Indians Confidential

A big part about the Indians final month or so of the 2009 season will be about seeing where the pitching will be headed for the 2010 season. Sunday saw would could be a glimpse of the future, as Fausto Carmona, a guy the Indians simply have to have pitch well now and in the future, threw well in the teams 6-1 win at Progressive Field over the Mariners.

Carmona, who has had quite the season from the teams number two starter to Arizona rookie ball to basic afterthought in the rotation, threw 7 innings, allowing one run on five hits. He walked one and struck out eight, and his only mistake was a homer allowed to future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr.

Otherwise it was all Tribe, who won the season series from the Mariners 6-4, and took two of three in the quick three-game set. They got a homer from Jhonny Peralta, and were led by a big four-run sixth that was highlighted by a couple of key hits including Matt Laporta’s double and an Andy Marte single that drove in runs.

The Indians outhit the Mariners 10-6, and with the win improve to 54-69 on the season, dropping Seattle to 63-61. The team is now out on the road for a 9-game trip, starting Monday night in KC.

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.

One more time – how’s that Chris Perez trade working out?

Yes, the Indians latest bullpen fall guy was at it again Tuesday night in Chicago, as he gave up a grand slam to Indian killer Paul Konerko as the White Sox scored 9 runs in their last three at-bats to top the Tribe 10-6.

Konerko hit three bombs on the night, driving in 7 runs. Per usual, Jeremy Sowers was pretty good through 5 innings, holding the White Sox to a single run as the Indians led the contest 2-1 entering the bottom of the 6th. Ah but alas, Jeremy would not let us down, as he gave up a double, single and a walk all with one out to load the bases for Konerko.

Enter Perez, who at least this time didn’t hit anyone like in his first Indians outing vs Chicago last week. Instead, he just allowed the worst possible thing to happen, a bases clearing bomb that quickly gave the Sox a 5-2 lead. Of course Perez wasn’t the only comedy act out of the bullpen Tuesday – we also got a chuckle from new Indian Winston “don’t call me Bobby” Abreu.

All he did was allow 80 percent of the batters he faced to score. He gave up a walk (a steal of second), a homer to Alexi Ramirez, a strikeout (his only out recorded), a single, and then Konerko’s third homer of the night, a two-run blast that made it a 10-2 route.

Abreu’s line – 0.1 innings, three hits, four runs, one walk, one strikeout, and two homers. While he couldn’t top Perez’s ERA of 23.14, his whopping 11.25 fits in nicely with the crap that is otherwise known as the Tribe bullpen in 2009.

About the only bright spot was Grady Sizemore, who hit two homers to bring his total to 13 on the season. He went 2-for-4 with three RBI and the two dingers. Shin-Soo Choo also homered (13) and Travis Hafner went 2-for-4 with a RBI and is now batting .281.

Other than that, it was once again the joke of a bullpen and the usual 6th inning meltdown of Sowers that made this outcome one that we’ve seen all too often in 2009.

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.

Indians losing pitcher Jake Westbrook talks to the media postgame after today’s 2-1 loss to the White Sox. Jake says that despite feeling good on the mound, the two solo homers is what did him in. Click below to listen to Jake’s comments in the Tribe locker room.

1-2-3 ninth…..2-1 loss…

Heart of the order…Peralta, Hafner and Garko in the 9th

Jenks out for the 9th

Lewis out of the 8th…..they need a run to move this to extra innings

Flyout to left ends the frame….they’ll need some 9th inning heroics

Two outs, and here comes Martinez to face Linebrink…Victor said yesterday he could hit..we’ll see

Peralta bare hands a weak grounder by Konerko…nice scoop and end to the inning down 2-1

Wow…what an awesome change up on Thome to strike him out….Lewis totally handcuffed him

Anderson pinch hitting for Swisher singles hard….here comes the hook and Jensen Lewis

Westbrook getting behind in the counts…down 3-1 gives up a single to Uribe

Crede in the 8 hole puts out a 2-0 pitch….a laser shot…2-1

Blake fly out to center to end the inning….1-1

15,785 announced….close…a think more like 10,000-11,000

Danks done…bring on Dotel

Cabrera can’t get it out of the infield….5-6-3 and now two outs…up to Blake to get a big hit

WHAT ARE THEY DOING??!!!! Dye and Swisher can’t communicate, Dye drops it…Gutierrez on second, Garko on third..error centerfielder Swisher

Garko with a bomb..double off the wall…1-1 on a nice slide by Travis!

Hafner walks..one on with no outs….Dotel starts to warm up…would love to get in the Sox Pen….Danks at 78 pitches

Thank you for calling! 1-6-3 and he’s out of the inning….nice

Westbrook needs another groundball

Uh-oh, another hit….two on with no outs….Jake up to 83 pitches

Whoops…..a boot by Blake at third

3-1 count and Michaels hits a rather weak groundout to end the frame….still 1-0 Sox

Great bunt by Shoppach…Konerko made a heck of a play

Finally…Blake singles to start the 6th

412 feet on the homer….thought he hit it well…

Can someone tell me why we still boo Jim Thome?

Juan Uribe went down and got that one…about 15 rows into the bleachers in center….1-0

Seems like both of these teams forget how to hit today…you can’t tell me Westbrook and Danks are that great

Is anyone going to score today?

Today’s press box dining – chili with goldfish, and some sort of berry cake..pretty good

Great pitch and he gets Crede swinging to end the inning…

Looks like the sinker is crossing Shoppach crossed up…another ball that ALMOST gets away

Groundball to third…crap, he would have had the double play….now two down and a runner at second

Ugh, 2-2 pitch and looks like another bad pitch…a wild pitch and Pie down to second…so much for the double play

Wow…a hit…too bad its for Pierzynski…who has had a good series

Danks still looking good….K’s Peralta for second out of the inning….

Nice job by Westbrook….fly out to center ends the 4th

Walk to Thome and now a passed ball….have to be careful here with two outs to Konerko

Tribe not doing all that much better against Danks…another 1-2-3 frame….three innings in the book and its 12:45

Westbrook looking great….31 pitches and now two outs in the third….

Gutierrez with a long out….Swisher (who made a nice cut off last night), makes a nice catch against the wall….two outs

Garko walks…first baserunner of the day….

Another 1-2-3 inning for Jake..looks like he’s got great control today….

Wow….that was fast, Westbrook with a 7 pitch inning and they are out 1-2-3

12:05 first pitch…..52 degrees….a full 18 degrees better than last night

Hey everyone….11:55 and I swear there is no more than 5,000 in the seats….this is strictly for the players so they can have time to get to the coast…