Indians Confidential

You know it’s bad when even Cliff Lee can’t stop the bleeding.  Sunday in Cincy, Lee was hit hard for the first time all season, allowing a couple of homers and six runs as the Indians were swept by the rival Reds 6-4 at Great American Ballpark.  Lee lost for the first time all season, allowing six runs, five earned in 5.2 innings.  He gave up 10 hits, walked one and struck out two.  He falls to 6-1 on the season, and his ERA finally moves over 1, at 1.37.

There were able to get a few runs off of Reds starter Edinson Volquez, who came in at 6-1.  The Indians got to hiim for two runs on four hits on 6 innings.  They got two more runs in the bottom of the 6th when it was 6-2 Reds, as Jamey Carroll and Victor Martinez got singles off of the Reds pen to make it 6-4.  The bullpen for Cincy was able to close it out, giving them their 21st win against 23 losses.  The Indians fall to 22-22 on the season.

The offense pounded out nine hits in the loss.  Carroll was 2-for-4, while seven other players each had one hit.  The pen did a good job, as Jensen Lewis, Rafael Perez and Jorge Julio held the Reds to just one hit over the last 2.1 innings.  They did allow two walks, but neither were able to score, so they meant little.

The road trip continues for the Indians as they move to Chicago for a three-game set vs the White Sox on Monday night.  C.C. Sabathia (3-5, 5.47) takes on Jose Contreras (4-3, 3.35) at 8:11pm.

I couldn’t tell if Paul Byrd was pitching batting practice today in Yankee Stadium, or was actually trying to get the Indians a sweep over the Bronx Bombers.  For one day at least, the Yanks were actually back to being the Bronx Bombers, as Byrd gave up three long balls in the Indians 6-3 loss to wrap up their short three-game road swing.  Home runs have been the big issue for Byrd, as he’s given up a league high 7 homers already this season.

The offense seemed pretty handcuffed for the most part by Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte, who held them to three runs on four hits.  He didn’t walk a batter and struck out three.  The Yankees three pitchers out of the pen were on fire, allowing just two hits in four innings, not walking a batter and striking out two.  It’s almost as if once the Indians tied the game at three in the fifth, they warmed up the plane to head back to Cleveland.

New York came right back after the Indians tied the game with a Casey Blake double that scored two runs, then a Kelly Shoppach single that scored Blake.  Johnny Damon, who had homered in the 4th, doubled in a run to make it 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth.  In the 7th, Robinson Cano hit a homer and then Wilson Betemit homered off of Masa Kobayashi to make it 6-3.

The Tribe went with a “small ball” lineup today, as Jamey Carroll batted second and played second, Jhonny Peralta hit fourth, Ben Francisco hit fifth and played left, and Kelly Shoppach caught again for Victor Martinez, who continues to look to get back in the lineup full-time after having a stiff neck the past few days.  The team hit into three double plays, and while they only had 6 hits, they left 12 on base, with Ryan Garko going 0-for-4 with four left on base.

The team falls to 16-18, still two games under .500.  They come back to Cleveland tonight, and start a four-game set vs the Blue Jays on Friday night.  C.C. Sabathia (1-5, 7.51) takes on Roy Halladay (3-4, 3.00) at 7:05pm.

The slump for the big boys in the Indians lineup continued Monday night, and right now despite what Eric Wedge, there really appears to be no end in sight. Wedge said postgame that he feels the letdown at the plate as of late is not like earlier in the year when the team couldn’t get anything going offensively, but the numbers appear to point out otherwise. Let’s call it what it is - the offense is going nowhere fast.

The worst part is the lineup is being undone by players that the team truly is counting on and needs to hit, otherwise it’s going nowhere fast in 2008. Ryan Garko, who got a specific comment Monday night by Wedge in the post game as someone who is struggling, was the teams most productive player at the plate through the first two and a half weeks of the season, but now is in the midst of a 0-for-23 slump.

Add that to the on-going lack of production for Travis Hafner, (.219, 21-for-96) and the awful start for Jhonny Peralta (.247) and it’s easy to see why the starting pitching has gone mostly undone by the lack of hitting. Take a look at some of the other soft numbers at the plate:

Jason Michaels 11-for-55 .200 0 homers 8 RBI
Jamey Carroll 7-for-32 .219 0 homers 3 RBI
Asdrubal Cabrera 16-for-73 .219 0 homers 8 RBI
Ryan Garko 20-for-88 .227 2 homers 12 RBI

The Indians are on a roll, winners of five straight and finally back at .500 for the first time since early in the season.  Now at 12-12, here are some thoughts from the press box as we await Sunday’s matchup with the now 12-13 Yankees.

