians, but has been the case plenty of times for the 2009 season, the club let them slip through their fingers. The Tribe lost 5-4 to the Angels in the first of a three-game set, but it wasn’t due to a lack of chances.

The best shot came in the 7th, as the Indians were able to take a 5-3 game and make it 5-4 with the bases loaded with one out. Enter Travis Hafner, who despite having a decent comeback year has not been the same player the team thought they were getting when he got his monster deal last season.

Hafner, who had scrapped all night, hit a slow roller to second that ended up as a 4-6-3 double play. The play at first was close, but Hafner was out, and the Indians best threat of the night was over. The team went quietly in the 8th and 9th, and the team dropped to 51-67 on the season.

LA took a 3-1 lead off Fausto Carmona with a single run in the first and two in the second, then went up 5-1 with two more runs in the third. The Indians rallied to draw within 5-3 with two runs in the third, but then the only other run came in the 7th, but it should have been more.

Carmona was not very good, allowing five runs, three earned on 10 hits in 5 innings. He gave up four strikeouts and two walks as well. He falls to 2-8 on the season, and while the rest of this year will all be about getting him right for 2010 and beyond, it would be nice to see him more consistant.

The Indians did pound out 12 hits in the loss. Asdrubal Cabrera led the way, going 4-for-5 and he’s now hit in 12 straight games, a career-high. The two teams do it again Wednesday night at 7:05pm.