Indians Confidential

If there is one thing the Indians have been able to count on in this season that appears to already be lost, it’s the pitching of starter Cliff Lee. Last season Lee found himself in Buffalo with the teams Triple-A club, and this year, unless there is some stunning collapse over the next two weeks, Lee will find himself in New York with the American League All-Star team.

Last night at Progressive Field Lee moved to 8-1 when he’s pitched the day after an Indians loss, as he threw a career-high 11 strikeouts in the teams 4-1 win over the Giants to salvage the finale of the three-game set. Lee is now 11-1 on the season. He went 8 innings, allowing one run on four hits, walking one and recording 11 K’s. His season ERA drops to 2.34. Manager Eric Wedge said postgame that Lee and C.C. Sabathia have been carrying the starting pitching the last few weeks, but for the most part Lee’s carried it the whole season.

On offense, the team got to Giants starter Matt Cain early, scoring three runs in the third after getting runners on in the first and second innings. Jamey Carroll, who continues to play well, tripled in a run when the ball bounced off the wall in deep left, and then Jhonny Peralta doubled in two more runs to make it 3-0. The Giants got their only run of the game in the 4th, but the Indians came right back as Carroll singled in Kelly Shoppach to make it 4-1.

Carroll is now hitting .293 on the season, and an injury to Josh Barfield and the poor play at the Major League level by Asdrubal Cabrera has allowed Carroll to play everyday, which he’s taking advantage of. Peralta had two hits as well, and put his average at .244. Overall the team pounded out 8 hits, Shoppach also went 2-for-3.

The win puts the team back to 7.5 back of the White Sox in the division, but they still have a share of last place with the Royals. At 36-43, they sorely need to go out and sweep the Ohio rival Reds at home over the weekend. C.C. Sabathia, who is 5-and-8 with a 4.06 ERA, will start for the Indians tonight . Daryl Thompson, who’s 0-and-0 with a 0.00 ERA, will start for the Reds. First pitch at Progressive Field is set for 7:05 p.m.

It took all of two games for the latest Buffalo call-up to get hurt for the Indians. Second basemen Josh Barfield, who was called up early Monday for Asdrubal Cabrera, was injured in Tuesday night’s Indians 1-0 win over the Twins, as he left the game with a left middle finger sprain. He hurt the finger while checking his swing vs the Twins Scott Baker in the fourth inning. He left the game after going 0-for-2, and is 0-for-6 since the call-up.

Listed as day-to-day, the Indians, as they did Tuesday, will turn to Jamey Carroll, who took Barfield’s place. Barfield was called up to give the Indians some sort of spark to the offense, as he was hitting .255 with five homers and 21 RBI for AAA Buffalo. Cabrera was hitting just .184 when he was sent down, going 29-for-158 with one homer and 14 RBI. Last season he hit .283 after coming to the team mid-season, going 45 for 159, 3 homers and 22 RBI.

With the season slipping away, the Indians today made a roster move they hope will do something, anything, that will get the team pushed back in the right direction. That move was to call up former second basemen Josh Barfield from Buffalo, and send down struggling Asdrubal Cabrera.

Cabrera was batting just .184 with seven doubles, a homer and 14 RBIs in 52 games for the Tribe. Barfield, who was in the starting lineup for Monday’s game against the Tigers, was batting .255 with 16 doubles, a triple, five homers and 21 RBIs in 62 games for Buffalo.

Here is the presser from the Indians:

The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has recalled INF JOSH BARFIELD from AAA Buffalo. To make room on the Major League roster, the Indians optioned INF ASDRUBAL CABRERA to AAA Buffalo.

Barfield has spent the entire year to date at AAA Buffalo where he was batting .255 (66-259) with 26 runs scored, 16 doubles, a triple, 5 home runs and 21 RBI in 62 games for the Herd. He has hit safely in 9 of his last 12 games at Buffalo batting .288 (15-52) with 6 runs scored, 2 doubles, a home run and 5RBI. He wears #29 and will be in uniform tonight as the Indians take on the Detroit Tigers in Comerica Park at 7:05PM ET.

Cabrera hit .184 (29-158) with 16 runs scored, 7 doubles, a home run and 14RBI in 52 games for the Indians.

You could spend hours lamenting the fact that the Indians offense continues to do next to nothing, which at some point in the coming weeks is going to force GM Mark Shaprio and the organization to come to the conclusion that hard decisions are going to have to be made. Looking up and down the lineup, the team simply is not doing what it needs to do at the plate, and manager Eric Wedge can talk all he wants about what is happening “behind the scenes” and how hard the players are working, but the bottom line is that the team is not close to being a contender with the offense in the tailspin it is in now.

Here are some numbers to chew on from the offensive side as the team gets ready to wrap up their series in Chicago tonight:

* The team has scored three runs of less in 25 of it’s 46 games

* During their five-game losing streak - the team has scored a total of 12 runs (2.4)

* Going into last night Asdrubal Cabrera is hittin .087 (2-for-23) in his last seven games

* Victor Martinez continues to be in a power slump, no homers yet in 2008 and just 8 doubles in 42 hits despite hitting .304. He hit 25 homers last season with 40 doubles.

* The team is hitting an awful .234, averaging 4.0 runs per game

* Travis Hafner has hit a total of 28 homers in his last 194 games, this after hitting 42 in 129 games in 2006.

