Indians Confidential

On a day that had its share of downs with Victor Martinez and Josh Barfield finding themselves on the DL, the Indians put all that behind them and put on an offensive explosion in pounding the Twins 12-2 at Progressive Field. They put up a season-high in hits with 18, hit two homers, and everyone in the starting lineup minus Ryan Garko had a hit and scored at least one run.

Aaron Laffey made it a laugher as well, going six solid innings to improve to 4-3 on the season. He allowed just one run on five hits, walking one and striking out four. He also dropped his ERA to 2.83 on the year. Laffey is a player that will have to pitch great the rest of the season if the Indians want to contend the AL Central.

As for the offense, they hit early and often. They pounded Twins starter Livan Hernandez, hitting him up for 7 runs on 12 hits in just three innings. He also allowed two homers, one to Grady Sizemore in the 4th with no one on, and a three-run blast to Shin Soo-Choo in the 3rd and put the Indians up 6-0.
The Tribe scored a single run in the 2nd when Kelly Shoppach punched in an RBI single. They put up five in the third, with Choo’s blow being the biggest of the inning. Jhonny Peralta also had a big hit, a two-run RBI single that scored Jamey Carroll and Ben Francisco.

Carroll was impressive at the plate, going 4-for-4 and raising his average to .273. Francisco went 4-for-5 with three RBI, he’s hitting .309. Choo went 2-for-3 with three RBI and is hitting .333. Poor Ryan Garko could not share in the fun, as he went 0-for-4 with six men left on base. I’m sure he’s not all that upset about it.

The win wins the series for the Indians, as they get set for interleague play with the Padres coming to town for a three-game set over the weekend. Cleveland is now 31-36 on the year, closing in on the Twins for second, who fall to 32-35.

Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia has lost games like this before, which is why Tuesday night’s 1-0 shutout over one of the two teams the Indians are looking up at in the AL Central was extra special.  Looking as good as he has all season, Sabathia retired the last 17 Twins batters, and used all his pitches in moving to 4-8 on the season.  He allowed five hits, didn’t walk a batter and struck out five.

The Tribe offense was held in check by Twins starter Scott Baker, but they got the only run that mattered in the first, when Ben Francisco doubled in the two spot, then two batters later Ryan Garko singled him home for the only run of the game.  Garko’s hitting trend continued, as he was 2-for-4, and has now hit safely in his last 7 games, with an average of .321.

The rest of the night was all Sabathia.  He threw 95 pitches, 59 of which were strikes.  It was his first complete game shutout since the Indians were playing much better ball back on May 14th, when he stopped the A’s cold 2-0.  He moves to 12-8 lifetime vs the Twins.  He now has three complete games this year, and did the bullpen a favor after last night’s rain delay win in Detroit by giving them the night off.

The Tribe moves to 30-35 on the season, and drop the Twins to 31-34, just a game back of them in the division standings.  Tomorrow at 7:05 the teams play game two of the three-game set, as Paul Byrd (3-5, 4.46) goes for the Indians vs Nick Blackburn (4-4, 3.94).

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.

The back and forth from Buffalo to Cleveland that has been the season for pitcher Jeremy Sowers continued on Sunday, and it seemed to drag on him, as he was ineffective and somewhat wild as the Tigers topped the Indians 5-2 at Comerica Park.  Sowers went over 90 innings in just four innings, giving up five runs on seven hits, walking two and striking out two.  He was 4-3 with the Indians Triple-A club, but that did not translate over Sunday in the heat in Detroit.

“[The Tigers] made him work all the way through,” manager Eric Wedge said. “A big part of that was he just wasn’t throwing his fastball where he wanted to. They’re a veteran club, a club you need to be aggressive with. You put them on the defense early in the count if you can.”

Armando Galarraga, who had already topped the Indians once this season in Cleveland, did it again on Sunday, keeping Indians bats silent most of the day.  He allowed just two runs on four hits in 5.2 innings.  Grady Sizemore had a RBI single in the 3rd that made it 2-1, and then Ryan Garko singled to center in the 6th to score Sizemore, but by then the team trailed 5-1 and the wind was out of their sails.

The only other Indians batter that really showed a pulse was Shin Soo-Choo, who went 2-for-4 with a run scored and is now batting .333 on the season.  If your looking for bright spots on this steam bath of a Sunday, the Indians two relief pitchers, Scott Elarton and Edward Mujica came up and only allowed one hit over the last four innings for Detroit while striking out four.

Monday the four-game series concludes at 7:05pm as the team, now 28-35, will try to at least get out of Motown with a split as Cliff Lee at 9-1 takes on Dontrelle Willis (0-0, 4.50).

It seems to be that every other year the Indians bullpen is very good.  The problem with that is that means this year is one of those “off” years for the pen, and that fact reared its ugly head again on Saturday as the bullpen allowed six runs in the teams latest setback 8-4 to the Tigers.  Aaron Laffey had done a solid job getting the Indians to a 3-2 lead in the 7th, going 6.2, allowing only a two-run homer to Carlos Guillen.  It was after he left that the wheels simply came off.

Starting with the 8th, Masa Kobayashi allowed two runs in just 0.1, giving up a homer to Marcus Thames, to tie the game at 3, then allowing a double to Mags Ordonez.  Enter Rafael Betancourt, who threw a meatball to Miguel Cabrera who singled to deep left to score Ordonez.  Betancourt, who has continued to take major steps back this season, then allowed another single, a sac to put runners on second and third, and then after an intentional walk to load the bases he struck out Ryan Raburn to give them two outs.

