Indians Confidential

One more time – how’s that Chris Perez trade working out?

Yes, the Indians latest bullpen fall guy was at it again Tuesday night in Chicago, as he gave up a grand slam to Indian killer Paul Konerko as the White Sox scored 9 runs in their last three at-bats to top the Tribe 10-6.

Konerko hit three bombs on the night, driving in 7 runs. Per usual, Jeremy Sowers was pretty good through 5 innings, holding the White Sox to a single run as the Indians led the contest 2-1 entering the bottom of the 6th. Ah but alas, Jeremy would not let us down, as he gave up a double, single and a walk all with one out to load the bases for Konerko.

Enter Perez, who at least this time didn’t hit anyone like in his first Indians outing vs Chicago last week. Instead, he just allowed the worst possible thing to happen, a bases clearing bomb that quickly gave the Sox a 5-2 lead. Of course Perez wasn’t the only comedy act out of the bullpen Tuesday – we also got a chuckle from new Indian Winston “don’t call me Bobby” Abreu.

All he did was allow 80 percent of the batters he faced to score. He gave up a walk (a steal of second), a homer to Alexi Ramirez, a strikeout (his only out recorded), a single, and then Konerko’s third homer of the night, a two-run blast that made it a 10-2 route.

Abreu’s line – 0.1 innings, three hits, four runs, one walk, one strikeout, and two homers. While he couldn’t top Perez’s ERA of 23.14, his whopping 11.25 fits in nicely with the crap that is otherwise known as the Tribe bullpen in 2009.

About the only bright spot was Grady Sizemore, who hit two homers to bring his total to 13 on the season. He went 2-for-4 with three RBI and the two dingers. Shin-Soo Choo also homered (13) and Travis Hafner went 2-for-4 with a RBI and is now batting .281.

Other than that, it was once again the joke of a bullpen and the usual 6th inning meltdown of Sowers that made this outcome one that we’ve seen all too often in 2009.

When the Indians break a losing streak, let’s just say they really know how to break a losing streak. For the first time since May 27th, the Tribe scored over 10 runs in a single game, pouring it on the equally as awful Oakland A’s in a 15-3 romp at Progressive Field in front of 26,557.

The night belonged to outfielder Shin-Soo Choo, who belted two homers and had a career-high 7 RBI. It’s his second career two homer game, and he was 4-for-5 with a stolen base to go along with it (13-for-13 in that department this season). There’s no denying that Choo has become a bright spot in this dark season, as following Friday’s game he’s hitting .301 with 12 homers and 53 RBI.

The win for the Indians breaks their five game winning streak, and considering they scored just 13 total runs in that five-game streak, it was nice to see an offense that was supposed to be much better than what it’s showed finally round into form, even if it’s just for one night.

Oakland though are by no means world beaters, as they are now 33-45, last place in the AL West. No one mistakes this team whatsoever for those great A’s teams in the late 80’s and early 90’s with players like Jose Conseco, Mark McGwire, Terry Steinbach and pitchers like Dave Stewart and Dennis Eckersley.

Instead, this A’s team rolls out players like Matt Holliday, an over the hill Jason Giambi, Kurt Suzuki, Ryan Sweeney, and more real no name players that will never make Oakland into any sort of force in the American League.

Back to the Indians, the club pounded out 15 hits with their 15 runs, and other than Choo’s two dingers, Travis Hafner also got in on the action, hitting a solo shot in the 2nd inning for the Indians first run after they trailed early 2-0. For Hafner, it was his 9th homer of the season.

After Oakland scored single runs in the first and second off of starter David Huff, the Indians offense caught fire, scoring the single run in the 2nd, three in the 3rd, four in the 4th, five in the fifth, and then single runs each in the 6th and 7th for the 15 spot on the scoreboard.

Huff went 6 innings, allowing three runs on 8 hits to earn his 4th win against 3 losses. He walked one and struck out four in the win.

Saturday at 7:05pm the team will celebrate the 4th with another fireworks display (Friday night’s was a Michael Jackson tribute that lasted about 14 minutes). Oakland will go with Vin Mazzaro (2-3, 2.95) vs Carl Pavano (6-7, 5.56) for the Tribe.

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.

While the Indians have finally gotten to .500 at home at 15-15, the bigger thing that came out of Friday night’s game is the maturation process continued for pitcher David Huff. The Tribe topped St.Louis 7-3, and with it Huff again was impressive, going 7.1 innings, allowing three runs on six hits. He walked two and struck out five.

The offense did a solid job against Cards starter Joel Pineiro, getting to him for three runs on 7 hits in 6.1 innings. The key though was the Indians 7th, as against Pineiro, Jason Motte, Dennis Reyes and Kyle McClellan the team pushed three runs across, the biggest hit a Shin-Soo Choo single that scored a pair of runs.

St.Louis started to rally in the 8th, as they got runners on against Huff, then put two runs across to make it a 5-3 game. Joe Smith and Rafael Perez were able to get the last two outs of the inning though, and then the offense again was able to get some runs, scoring two to make it a 7-3 game for Kerry Wood in the 9th.

The Tribe closer was able to pitch a 1-2-3 inning and gain the team their 11th win in 18 games, and have won 9 of their last 13 at home. The bigger stat is that the bullpen is finally doing as it’s being paid to do, as they have allowed just one run in their last 14 innings covering the last four games.

