Indians Confidential

C.C. Sabathia’s first 7 and a half seasons were spent hearing cheers from fans at Progressive Field, as he helped the Indians do their best to win games. Saturday night for the first time in his career, he was back in Cleveland in another uniform, the uniform of the New York Yankees.

Sabathia got some applause, but no matter how the crowd reacted, it really didn’t matter, as the Yankee offense did more than enough for him against Fausto Carmona to earn his 5th win of the season as the Yanks beat the Indians 10-5. C.C. went 7 innings, allowing three runs on five hits, walking three and striking out eight.

Carmona was pretty awful. He threw four innings, and never showed much, allowing 7 runs, four earned, on 8 hits, walking two and striking out two. He was supposed to be the number two man in the Tribe rotation, but has only one win in his last 8 outings, and falls to 2-5 on the season.

New York put up a pair in the second on two long homers that began their hit parade. The first homer was from Jorge Posada, the second a bomb from Nick Swisher that gave the team the 2-0 lead. The undoing of Carmona was the 4th, as he allowed nine Yankees to the plate as Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon and Robinson Cano all got RBI hits to make it a 7-0 lead.

After not putting up a hit in the first four innigs, the Tribe finally got on the board with two runs in the 5th. Ryan Garko and Jamey Carroll each had RBI hits to make it a 7-2 game. New York though answered right back, as Damon hit a ground out that scored Brett Gardner to make it 8-2.

A Grady Sizemore homer made it 8-3, and then the teams traded two runs each in the 9th, with the Tribe runs coming from a Shin-Soo Choo homer and Ben Francisco double to close the scoring at 10-5.

The bright spot for the Indians was the relief throwing of Tomo Ohka, who was able to save the bullpen by throwing five innings, allowing three runs on five hits with a walk and three strikeouts.

The team has lost two in a row after their four-game win streak. Sunday now at 21-30 they will put out Carl Pavano (5-4, 5.50) vs Phil Hughes at 12:40 p.m.

While it’s just 9 games into the season, the highlight of the 2009 season clearly took place on Thursday afternoon at the new stadium of the New York Yankees, as the Tribe laid a beating on the Yankees, winning 10-2. The game was hailed as not only the opening of the new stadium, but also a matchup of the last two Cy Young award winners – C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee.

Both former teammates went at it tooth and nail, and in the end, it was Lee shining. He went six innings, allowing just one run on seven hits. He was much more in control than his first two starts, and seemed to pick up where he left off when he was able to rebound late last Saturday against the Blue Jays.

As for the offense, the hero was Grady Sizemore, who had a shot earlier in the game to break it open with the bases loaded and two outs tied at one, only to fly out. It was two innings later when Grady came up again with the bases loaded, and this time he delivered, slamming a grand slam to make a 5-1 game into a blowout at 9-1.

“To come in here and do what we did is something we’ll always remember,” Sizemore said.

Sabathia looked weird in pinstripes as far as I was concerned. The Tribe did a great job making him throw pitches, as by the time he left the game after 5.2 innings, he had thrown a whopping 122 pitches, the most in a game by a Yankee since Randy Johnson’s 129 on July 19, 2006.

He gave up five hits and one run, but walked five and struck out four. On this day, it was Lee who pitched better, and the Indians bullpen (Rafel Perez and Rafel Betancourt) actually did their job, allowing just one run between them in three innings and two hits with five walks and two strikeouts while the offense did their damage.

The Indians wrapped up their best day of the young season with 10 runs, 13 hits, five doubles and two homers. They made the expensive Yankees look like wannabe’s which is exactly what they are in the AL East – a third or fourth place team that is way overrated.

The win puts the Indians at 3-7 on the year, their first two-game winning streak of the 2009 season. The Yankees fall to 5-5. With three more games to go this weekend vs the Yankees, this is a great shot for the team to turn their early rocky start to the 09 season around.

So far, so good.

For the second straight series, the Indians looked rather ugly in losing the first two games of a series, only to then rebound and win the finale. They did that same thing again earlier today as they topped the KC Royals 5-4 in Kansas City to move to 2-7 on the season.

The win didn’t come easy by any means, as it was Travis Hafner that had a huge double that keyed a three-run 7th inning that got the Tribe the lead which led to the win. Hafner, who I think has been a bright spot during the early part of what’s been an ulgy start, had two doubles in the game, went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a walk, and is hitting .286 on the season.

The team got enough from spot starter Aaron Laffey, who was called up from AAA Columbus earlier in the day for Josh Barfield. While he didn’t earn the win (Jensen Lewis 1-0 got that), he did go 5.1 innings, allowing two runs on three hits with three walks and five strikeouts.

