Indians Confidential

For those of you that were waiting for a Kerry Wood meltdown like what fans were use to with Bob Wickman and Joe Borowski - you’ve got your ammo. Wood came in to relieve Cliff Lee in the 9th inning of a scoreless game Monday night vs the Red Sox, and four batters in found himself and the club down 3-0 thanks to a monster three-run HR by Jason Bay that went well into the bleachers 408 feet.

The homer was a tough pill to swallow for the Indians, as they went tooth and nail all night with the Red Sox, but were unable to get any offense at all off of knuckle ball pitcher Tim Wakefield, who allowed just one hit all night long. The Indians even with one-hit had a couple of chances, but again, the offense was silent and couldn’t get it done.

They had two on with two out in the 4th, but Jhonny Peralta flied out to deep right to end the inning. In the 6th, they again had two on with two outs, but Ryan Garko lined to deep center to end that threat. Bottom line is the team had their chances, but as usual so far in 2009 - they failed to cash in.

I thought Lee was outstanding, going 8 innings allowing 5 hits, no walks, and striking out five. Wakefield though was just as good, allowing just the one hit, four walks and five strikeouts. Bottom line is the Red Sox bullpen and clutch hitting won them this game.

The Indians still can’t seem to find any type of stride, and they will look to get some momentum back on Tuesday night, as now at 7-13, they will send RHP Anthony Reyes (1-0, 4.76) against RHP Brad Penny (2-0, 7.80) for the Red Sox.

The Indians bullpen has been underachieving all season, and today the team made it’s first major move to rebuild and look ahead for the 2009 season. The moves comes as follows: the team has recalled relievers Brian Slocum and Jensen Lewis, and designated relief pitchers Joe Borowski and Rick Bauer for assignment.

The biggest move in the bunch is finally calling it quits with Joe-Bo. This season has basically been a nightmare for Borowski, as he went 1-3 w/a 7.56 ERA in 18 games (6SV, 10OPP, 16.2IP, 24H, 14/RER) with the Indians this season. His real undoing came early in the season in blowing a save to the Red Sox when he allowed former Indian Manny Ramirez to blast a homer to lose a game it appeared the Indians had in hand.

It is uncertain who the closer will be from here, but right now that’s the last of the Indians problems. I guess they will throw Rafael Betancourt in there again, if and when the Indians ever have another save situation. They could also use Masa Kobayashi, but he’s struggled a lot as of late just in the bullpen role he has now.

Bauer posted an ERA of 13.50 in 4 relief appearances (8.0IP, 10H, 9R/ER). Lewis has split the 2008 campaign between AAA Buffalo and Cleveland. At Buffalo he has gone 1-2 with 1 save and a 3.60 ERA in 11 relief appearances (20.0IP, 16H, 8ER, 8BB, 18K) and has not allowed a run on 2 hits in his last 4 outings (6.0IP, 5K). Triple A hitters have hit .219 (16-73) off him with right-handed hitters batting .189 (7-37). Over the first two months of the season with Cleveland he posted a mark of 0-2 w/a 3.82 ERA in 21 games (30.2IP, 32H, 13ER). He will again wear #50.

Slocum has spent the majority of the season at AAA Buffalo and has flourished since being converted to a relief role three weeks ago. At Buffalo he has gone 3-5 w/a save and a 4.62 ERA in 18 games/11 starts (62.1IP, 59H, 32ER, 33BB, 55K). As a reliever, he has 1 save and a 0.69 ERA in 7 outings (13.0IP, 8H, 1R/ER, 3BB, 10K), limiting Triple A hitters to a .182 (8-44) average out of the ‘pen. Overall left-handed hitters have batted .206 (27-131) off him on the season at Buffalo. This will be his second stint at the big league level in 2008 as he did not appear in a game during his first stint with the club from June 4-6.

Make no mistake, this will be the first of many roster moves as the team begins to officially declare 2008 over and start looking ahead to 09.

