Indians Confidential

There may be nothing more frustrating in baseball than watching your starting pitcher have a good outing, only to then watch the bullpen blow it. Once again, welcome to Indians baseball 2010.

Wednesday afternoon in the wrap up of a three-game set at Progressive Field, new starter Carlos Carrasco looked solid as the Indians built a 4-1 lead over Chicago, but then walks and the long ball blew it as Chicago rallied to beat the Indians 6-4 and take home a three-game sweep.

The loss was cemented when relief pitcher Justin Germano couldn’t find the plate, then threw a meatball to Paul Konerko who crushed it 375 feet for a three-run homer that put Chicago up for good 5-4 in the 8th inning.

To put in perspective how bad the Indians were in late innings of the series, the Sox scored 20 runs in the three games, and 13 of them came in the 8th inning or later.

The Indians built the 4-1 lead with a run in the 3rd to tie it, then another in the 4th, and then two more in the 5th. Shin-Soo Choo was 3-for-5 with a double, and continues to be very good at home, hitting .335 at Progressive Field this season.

The Sox hit three homers though in the contest, but none bigger than the Konerko blast, his 33rd of the season, that deflated what could have been an Indians win to at least salvage one game in the three-game set.

The Tribe wrapped up the 9 game homestand at 3-6, and are now 8-7 vs Chicago this season. They will board a plane and head out west for their first visit to Seattle starting with a game tomorrow night.

While it’s a far cry from the glory days of 1995, it’s always nice when an Indians player can send the home crowd home happy. Such was the case on Saturday night at Progressive Field as Asdrubal Cabrera blasted a solo homer in the 10th inning as the Tribe topped the Royals 4-3 for their 3rd straight win.

The Indians had built a 3-0 lead early off of Royals ace Zack Grienke, but couldn’t take advantage of some situations which is why the game stayed in doubt as long as it did.

Kansas City got back in it off Indians starter Jeanmar Gomez when Wilson Betemit hit a 2-run homer in the 6th to close it to 3-2. KC then tied it when the bullpen couldn’t hold a one-run lead with Joe Smith getting charged the run after a walk, and Rafael Perez also in on the act not finding the strike zone till too late.

The Indians won a game they don’t normally win, as they were outhit 10-9, and are now just 5-57 when they get outhit. They are 3-2 on the 9-game homestand, overcoming the 0-2 start in losing the first two games to win the last three.

Cabrera hit his first career walk off homer right down the right field line, and knew it once it left the bat, as he put his fist in the air, confident it would stay fair and leave the park, and both wishes came true.

Another hot-hitting Indian remains Michael Brantley, who was 2-for-5 with an RBI, and he is now hitting .313 since his call back from Triple-A. He also has hit safely in his last 8 games, going 11-for-35 in that stretch.

Gomez rebounded off a bad start in Detroit to go 5.2 innings, allowing the two runs on 6 hits with two walks and four K’s. Manny Acta continues to be impressed with Gomez, who probably under normal circumstances wouldn’t be here till the first of September.

Chris Perez pitched a scoreless 10th inning to get the win to move to 3-2 on the season. The three games with the Royals wraps up Sunday at 1:05pm, before the team plays the last three of the homestand starting Monday with Chicago.

It seems that all players at one point or time has stated that all it takes is one hit to start a fire on offense. Well, then Friday night at Progressive Field the Indians did enough hitting to start a forest fire.

Led by no less than three three-run homers, the Indians pounded the team they are looking up at in the standings, the KC Royals, 15-4 at home for their second straight win.

Chris Gimenez, Matt LaPorta and Jayson Nix all hit three-run bombs. Gimenez’s shot made it 3-0 Indians in the 2nd inning, then LaPorta made it 6-1 when he slammed a three-run shot in the 4th. Nix’s three-run blast finished the beating as it made it 13-3 in the 8th.

It was more than enough for scrappy pitcher Josh Tomlin, who improved to 2-3 with the win. He went five innings, allowing three runs on 8 hits, walking four and striking out one. Tomlin has thrown at least five innings in all six of his Major League outings.

The 15 runs by the Indians are a season high, and for a team that scored three runs in four games earlier in the week, it was well needed. The team also crushed seven doubles, the most they have hit in a game since September 12th of last year against – you guessed it – the Royals.

Jason Donald also had a big night at the plate, going 4-for-5 and setting the table for some of the big innings. It is the 2nd time this season that Donald has had four hits in a game.

Overall 17 hits and 15 runs made for a fun night at the ball yard, it’s just a shame that it comes with the team still sitting at 24 games under .500 at 52-76.

Game two of the three game set will be Saturday night at 7:05pm.

For a young team looking for anyway to win a game, Thursday night’s results were just what the doctor ordered for the Indians. Big hits when they needed them followed by a gutsy five-out save for a guy that should be the closer of the future spelled for a 3-2 win over the A’s at Progressive Field.

