Indians Confidential

Every once in awhile, the Indians offense teases fans with signs of just how good they could be. Monday night seemed to be one of those nights, as the team hit four homers and scored double digit runs for the first time in over three weeks in a 13-9 win over the Rangers in Arlington, Texas. The big bomber was Casey Blake, who hit two of the four Indians homers and ended the night with seven RBI.

David Dellucci and Ben Francisco also homered, Francisco’s two-run blast snapped an 8-all tie in the 7th and the sailed from there. Blake hit a pair of early two-run homers, and ended the night 3-for-5. The offense, usually known for numbers like one run on four hits, put up 13 runs on 16 hits. If only they could have these types of nights on a consistent basis.

Masa Kobayashi got the win in relief for the Indians, as Aaron Laffey was nowhere near as good as he was in previous starts. Laffey went 5 innings, allowing 8 runs on 11 hits, walking two and striking out two. He let the Rangers back in it with two homers, the big blast a grand slam to Marlon Byrd that tied the game at eight in the 5th. Kobayashi went 1.2 innings, allowing one run on one hit with 3 K’s to improve to 3-2.

The team moves to 26-31, 4.5 back of the White Sox in the Central. Tonight with Jake Westbrook back in Cleveland with a sore elbow, the team has not announced a starter, while the Rangers have A.J. Murray (1-0, 3.38 ERA) starting at 8:05pm.

(From Yahoo Sports!)

Right-fielder Ben Francisco misplayed a simple single into a costly error in the 10th inning, enabling Jarrod Saltalamacchia to score from first base and give the Texas Rangers a 2-1 win over the Cleveland Indians on Sunday.

Saltalamacchia drew a two-out walk on the 10th pitch he saw from Masahide Kobayashi (2-2).

Former Indians utility infielder Ramon Vazquez, who struck out as a pinch-hitter in the eighth against Rafael Betancourt, then lined a routine single to right. Francisco knelt down to play it safely, but the ball bounced between his legs and rolled all the way to the wall. Saltalamacchia scored easily and Vazquez reached third on the error.

Jamey Wright (3-1) worked two scoreless innings for the win and C.J. Wilson pitched the 10th for his 10th save in 12 chances as Texas won two of three in the weekend series. Cleveland has lost eight of nine.

Texas outfielder Josh Hamilton was ejected after arguing a third strike in the sixth. He went 1-for-3, ending his streak of multihit games at eight, one shy of Rusty Greer’s team record set in 2000.

Hamilton tried to check his swing on a 2-2 pitch from Indians starter C.C. Sabathia. Third-base umpire Dale Scott ruled otherwise. Hamilton got back into the batter’s box and showed where he had stopped the bat, then waved at Scott— who waved back as plate umpire Bill Hohn tossed the .333 hitter whose 53 RBIs lead the majors.

Sabathia gave up one run over seven innings—Ian Kinsler’s sixth homer leading off the sixth that tied the score at 1. The 2007 AL Cy Young Award winner allowed seven hits, two walks and struck out five but once again got little offensive support. Cleveland has scored two or fewer runs in eight of the left-hander’s 11 starts.

Texas starter Doug Mathis gave up one run over six innings. The right-hander, filling a rotation spot while Kevin Millwood is on the disabled list with a strained groin, gave up seven hits and three walks, striking out one.

Francisco doubled with one out in the first, took third on a single to left by Travis Hafner and scored on a single to center by Victor Martinez.

Martinez was back in Cleveland’s lineup after missing two games with a torn nail on the middle finger of his left hand.

Poor baserunning by the Rangers twice helped Sabathia out of trouble.

In the third, Kinsler lifted a short fly ball that was caught by Francisco. German Duran, on first after a single, was halfway to second and easily doubled off for an inning-ending double play.

The next inning, Michael Young singled and went to third on a one-out double by Milton Bradley. David Murphy followed with a looping ball that was caught on the outfield grass by second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera. This time, Bradley was easily doubled off second to end that threat.

David Dellucci twice grounded into double plays for Cleveland. Martinez also grounded into one and was robbed of extra bases by Murphy’s over-the-shoulder catch at the warning track in right with two on to end the seventh. Martinez, homerless in 145 at-bats this year, slammed his batting helmet to the ground in frustration as he reached first base.

