Indians Confidential

On a night when the offense got off to a great start then hit the snooze button the rest of the evening, the Tribe dropped a tough decision to the San Diego Padres 8-3 in 10 innings at Progressive Field. Maybe the team was tired after playing till after 1am on Friday night. Whatever the case was, Padres pitcher Cha Seung Baek gave up early runs, but was in complete control from there out.

On the offensive side for the Padres, it took them awhile to get going, but once they hit extra innings, they made the Indians pay for throwing out Edward Mujica (0-1), who first walked in a run then gave up a grand slam to former Indian Kevin Kouzmanoff for what was the difference. It was the third homer that Mujica has allowed in just six appearances in 2008.

The Indians jumped on Baek in the first inning, as they scored three runs on two hits. Ryan Garko hit a single to bring in Grady Sizemore to make it 1-0, then Shin-Soo Choo stayed hot with a double to drive in Ben Francisco to make it 2-0 with one out. Jhonny Peralta then hit a ground out to short that scored Garko to make it 3-0. Little did the Indians know that Baek would settle into a groove from there.

The Padres pitcher after that first inning was unhittable, putting down the last 16 batters he faced. The only baserunner he allowed was Sizemore, who walked in the second but was stranded when Jamey Carroll lined out to short to end the inning. Baek struck out only four batters, but the Tribe offense seemed never to be able to do much of anything against him.

San Diego rallied for single runs in the 3rd, 5th and 8th to end up tying the game. The 3rd inning run came on a solo homer by left fielder Justin Huber, who had just one dinger on the season entering the game. Former Indian Jody Gerut singled in a run in the 5th, and then spoiled Cliff Lee’s effort for his 11th win when he hit a homer in the 8th off of Rafael Perez.

With the loss the Indians fall to 32-37 on the season, 19-18 at Progressive Field. The homestand and the three-game set wraps up on Sunday at 1:05pm with what should be a great pitching matchup. C.C. Sabathia (4-8, 4.34) coming off the shutout of the Twins on Tuesday night, takes on Greg Maddux (3-4, 3.33).

It’s amazing to think that Cliff Lee is the Indians MVP at this point of the season, but that fact came back to the forefront last night in Detroit as he pitched well enough to earn his 10th win of the season as the Indians topped the Tigers 8-2. The win wraps up the teams longest road trip of the season, an 11-game outing in which they went 5-6, hitting KC, Texas and Detroit.

Lee is the first AL pitcher to win 10 games, he went 5 innings, allowing two runs on six hits. The reason for the short outing was the fact the game was hit by a 57-minute rain delay. The bullpen finally did a nice job after blowing a game Saturday, as Rafael Perez, Rafael Betancourt and Masa Kobayashi went a combined four innings, allowing one hit total and walking three, striking out two.

The offense got off to a fast start, as Ryan Garko hit a three-run blast to deep left off of Tigers starter Dontrelle Willis in the first inning to give the Tribe a quick 3-0 lead. The team chased Willis in the second, as Kelly Shoppach hit a two-run homer to make it 5-0, then Garko got hit by a pitch to bring in a run, Jhonny Peralta singled to score a run, and Shin Soo-Choo hit a sac fly to make it 8-0.

Willis lasted just 1.1 innings, allowing 8 runs on three hits. He has been a big bust so far for the Tigers, has he’s been hurt, and is carrying an 0-1 mark now with an ERA of 10.32. He has started just four games, and has pitched only 11.1 innings, allowing 13 earned runs on seven hits. The Indians only had six hits, but were on cruise control most of the night due to the early lead that they carried as well as their bullpen.

New second basemen Josh Barfield batted ninth, and did little at the plate, going 0-for-4 with a fly out to center, foul out to right, fly out to deep left, and ground out to third. Grady Sizemore got a rare night off, as Franklin Gutierrez started in center and hit lead off.

Tonight the Indians come back home for the first time since late May, as they start the first of six at Progressive Field vs the Twins and then a weekend interleague series vs the Padres. C.C. Sabathia, who’s 3-and-8 with a 4.81 ERA, will start for the Indians. The Twins will send out Scott Baker, who’s 2-and-0 with a 4.03 ERA. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.

Patience paid off for the Indians Tuesday night in the Bronx, as the Tribe drew two monster walks in the 8th inning, opening up the door for pinch-hitter David Dellucci to belt a three-run homer as the Indians top the Yankees 5-3.  Grady Sizemore and Jhonny Peralta both walked off of Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlin, setting up Dellucci for his 4th homer of the season, a shot to deep right that was just the emotional lift that the Wahoo’s needed.

The bullpen, a big concern as of late, did a nice job in the final four innings, allowing NY just two hits.  Rafael Perez, Jensen Lewis and Rafael Betancourt shut the door, not giving New York a shot to increase their lead or get back in the game once the Indians took control after Dellucci’s blast.  Perez gets the win to improve to 1-1 on the season, Betancourt earned his 3rd save of the year.

