Indians Confidential

Dr. Cliff Lee was back in his office Wednesday night, otherwise known as the pitchers mound, once again performing surgery as he continued to look more like the best pitcher in the Majors than a pitcher who actually struggled in Triple A last season. In last nights 3-0 shutout of the Yankees, Lee was at it again, with seven shutout innings, six hits allowed, seven strikeouts and zero walks. The win puts him at 6-0 on the season, the best start for an Indians pitcher in 20 years (Greg Swindell 1988).

Lee dropped his ERA to 0.81, and what he continues to do start in and start out is get ahead of hitters, and once again vs the Yankees that was the case. He also has been dead on with location, allowing just two walks this season and four earned runs in 44.2 innings pitched. No one could have possibly expected Lee to get off to this type of start, but so far in this rather inconsistent season, he has been the brightest of bright spots for the Tribe.

The team was also on offense finally able to get to Yankees starter Chein-Ming Wang, who shut them out last Sunday at Progressive Field 1-0. The scored a run in the first after Grady Sizemore walked, went to second on a single, third on a fielder’s choice, and home on a sac fly by Victor Martinez. That run held up till the fourth, when Casey Blake singled in Jhonny Peralta with two outs to make it 2-0.

With Lee setting down the Yankees with what looked like ease, two runs were more than enough, but the team did add another in the fifth, when with one out David Dellucci hit a shot up the middle that brought in Andy Marte, who had actually got a hit, to make it 3-0. Lee did allow two singles in the 5th, and runners to reach second and third in the 6th, but was able to get out of both jams.

The bullpen for the second straight night did its job, as Rafael Perez pitched a scoreless 8th allowing one hit with two outs, and Rafael Betancourt earned his 4th save with his second straight 1-2-3 ninth. The win puts the Indians at 16-17, and it is their first season series win over the Yankees since 1992. They have not swept the Yanks in Yankee Stadium since 1989, but can do so today with Paul Byrd taking on Mike Mussina at 1:05pm.

Patience paid off for the Indians Tuesday night in the Bronx, as the Tribe drew two monster walks in the 8th inning, opening up the door for pinch-hitter David Dellucci to belt a three-run homer as the Indians top the Yankees 5-3.  Grady Sizemore and Jhonny Peralta both walked off of Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlin, setting up Dellucci for his 4th homer of the season, a shot to deep right that was just the emotional lift that the Wahoo’s needed.

The bullpen, a big concern as of late, did a nice job in the final four innings, allowing NY just two hits.  Rafael Perez, Jensen Lewis and Rafael Betancourt shut the door, not giving New York a shot to increase their lead or get back in the game once the Indians took control after Dellucci’s blast.  Perez gets the win to improve to 1-1 on the season, Betancourt earned his 3rd save of the year.

The Indians were outhit 8-6, but they got the big hits when they needed them.  Trailing 1-0 in the fourth, Peralta homered to deep center off of Andy Pettitte to give the Indians a 2-1 lead.  It was Peralta’s 6th homer of the season.  The Yankees came back with two runs in the bottom of the inning off of Indians starter Fausto Carmona, as Jason Giambi doubled in a run, and Robinson Cano singled in Giambi to make it 3-2.

Neither team was able to get another run across till the Indians were able to get to Chamberlin with the walks and then Dellucci’s homer to win the game.  The win puts the Indians at 15-17 on the season.  Wednesday Cliff Lee brings his 5-0 mark to the mound as he takes on 6-0 Chein-Ming Wang, who shut out the Indians last Sunday 1-0 at Progressive Field.  First pitch Wednesday night is 7:05pm.

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.

The month of April is in the books for the Indians, and while the baseball season is for sure more of a marathon than a sprint, it seems that the Tribe has stumbled out of the gate a bit. Here is the good and the bad for the first month of the season:

Good:

Cliff Lee - In a month where the Indians won 13 games, Lee won five, and looked far and away like the best starter on the roster. He’s re discovered his control with his fastball, and had a 27 inning scoreless streak during the month. And to think he had to win a spot in the rotation during spring training.

Victor Martinez - He put a scare into the team with his injury on opening day, but recovered nicely and now a month into the year is leading the AL with an average of .366 (30-82). He has yet to homer and has just 10 RBI, but those numbers will for sure pick up as the season moves along.

Masa Kobayashi - The Indians import has done well when called upon, going 1-0 in 12 games, throwing 12.1 innings, allowing two earned runs and 13 hits for a 1.46 ERA. They are easing him into pitching more, but if this keeps up, there’s no reason not for him to see more calls from the bullpen.

