Indians Confidential

While Aaron Laffey was probably not going to come in and throw a 9-inning game Friday night against the Reds, it sure would have been nice to at least get 5-7 innings out of him.

Instead, the just called up lefty continued a troubling string of Indians starters that have been shelled as of late, going just four innings as the Indians were pounded by the Reds 10-3 at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.

The loss combined with Thursdays beat down in Philadelphia means the team has been outscored 22-6 in their last two losses. They have dropped 6 in a row, and have lost 10 of their last 11 games.

Laffey got the start after David Huff, who was 2-9 on the year, was sent to Triple-A earlier in the week. He failed to do much with the chance, walking three batters, and allowing five earned runs in four innings.

“I just got to do a better job getting ahead of the hitters and throwing quality strikes with my first pitch,” Laffey said. “I was just missing all around the plate, not really erratic or anything like that.”

The flood gates opened when Drew Stubbs hit a two-run homer off Laffey in the 2nd inning, but the real issues for the lefty came in the third when he allowed a single, double, walked the next two batters to score a run, and then two sac flies to make it 5-0.

“I just gotta work on pitches around the plate,” Laffey said. “The sinker more than any other since that is the pitch I throw the most.”

The Indians offense got a homer from rookie catcher Carlos Santana in the 5th to make it 5-2, but he had to leave the game after a contusion on his left thumb. X-rays were negative, and his status for Saturday is up in the air.

Joe Smith came in for Laffey in the 5th, and gave up four runs to put the game away, not getting an out until after allowing five straight hits, including a solo homer to Scott Rolen to start the inning.

“Second inning I kinda got back on track, but by then it was too late,” Smith said. “If I do my job it’s 5-3, and that looks a lot better, especially to your hitters.”

While the starting pitching has been failing the team, the bullpen hasn’t been much better, and the team is now in its worst funk of the 2010 season, 20 games under .500.

Jhonny Peralta hit a solo homer for the Indians for their only other run of the night. Aaron Harang got the win for the Reds, throwing 7 innings, allowing 3 runs on 8 hits.

Justin Masterson tries to break the losing streak for the Indians Saturday night against the Reds.

The Indians Sunday played with confidence, and it showed in their at-bats as well as their bullpen in their 4-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds, breaking their six-game losing streak. Jhonny Peralta drove in the game-winning run in the 6th inning with a big single that put the Indians ahead to stay.

It looked bad early for the Tribe and starter David Huff, as the struggling starter allowed a two-run homer to Scott Rolen in the first inning. The Indians though came right back right away, as they tied the game in the bottom of the inning with RBI hits from Travis Hafner and new LF Sandy Duncan.

“We can’t afford to be playing catch up baseball the way we’ve been playing,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “After the first inning you could feel ‘here we go again,’ we haven’t even hit and we’re trailing by two, it’s not a good feeling, especially when your in the middle of a losing streak.

“And the fact that they went out there right away and tied the ball game, it just gave us a new life. That’s why those shutdown innings are so important.”

They took a 3-2 lead in the 3rd when Russell Branyan hit a sac fly to center. They left 12 runners on base in the contest, and in the post Acta even pointed out the team should have scored more. Rolen tied the game up in the 6th with his second homer of the game off of Huff, who was pulled after the inning.

Again though the Indians responded, as with two outs Peralta hit a shallow single to center, driving in the winning run. It was the winning run after the back end of the bullpen, led by Kerry Wood who got his first save of the season in the 9th, finally did their job.

“It is a clutch win,” Duncan said. “We didn’t come out there and put a bunch of runs on the board, the pitching staff really nutted up today and helped us out.”

The Indians are now 16-26, and they start a series at home against the White Sox Monday at 7:05pm.

JRocksWorld.com’s Jenna recaps the Indians win at Progressive Field over the Reds 4-3.

Jenna from JRocksWorld.com previews the Indians-Reds series finale:

Sunday at Progressive Field the Indians will look to snap their six game losing streak as they take on the red-hot Cincinnati Reds.

The Indians will send struggling David Huff, who is 1-6 on the season and has not won a game since April 15th against Texas. In the month of May he is 0-3, and is given up 13 earned runs in his last three games. In his last outing May 18th at Tampa Bay he allowed three runs in 5 innings in a 6-2 Indians loss.

The Reds will counter with Homer Bailey, who is 1-2 on the season. He had a no decision in his last outing on Tuesday in a Reds 5-4 win against Milwaukee. He is 2-0 lifetime against the Indians and won his only start last year at progressive field on June 27th in a Reds 7-3 win.

Cincinnati is currently 25-18 a half game up on the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central. They have won 7 of their last 10 and look for their first ever sweep at Progressive Field. The Indians are 15 and 26, a season high 11 games under .500.