* Last season got off to a better start for the Indians, as after 24 games they were 16-8 and led the Central by 1.5.  The difference this year though is that the division is not off to the best of starts, as the only team over .500 is Chicago, as 13-10.  The Tigers continue to bring up the rear of the central at 11-14, while the Twins and Royals are 11-13.

* The teams starters have been on a roll the last 9 games, going 6-1 with a 2.41 ERA.  Can’t say enough about Cliff Lee, but if C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona continue to get on track, and Paul Bryd keeps pitching well, this team will be just fine in that regard.

* I love what I’ve seen from Jamey Carroll so far.  He’s reached base safely in 15 of his last 30 at-bats, and is hitting .250 with 10 runs scored and also has three steals and has an OBP of .447.  He’s been a find from an offseason that didn’t see a ton of activity.

* Bold Prediction - I don’t think we’ll see much of, if at all of Joe Borowski for the rest of the season.  Yes, it may be April 27th, but some people I have spoken to up here say that Jo-Bo has lost it as a pitcher, and that there is no way the team can trust him in critical situations this season.

* Who would have thought after 24 games that Casey Blake would lead the team in RBI?  Casey has 18, while slugger Travis Hafner is still struggling with a .233 average and 14 RBI.  Grady Sizemore and Ryan Garko each have 12.  Shows again how vaulable Casey is.

* So far, so good for relief pitcher import Masa Kobayashi, who is 1-0 with a 1.74 ERA in 10.1 innings so far.  Eric Wedge has said from day one they will not push Masa too much early, and I think they are doing themselves well so far when they have thrown him into the fire.

TRADE NOW COMPLETE: Today, the Indians have announced that they have sent RHP SEAN SMITH to the Colorado Rockies.  The transaction completes the trade of December 8, 2007  in which the Indians received INF JAMEY CARROLL.  Smith, 25, was 0-1 with a 4.00 ERA (18.0IP, 14H, 8R/ER, 10BB, 20K) in 4 starts for the AAA Buffalo Bisons this year.

Indians second baseman Jamey Carroll was a spark plug on Thursday night, going 2-for-4 with a triple, two runs scored, and two RBI to go along with a walk. Postgame in the Indians locker room, Carroll talked about just doing his part, having a role on the club, the upcoming trips to Minnesota and KC, and how well the team came together tonight. Click below to hear comments from Jamey.

 

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Needing a spark in the worst of ways, the Indians finally got it on Thursday night in the finale of their seven-game homestand with that ends with a much needed 11-1 win over the rival Tigers. The spark came from starting pitcher Fausto Carmona, who picked up last night’s poor outing from C.C. Sabathia with a solid 6.2 innings of one run, 7-hit ball. He walked just one batter after issuing eight walks in his previous outing, and struck out two to move to 2-1 on the season.

The offense also came to life against Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander. Both Ryan Garko and Travis Hafner hit bombs off of Verlander, and every starter in the lineup had at least one hit. Franklin Gutierrez, Jason Michaels and Jamey Carroll all each had two hits. The Tribe put up three runs in the second, with Michaels, Casey Blake and Carroll getting RBI’s in the frame.

Garko’s two-run homer in the fifth made it 5-0 and gave Fausto some breathing room. After the Tigers made it 5-1 in the 6th, the Indians put the game away with a five-run bottom of the sixth that included a Carroll triple that scored a run, a Hafner homer that scored two, and and Michaels single that scored Jhonny Peralta and Garko to make it 10-1. The Indians pushed across another run in the 7th when Victor Martinez hit a double that scored Carroll to make it 11-1.

The bullpen did its job as well, as they got Jensen Lewis got one out, Masa Kobayashi pitched an inning, and then Rafel Betancourt pitched a perfect night to wrap up a night that the team sorely needed.

The team now heads on the road as they continue to try and work their way to .500 with games over the weekend vs the Twins, then they get their first look at the Royals for a three-game set starting next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday night at the dome in Minneapolis it’s Cliff Lee at 2-0 vs Francisco Liriano (0-1, 7.71) for the Twins.