Indians Confidential

Um, who exactly are these guys?

Yes, the Indians are actually playing pretty good baseball for the last week, as Sunday vs the Mariners in the great Northwest wrapped up a three-game sweep with an impressive 12-3 win. Maybe if they would have played a little more like this in the first half when they fell 20 games under .500, these big wins wouldn’t mean as little as they do.

Sunday’s win was highlighted by a player that a lot of teams are talking about – Cliff Lee. If it’s not in trade rumors, Lee is still getting some highlights since he’s the best player the Indians have this season. He allowed two runs in the first, but then shut down the Mariners the rest of the way, allowing just six hits in seven innings, not walking a batter and striking out four to move to 7-9.

The Indians offense feasted on Seattle pitching all weekend long, outscoring them 31-5 in the three-game beating. They won games with scores of 9-0, 10-3 and now 12-3. Sunday they pounded out 16 more hits, and every player in the lineup minus Kelly Shoppach who walked twice, got a hit.

Grady Sizemore hit a homer and went 2-for-5 with two runs scored. Asdrubal Cabrera, Shin Soo-Choo, Jhonny Peralta, and Travis Hafner all had two hits. Ben Francisco had three hits in going 3-for-5 and raising his average to .243. Ryan Garko had one hit and is hitting .285.

The Indians had a good time all the way around in Seattle, and have won five of their last 6, their best stretch of the 2009 season. They will get a day off Monday before playing the Angels of Anahiem in a three-game set starting on Tuesday.

It was one of those nights where it seemed that everything that could go right for the Indians did. And that was nice to see. From four long balls to a great outing by Aaron Laffey, the Tribe started their weekend series way out West in Seattle with a solid 9-0 win.

As mentioned, the team had its own version of home run derby, with Travis Hafner, Ryan Garko, Jamey Carroll and Ben Francisco all going deep off Mariners pitching. Laffey was solid all night, allowing just 3 hits in the shutout effort over 7 innings, walking three and striking out seven. His is now 4-2 on the year and his ERA is also a solid 3.71.

Three relievers – Joe Smith, Tony Sipp and Chris Perez wrapped up the win, with Perez looking by far the best he has had since coming to the Indians, striking out two in the 9th. So in the end, it was a lot of positives, and actually not much to complain about.

The team has quietly won three of four on the road trip, and while it doesn’t mean much, they are now 39-58 on the season. Saturday it’s Jeremy Sowers for the Indians vs Erik Bedard at 4:10 pm.

The Toronto Blue Jays played home run derby on the Indians pitching staff Wednesday night, turning a one-time 1-0 Tribe lead into an eventual Jays 10-6 win. Carl Pavano had 10 days off, but looked pretty much as bad as he has in some of his poor outings this year, as he basically got shelled most of the night.

Pavano lasted 4.2 innings, allowing 7 earned runs on 7 hits, walking two and striking out four. He allowed four homers, and dropped to 8-8 on the season. At the end of the day, Pavano was a nice pickup, but if this team is going to get even close to taking a step to the next level in 2010, Pavano won’t be on this roster.

Overall the Indians allowed five homers to a team that usually doesn’t specialize in homers. The biggest blow wasn’t allowed by Pavano, it was given up by reliever Jose Veras, who allowed former Indian Marco Scutaro to blast a three-run shot to turn a 7-4 game into a Jays 10-4 game. There’s just something this year about former Indians coming back to haunt the team, and Scutaro did it on Wednesday.

On offense, the Indians were able to push across 6 runs on 10 hits, the biggest hit of the night was a three-run homer by shortstop Luis Valbuena, who’s 5th blast of the season made it a 7-4 game. As stated above though, that was short-lived till the Jays came right back in the bottom of the inning.

Ryan Garko was 3-for-3 with a run scored and is now hitting .284 on the year. Victor Martinez was 2-for-5, he was the only other player than Garko to manage more than one hit. Ricky Romero went 5.1 innings for the win for the Jays, he improves to 8-4 on the year.

The Indians and Jays will wrap up the series Thursday at 12:37pm. They will then move further west to play the Mariners over the weekend in a three-game set.

Boy, that Chris Perez-Mark DeRosa deal sure looks like a winner.

Not.

At least not on Perez’s first night as an Indian, as the teams newest “pitcher” hit two batters and allowed four runs on two hits in his Indians debut in the latest version of the Bad News Bears – a 6-3 loss to the White Sox. Don’t let the final score fool you, as the White Sox never really broke a sweat after going up 2-0 after two innings.

They held the Indians offense at bay, and then in the 9th up 2-0 the team turned to Perez, who came over in the DeRosa trade late Saturday night. He started the inning by plunking Alexei Ramirez in the head, then hit Jermaine Dye on the hand. He then walked Jim Thome, a proceeded to allow a force out for a run, and a Chris Getz double to score a run, a wild pitch to bring a run home, and a single to finish off the fiasco.

Let’s just say the few thousand that were left at Progressive Field were not all that nice to Perez when he was pulled, showering him with a well deserved round of boo’s as he took his rightful place in the Indians dugout. The Indians did
avoid the shutout with three runs in the 9th (Shin-Soo Choo and Ryan Garko homers), but the game was well over at that point.

Of course Garko did have a chance to make it a game with the bases loaded and two outs in the 7th vs Gavin Floyd, but he ended the inning with a dribbler down the first base line that Floyd picked up and threw him out. One ump at first ruled it foul, but after a conference they made the correct call as it was fair, but just to hit the showers early, Eric Wedge argued the call and got booted.

Carl Pavano started, and allowed two runs on five hits in 7 innings, and wasn’t bad, but got no support at all. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out six, but was outdone by Floyd, who gave up five hits as well in 7.1, walking two and striking out five.