On offense, the team was patient, putting up 11 hits, and again seemed to get the big hits when called upon. Mark DeRosa was 2-for-5, and Jamey Carroll as 2-for-4 and is hitting .359 over his last 11 games. The team moves to 28-35 overall.

Saturday the team will play a 4:10 game at home vs the Cardinals. Tomo Ohka (0-0, 5.40) goes for Cleveland vs Brad Thompson (0-2, 4.50).

You have to give the Indians some credit for fighting it out against maybe the best pitcher in the American League in 2009 – the Royals Zack Greinke. Thursday night the Indians fell behind Greinke, who came into the game with a 1.55 ERA, 3-1, but put up a fight, tied the game in the 8th, then won it in the 10th 4-3.

The win means a 27-35 mark, which again puts them ahead of the Royals in the AL Central, and means that they now are suddenly in striking distance of the White Sox and Twins, and with another couple of wins on this homestand, could start to make things interesting in the divsion.

Thursday they scrapped in that 8th, and again took advantage of the fact KC’s defense is pretty bad. A double error on KC in the inning really opened the door for the Tribe, who pushed two runs across to tie the game at three.

The winning rally in 10th with seagulls circling the ball park again came as Mark DeRosa singled, Victor Martinez walked, and then Shin-Soo Choo hit a ball that some say hit a bird to center to score the winning run.

The win goes to Matt Herges, who continues to do a good job out of the pen. He moves to 2-0. Jeremy Sowers started and went 5 innings, allowing two runs on 6 hits with a walk and two strikeouts. Greg Aquino allowed a run in three innings, and then Kerry Wood pitched a scoreless 9th to keep the game tied.

The Tribe stays home to start a three-game series with the St.Louis Cardinals on Friday night.

Don’t let it get to your head – but how good does 4th place feel now in the AL Central?

For at least one day, the Indians can celebrate being out of the Central cellar, as thanks to a solid comeback led by a game-winning grand slam from Mark DeRosa in the 7th, the Indians topped te Royals 8-4 to move ahead of them for 4th in the division.

It didn’t look like it would go that way for most of the night, as the Royals built a 4-0 lead off Cliff Lee with two in the 3rd inning, and two more in the 6th to make it look like yet another long night for the Indians. But the offense finally responded and put together a nice comeback to get the win.

The Indians were able to rally to tie it in the 6th with four runs. Shin-Soo Choo reached on a fielder’s choice, scoring Jamey Carroll. Then Travis Hafner got on the same way, scoring Victor Martinez to make it a 4-2 game. Kelly Shoppach hit a sac fly to make it 4-3, and then a Jhonny Peralta fielder’s choice tied it.

The winning rally saw Ben Francisco single, Martinez walk, then Choo was hit by a pitch, loading the bases for DeRosa vs Jamey Wright. The relief pitcher threw a pitch down the middle of the plate on the first pitch, but then DeRosa got the good wood on the second pitch, putting it over the wall in right for the grand slam to make it 8-4.

The Royals got a hit in the 8th, and then a walk in the 9th off of Kerry Wood, but could do no further damage as the door was closed and the Tribe got the win. Rafael Perez got the win in relief to move to 1-1. The win puts the Indians at 26-34, dropping KC to 24-33, losers of 9 of their last 10.

Carl Pavano who is 6-4 goes for the Indians Wednesday against Gil Meche for the Royals (2-5) at 7:05.

When Ben Francisco sees Andy Sonnanstine on the mound, drool has to start coming out of his mouth. How else can you explain Francisco’s unreal success against Sonnanstine, which continued on Wednesday night at Progressive Field in the Indians third straight win over the Rays – 12-7. Francisco belted his 5th homer of the season off of the Rays starter in the 2nd inning, and now is 8-for-9 lifetime with 5 HR and 12 RBI against him.

Francisco’s homer was a three-run shot, and it jump started the Indians offense after called up starter Zach Jackson waited out a 1 hour 55 minute rain dealy with the rest of the team only to allow a five-spot to the Rays in the first inning to give Tampa Bay some early confidence.

It was not to be for Tampa Bay, who have now fallen 16 straight times to the Indians at Progressive Field. The Tribe offense has been finally showing the type of potential everyone thought they would, as against four Rays pitchers they put up 12 runs on 14 hits, five of which were extra base hits.

Shin-Soo Choo hit a two-run homer as well for the Indians to take their 8-7 lead and extend it to the eventual final of 12-7. For Choo, it was his 6th homer of the season. Jackson couldn’t stick around long enough to get the win, as he left after four innings, allowing 6 earned runs, 7 overall, on 8 hits with four walks and four strikeouts.

Righty Greg Aquino pitched two scoreless innings to notch his first win since June of 2006 at Pittsburgh when he was a reliever for the D-Backs. Another new name from the pen, Luis Vizcaino, pitched a scoreless 7th, 8th and 9th innings to pick up his first save in almost 5 years (September 24th with the Brewers in Arizona).

It’s a three-game winning streak now for the Indians, their longest win streak of the season. The win streak at home vs Tampa Bay dates back to 2005, and is the longest win streak at home over one team since they won 27 straight vs the St.Louis Browns from 1952 to 1954.

It’s a super quick turnaround for the Tribe, as they will wrap up the series vs the Rays looking for 4 straight and 7 of their last 9 at 12:05. The team now sits at 20-28, 7.5 back of the Tigers in the AL Central.