Indians Confidential

Indians radio voice Mike Hegan said it best in the Saturday night Tribe 4-0 loss to the Tigers.  “You’ve got offensive execution, defensive exection, and pitching execution – and right now the Indians are doing none of it right.”  And with that, the team now sits at 11-20, and I will make my first formal plea of the season:

It’s time for Eric Wedge to find employment elsewhere.  And you can take Mark Shapiro with you.

One playoff appearance in 7 seasons, and this team looks NOTHING like a playoff team in 2009.  Their starting pitching is really not that good (minus Lee and Carmona), the hitting is weaker than we all thought, and the defense stinks.  It all equals up to a team that to me has the making of a club that is nowhere near being a “championship” club, as they advertised in their marketing campaign this offseason.

Instead, this club has little to offer.  Saturday night against Cy Young, er I mean Edwin Jackson, they simply seemed to take hacks at the plate, made contact a couple of times, but in the end, had 7 hits and for the second straight night went 9 innings without pushing a run across home plate.

You go back to the last game in Boston on Thursday, and they have scored three runs in three games.  For the second straight night, they tried to put together an inning, but couldn’t get a bunt down, and after two tries by David Dellucci with two on and no outs, he hit a line drive to third that ended up doubling up Shin-Soo Choo at second base.

Fausto Carmona went 6.2 innings, allowing two runs on four hits.  He walked six and struck out four, but once again, got no offensive support, so it wouldn’t have really mattered if he would have given up two runs, or 22 runs.  If the Indians did have any hope of coming back, they of course went to the awful bullpen, where Rafael Betancourt allowed two runs on three hits on 1.1 innings.

Other than that, at least the 33,000 were able to walk out of the ballpark with a Cliff Lee Cy Young bobblehead.  Better enjoy it, there won’t be one next year.

So I am sitting at the Cavs beating of the Pistons Saturday and I get a text message from a friend: “Indians just scored 14 runs.” What? I thought, didn’t the game just start?! And that was the beauty of it.

There’s nothing better in the world than the beating of the pompous, too good for everyone else, let’s spend as much money as possible and still suck Yankees. And in two of the first three games of the new Yankee Stadium, that’s exactly what happened.

Saturday the Tribe slammed New York every which way but loose with a 22-4 win. “It was just one of those games for the entire team,” said Mark DeRosa, who went 4-for-7 and tied a career high with six RBIs. “Just a lot of guys getting good swings.”

The WHOLE team got good swings it seemed like, and it’s a shame you can’t bank some of these runs for today, or tomorrow, or next week for that matter.

DeRosa and Shin Soo-Choo hit three-run homers, Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore and Victor Martinez had solo shots for the Indians, who made it a laugher before some idiot Yankee fans could even get in their seats. It was also the 500th win for Eric Wedge, and couldn’t have been any better.

Fausto Carmona got the win to go to 1-2, and went 6 innings allowing four hits, six hits, and two homers. It seems like in three games the new Yankee Stadium is surely going to be a place where some home run records are broken.

So today the team has a shot at now 4-8 to come home on a high note. They have quickly won three of four, and today with a win can take 3 of 4 from the Yankees. How sweet that would be,

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.

* The twilight of the season has hit the Indians, as the team continues to put a positive spin on a season that has been a big letdown in the eyes of many fans.  One bright spot as of late has been the pitching of former Cardinal pitcher Anthony Reyes, who was impressive again Saturday in holding the Mariners to two runs over 7 innings in the teams latest 4-3 10 inning setback.

Reyes has stepped in and revived his career.  He has gone 2-1 with the Indians, and in all five starts has allowed two runs or less.  I could easily see him being the teams 5th starter last season if he can continue to get his pitches over and have the type of success he’s already had.  Let’s not forget he started game one of the World Series just two years ago with St.Louis.

* The team has been scuffling on offense the past two days, and manager Eric Wedge said yesterday that credit goes more to Mariners pitchers Felix Hernandez and Jarrod Washburn than the issues with the Indians hitters.  The team has been held to five runs in the last two losses after coming off a road trip where they scored 42 runs in 6 games in going 6-0.

* The team will make their call-ups in the next few days as they prepare for the final month of the season. Look for reliever Rich Rundles to get a call up from AAA Buffalo, where he has 57 K’s and an ERA of 2.82 this season.  The team will look to put as many band-aids on the pen this final month as they possibly can, and you can bet that is one area they will look to rebuild in the 2008 offseason.

Let’s just say that Fausto Carmona’s second start after a stint on the DL was a lot better than his first.  Coming back off a poor outing against the Twins, Carmona threw much better, had better command, and threw a lot more first pitch strikes as he led the way for the Indians in a 9-4 win over the Tigers to split a four-game set at Progressive Field.

Carmona went 6.1 innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits.  He walked one and struck out three.  He threw 99 pitches, 63 strikes.  Considering he lasted just 2.1 innings vs the Twins back on the 26th, allowing nine runs, Carmona’s outing was a positive sign for a team that knows they simply are playing out the stretch looking foward to the 2009 season.