As has happend all year long though, the pen was unable to get that all important third out, and Betancourt again threw one over the plate, this time to Edgar Renteria, who didn’t let him get away with it, putting it out for a grand slam to make it 8-3.  The line on Betancourt, 1 inning, four runs, three hits, one walk and one strikeout.  Last season Rafael was 5-1, three saves, and an ERA of 1.47.  After 27 appearences in 2008, he is 1-3, 4 saves, and has an ERA of 7.27.

While Laffey was the bright spot, the offense did what it could to try and give him a win.  They put up three runs, one on a Franklin Gutierrez fielder’s choice in the 2nd, and then a Kelly Shoppach double to make it 2-0.  Guillen’s homer made it 2-2, but the Indians responded with a Ryan Garko sac fly in the 6th after an error by Tigers pitcher Kenny Rogers opened the door.  It looked as if it would be enough until Masa and Betancourt gave it away.

The loss puts the Indians at 28-34 on the season.  They will throw Jeremy Sowers (0-0, 5.23) vs the surprising Armando Galarraga, who is 4-2 with a 3.76 ERA.  He beat the Indians back on April 16th in Cleveland going 6.2 innings, allowing two runs on one hit.

All season long Indians players and the coaching staff had promised that the offense would start to come around. Even after the team slumped through May, players seemed sure that they would break out and have a big June at the plate. While it’s only been four games, maybe, just maybe, the team was right. Positive signs were everywhere Wednesday night in Arlington, as the Indians trounced the Rangers 15-9 behind a tied season high 17 hits.

High winds and temps in the 90’s made it for a hitters night, as the Indians scored in bunches, putting up innings of 4, 2, 5 and 4 runs. They slammed Texas relief pitcher Elizardo Ramirez to the tune of 9 runs in 2.2 innings. They broke the game open tied 6-6 in the 6th when they put up a 5-spot, then came back in the 7th and added four more to put the game away.

The big night on offense belonged specifically to two players - Ben Francisco, who was 5-for-6 with three runs scored and a RBI, and Ryan Garko, hitting in the four-hole and going 4-for-5 with two runs scored and a career-high 6 RBI. David Dellucci added a three-run homer and Casey Blake was 2-for-5 with a run scored and a RBI.

On the mound Cliff Lee was good enough helped out by the offense to notch his 9th win against just one loss. Lee saw his ERA plump to 2.45 after allowing six runs on nine hits in five innings. He walked two and struck out 8. Rafael Betancourt, Masa Kobayashi and just called up Rick Bauer also pitched in relief of Lee, and the three combined to allow three runs on four hits, all three runs were allowed by Bauer.

The win puts the Indians at 27-32 on the season, still 5.5 back of the Sox in the Central. They have a great shot to head to Detroit on a high note tonight, as C.C. Sabathia (3-7, 4.32) goes for the Tribe against old friend Kevin Millwood, who is 3-3 with a 4.50 ERA. First pitch at 8:05pm.

The Indians were in a tough spot last night in Arlington, as they needed an emergency start from someone who could hopefully step in and give them a few decent innings on the mound. Instead of making a move to bring up a pitcher like Jeff Harris or Brian Solcum from Triple-A, the team threw out normal reliever Tom Mastny. Let’s just say the results were not good. The Rangers batters smelled blood early, and with back-to-back homers in the first setting the tone, Texas pounded the Indians 12-7.

The offense actually for the second straight night showed signs of life, but this time it was the pitching staff, now with 2/5’s of its starting rotation on the DL, that could not give the team any support. Mastny was downright awful as the starter, going just 1.1 innings, allowing five runs on six hits, allowing the two homers. Four other Indians pitchers did fare all that much better, as they allowed a combined seven runs on 10 hits over the final 6.2 innings. The only pitcher to not be charged with allowing an earned run was Scott Elarton, and he went just 0.1.

Down 5-0 after two innings, the offense tried to rally, scoring single runs in the 3rd and 4th, then after Texas scored three more between the 5th and 6th innings to make it 9-2, the Tribe again tried to rally with three in the 7th and one in the 8th to make it 9-6. That would be as close as it got, as a three spot in the bottom of the 8th for Texas put the game away.

The offense put up 15 hits, and combine that with the 16 hits on Monday and maybe a trip to Arlington was exactly what the offense needed to get itself on track. They also have scored 20 runs in the last two games, this after scoring 21 runs in the last five games before Monday night. Also they had a stretch in May, when they hit .218 as a team, that they scored 31 runs in 10 games, going 1-9.

Five players in the lineup had at least two hits, with Grady Sizemore, Ben Francisco, Ryan Garko, Franklin Gutierrez and Shin-Soo Choo all having good nights at the plate. Choo hit a solo homer in the 9th, while Garko went 3-for-5 with a RBI to move his average back up to .244. And to think the offense did this without Travis Hafner, on the DL, and with Victor Martinez playing only late for starter Kelly Shoppach.

Tonight the series continues, as Cliff Lee at 8-1 with an ERA of 1.88 will go for the Indians vs Sidney Ponson (4-1, 3.83) at 8:05pm. The team is now 26-32, 5.5 back of the White Sox in the AL Central.