Indians Confidential

It was one of those nights where it seemed that everything that could go right for the Indians did. And that was nice to see. From four long balls to a great outing by Aaron Laffey, the Tribe started their weekend series way out West in Seattle with a solid 9-0 win.

As mentioned, the team had its own version of home run derby, with Travis Hafner, Ryan Garko, Jamey Carroll and Ben Francisco all going deep off Mariners pitching. Laffey was solid all night, allowing just 3 hits in the shutout effort over 7 innings, walking three and striking out seven. His is now 4-2 on the year and his ERA is also a solid 3.71.

Three relievers – Joe Smith, Tony Sipp and Chris Perez wrapped up the win, with Perez looking by far the best he has had since coming to the Indians, striking out two in the 9th. So in the end, it was a lot of positives, and actually not much to complain about.

The team has quietly won three of four on the road trip, and while it doesn’t mean much, they are now 39-58 on the season. Saturday it’s Jeremy Sowers for the Indians vs Erik Bedard at 4:10 pm.

The homestand that stated so badly appears to be headed for a bright ending, as for the second straight day the Indians nicely dispatched the awful Oakland A’s, topping them with a 5-2 win to improve to 33-49 on the season. It’s the teams second straight win after a five-game losing streak that had the entire organization pulling its hair out.

The long ball was the teams best friend on this 4th of July night, as Ben Francisco went deep off of A’s starter Vin Mazzaro in the third inning to give the Tribe a 3-1 lead. Grady Sizemore went deep in the 6th to pad the lead to 4-1. The Indians allowed a run in the 7th to make it 4-2, but then Sizemore got a RBI ground out in the 7th to push the lead to the final of 5-2.

For Francisco, he went 3-for-3 to push his average to .246 on the year. His homer was his 6th of the season and he also stole third. Sizemore’s blast was his 11th of the season, and he went 2-for-4 with two RBI and is batting .230 on the season. The Indians pounded out 10 hits to the A’s 8.

Carl Pavano was not spectacular, but was good enough to get the win to improve to 7-7 on the season. He allowed a run in the first, but then settled down and went 6.2 innings, allowing two runs on 8 hits with two walks and three strikeouts. His ERA drops to 5.36 on the season. Tony Sipp, Joe Smith and Kerry Wood rounded out the night on the mound for the Indians, with Wood earning his 10th save.

If the Indians can complete the sweep of the A’s Sunday, they will wrap up the homestand 4-5. While it’s still under .500, considering they were 1-2 vs the Reds and then were swept by the White Sox, they will take it. Sunday is also a shot for Cliff Lee to get on track after his awful outing last week vs the Sox. He’ll go for the Indians vs Gio Gonzalez (0-2, 7.27).

When Ben Francisco sees Andy Sonnanstine on the mound, drool has to start coming out of his mouth. How else can you explain Francisco’s unreal success against Sonnanstine, which continued on Wednesday night at Progressive Field in the Indians third straight win over the Rays – 12-7. Francisco belted his 5th homer of the season off of the Rays starter in the 2nd inning, and now is 8-for-9 lifetime with 5 HR and 12 RBI against him.

Francisco’s homer was a three-run shot, and it jump started the Indians offense after called up starter Zach Jackson waited out a 1 hour 55 minute rain dealy with the rest of the team only to allow a five-spot to the Rays in the first inning to give Tampa Bay some early confidence.

It was not to be for Tampa Bay, who have now fallen 16 straight times to the Indians at Progressive Field. The Tribe offense has been finally showing the type of potential everyone thought they would, as against four Rays pitchers they put up 12 runs on 14 hits, five of which were extra base hits.

Shin-Soo Choo hit a two-run homer as well for the Indians to take their 8-7 lead and extend it to the eventual final of 12-7. For Choo, it was his 6th homer of the season. Jackson couldn’t stick around long enough to get the win, as he left after four innings, allowing 6 earned runs, 7 overall, on 8 hits with four walks and four strikeouts.

Righty Greg Aquino pitched two scoreless innings to notch his first win since June of 2006 at Pittsburgh when he was a reliever for the D-Backs. Another new name from the pen, Luis Vizcaino, pitched a scoreless 7th, 8th and 9th innings to pick up his first save in almost 5 years (September 24th with the Brewers in Arizona).

It’s a three-game winning streak now for the Indians, their longest win streak of the season. The win streak at home vs Tampa Bay dates back to 2005, and is the longest win streak at home over one team since they won 27 straight vs the St.Louis Browns from 1952 to 1954.

It’s a super quick turnaround for the Tribe, as they will wrap up the series vs the Rays looking for 4 straight and 7 of their last 9 at 12:05. The team now sits at 20-28, 7.5 back of the Tigers in the AL Central.

This years Indians are so bad, they even allowed a pitcher on Sunday to drive in a run in what became their 25th loss of the season. That pitcher was Andy Sonnanstine, who due to a lineup mixup by manager Joe Maddon was forced to hit in the 9 hole, and of course against new Indians pitcher David Huff he had an RBI double.

It was just one of a couple of crazy things to happen to Huff and the Indians as they fell to the Rays 7-5 on Sunday. It was the third straight loss for the Indians, and after a brief winning streak they now find themselves 11 games under .500 at 14-25, and are 7.5 games back in an AL Central that is quickly slipping away.

