Indians Confidential

The Tribe got some good news on the injury front from the pitching side Saturday, as both Jake Westbrook and Joe Borowski threw bullpen sessions.  Westbrook has been out with a left intercostal strain, that took place during his last start in Minnesota.  As for Jo-Bo, he has been on the shelf with a tricep injury that seemed to cause him to lose intensity on his pitches.  The injury came to light after he blew a 9th inning save vs the Red Sox at Progressive Field a few weeks back.  Eric Wedge said yesterday that Westbrook could be back in the rotation by late May, and Borowski can return even before that, making for an interesting situation for the rotation and pen once both are ready to return.

Mother Nature had her say on Wednesday, as the game between the Indians and Royals in KC was rained out. The two teams will play a double-header in Kansas City starting on Thursday at 6:10pm. The original pitching matchups for both games are slated to be the same.

In other news, Jake Westbrook’s scheduled start in the rotation on Saturday afternoon vs the Yankess will be taken by Jeremy Sowers. Eric Wedge announced on Wednesday that Sowers will be called up from Triple-A Buffalo for the game, despite the fact he’s 0-2 with a 3.18 ERA in Buffalo. The other pitcher that was up for the start is left Aaron Laffey, who is 3-1 in Triple-A. “We had different reasons that we looked at for choosing Jeremy,” Wedge said, “but we would have been comfortable choosing either one of those guys.”

Last season as a starter for the Indians Sowers was not very good, going 1-6 record and 6.93 ERA in 12 starts before a June demotion to Buffalo.

With the offense doing little, the starting pitching took a big blow today for the Tribe as out of the blue the team threw Jake Westbrook on the 15-day DL with a “left intercostal strain.” Not much has been released on the injury, other than it’s retroactive to April 20th. The team has called up outfielder Ben Francisco, with the hopes of him maybe being a spark for an offense that has been awful and boasts the lowest batting average in the AL. Below is the presser the Indians sent out on Jake going on the DL.

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has placed RHP JAKE WESTBROOK on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Sunday, April 20th with a left intercostal strain. To replace Westbrook’s spot on the Major League roster the Indians recalled OF BEN FRANCISCO from AAA Buffalo.

Westbrook has made 4 starts for the Indians so far this year as he is 1-2 with a 2.73 ERA (29.2IP, 28H, 10R/9ER, 5BB, 16K). His 2.73 ERA currently ranks 14th in the American League. Today marks the 5th DL stint of his Major League career.

Francisco started the year on the AAA Buffalo roster after being optioned at the conclusion of spring training (March 27). He was batting .208 (15-72) with 7 runs scored, 2 doubles, a triple and 3RBI in 18 games for the Bisons. Francisco appeared in 16 spring training games as he hit .362 (17-47) with 8 runs scored, 3 doubles, 3HR and 9RBI. He wears #12 and will be in uniform tonight when the Indians take on the Kansas City Royals at 8:10PM EST in Kauffman Stadium.

If it’s been said before, it’s been said 100 times.  The Indians do have a knack for making rather young, unknown pitchers look good.  They did it again on Saturday, as former 29th round draft pick of the Twins - Nick Blackburn, shut the Indians down for 7 innings as the Twins beat the Indians 3-0.  Blackburn won his first ever Major League game, going 7.2 innings, allowing 8 hits, walking none and striking out one.  The Indians offense did it’s part to help the pitcher, as they hit into four double plays.

Jake Westbrook ran into trouble right away for the Tribe, as he allowed Justin Morneau to smack a homer in the first to make it 2-0, and then Chris Gomez hit a single to left in the second for a 3-0 lead, and the last runs of the game.  Westbrook knew the homer pitch was a bad pitch, as he slammed his mitt the moment it was hit.  “I think we’re moving in the right direction,” Westbrook said. “We just need to continue to try to be more consistent. We’re up and down in different areas. Right now the offense is struggling a little bit. I definitely didn’t come out strong.”

The offense struggling is an understatement.  They are hitting a league-low .239, and while the starting pitching for the most part is doing what it can, the offesne still is not getting big hits when they need them.  “As good as our kid pitched, I still felt like we could’ve done a better job offensively to try to create something or at least put an inning together,” Eric Wedge said.

Today at 2:10, Paul Byrd 0-2, goes for the Indians vs Scott Baker 2-0, for Minneosta in the finale of the series.

Consider it meltdown number two on the season for Indians closer Joe Borowski.  The Tribe reliever once again had a rather large collapse in the 9th on Monday night at Progressive Field, as he allowed three runs in the Tribe’s 6-4 setback to the champion Red Sox.  Manny Ramirez hit a two-run blast off of Borowski after Dustin Pedroia tied the game with a sac fly that scored Julio Lugo to make it 4-4.  The Indians had staked themselves to a 4-1 advantage after Victor Martinez hit a two-run single off of Sox starter Jon Lester in the 4th, and then Travis Hafner hit a single in the 5th to give them the three-run lead.

The collapse by Borowski wasted a great night by Jake Westbrook, who who went 6.1 innings, allowing one earned run on seven hits.  He gave up a run on two hits in the first inning, then settled in for the final five plus frames to allow just one more run, an unearned run, to come across, while striking out five.  Things looked to be setting up nicely for the Indians in the late innings, as despite being up 4-2, Rafel Betancourt went back-to-back striking out David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez to end a Sox threat in the 7th that kept the score 4-2.  He did allow a solo homer to Kevin Youkilis to make it 4-3, then Borowski gave up three runs in the 9th.

The two teams will wrap up the short two-game set on Tuesday, as Paul Byrd will try to get on track against the Sox.  He sits at 0-2 with an ERA of 11.05, and will battle Tim Wakefield who is 1-0 with a 3.27 ERA.  First pitch is at 7:05pm.

One night after watching Joe Borowski blow a save opp to the Angels, the Indians returned the favor Tuesday in Anaheim, as Travis Hafner bailed them out with a two-run, two-out homer in the teams 4-3 win. The team was down to their last strike in the 9th when Asdrubal Cabrera drew a walk off of losing pitcher Justin Speier. Then Hafner hit a bomb to deep right that was never in doubt, giving the team their 4th win of the season and second in their last three games.

Props also have to go to starter Jake Westbrook, who went the distance in earning his first win of the year. Jake was sailing along, and by throwing 64 of his 95 pitches for strikes he stayed ahead of the count for a majority of the night. The Angels took a 3-2 lead off of Jake with a couple of bunt hits and then a Vlad Guerrero homer in the 6th to give them the lead.

The Indians were paced by 7 hits, and took a 2-0 lead in the top of the fifth when Cabrera came through with a two-out single that scored two runs off of Angels starter Ervin Santana to make it 2-0. Cabrera had just 22 RBI in 45 games last season, already in 2008 has six RBI in 8 games. He and Hafer both had two hits for the Indians.

Today the three-game set wraps up at 3:35 as Paul Byrd will try and rebound off his poor outing Friday night in Oakland. He will take on Dustin Moseley, who’s 0-and-1 with a 9.00 ERA for the Angels.

Indians losing pitcher Jake Westbrook talks to the media postgame after today’s 2-1 loss to the White Sox. Jake says that despite feeling good on the mound, the two solo homers is what did him in. Click below to listen to Jake’s comments in the Tribe locker room.

 

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