In a season of tough losses, Tuesday night’s 3-2 extra inning loss to the White Sox could very well be right near the top.  The Indians hung in there against a team that they are trying as hard as they can keep pace with, and on a night where they tried to get their deficit back down to 9.5 games, Joe Borowski did what some say he does best - blow a save.

The Indians took a 2-1 lead in the top of the 10th when Casey Blake hit a solo homer to left.  Borowski came on, and gave it back, but of course not till he got the first two outs, making it even tougher to swallow.  He got Joe Crede to ground out, and then struck out Nick Swisher.  Then with the game looking like it belonged to the Tribe, Jo-Bo imploeded, giving up a solo homer to Alexei Ramirez, just his 6th of the year.

As if that was hard enough to watch, the implosion continued.  Pinch-hitter Dewayne Wise singled, stole second, as everyone usually does vs Borowski, then scored when Orlando Cabrera singled to center, and Wise came in with the winning run to make it 3-2.  They don’t come much tougher than this.

As they have done a ton of times this season, the Indians wasted a good outing from Cliff Lee, as he went 8 innings, allowing one earned run on six hits, walking one and striking out three.  Lee dropped his ERA to 2.26, but could not get any run support to move his record past 11-1.  He allowed a run in the 2nd, then the Indians tied it in the 6th when Kelly Shoppach hit a homer to left to make it 1-1.

All that aside, the end was painful to watch.  The team falls to a full 10 games under .500 at 37-47.  Instead of being 9.5 back of the Sox if they could have hung on to win, they now fall 11.5 back, and are still in last in the AL Central.  The time to start making moves is nearing, and games like this one only made that point all the more clear.

I can’t really think of any positives that can come of getting swept by a team that coming into this past series was 14 games under .500. Let’s just say that it may have given GM Mark Shapiro enough indication to pull the plug on the 2008 season and start looking more at becoming a seller instead of a buyer as the trading deadline starts to creep closer.

Last night the Indians storyline against the Colorado Rockies was almost the same as it was the past two nights - allow a struggling pitcher to right himself against a weak Indians offense, allow some no-name like Jeff Baker to hit another homer (third straight game vs the Indians), and have shots to win it with a big hit, but in the end come up short. Sounds like the same recipe for a loss we’ve heard quite a bit this season.

To think that entering this stretch the Indians looked as if they finally may have righted the ship following a 4-2 homestand, now it looks like it’s back to square one. They allowed Jorge De La Rosa, who had a 6.89 ERA entering the game Thursday to strike out 10 Indians batters, allow just four hits, three runs and walk one in six innings. Jeremy Sowers was okay at best, allowing four runs, three earned, 10 hits, four strikeouts in six innings. He takes the loss to fall to 0-2.

The Indians actually had a first inning lead as Ben Francisco hit a two-run homer to make it 2-0. Sowers gave half of it right back in the bottom of the first on a Matt Holliday single to make it 2-1. Colorado then chipped away and built a lead with single runs in the 4th and 5th to make it 3-2. Casey Blake his a solo homer in the 6th to tie the game at 3, but then a Baker homer, and two more Rockies runs in the 7th iced it for the 6-3 win.

After Blake’s homer in the 6th, the Indians managed just one more base runner the rest of the night, and that was Blake again, who doubled in the 9th with one out. Overall three Rockies relief pitchers threw three scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and striking out two. Masa Kobayashi gave up two runs in that critical 7th, and Joe Borowski did throw a scoreless 9th.

Things have gone from bad to worse this week, as the team drops 7 games under .500 at 33-40. They are now a whopping 8.5 back of the White Sox, who beat the awful Pirates again, and 1.5 back of third place Detroit, 4 back of the 2nd place Twins. Could a roster tweaking in terms of deals be far behind at this point?

Tonight the team moves to Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers in the first of a three-game weekend series starting at 10:40pm. Cliff Lee, who’s 10-and-1 with a 2.55 ERA, will start for the Indians. The Dodgers will send out Clayton Kershaw, who’s 0-and-1 with a 3.75 ERA. First pitch at Dodger Stadium is set for 10:40 p.m.

