Indians Confidential

There was a slight ray of hope after watching Jeremy Sowers last Friday set down the Cincinnati Reds at Progressive Field. Sowers didn’t have that usual mid-game slump, and finally showed that he could throw more than five good innings of baseball. It was back to reality on Wednesday night, as Sowers had his usual “off” inning, allowing four runs in the 6th inning of a 1-1 game as the Indians were swept with a 6-2 loss.

Sowers lasted six innings, allowing five runs on 11 hits with one walk and two strikeouts. The big blow of the contest was a three-run bomb by catcher Ramon Castro to break open a tie game. Sowers is now 0-5 with a 6.23 ERA in six lifetime starts against the White Sox. Ouch.

Chicago used the three games here in Cleveland to batter Indians pitching, out scoring the Indians 23-9 in the sweep. It was the 5th time this season that the Indians were swept by the opposition. The team has now lost five in a row, 13 of 15 and 8 of their last 9 at home. They are now 1-5 in this 9-game homestand.

They scored their first run of the game in the 3rd, as a Grady Sizemore ground out got a run in. After Chicago went up 5-1 in the 6th, the Indians came back with a run on a Shin-Soo Choo double to make it 5-2. It was over after that, as the offense went into the shell that has killed them most of the year. They managed just five hits and left five on base.

The team now sits at 31-49, and are 13.5 back of the Tigers in the Central. The team gets an off day on Thursday, and then welcome in the equally as bad Oakland A’s for a July 4th weekend series.

The question now should not be IF the Indians are going to make a change at the manager spot - it’s WHEN.  Tuesday night not even their Cy Young award winner from a season ago, Cliff Lee, could stop the bleeding of a losing streak that just keeps growing, as Lee allowed a season-high-tying 7 runs in three and a half innings as the Indians fell to the White Sox 11-4 in a rain shortened game.

The team has now dropped 12 of their last 14, and 7 of their last 8 at Progressive Field, which saw another sparse crowd of just 14,793, most of which left during the second rain dealy.  The Tribe should really thank Mother Nature for ending this debacle, as there was a 32 minute waste of a dealy to start the game, a 30 minute dealy at about 8:45pm, and then the final dealy which was 57 minutes starting in the top of the 7th which in the end was the nail in the coffin.

You have to wonder just how many runs and hits the White Sox would have had off Indians pitching, as off of Lee, Mike Gosling and Matt Herges, Chicago put up 11 runs, 17 hits and pounded out three homers.  They scored in every inning except the 2nd and then the 7th, when the rains hit again and the game was called.

The only thing the team has left to do is get rid of manager Eric Wedge and GM Mark Shapiro’s spot with the franchise should also be carefully looked at, as this team is in one of the ugliest tailspins we’ve seen for some time.  Lee, their MVP from last year, was awful.  He got pounded for 7 runs on 11 hits with one walk and three strikeouts.

The Indians offense was paced by Travis Hafner, who homered, and Asdrubal Cabrera, who hit a double to score three runs to make it a 9-4 game in the fifth.  Hafner has hit in 9 of his last 12 games and has three homers and 9 RBI over that stretch.

The likely White Sox sweep will come Wednesday night at 7:05pm as Jeremy Sowers tries to follow up his solid previous Friday night outing vs the Reds.

It’s been frustrating watching Jeremy Sowers get to that fifth inning mark, only to then wilt like bad lettuce. Friday night vs the Reds, a team that has owned the Indians as of late, Sowers finally got it right, as he was better than at any point in 2009, going 7 solid innings in the Indians 9-2 win to finally give them a little confidence.

Sowers allowed two runs on six hits, walking just one and striking out six. The offense gave him more than enough support, as Ryan Garko and Victor Martinez each homered off of Reds starter Aaron Harang, who was 3-1 lifetime vs the Indians entering the game Friday.

The runs came early for the Tribe, as a Grady Sizemore double scored the teams first run, then a sac fly by Victor Martinez made it 2-0. Garko homered to left in the 4th with Jhonny Peralta on to make it 4-0. The fifth saw the team score three runs, with Martinez homering, Shin-Soo Choo scoring on an error, and Peralta doubling to make it 7-0.

The night belonged to Sowers, who was in a comfort zone with first pitch strikes and a good mix of pitches. He threw a two-hitter till the 7th when the Reds finally broke through with a run on three hits. Of course the bullpen allowed a run in the 8th (Jensen Lewis), but then Tony Sipp came in to close the door in the 9th.

The win puts the Tribe at 5-11 vs the NL this season, and they are now 31-44 on the season. The second game of the series comes up on Saturday evening at 7pm.

Tuesday night was a classic case of the Indians once again being able to put runners on base, but not being able to come up with the big hit when they needed it most in their latest setback, a 7-5 loss to the Brewers. The team went hitless in 14 tries with runners in scoring position and left 12 runners stranded overall until Travis Hafner hit a two-run homer with one out in the ninth to make it 7-5.