The win snaps a five-game losing streak for the Indians, and the 11,826 on hand with their dogs for “Puppypalozza” were treated to a night where they saw a good outing for Justin Masterson, and maybe even a better one for Chris Perez.

Let’s start with Masterson. He threw 6 innings, allowing two runs on five hits. He walked two and struck out three. The media continues to pepper Manny Acta with questions about the future for Masterson – on if he will be a starter or closer, but Acta keeps his answers always the same – he’s a starting pitcher now and for the future for the Indians.

Masterson moved to 5-12 with the win, a positive for a good guy who continues to do what he can to get better. On to Perez, who came in with one out in the 8th with the A’s having the tying run on second and go-ahead run on first thanks to two walks by Joe Smith.

Perez, pitching fearless as always, got a strikeout, then a soft groundout to first to end the inning. He allowed a hit in the 9th with one out, but got two strikeouts to end the game with a sigh of relief.

It was the 16th save for Perez, a guy that had to wait his turn for the team to finally trade bust Kerry Wood to the Yankees about a month ago.

As for the hitting, it was Matt LaPorta playing the role of hero, as with the Indians down 2-1 in the 6th he crushed an 0-0 pitch to left for his 8th homer of the season and the two-run shot was the difference as it gave the Indians a 3-2 lead.

LaPorta had been in the midst of a slump, but was able to get a hold of the Vin Mazzaro pitch and make sure it left the park to give the Tribe the one-run lead.

The Tribe are now 18-16 in one run games, and while they don’t win much when they score less than three runs (are just 10-53 in that department), they were able to do enough to get the win tonight.

They start a series with the Royals on Friday at Progressive Field.

In front of 11,751 which seemed more like 8,000, the Indians offense once again was lifeless, and overmatched against an Oakland A’s team that – just like the Indians – have little to play for in the remaining 6 weeks of the season.

The Indians suffered their 11th shutout of the season, tying the Mariners for the most in the AL, as A’s starter Gio Gonzalez again shut them down in a 5-0 Oakland win.

Gonzalez is an Indians killer to say the least, he is to 4-0 with a 0.89 ERA in four career starts against Cleveland. “All around, it was a fun night,” Gonzalez said. “My stuff was there and it is always nice to see the offense come through.”

The A’s offense is clearly nothing to write home about, but against the Indians they produced more than enough, as homers by Jeff Larish, Coco Crisp and Jack Cust sent the Indians to their 75th loss against 50 wins.

Fausto Carmona fell to 11-12 on the season, allowing two of those homers and overall giving up four runs on 9 hits in 6.2 innings. The offense again didn’t help him, stranding 10 runners on base as they have now scored three runs in their last four games.

“We’re scuffling overall, whether there’s two outs, one out, no outs, we’re scuffling offensively,” manager Manny Acta said. “Fausto got hurt by those two long balls, but overall he threw the ball well. He gave us a chance.”

It seems like the Indians night in and night out have little chance. They can’t get the big hits when needed, and on a night like Tuesday when a decent pitcher takes the mound, it’s a no-brainer on the outcome.

Things against the now 62-62 A’s are so bad, the Indians have suffered four shutouts against Oakland this season. Then again, this is nothing new against the A’s, as the last time the Indians were shut out four times in one season was against, you guessed it, the A’s, back in 1989.

Wednesday night Mitch Talbot (8-10) goes for the Indians against Trevor Cahill (13-5) for the A’s. Plenty of good seats still available.

Is it too late for the Indians to start playing good teams again?

After falling in two of three games to the Orioles, the latest series against another bad team continued on Friday night with a loss, as the team dropped a 3-2 decision tot he Mariners.

The loss came after Jason Donald booted what appeared to be an easy out in the 6th inning that led to the Mariners game-winning run.

The Indians got another solid outing from All-Star Fausto Carmona, who went six plus innings, allowing three runs, two earned, on 9 hits with a walk and four strikeouts.

The team per usual made a no-name pitcher look good, as the Mariners David Pauley earned his first MLB win by going six innings allowing two runs on seven hits.

While the losses keep mounting, there appears to be no end in sight to the Indians trying different things to get an offense going. Friday night they put rookie Jordan Brown in the four spot in the lineup.

He went 0-for-4, and left runners on in the 1st, 5th and 8th innings. Catcher Chris Giminez went 1-for-2 with a run scoring double in the 2nd inning.

The homestand continues on Saturday night at home vs the Mariners.

Indians manager Manny Acta talks about the teams 3-1 August 11th loss to the Orioles, the outing for Josh Tomlin, and the offense not able to do much of anything in the setback.

Indians manager Manny Acta talks about the teams August 10th 14-8 loss to the Orioles, the issues on defense and Justin Masterson, and the team not being able to turn double plays.