Jenna from JRocks World previews the 5/22 afternoon evening affair at Progressive Field as the Indians take on the Cincinnati Reds in the “Battle of Ohio.”

While it seems like moving Shin-Soo Choo to the two-hole was a great decision by Manny Acta, he couldn’t throw innings of relief pitching for the Indians Friday night, as the team fell for the 5th straight time, losing to the rival Reds 7-4. Choo slammed a pair of homers, and had three hits, but it was not enough as Aaron Laffey’s issues out of the pen continued.

The Indians clawed their way to a 4-4 game after Choo hit his second homer in the 5th as the team scored three runs. Laffey, coming in for starter Jake Westbrook, gave it right back, throwing pitches up in the zone as the Reds scored twice in the top of the 6th to go up 6-4.

“Just not really commanding the ball the way I was from the beginning of the year,” Laffey said. “It’s just a matter of executing the pitch, and following through, and throwing the pitch where I want to. I haven’t been able to do that the last couple of times.”

Laffey has allowed runs in all of his last three outings, including Friday as the Indians didn’t push another run across in falling 10 full games under .500 at 15-25.

“Once we score runs like that to tie a game or get ahead, you have to get your bats back in the dugout and swing again right away,” Acta said. “Giving (runs) back right away is not a good feel.”

Westbrook went five innings, allowing four runs on seven hits, walking two and striking out three. Kerry Wood, who gave up five runs in the 9th against KC on Wednesday, allowed a solo shot to Brandon Phillips in the 9th for the final run of the game to make it 7-4.

Laynce Nix had three hits, including the tiebreaking double in the sixth inning for the Reds, and Jonny Gomes also homered for Cincinnati. The win for Cincy comes a day after they blew a huge lead in losing to the Braves. “You can dwell on it and stay in it or you can put it behind you,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “That shows the kind of character this team has. You have to do that in this game. You don’t have time to feel down about the game you just played. When that happens, depression sets in and nothing good comes out of it.”

In a lost season, there are times that there seems to be little good to write about, and Sunday at Progressive Field, that notion was exactly the case. On a breezy, warm day, the Indians were as flat as could be, scoring a run in the first inning but doing nothing good after that in a 8-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. About the only positive from the game is that it wraps up the 2009 version of Interleague play, and considering the Indians, who use to dominate the NL, went 5-13, it’s a very good thing it’s over.

David Huff, who was sharp in his last outing at PNC Park vs Pittsburgh, started good, but quickly went bad. He was on the first two innings, but the Reds quickly got to him in the third, and put up a four-spot as it was all the runs they would need in the win that puts them at .500 on the season at 37-37. Huff suffered his 3rd loss of the year, and the setback snaps his personal three-game winning streak. He allowed 7 runs on 9 hits in five innings. The 7 runs he gave up was a career-high.

The Indians offense started hot with back-to-back hits from returning Asdrubal Cabrera and Grady Sizemore off Reds starter Micah Owinga. A Victor Martinez sac fly gave the Tribe the short-lived 1-0 lead. After that, Owinga settled in, and the team managed just five hits the rest of the day, and never scored again. Sizemore did extend his hitting streak to 9 games, and Jhonny Peralta going 1-for-3 to raise his average over the last 10 games to .333 (13-39) were about the only two offensive highlights.

The Tribe has lost 10 of its last 12 games, and to say that Eric Wedge is on shakey ground at the moment has got to be an understatement. The team is now 31-46, a full 15 games under .500, and they are 17-21 at home. The Mark DeRosa trade seems to be the start of what easily could be a few, and there are already rumblings about moving players like Martinez and Kerry Wood. Let’s just say Progressive Field is not exactly going to be a hot spot this summer after all.

The Indians first trip in 2009 to the Queen City on Friday night saw their short lived two-game winning streak snapped, as they fell to the Reds 3-1. The team got a rather crazy outing from starting pitcher Anthony Reyes, who went just three innings, walking a career-high six batters and hitting another and then leaving with an inflamed pitching elbow.

Jensen Lewis did a nice job in long relief, going three innings and allowing just one hit, walking one and striking out two. Aaron Laffey took the loss, as in 1.1 innings he gave up two runs on two hits. Adam Rosales doubled home the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth to put the Reds ahead for good.

The Indians on offense were shut down by Bronson Arroyo, who went 8 innings, allowing one run on five hits with two walks and two strikeouts. The only Tribe run was a solo homer in the first from Grady Sizemore (8th), as he hit in the number two hole.

Cleveland now sits at 16-27, and they have the worst winning percentage in the American League. Saturday they will throw David Huff against the Reds at 7:10pm.