Indians Confidential

Earlier today I wrote that the next two games vs the White Sox were of great importance to the Indians to not fall further behind in the AL Central.  Tuesday night they played like they read that article and took it to heart, coming out with a flurry in the first and pounding the Sox 8-2.  Franklin Gutierrez started the offensive explosion with his first career grand slam in the first off of Mark Buehrle, and the rest was in the hands of Aaron Laffey.

The young pitcher was a little shakey at times, but overall well enough to get his third win to improve to 3-3 on the season.  He almost allowed the Sox back in the game with a pair of runs in the third, but then got out of the frame and was in cruise control the rest of the way, going six innings allowing one earned run on seven hits.  Laffey also got the help of three double play balls.

The Indians seemed extra agressive at the plate, not allowing Buehrle to get in any sort of groove.  They started the first with a double by Jamey Carroll, he went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a sac fly by Ben Francisco to make it 1-0.  From there a walk, single and walk loaded the bases for Gutierrez, who blasted his third homer of the season to give the Tribe a 5-0 lead.

The team put the game away in the sixth with three runs that saw nine men come to the plate.  Ryan Garko hit a ground rule double that scored Jhonny Peralta, then a bad Sox error that saw Paul Konerko drop an easy throw at first allowed another run to score, then Konerko in a rundown of Carroll threw home and the throw was bounced in and dropped that saw David Dellucci score.  Dellucci was credited with a steal of home, and he had come in for Gutierrez, who left the game after being hit on the quad with a pitch.

The much needed win puts the Indians back to 4.5 out of first in the division.  They improve to 24-28 on the season, dropping Chicago to 28-23.  Wednesday at 12:05pm the three-game set wraps up with Jake Westbrook coming off the DL for his first start since April 19th in Minnesota.  Gavin Floyd (4-3, 2.93) goes for the White Sox.

All the talk about the lack of offense seems to be getting worse, as Thursday night in Chicago the Sox completed a sweep of the Indians, sending them home after an 0-6 road trip through Cincy and Chi-Town.  This latest 3-1 setback was like the classic Four Tops song “It’s the Same Old Song,” – one run, two hits, and another solid wasted starting performance by the very good Aaron Laffey, who allowed two runs on six hits in 7 innings.

The Indians bats were silenced by Sox starter Mark Burhrle and two Sox relievers.  Buehrle went seven innings, allowing one run on two hits, walking four and striking out two.  The only Indians run came in the 3rd when Grady Sizemore hit a double to deep left that scored Franklin Gutierrez.  Sizemore and Ben Francisco managed the only two Indians hits, other than that, it was another night of no hitting and just going up and taking wacks, walking away with nothing.

To make things worse, Victor Martinez, one player who at least was showing some signs of being able to hit, had to leave the game in the 4th inning with an index finger injury.  He popped out to start the fourth inning, then left the game and was replaced by Kelly Shoppach in the bottom of the inning.

Cleveland falls to 22-25, they scored 13 runs in the six road losses, averaging just 2.1 runs per game.  Their best game on offense came in a 6-4 loss Sunday in Cincy, in a game where Cliff Lee was battered around for the first time all season and they had to try and rally a few times to get back in the game.  Other than that, the team showed little life all week, making many fans wonder exactly where this team is headed.

They left Cleveland in first place in the AL Central, and now limp home 4.5 games back of the red-hot White Sox, who have own eight straight.  Friday night they will try and right the ship against the Texas Rangers, who come to Cleveland 24-25.  Fausto Carmona (4-1) goes for the Indians vs Kason Gabbard (1-1) at 7:05pm.

If you would have taken bets on what Indians pitcher one month into the season would be in the running for this years CY Young, likely Cliff Lee would have been 4th or 5th on that list.  Lee though, is right there as one of the best pitchers in the game right now, and Wednesday night he was just the medicine the Indians needed to break their three-game losing streak in beating the Mariners 8-3 at Progressive Field.

To put in perspective how good Lee has been this season, consider that until Waldimir Balentien hit a three-run homer off of Lee in the 7th, he had gone 27 innings without allowing a run.  That streak is the longest by an Indians pitcher since John Denny went 34.2 innings without allowing a run in 1981.  Lee was great most of the night, which has been the story all year.  He went six plus innings, allowing three runs on eight hits.  He didn’t walk a batter, struck out three, and his season ERA actually did go up to 0.96.

For the first time since putting up six runs Friday, the team finally showed signs of life on offense, as they jumped on M’s starter Jarrod Washburn for two runs in the first, one in the foruth, and then put the game away with five runs in the fifth to go up 8-0.  The hero’s on offense included Grady Sizemore who went 2-3 with a homer to leadoff the game for the Indians, two walks, and two runs scored.  Victor Martinez went 2-5, and Franklin Gutierrez finally showed something at the plate, going 2-for-4 with three RBI, the big blow being a two-run single to center in the 5th.

Martinez, Casey Blake, Gutierrez and Jason Michaels all had RBI in that fifth inning that put the game away.  Washburn went 4.1 innings, allowing six runs, five earned, on six hits.  He walked two and struck out seven.  The team put up double digit hits in 11 and on the night showed much more at the plate then they have since their big games last week in KC.

The series comes to a close on Thursday night, as Paul Byrd (1-2, 4.85) goes for the Indians at 7:05pm vs Miguel Batista (2-3, 5.26).

On a rather warm spring night at Progressive Field, the Indians used a little long ball to earn their fourth straight win, a hard fought 6-4 victory over the rival New York Yankees.  It was not as easy as it sounds, as Jason Giambi took Indians starter Paul Byrd deep not once, but twice, and built a 3-1 lead for the Yankees till the Indians did a little long ball flexing of their own in the 5th.

It was in that 5th inning that Jhonny Peralta took advantage of an Andy Pettitte pitch, putting it in the bleachers for a three-run shot that gave the Indians a 4-3 lead.  Then Franklin Gutierrez took Pettitte deep in the next at-bat, giving the Indians a 5-3 lead they wouldn’t lose.  Jamey Carroll added a big insurance run in the 6th after the Yankees made it 5-4 to put the Tribe back up by two at 6-4.

Byrd went 5.2 innings, allowing four runs on six hits.  He didn’t walk a batter, nor record a strikeout, but did enough despite allowing three homers to earn his first win of the season.  The relief staff did a nice job as well, as Rafael Perez went 2.1 innings, not allowing a hit, and then Rafel Betancourt pitched a scoreless ninth, earning his second save.

The win puts the Tribe now at 11-12, and while things didn’t go perfect, they have played better over the past four days, and appear to be well on their way to being the team people thought they were when the 2008 season began.

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.