The Indians are now 31-47, their worst record this year in terms of being a full 16 games under .500. They have lost 6 of their last 7 at home, and 11 of their last 13. They will continue the homestand in front of a few friends and family on Tuesday night.

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.

All those fuzzy warm feelings you were getting about the Indians as they started this 9-game homestand 4-2 – throw em away. In a 72-hour stretch, the Milwaukee Brewers came into town and ripped out any good feelings you should have had about the Indians, sweeping them with a 11-inning 9-8 win on Wednesday night.

It was a long night all the way around, as the game was delayed 34 minutes by rain, and then as it did get started, Indians starter David Huff allowed single runs in the first three innings to put the Brew Crew up 3-0. Jeff Suppan looked like Randy Johnson in his prime, getting tons of early ground ball outs till finally the Indians started swinging the bats in the 4th.

Three straight doubles tied the game at three, and finally there was a feeling of momentum for the Indians. It lasted till the 7th, with Huff long gone the Brewers scored three runs, Bill Hall starting it with a solo homer off of reliever Joe Smith. Then the reliever gave a walk, then Matt Herges allowed a pair of doubles to make it 6-3.

Milwaukee added a single run in the 8th, and then the Indians came back with a run in the bottom of the inning when Luis Valbuena singled to make it 7-4. The Brewers then added a Corey Hart homer in the 9th to make it 8-4, and most of the 15,000 + on hand headed home.

The Indians though had one of those 1995 comebacks, as off of Trevor Hoffman in the 9th, the team pushed across four runs, the big hit a Ryan Garko bases clearing double with one out. Problem was Garko fell rounding second, tweaking his ankle and being tagged out.

The Brewers then put together an efficent 11th, as against Greg Aquino, they got a single, walk, wild pitch, walk and then a sac fly to make it a 9-8 game. The Indians put two on with one out, but Shin-Soo Choo struck out on a 3-2 pitch, and Ben Francisco did the same swinging on a 2-2 pitch to end the game.

The Indians had their chances as usual, as they put up 13 hits, left 9 on base, and the pitchers allowed three homers. The Brewers have dominated the Indians, winning 7 straight, and are 11-7 vs the Indians since 1997. The Indians are now 10 games under .500, and with the off day on Thursday, I wouldn’t doubt some roster moves tomorrow as the team heads to Wrigley this weekend.

Coming off Monday’s improbable 11-10 win over the Rays, it would have been hard to outdo that on Tuesday night. Thanks to starter Carl Pavano, the Indians didn’t have to. Pavano was on his game, throwing 7 solid innings, and the offense hit four homers as the Tribe cruised to their 15th straight home win over the Rays, winning 5-1.

Pavano was the story. He’s now won five games in May, and his fastball was solid, keeping the Rays off target pretty much all night. He is 5-1 with a 3.58 ERA and only seven walks against 30 strikeouts since May 1st, when he got his first win of the season in Detroit.

The offense gave him all the help he would need against Rays starter Matt Garza early. Ryan Garko’s homer swing was in effect again, as he hit a solo shot in the 2nd to quickly make it 1-0. Asdrubal Cabrera hit a solo homer in the 3rd to make it 2-0, and then in the 6th, Mark DeRosa slammed a two-run shot to give the team a commanding 4-0 lead.

Carols Pena made it 4-1 with a solo homer off Pavano in the 7th, but then in the bottom of the inning Kelly Shoppach wrapped up the scoring with a solo homer to make it 5-1. The Indians only had 6 hits all night, but considering four were homers, that is all that really matters.

The team has won 5 of their last 7, and a win Wednesday secures the series win over the Rays. They are now 19-28, and drop the Rays to 23-25. They are still 7.5 out in the AL Central, but now at least seem to have some momentum, and we’ll see if Wednesday’s starter – Zach Jackson, can keep it going.

He was 0-for-18 coming to the plate. None of that mattered. For Victor Martinez and the Indians, it was a night of being a hero, and for at least one night, Martinez got the job done. For the Indians, it was by far their best win of the season, and for a season that appears lost, it was at least one night of happiness at Progressive Field.

Martinez’s two-out, two-strike, single between second and short scored two runs, as the Indians overcame a stunning 10-0 deficit to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 11-10 in front of a spirited crowd at the Prog. The win puts the team at 18-28, still 10 games under .500, but hey, it’s better than 12 games – right?

The Rays built the 10-0 lead off a wild Fausto Carmona, who couldn’t find the plate. He lasted just 1.1 innings, allowing five earned runs on just three hits. He also walked five and struck out three. He ended up throwing 60 pitches, and only got 30 over for strikes. He was pretty bad to say the least, and left the team in a bad hole. They went to Jensen Lewis, who in 1.2 innings allowing another five runs on three hits, with two walks.

The credit from the pitching has to go to Jeremy Sowers, who went five scoreless innings, walking just one and striking out one while the offense finally started getting some hits and some runs. The big inning for the Tribe was the 9th, when down 10-4 entering the inning they piled up 7 runs, mostly again due to walks.

The team sent 11 batters to the plate, drawing five walks, getting just three hits, but pushing 7 runs across. Ryan Garko hit his second homer of the night in the inning, and by the time Martinez got to the plate, the crowd was on their feet waiting for the biggest comeback of the season to be complete.

He delivered.

Off of former Mets thrower Jason Isringhausen, who was making his first all-time relief outing, Ben Francisco walked, Jamey Carroll walked, Grady Sizemore walked to make it 11-10, then Martinez singled to finish off the win with two runs to make it an 11-10 win.

Yes, at least for one night the Indians played like the team we’ve grown to love for their miracle comebacks over the years. The issues remain with Carmona, a leaky bullpen, and an offense that never seems to get runs across when they need them, but the bottom line is this – it was a win, and for this team this year – they will take it.