Indians Confidential

From: The Indians

CLEVELAND, OH — The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has recalled RHP TOM MASTNY from the AAA Buffalo Bisons. To allow room on the Major League roster for Mastny the Indians have placed RHP SCOTT ELARTON on the Restricted List (personal reasons).

Mastny has split the season between Cleveland and AAA Buffalo. He was with the Indians from April 15-May 11 and again from June 2-4, making a spot start in Texas on June 3 (1.1IP, 6H, 5R/ER). With the Indians he has made 3 appearances (3.0IP, 8H, 7R/ER, 21.00ERA) over his two stints. Tom has been sharp at AAA Buffalo, going 1-0 w/a 1.71 ERA in 19 relief appearances (26.1IP, 20H, 5ER, 8BB, 34K) and has limited Triple A hitters to a .211 average against with 1 HR allowed. He has not allowed an earned run in 9 June appearances (13.0IP, 7H, 1R, 2BB, 17K, .159AVG). He wears #40.

Elarton has been with the club since May 24 and has posted a mark of 0-1 w/a 3.52 ERA in 8 relief appearances (15.1IP, 16H, 6ER).

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).

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.

Not much good can come of losing two-of-three to a team that had a 11-game losing streak, but that is exactly what happened over the weekend to the Indians in KC.  If it were not for a furious comeback on Friday night highlighted by a couple of Grady Sizemore homers, the Indians may very well be heading to Texas after getting swept by the worst team in the AL Central.

Sunday it was Paul Byrd’s turn to get battered around a bit, as he allowed a early homer to Jose Guillen, then a bunch of two out hits in the third to put the Royals up 4-0.  With the whimpering that the Indians offense did against Royals starter Brian Bannister, you may as well have just warmed the bus up by that point.

Byrd as a whole was simply not very good, going 4.1 innings, allowing six runs on nine hits.  He gave up another two homers, the second of which was by the Royals Mark Grudzielanek that made it 6-0 in the fifth.  Byrd is now 2-5 on the season with an ERA of 4.66.  Scott Elarton, who was the goat in the teams loss to the Sox last Monday, did a much better job in relief, going 3.2 innings, allowing no runs on two hits.  Hey, right now if there’s a bright spot, better talk about it - right?

As for the offense, a Sizemore homer in the 8th when the game was out of reach was it.  Bannister, who was 4-6 entering the game, kept the Indians off balance all day, going 7.1 innings, allowing the one run on five hits, walking one and striking out four.  The team limps to Texas at 25-31.   Tomorrow is the first of four vs the Rangers, as Aaron Laffey takes on Doug Mathis at 8:10pm.

On a night that at first looked as if it would be a hitters parade, Monday night’s Memorial Day affair between the Indians and White Sox turned into a pitchers duel, and in the end the Indians were fell by an old pitcher making his return to the team in Scott Elarton in a 6-3 loss in 12 innings.  Elarton came in and right off the bat allowed three hits that plated a run, then a ground out scored another run.  A Brian Anderson double was the nail in the coffin to make it 6-3.

The loss by the Indians drops them to 23-28 on the season, 5.5 back of the Sox in the division.  They are fading fast, as they have now dropped 9 of their last 10 and are a lackluster .500 at home at 15-15.

Paul Byrd started for the Indians, and he got out of the jam of jams in the first, loading the bases with no outs, but only allowing a run on a Jim Thome ground out. The Tribe came back right away against one of the better pitchers in the AL in Javier Vazquez, as David Dellucci tied the game with a solo homer in the bottom of the first to make it 1-1.  A Victor Martinez single in the third with two on and no outs made it 2-1.  The inning was derailed though as a fielder’s choice, strikeout and ground out ended the frame.

A Jhonny Peralta solo homer in the 5th off of Vazquez gave the Indians a two-run lead at 3-1.  It was the 10th homer of the season for Peralta, a team high.  Byrd was good till the 6th, when Thome struck Byrd again, this time with his 10th homer of the year to make it 3-2.  He allowed the tying run in the 7th that eventually scored to make it 3-3.  Overall, he went 6.2 innings, allowing three runs on 10 hits with a no decision.

Tuesday night at 7:05pm the series continues with Aaron Laffey (2-3, 1.60) going for the Indians vs Mark Buehrle (2-5, 4.82).

The team made a variety of roster moves yesterday and today, and here are the official pressers from Bart and the team on the moves:

The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has purchased the contract of RHP JORGE JULIO from AAA Buffalo. To allow room for Julio on the 40-man roster the Indians today designated LHP AARON FULTZ for assignment.

Julio, signed on January 31 to a minor league contract with a non-roster invite, has posted a mark of 0-1 w/a 1.64 ERA in 9 relief outings for the Indians this spring (11.0IP, 11H, 2ER, 7BB, 13K, .234 avg). Julio, 29, spent most the 2007 season with the Colorado Rockies, posting a mark of 0-3 with a 3.93 ERA in 58 appearances (52.2IP, 50H, 23ER, 20BB, 50K). He owns a career Major League record of 13-33 with 99 saves and a 4.35 ERA in 411 relief appearances.

Fultz appeared in 7 games this spring for the Indians (8.1IP, 16H, 14R/11ER).

Also today, the Indians optioned INF JOSH BARFIELD to AAA Buffalo and re-assigned RHP SCOTT ELARTON to minor league camp. The Indians spring training roster now contains 32 players.

The Indians this morning optioned RHP TOM MASTNY to AAA Buffalo.

The Indians Major League roster now stands at 27 players.

The Indians and Tigers will renew their friendly spring training feud today in Winter Haven at 1:05 PM.  The game will be live TV on SportsTime Ohio.  Cliff Lee will start of the Indians as he continues his push to be the #5 starter on the staff.  The notes say that Joe Borowski, Edward Mujica, Rick Bauer, Matt Ginter, Rich Bundles and Scott Elarton are also supposed to pitch in the game.  The Tribe is 6-6-1 in spring training, while the Tigers are 8-5-1.