Yovani Gallardo (7-3) gave up two runs and five hits while striking out eight to earn the win for the Brewers. He twice worked out of bases-loaded jams as the Tribe was snake bitten by the bug of not getting that big hit when they needed it.

In the 5th, Chris Gimenez struck out with the bases loaded after Milwaukee had scored two runs in the top of the inning to take a 3-2 lead. The key to the close game though was again the Indians soft bullpen, which allowed the Brewers to score three key runs in the 8th inning to turn a 4-3 game into a 7-3 game.

To blame was Jensen Lewis, who allowed a big triple to Mike Cameron and then a run scoring single to Jason Kendell. Then Rafael Perez, Monday night’s goat, was able to get out of the inning, but by then it was too little, too late.

Mark DeRosa got the team off to a good start, hitting his 13th homer of the season in the 1st inning to give the team a 2-0 lead. Jeremy Sowers crusied through 3 innings, then per usual allowed a run in the 4th and then two in the 5th to suffer his 4th loss of the year. Overall Sowers went 5 innings, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits, with two walks and two strikeouts.

Wednesday the 9-game homestand concludes as David Huff (2-2, 7.39) goes for the Indians vs Jeff Suppan (5-4, 4.58) for Milwaukee at 7:05pm.

You have to give the Indians some credit for fighting it out against maybe the best pitcher in the American League in 2009 - the Royals Zack Greinke. Thursday night the Indians fell behind Greinke, who came into the game with a 1.55 ERA, 3-1, but put up a fight, tied the game in the 8th, then won it in the 10th 4-3.

The win means a 27-35 mark, which again puts them ahead of the Royals in the AL Central, and means that they now are suddenly in striking distance of the White Sox and Twins, and with another couple of wins on this homestand, could start to make things interesting in the divsion.

Thursday they scrapped in that 8th, and again took advantage of the fact KC’s defense is pretty bad. A double error on KC in the inning really opened the door for the Tribe, who pushed two runs across to tie the game at three.

The winning rally in 10th with seagulls circling the ball park again came as Mark DeRosa singled, Victor Martinez walked, and then Shin-Soo Choo hit a ball that some say hit a bird to center to score the winning run.

The win goes to Matt Herges, who continues to do a good job out of the pen. He moves to 2-0. Jeremy Sowers started and went 5 innings, allowing two runs on 6 hits with a walk and two strikeouts. Greg Aquino allowed a run in three innings, and then Kerry Wood pitched a scoreless 9th to keep the game tied.

The Tribe stays home to start a three-game series with the St.Louis Cardinals on Friday night.

Yes the Indians rise to fourth place in the AL Central didn’t last very long, as again on Wednesday night the team was shutout (4th time this year) as Gil Meche pitched circles around them in a lackluster 9-0 setback. The loss was cemented with the same fan in center catching two home run balls from the Royals in the 4th inning that made it 5-0, and then KC put up a 4-spot in the fifth to make it a blowout at 9-0.

The Indians had Meche in some 3-2 counts during the evening, but every time it seemed like he was able to escape, and he had 11 strikeouts to go along with three walks and allowed four hits in 7 innings. Meche is just 3-5, so it’s not like this was something he does very often.

Carl Pavano on the other hand, struggled all night. He had command trouble, and the Royals homers were an indication that he clearly didn’t have good stuff. The 9 earned runs he allowed in 4.2 innings were the most he’s allowed since his first start in the opening series at Texas on April 9th.

He had allowed just 10 earned runs and three homers in his previous five starts combined, so things were simply not going his way on Wednesday night.

The finale of the set is Thursday at 7:05pm as Jeremy Sowers goes for the Indians against Royals ace Zack Greinke (8-2).

While a 5-3 homestand vs the Rays and Yankees is a positive for the 2009 Indians, the team could have had so much more. Monday night in the series finale vs New York, the pitching staff was in self-destruct mode, allowing a season high 11 walks as the Yankees took the final game of the series 5-2.

Even Indians manager Eric Wedge said he was surprised that the Yankees didn’t score more runs in the win. Jeremy Sowers started, and looked great in the first five innings, allowing just one Yankee run. He was walking batters, but was able to get out of any danger when needed.

Then in the 6th the old Sowers must have come to the mound, as he quickly erased his good outing with walking the bases loaded. Relief pitcher Greg Aquino though came in and got the job done, not allowing a run to cross as the game stayed tied.

Not to be outdone through by Sowers, Aquino quickly gave the walks back to the Yankees, walking the bases loaded in the 7th. This time he would not escape, as he allowed a double to Nick Swisher and then a two-run single by Alex Rodriguez to make it a 5-1 game.

The Indians offense was held in check most of the night by Yankees starter Joba Chamberlain, who went a career-high 8 innings, allowing two runs on four hits, walking two and striking out five. Mariano Rivera was able to come in and dispatch the Indians in the 9th to earn his 11th save.

For the Indians, they fall to 22-31 on the season, and now will head to the road against AL Central foes the Twins and the White Sox before coming back home in just over a week to start another homestand, this time vs the Royals, Cardinals and Brewers.