Huff, who got the call-up to start on Sunday, wasn’t very good. He allowed 7 runs on 7 hits in 3.2 innings, walking four and striking out two. “He was erratic,” manager Eric Wedge said. “You could tell he was a little nervous early on. I don’t think we saw his ‘A’ game today. I think he was just fighting to control the baseball with most of his pitches. It still stems off the fastball command, and it was tight up there today.”

Wedge tried to shake-up the lineup a bit, sitting struggling Grady Sizemore, and putting hot hitting Asdrubal Cabrera at the leadoff spot. Jamey Carroll hit second and played second, while Cabrera played short and Shin-Soo Choo hit fourth. Ben Francisco did a great job playing in place of Sizemore, hitting two homers and putting up four RBI.

The Tribe did get screwed in the 8th, as a ball hit by Ryan Garko that should have been a double was ruled an out. The fly to left hit the top of the padded portion of the wall and bounced back into Carl Crawford’s, who was playing left, hand. The umpires ruled that the ball hit Crawford’s glove before bouncing into his hand, resulting in an out, but replays showed that it hit the wall.

Just another thing against the Indians in what is quickly is starting to be more and more of a frustrating season. “It’s been frustrating for a while,” Kerry Wood said. “I don’t think it can get a whole lot more frustrating than where we’re at right now. At least I hope not.”

Drop a couple more games in KC this week, and we’ll see how those calls to talk shows asking for Wedge’s head grow louder.

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.

It’s been over 400 days that the Indians had tangled with the Baltimore Orioles, but for the Tribe, the hot streak continues no matter who they play.  Monday night on a beautiful night for baseball at Progressive Field, the Indians offense jumped on O’s starter Dennis Sarfate for four runs in the first, and in the end held on for an 11-8 win to push their winning streak to four straight.

The game was not as easy as it looked, as the team went up 5-0 after two, but then had to rally after they found themselves down 8-7 heading into the bottom of the 7th.  From there, the offense that had so many issues in the beginning of the year, rallied for one of the few times this season.  They put up a three-spot in the bottom of the 7th with some heads up baserunning, then added another three runs in the 8th on a pair of homers, one from Ben Francisco and another from Andy Gonzalez to secure the win.

Fausto Carmona did his best to try and hold the lead, but just couldn’t do it.  He lasted 6.1 innings, allowing 7 runs on six hits.  He walked four, struck out four, and gave up a homer.  Edward Mujica, who I wish they would finally give up on, pitched 0.2, and allowed the run that put the O’s up for a bit to make it 8-7.  Brendan Donnelly did a nice job in the 8th not allowing a run while walking one and K’ing one.  In the 9th it was Jensen Lewis closing the door.

Four players in the lineup had two hits, Francisco, Johnny Peralta, Asdrubal Cabrera and Ryan Garko paced the offense that pounded out 13 hits and 13 runs.  Four Orioles pitchers were no match for a hot Indians offense that has scored 33 runs in their last five games.  Cabrera also added a homer for the Indians.  The Indians improve to 53-64 on the season, dropping the O’s to 56-61.

The two teams will play game two of the four game set on Tuesday night at Progressive Field.  Jeremy Sowers (1-6, 5.70) will go for the Indians vs Garrett Olson (8-6, 6.06) at 7:05 p.m.

Home cooking is starting to taste good again to the Indians, who Friday night in the kickoff of Beach weekend (whatever) took advantage again of Twins pitcher Livan Hernandez in beating Minnesota 5-2.  The Indians roughed up Hernandez back on June 12th, as they scored 7 runs against him on 12 hits in just three innings in a 12-2 win.

Tonight they jumped on him for four runs in the first inning to set the pace, also sending 8 men to the plate.  Ben Francisco hit a sac fly with two on that scored Grady Sizemore from second when Carlos Gomez slammed against the wall and laid on the ground hurt.  Shin-Soo Choo hit another sac fly to make it 2-0 that scored Jamey Carroll.  Kelly Shoppach two batters later hit a double that scored Jhonny Peralta and Casey Blake to make it 4-0.

Cliff Lee was on again for the Indians, as the Cy Young candidate went 8 innings, throwing another gem.  He allowed two runs on six hits, striking out 10.  The Tribe MVP improves to 14-2 on the year, the first pitcher in the Majors to win 14 games this year.  He allowed a single run in the 3rd on a Denard Span single, and another in the 6th on  Joe Mauer double, but other than that was again solid.

The Indians offense also got a homer from Franklin Gutierrez in the 9th spot in the order which made it 5-1 in the second.  They pounded out 12 hits on the night, with Blake, Peralta and Gutierrez all with more than one hit. Masa Kobayashi came in to take the final inning for Lee and quickly allowed a hit and a Justin Morneau homer to make it 5-4.   Delmon Young then doubled and Eric Wedge moved to Rafael Perez.

Perez got Mike Redmond to lineout to first, then got Brendan Harris to ground out to the pitcher to get two quick outs.  The threat was gone when Nick Punto grounded out to second on a great play by Asdrubal Cabrera to end the game.

The team, now 45-56, will look for two in a row over the Twins on Saturday night at 7:05 when it’s the return of Fausto Carmona (4-2, 3.10) from the DL vs Scott Baker (6-3, 3.26).