With the pitching staff banged up with two starters on the DL, the Indians could ill afford to have starters they are counting on come up short.  Wednesday night at Progressive Field, that is exactly what happened as Paul Byrd was once again ineffective as the Indians dropped a winnable game to the Twins 8-5.  Byrd was slammed for a big third inning in which he allowed five runs on four hits, the big blow a three-run homer by DH Jason Kubel.

The Indians offense actually climbed back in the game and made it 5-4 in the 7th after Grady Sizemore hit a three-run homer for his team-leading 13th of the season.  They had runners on in the bottom of the 8th, but Jhonny Peralta and David Dellucci each struck out to end the threat.  Joe Borowski then imploded in an inning where Eric Wedge was simply trying to give him work.

The “closer” came in and closed out any chance the Indians had, giving up three runs on three hits, and also failed at all to keep runners on at first, basically allowing two stolen bases.  It was that type of night for the Tribe, who fall to 30-36 with the loss. Back to Byrd, he allowed five earned runs on six hits in three innings, walking one and allowing the homer to Kubel.  He falls to 3-6 on the season, and his ERA jumps to 4.89.

Sizemore had two hits and three RBI on the night, while the bottom of the order actually put up decent numbers, with Casey Blake going 3-for-4 and Jamey Carroll going 3-4.  The rest of the lineup did little against five Twins pitchers, led by Nick Blackburn, who went six innings, allowing two runs on seven hits, walking one and striking out five.

Thursday night the series vs the divisional foes wrap up at 7:05pm as AL Rookie of the Month Aaron Laffey (3-3, 2.98) goes for the Indians vs Livan Hernandez (6-3, 5.32).

As expected Joe Borowski is back with the club, and the team is dumping reliever Craig Breslow. Here is the presser from the Tribe on the move:

CLEVELAND, OH — The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has activated RHP JOE BOROWSKI from the 15-day disabled list. To allow room on the Major League roster for Borowski the Indians designated LHP CRAIG BRESLOW for assignment.

Borowski was placed on the 15-day disabled list on April 15 with a right triceps strain after appearing in 5 games over the first two weeks of the season with the Indians (2SV, 18.00ERA, 4.0IP, 7H, 8R/ER, 3HR). It was the 3rd DL stint of his Major League career for Borowski, who led the American League with 45 saves last season. He appeared in two games on rehab assignment at A Lake County (May 19) and AA Akron (May 21) and did not allow a run in 2.0 innings of work.

Breslow, who was claimed off outright waivers from the Boston Red Sox on March 23, has spent the entire season to date with the Indians and made 7 relief appearances (8.1IP, 10H, 3ER, 3.24ERA).

Coming off their awful 0-6 road trip, the Indians look as if they will make some roster moves that could help the bullpen, and possibly the offense. Paul Hoynes’ Insider today says that the team will activate closer Joe Borowski today, this after he pitched a scoreless inning Wednesday night for Akron. Jo-Bo also looked close to ready when he pitched Monday night in Lake County. With the hitting null and void, the bullpen has also started to scuffle as of late, leaving the team hoping that Borowski, despite his issues already this season, can add a spark to the team. It’s been said all along that he’ll be the closer upon his return.

As for the offense, Eric Wedge also said that we could see our first appearance of outfielder Shin-Soo Choo in 2008 soon. Choo is on a 20-day rehab assignment in Buffalo, and could be with the team shortly. You can also expect Jake Westbrook to be back soon, meaning that Aaron Laffey’s spot in the rotation will be gone and he’ll likely be back at AAA Buffalo. As for who goes where when Borowski and Choo may be ready - Michael Aubrey, who showed some pop in his bat with two homers on this recent road trip, will probably go down. Hoynes also says that it could be time to cut the cord with Andy Marte. He has no options left, meaning that the team can’t send him down unless they designate him for assignment and he’d likely get picked up by another team.