Eric Wedge called it the worst approach at the plate he had seen all season.  That’s how bad it was Monday night in game two of the doubleheader between the Indians and Blue Jays.  Toronto, a team that is about as offensively challenged as any in the league right now, put some hits together and combined with a shot off Rafael Betancourt’s elbow, they beat the Indians 3-0 at Progressive Field.  What made Wedge so mad was the Indians offense, which clearly took a step back into the same lame struggling bermuda triangle it was about 10 days ago when they could do nothing to get runners on, or runners across the plate.

The team wasted another super outing by Cliff Lee, who did what it seems he’s done all season - throw nine innings of shutout ball, walking two, striking out five, and giving up seven hits.  Lee now has an ERA of 0.67, and he has not allowed a run since a three-run homer to the Mariners on April 30th.  He has allowed four earned runs in 53.2 innings pitched, and has given up three runs in 39 innings.  It was all for not.

Also for not was the Tribe’s first unassisted triple play since Game 5 of the 1920 World Series.  The play came from Asdrubal Cabrera, who in the fifth inning pulled off the play after Kevin Mench and Marco Scutaro began the inning with singles, Lyle Overbay lined out to Cabrera near second base.  Cabrera alertly tagged Scutaro, who was running toward second base, before stepping on the bag before Mench was able to return to complete the triple play.  Not even that could put a silver lining on a night that saw the team manage just three hits.

Toronto scored their three runs in the 10th, when Betancourt took over for Lee, and after a single, a ball was hit up the middle that Betancourt tried to backhand, but it smacked off his elbow for a single to third.  A sac, an intentional walk later, Shannon Stewart hit a sac fly to center to make it 1-0.  Then a ball was hit up the middle by Aaron Hill to bring home two more runs to make it 3-0.

The loss drops the Indians back to 19-19 on the season.  They will kick off a three-game set vs the Oakland A’s on Tuesday night, as Paul Byrd (1-3, 4.28) takes on Justin Duchscherer (3-1, 2.45) at 7:05pm.

In a game that started with what seemed like 1500 fans in the stands at Progressive Field, those that couldn’t make it for game one of two Monday afternoon missed a heck of a pitching gem from Fausto Carmona, as the Tribe hurler threw a complete game shutout, stopping the Jays 3-0.  Carmona allowed five hits, walking four and striking out three.  He threw 108 pitches, 69 strikes, and as manager Eric Wedge pointed out, seemed to get better as the day went on.

Carmona improves to 4-1 on the season, with an ERA of 2.40.  The Indians pitching staff as a whole has been outstanding as of late, as they have thrown three shutouts in their last five games, with the only setback being the home run derby game that Paul Byrd allowed on Thursday afternoon in the Bronx vs the Yankees.

The offense didn’t do a whole lot off of Jays starter A.J. Burnett, but did enough to squeak out three runs.  The first came when David Dellucci came through with a huge two out single to right center that scored Grady Sizemore in the sixth that made it 1-0.  Dellucci was 2-for-4 and now has 14 RBI on the season.  The following inning the Tribe ended any doubt as Asdrubal Cabrera, playing short stop, hit a two-run homer that made it 3-0.

It was the first homer of the season for Cabrera, who went 1-for-3 and raised his rather ugly average to .198.  The story though was Carmona, who got a nice ovation from the crowd that grew by the ninth inning.  The last two innings Carmona got three ground outs, a fly out, and strike out, and a key double play.  Carmona is 1-0 with a 1.74 ERA in his last three starts.

It was a good way to start the first of two vs a Jays team that is looking more like the Indians of about 10 days ago when it comes to hitting.  The Indians improve to 19-18 on the year, and will look to take two and sweep the four-game set in the nightcap with Cliff Lee looking to go 7-0.

Keeping up the momentum of their 6-run 7th inning last night, the Indians offense came out with a bang on Saturday night, as they again scored six runs, this time in the first inning, topping the Blue Jays 12-0 at Progressive Field. Grady Sizemore, who was honored with Grady Sizemore Fleece Blanket night, started the fireworks fast with a homer to start the game for the Tribe. He then put the icing on the cake with a three-run homer in the 5th that made it 12-0.

Sizemore ended the night 3-for-4, two homers, three runs scored, and five RBI. He is now hitting .285 on the season. Aaron Laffey continued to impress as a starter at the Major League level, going seven shutout innings, allowing six hits, walking one and striking out two. Laffey now has an ERA of 1.83 in three starts, and in those starts has allowed a combined four earned runs on 13 hits in 19.2 innings. It will be tough at this point to remove him from the rotation.

The rest of the offense feasted off of Blue Jays starter Dustin McGowan. Victor Martinez continued the big first inning with a single that scored Jamey Carroll. Ben Francisco hit a sac fly to score another run, and Asdrubal Cabrera and Casey Blake added singles that scored runs to put up the six runs in the first. The Sizemore show continued with a RBI double in the 4th, and Martinez singled in Blake and Sizemore to make it 9-0. Victor was 2-for-4 with 3 RBI.

Both the pitching and hitting has been on target for the first two games of this four-game set. In all, the pitching has allowed just one run in the first two games, while the hitting has scored 18 runs on 20 hits. It is the best two-game stretch the team has had across the board in the first 36 games of the season, as they now sit at .500 at 18-18.

Sunday with rain expected most of the day, the team will hopefully be able to take the field with Fausto Carmona (3-1, 2.95) going up against A.J. Burnett (3-3, 5.19) with a scheduled first pitch at 1:05pm.