Indians Confidential

You have to wonder if the White Sox have nightmares about the Indians at this point. The Sox, a team expected to be right in the thick of things in the weak AL Central, were dispatched again by the Indians Sunday, as the Tribe earned a three-game sweep with a 7-4 win to move to 6-6 on the young season. Cleveland is now 5-1 against Chicago less than a month into the season.

The Indians pounded White Sox starter Gavin Floyd, as Shin-Soo Choo continued his torrid week with a grand slam in the second inning to put the Indians up 7-0 after they had gone up 3-0 in the first inning. In that first inning the Indians got a key two-out hit by DH Mark Grudzielanek, who was hitting .091 entering the game. The single brought in a pair of runs to give the Indians the 3-0 lead.

In that second inning, a pair of walks around a single by Asdrubal Cabrera loaded the bases for Choo. He crushed Floyd’s pitch over the Key Bank sign in left center for the teams second grand slam of the season. In the last week, Choo has four homers, 11 RBI and 12 hits.

Fausto Carmona worked 6 innings to move to 2-0 on the season, both wins coming against Chicago. He ran into trouble in the 5th when the Sox sent 8 batters to the plate, scoring three times. Carmona went 6 innings, throwing 96 pitches. He allowed three runs on 6 hits, walked two and struck out four.

Rafael Perez, Aaron Laffey, Joe Smith, Tony Sipp and Chris Perez all came on in relief, with Sipp giving up a run in the 9th. Otherwise, the rest were able to shut down the Sox and help Carmona earn the win. Perez earned his 4th save, his second in two days.

“Whenever you get 6 or 7 quality innnings from your starters and the offense today spotted us a nice lead early, we’re finding ways to win, and that’s the sign of a good team,” Perez said. “I’m not saying we’re good yet, but we’re getting there.”

The first homestand for the Indians is in the books, and after two poor games against the Rangers, they rallied to win four in a row to go 4-2 in their first six games at Progressive Field. They head to the road for a 9-game trip, as they will play three in new Target Field in Minnesota, then three in Oakland against the surprising A’s and three in LA against the Angels.

Boy, that Chris Perez-Mark DeRosa deal sure looks like a winner.

Not.

At least not on Perez’s first night as an Indian, as the teams newest “pitcher” hit two batters and allowed four runs on two hits in his Indians debut in the latest version of the Bad News Bears – a 6-3 loss to the White Sox. Don’t let the final score fool you, as the White Sox never really broke a sweat after going up 2-0 after two innings.

They held the Indians offense at bay, and then in the 9th up 2-0 the team turned to Perez, who came over in the DeRosa trade late Saturday night. He started the inning by plunking Alexei Ramirez in the head, then hit Jermaine Dye on the hand. He then walked Jim Thome, a proceeded to allow a force out for a run, and a Chris Getz double to score a run, a wild pitch to bring a run home, and a single to finish off the fiasco.

Let’s just say the few thousand that were left at Progressive Field were not all that nice to Perez when he was pulled, showering him with a well deserved round of boo’s as he took his rightful place in the Indians dugout. The Indians did
avoid the shutout with three runs in the 9th (Shin-Soo Choo and Ryan Garko homers), but the game was well over at that point.

Of course Garko did have a chance to make it a game with the bases loaded and two outs in the 7th vs Gavin Floyd, but he ended the inning with a dribbler down the first base line that Floyd picked up and threw him out. One ump at first ruled it foul, but after a conference they made the correct call as it was fair, but just to hit the showers early, Eric Wedge argued the call and got booted.

Carl Pavano started, and allowed two runs on five hits in 7 innings, and wasn’t bad, but got no support at all. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out six, but was outdone by Floyd, who gave up five hits as well in 7.1, walking two and striking out five.

The Indians are now 31-47, their worst record this year in terms of being a full 16 games under .500. They have lost 6 of their last 7 at home, and 11 of their last 13. They will continue the homestand in front of a few friends and family on Tuesday night.