Laffey, who didn’t have a good spring, now has a chance to make an impact, as this is sort of his second lease on life as a guy that can make and stay in the rotation. I thought Scott Lewis was going to be able to have a good season, but he’s already on the DL, and you know that Laffey will get another start at the big league level in this stretch, and it’ll be at home next week vs the Royals.

Joe Smith, Lewis and Rafel Betancourt held the fort down till the 9th, when Kerry Wood came in and got his first save of the season with a solid inning. The offense, which I thought has been downright awful at points in the first 8 games, looked good on Wednesday. They had 10 hits, 5 doubles and struck out just 6 times, which is a vast improvement from the first 8 games.

Now the hoopla of having to head to New York and the opening of the new Yankee Stadium is upon the team. They get a shot at C.C. Sabathia tomorrow, and I think they can steal one since we all know how C.C. pitches when the pressure is on. If Cliff Lee can follow up the last few innings of his outing from Saturday, the Tribe I think can steal a win in NYC on Thursday.

Okay, Cliff Lee looked like crap, the offense did nothing off a former Indian, and as usual, the sky is falling after one loss. Settle down folks. Indians fans should be use to losing the first game of the season, it’s happened 7 of the last 11 seasons. Deal with it.

The bigger question has to be Lee, who is being counted along to anchor a pitching staff that right now is questionable at best. He wasn’t very good in the spring, and carried that over to Opening Day vs a Rangers team that can hit, but at the same time can be beat.

Maybe hindsight being what it is, Eric Wedge should have pulled Lee after he got hit on the forearm, or maybe after he got hit for four runs in the second inning. To his credit, Lee got into a groove in innings three and four until Hank Blalock hit a three-run no doubter in the fifth to put the game away.

But again, it’s just one game, so relax. After all, you could be the Yankees, who just gave C.C. Sabathia a 7-year, $161 million dollar deal to go out and allow six runs, eight hits and five walks over 4 1/3 innings. In other words, it could be worse.

Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians was elected the American League Cy Young Award winner in balloting by the BBWAA. It marked the second consecutive year and third time overall that a Cleveland pitcher was honored. CC Sabathia won last year. The other Indians winner was Gaylord Perry in 1972.

Lee was named first on 24 and second on the other four of the 28 ballots cast by two writers in each league city for a total of 132 points, based on the 5-3-1 tabulation system. The lefthander, 30, was 22-3 in leading the AL in victories, winning percentage (.880) and ERA (2.54) and adding career-high totals of innings (223 1/3) and strikeouts (170) with four complete games and two shutouts. Lee, the starting pitcher for the AL in the All-Star Game July 15 at Yankee Stadium, was the only pitcher named on all ballots.

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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.

Underachievers forced Dodgers to pick up Blake

For the Cleveland Indians, dealing Blake became a no-brainer after the team continued to founder in July and ace CC Sabathia was traded. Blake, one of the few proven bats on the market, triggered a moderate bidding war between the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Tampa Bay Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks, and was bound to net a couple of decent prospects.

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For one night anyway, the Indians looked like a team that gave a darn about winning once again, and not making excuses as to why they had lost 10 straight.  They put a rather sound beating on the Tampa Bay Rays Thursday night, winning for the first time since June 27th when now former Indian C.C. Sabathia shutout the Reds.

Thursday’s win, 13-2, came complete with just about everything the Indians had not been doing over the last 10 games.  They put up a 5-spot in the 5th, a 7-spot in the 8th, hit a couple of long balls, had some two out hits, and got a solid pitching outing from starter Aaron Laffey and the bullpen didn’t blow it out of the water like it has on more than a few times this season.

They trailed 2-0 going into the 5th when David Dellucci hit a two-run homer to tie the game, then after Jamey Carroll hit a fielders choice to make it 3-2, Ben Francisco hit a two-run shot that gave the team the three-run lead at 5-2.  They added a spot in the 6th when Shin-Soo Choo hit a solo homer, and then put up another five spot in the 8th to put the game away.

That inning was highlighted by a Casey Blake homer, a run on an error, and a Francisco single that scored two more runs.  A Jhonny Peralta single scored another run, and then Blake, the 10th batter of the inning, hit a single that scored two more runs to end the frame to the first standing ovation the team has had for some time.  The 7 runs in the 8th was only the second time they have done that in 2008 – the last time – the season opener in the 2nd inning vs the White Sox.

Laffey went six innings, allowing two runs on four hits, walking three and striking out four.  He improves to 5-5, his first win since June 12th.  Even the bullpen, as bad as it’s been for the whole season, couldn’t blow this one, as Rafael Perez pitched two scoreless innings, and one of the newer Indians, Juan Rincon, finished off the win with a scoreless 9th.  The win puts the Indians at 38-53, dropping the Rays to 55-36.  Friday the four-game set continues at 7:05pm as All-Star Cliff Lee (11-2, 2.43) goes vs James Shields (7-5) for the Rays.