The Indians were outhit 8-6, but they got the big hits when they needed them.  Trailing 1-0 in the fourth, Peralta homered to deep center off of Andy Pettitte to give the Indians a 2-1 lead.  It was Peralta’s 6th homer of the season.  The Yankees came back with two runs in the bottom of the inning off of Indians starter Fausto Carmona, as Jason Giambi doubled in a run, and Robinson Cano singled in Giambi to make it 3-2.

Neither team was able to get another run across till the Indians were able to get to Chamberlin with the walks and then Dellucci’s homer to win the game.  The win puts the Indians at 15-17 on the season.  Wednesday Cliff Lee brings his 5-0 mark to the mound as he takes on 6-0 Chein-Ming Wang, who shut out the Indians last Sunday 1-0 at Progressive Field.  First pitch Wednesday night is 7:05pm.

Yet another night of frustration at the plate for the Indians, as they probably wish the rain would have continued. In a game delayed by an hour sixteen minutes by rain, the Royals used a four-run seventh inning in which they batted around to spoil “Cy Cy Sabathia” bobblehead night in topping the Indians 4-2. The offense flat out stunk once again, as the Tribe pounded out just four hits, one of which was a solo homer by Grady Sizemore that gave the Indians a 2-0 lead in the fifth.

Once again though, the offense had its big shot to have a big inning, but failed to do much of anything with it. It was the fourth inning, as the team put runners on first and third with no outs. Jhonny Peralta did what he seems to do best - strikeout, then Travis Hafner drew a walk, and on ball four the ball got away from KC catcher John Buck, and David Dellucci scored on the wild pitch. With runners now on first and second with one out, Ryan Garko popped out, and Casey Blake grounded out to end the teams best threat of the night.

On the mound, C.C. Sabathia seemed to be living up to his bobbleheads name of Cy Cy, as he got through six innings without allowing a run. It was that seventh that got to him, as he allowed a double to Buck to start the inning, a bunt single to Tony Pena Jr., then a single to David DeJesus to score Buck to make it 2-1. After a sac bunt moved the runners to second and third, Alex Gordon singled to right to tie the game at two.

Masa Kobayashi then took over for Sabathia, and he got an out but then allowed a single to Billy Butler that made it 3-2. Rafael Perez rolled in, and failed to earn his check as he allowed a single to Mark Teahen to bring in another run to make it 4-2. In the inning the Royals, a team not known for much offense, put up four runs on six hits.

The Indians offense did very little against four Royals pitchers, starting with Luke Hochevar, who held them to two earned runs on three hits. From there the Royals pen closed the door, making it a short night for fans that waited out the delay to watch the team fall to 14-16.

The series and homestand wraps up at 1:05pm Sunday as Aaron Laffey (0-1, 6.35) takes on Gil Meche (1-4, 7.22).

It was yet another snoozer at the plate for the Indians on Sunday, as they wrapped up their three-game series in Minnesota with a 2-1 extra inning loss to the Twins.  The Indians offense scored a total of five runs in three games, and their offense today managed just a second inning run, and had a total of six hits.  Bottom line, while the starting pitching is doing the job, the offense has been awful.

The game-winning run in the 10th inning came when the Twins Justin Morneau singled home Brendan Harris, who had also homered earlier in the day, for the winning run.  Rafael Perez lost in the relief for the Indians, as he could not pick up Paul Byrd, who had his second straight solid start after starting the season with two poor outings.

Back to the offense - check out some of these batting averages: Grady Sizemore .260, Jason Michaels .125, Travis Hafner .229, Jhonny Peralta .227, Asdrubal Cabrera .193, Franklin Guiterrez .203, and Casey Blake .179.  In other words, this team had better start getting hot at the plate, or the starting pitching and as well as it’s been is not going to matter.

The team is now 7-12, 4.5 back of the White Sox in the Central.  They will get Monday off and then head to KC to start the first of three with the Royals on Tuesday.  C.C. Sabathia, who is off to a rough start of his own, goes for the Indians in game one of the series.

It took all of one blown save for the Indians bloggers across the world to call for closer Joe Borowski’s head. Yes, I will be the first to admit that his presence in a ball game, a close ball game, in the 9th inning usually calls for a bottle of antacids. Last season with 45 saves for the AL Central Champs it always seemed that JoBo was finding ways to get in trouble in that final frame. It was like Borowski was the more in-shape version of Bob Wickman.

With that though, I am not going to panic just yet. Don’t forget last season when Borowski gave up an April slam to Alex Rodriguez in New York that lost the Indians a chance to salvage an early season game in the Bronx. These things are going to happen. Mariano Rivera lost a World Series game seven once, and he is a for sure Hall of Famer.

I’m not saying I want to go though another gut-wrenching, sweaty palms season every time Borowski comes in, but I’m also looking around wondering what choices the team has. Rafel Betancourt, Rafael Perez, Jensen Lewis, Jorge Julio? I guess for now I’ll take my chances with Borowski. After all, what choice does the team really have?

Who should be the closer for the Cleveland Indians?