On offense Grady Sizemore came through in a 1-1 game with a three-run homer off of Tigers starter Justin VerLander in the 5th that made it a 4-1 Indians lead.  The homer was a telling blow for a Tigers pitching staff that simply walked too many batters according to manager Jim Leyland.  Six walks in the game showed the patience at the plate for the Indians, and that inning catcher Sal Fasano got hit by a pitch, then Asdrubal Cabrera walked on a 3-2 pitch to send Grady to the plate.

The offense continued to hit well in the 6th as Fasano hit a single that scored Shin-Soo Choo to make it 4-2, then Sizemore got plunked to bring in another run to make it a 5-2 game and give Carmona and the bullpen some breathing room.  The Tigers scored two in the 7th off of Carmona to make it 5-4, but the offense again responded with key hits in the bottom of the inning, the biggest a Fasano double to give the team a lead of 9-4.

The defense continues to be an area of concern, as they again were sloppy with three errors, and manager Eric Wedge would not allow a lack of sleep from last nights marathon affair to be an excuse for it.  Choo will for sure be in the dog house after forgetting his sunglasses at one point, causing him issues in the outfield.

Nevertheless, the team will take it, as they move to 47-60 on the season.  They head on the road for a week now and start a series in Minnesota tomorrow night with Jeremy Sowers going against Nick Blackburn at 8:10pm.  The Tigers drop to 55-53.

Even on a day when the teams starting pitcher took a perfect game into the 6th inning, the Indians were, as usual this season, looking up at another loss by the time the stands cleared at Progressive Field Sunday.  A Justin Morneau double with two outs in the 9th inning off Rafael Perez was the difference, as the Twins escaped a great outing by Jeremy Sowers to top the Indians 4-2 in front of 31,562.

Sowers had his best stuff of the season, throwing to and retiring the first 15 batters the Twins sent up to the plate.  His fastball was on, had great command, and was able to use both sides of the plate.  Not until Craig Monroe hit a bloop double to start the 6th did Sowers allow a hit.  From there a huge Nick Punto bunt single that Sowers and Andy Marte at third miscommunicated on opened the door as the Twins scored twice to go up 2-1.

The Indians scrapped a run in the 8th off of Twins relief pitcher Denys Reyes.  Asdrubal Cabrera singled, went to third on a Grady Sizemore single, then scored on a sac to center by David Dellucci.  It was the play by CF Denard Span, who crashed into the wall in the Tribe’s win Friday night that was the play of the game though.  It looked as if Dellucci’s ball would get down, and if it would have, Sizemore would have easily scored and the Tribe would have been up 3-2.  But Span made a huge catch, saving the game for the Twins.

Perez came in to start the 9th, and allowed a one-out double to Alexi Casilla that bounced into the seats in left.  Then after getting Mike Redmond to K, Eric Wedge let Perez pitch to Morneau, citing his success against lefties.  With a 3-1 count, Perez left a pitch up, and Morneau hammered it to left center, scoring the winning run.  Delmon Young singled in an insurance run to make it 4-2.

The loss drops the Indians to 45-58 on the season.  The Tigers come to Progressive Field for the first of four starting on Monday at 7:05pm.  Paul Byrd, (4-10, 5.28) who may be the next Indian to get traded before the deadline, goes for the Tribe vs Kenny Rogers (8-6, 4.48).

Indians manager Eric Wedge has preached throughout this tough season that his team was not going to give in, no matter what the circumstances. That theory was again shown over the weekend as the team returned to action to take two-of-three from the Mariners in a series between two teams going nowhere fast. They dropped the first game, but recovered nicely to win the final two games of the series to take the series and up their streak to winning six of their last seven.

Sunday it was All-Star starter Cliff Lee’s turn to take the hill, and while it for sure was not one of his best outings of the season, the lefty got the job done, allowing 11 hits, but going the distance as the team topped Seattle 6-2. The big hit of the day was a Kelly Shoppach three-run homer that made a 1-1 game a 4-1 Indians lead. That was all Lee would need to up his record to 13-2.

It’s amazing to think that the Indians, a team that is 11 games under .500, has a pitcher on staff that is 11 games over .500. That’s the case with Lee, who by far is the teams MVP this season. He threw strikes to 16 of his first 20 batters, and 41 of his first 50 pitches were strikes, showing how good his command was. Four of the Mariners 11 hits were infield hits, and only one batter all day saw ball three.

The Indians will now move to Anaheim, where they may find a lot more competition than the Mariners. Anaheim has the best record in the Majors at 60-38, a far cry from the awful Mariners who after yesterday are 38-60. Nevertheless, the team can hang its head high as they are playing some of the best ball we’ve seen all season, problem is it’s very likely too little, too late.

With the “Ohio Cup” looming (whatever), manager Eric Wedge took some time from his day to talk to the Cleveland media prior to Friday’s Indians-Reds kickoff to their three-game set at Progressive Field.  Wedge talks about the MASH unit that is the Indians, with updates on Fausto Carmona among the other injured players.  He also talks about Jamey Carroll and the season he has had.  Click below to hear Wedge’s comments.