While the starting pitching was at it again with another strong outing Saturday afternoon in Cincy, the offense was quiet as usual, and new closer (at least as it appears at this point), Masa Kobayashi, got a rude awaking to American baseball in the latest 4-2 loss to the Reds.  Masa, coming on in the 9th with a 2-1 lead, made it simple and sweet for the Reds, giving up a single, double, and then 3-run mammoth homer to Adam Dunn, giving the Indians their second straight loss.

Dunn’s blast was his second in two games vs the Indians, the first a two-run homer last night in the Reds 4-3 win, and today his homer clinched the Reds 20th win of the season against 23 losses.  The loss for the Indians drop them to 22-21.  The Tribe took a 2-1 lead in the 8th when Ben Francisco, who had a good day going 3-for-4, hit a homer to left off of Reds relief pitcher David Weathers to make it 2-1 Indians.  It was Ben’s first homer of the year.

The offense put up 10 hits off of three Reds ptichers, but were only able to put up one run, that came in the second when Ryan Garko doubled to deep left that scored Francisco to make it 1-0.  Cincy got their first run to tie the game in the 6th off of Indians starter Fausto Carmona when former Indian Brandon Phillips singled home Jerry Hairston Jr. to make it 1-1.  Carmona had another good outing, going 7.1 innings, allowing one run on four hits.  His ERA dropped to 2.25.

The loss puts Masa at 2-1 on the season, and it was his first blown save.  The Indians fall to 8-8 on the road.  Sunday in the series finale at the Great American Ballpark, Cliff Lee looks to move to 8-0 as he takes on surprising Reds starter Edinson Volquez, who is 6-1 with an ERA of 1.12 at 1:15pm.

In the end, the Indians are at least going to get something for outfielder Jason Michaels.  Today the team announced that they have traded Michaels to the Pittsburgh Pirates for a player to be named.  Michaels was designated for assignment by the team back on May 6th when it was decided they would bring up Ben Francisco.  Michaels started the season in a platoon situation with David Dellucci in left field, and after Dellucci started to catch on at the plate, Michaels playing time went down the tubes.  He was batting .207 with three runs scored, 4 doubles and 9 RBI in 21 games.  The team also sent some cash to the Pirates to take Michaels off their hands.

Talked about this the other day and earlier today here on the site, and it was not much of a shock when it hit the wire that the Tribe cut Jason Michaels earlier today.  He was simply not living up to his part of the left field platoon that began the season between he and David Dellucci.  Maybe if the team was playing better, or if others on the team were hitting, having Michaels in a slump would not be as big as it was.  But, with the team barley hitting 31 games into the season, some moves have to be made.

“This one transaction is not going to solve all our offensive woes,” Mark Shapiro said Monday. “Jason Michaels was certainly not the primary cause. We just feel it’s time for us, where we can, to start to make some small moves that might help. But the answers to our offensive issues lie within. When you have five to seven guys up and down your lineup struggling, you are not able to make one move or two moves to solve those problems.”

Michaels is hitting .207.  Ben Francisco should be able to help the offense at least a little bit.  He was hitting pretty well in Buffalo, and last season hit .318, winning the International League batting title.  Bottom line is if he can hit .250 or better, he’ll be a welcome addition to the lineup.

Eric Wedge Sunday said the team will do whatever it takes to get out of its offensive slump, and one move that is going to happen will take place tomorrow, when outfielder Ben Francisco joins the team for its trip to the Brox to play the Yankees. Francisco told a reporter in AAA Buffalo that he is being recalled by the Indians for the second time this season.

He was called up for four days back on April 22nd when the team put Jake Westbrook on the DL. More proof of the callup is the fact he was pulled from the second game of a doubleheader Sunday for the Bisons. Last season in 25 games with the Indians he hit .274.

The question will be what roster move is made to make room for Francisco? The obvious choice would be to dump Jason Michaels, and put him on waivers. Michaels is hitting just .207, and has struck out 13 times in 58 at-bats. The move would open up the left field spot for Francisco and David Dellucci, who is hitting .264 with three homers.

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).

The Indians just sent out this presser about the roster move to get Jeremy Sowers back on the MLB roster:

CLEVELAND, OH — The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has recalled LHP JEREMY SOWERS from the AAA Buffalo Bisons. To allow room for Sowers on the Major League roster the Indians optioned OF BEN FRANCISCO to AAA Buffalo.

Francisco returns to Buffalo after being recalled by Cleveland on April 22nd when Jake Westbrook went on the disabled list.