David Dellucci - After a start that made many wonder why Dellucci deserved any playing time at all, this vet finally got on track and is now playing well. He’s added spark to a dull lineup, hitting .283 with three homers, 9 RBI and four doubles. He’s playing more like the player the team thought they signed before last season.

Bad:

The offense - As a whole, the team is still rather lifeless at the plate, hitting a very average .250. Eric Wedge has started the process of tinkering with the lineup, giving players that are not producing nights off. The starting pitching cannot hold the team in games forever, and the team has to get better in this regard.

Travis Hafner - After another poor game on Tuesday night, Eric Wedge had seen enough, giving Travis a seat on the bench Wednesday night and maybe beyond. In 100 at-bats he has just three homers, 16 RBI, has struck out 27 times and is hitting just .210. The team still feels he’ll come out of this, but the fan base with him is getting restless.

Joe Borowski - Hard to throw Jo-Bo in here hurt, but you just get the feeling after blown saves vs the Angles and Red Sox that him getting back to being the closer is a long shot. Some have said that Borowski has a tired arm, and that last season was his last good year in the Majors.

The Schedule - The team has had a tough start to the year and the schedule hasn’t helped. Three cold games at home, a trip out west, home series vs the Yankees and Red Sox, and a homestand where they went 2-5. The team has 17 home games in May, let’s hope they improve quickly on their 7-9 mark at home.

Good times continued on Saturday at Progressive Field, as the Indians wrapped up their fifth straight win with a gutsy 4-3 victory over the New York Yankees. They got another solid outing from a starting pitcher, this time it being just called up Jeremy Sowers. They earned the win with getting out of some tough jams by a bullpen that was led by Jensen Lewis and Masa Kobayashi, who earned his first win in the Majors.

Back to Sowers, who went 5.1 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits. He walked just one and struck out three. With the news coming out that Jake Westbrook will miss four weeks instead of just two, having Sowers on the Major League roster pitching well is an added bonus. The bullpen did its job, with Lewis and Kobayashi going a combined 3.2 innings, allowing no runs on five hits with five strikeouts.

The offense put up three runs in the second, as Grady Sizemore walked in a run, David Dellucci hit a sac fly, and Travis Hafner singled in another. Sowers did a great job of making that hold up until the Yankees tied the game with three runs of their own in the 6th. It stayed tied till the Indians pushed a run across in the ninth.

With one out, Sizemore singled, Dellucci singled, and then both advanced on a wild pitch. They walked Hafner, and then Victor Martinez singled to left the game-winning run. The win puts the Indians at .500 at 12-12 for the first time since they were 4-4. They also move within a game of the first place White Sox, who fell Saturday. Sunday it’s C.C. Sabathia vs Chien- Ming Wang at 1:05pm.

Looks like the slump of C.C. Sabathia is finally over. Maybe just as important is the fact that the Indians offense on Tuesday night finally showed signs of life, as the team played its best game of the season, a 15-1 trouncing of the KC Royals in Kansas City. The output by the offense was by far the best this season, as they were coming in after scoring just five runs in three games in Minnesota in losing two of three over the weekend.

Casey Blake was the spark plug all night on offense, going 4-for-4 with a grand slam, two doubles a single and six RBI. He had a shot at the cycle late, but after hitting a ball down the line settled for a double instead of trying to go for a triple. The bats also saw David Dellucci, Jhonny Peralta and Franklin Gutierrez also homer in the 17-hit parade.

On to Sabathia, who finally found his control. He went six innings, allowed only four hits, and struck out 11, looking more like the Cy Young award winner from a season ago. He did walk two, but never seemed to get to that point of losing control, which is not something you can say for his previous two starts against the A’s and Tigers.

The Indians will look to win the series in game two tonight, if they do so it will be their first series win since the opening series of the year vs the White Sox. Fausto Carmona goes for the Indians at 8:10pm.

The Indians may only be seven games into the season, but already there has to be some concern about the rotation that the team wanted to use in left field this season between Jason Michaels and David Dellucci, who both have gotten off to awful starts.

Through seven games, Michales is hitting just .056, this after going 0-for-5 last night in Los Angeles with a strike out and five left on base. As for Dellucci, he has yet to get a hit this season, and in six games is 0-for-7 with two strike outs, three walks and two runs scored.

While Eric Wedge is not going to pull the plug on either player, this was a position of concern this past offseason, and it was no secret that the team was looking for a power-hitting corner outfielder to go with Grady Sizemore in center and Franklin Gutierrez, who also is not doing great through seven games, hitting just .182.

The offense is off to a slow start, which is not uncommon for this team, but the duo of Michaels and Dellucci had better start hitting at least somewhat, or this team is going to be in big trouble near the bottom of the lineup.