Indians Confidential

Pitcher Anthony Reyes said Sunday after the Indians were swept by the Tigers that once the team started playing better, they would be fun to watch. Monday night, while most Cleveland fans were watching the Cavs sweep the Hawks, the Indians did play better, and yes, for the first time in awhile – they were fun to watch.

They hit well, pitched pretty good, and played solid defense, and with it came their first win since Wednesday, a 9-4 beating of the rival Chicago White Sox. The win puts them at 12-21, and while it still seems like we’re in for a long season, 12-21 is better at this point than 11-22.

The offense finally came out of their funk against White Sox starter Gavin Floyd, who could not get first pitch strikes and couldnt’ get his curveball over. They pounded out 13 hits, and four players had two or more hits, led by Jhonny Peralta who was 3-for-5 with three RBI. Peralta, who was sat down for two games by Eric Wedge, is 6-for-9 since being put back in the lineup Sunday.

Shin-Soo Choo also had a pretty good night at the plate, going 2-for-4 with three RBI. The team got off to a good start, scoring two runs in the first and then putting up a nice to see four-spot in the 4th to take a 6-0 lead. That would be all it would take for Carl Pavano to throw his 3rd win of the season. He was solid, not outstanding by any means, but was able to get out of trouble a couple of times.

Pavano went 6.1 innings, allowing four runs on 10 hits with no walks and three strikeouts. Since starting the season 0-3, he’s won three in a row, throwing 7.1 innings in a May 1st win over the Tigers, 6 innings in a win last Wednesday vs the Red Sox, and against the White Sox went into the 7th to gain the win. His ERA has dropped from an 81.00 after his first start to 6.45.

“It finally felt like a real baseball game,” Mark DeRosa said. “Any win right now is big.”

You can say that again. A couple more wins and the team can start thinking about getting back into the race in the AL Central. For now, a win tomorrow and they will win a series – and that’s good news any way you look at it.

The Indians take it – the Indians give it away. The nice thing about this first game in Toronto, they at the end of the night were able to take it once and for all. And get a win out of it.

They were down to one strike before a loss in the 9th, only to then be saved by a huge hit by Asdrubal Cabrera, followed by hits by Victor Martinez and Shin-Soo Choo to give them a 6-4 lead entering the bottom of the inning. Enter Kerry Wood.

The Indians closer was able to get to two outs with runners one, and then with the game on the line, Jose Bautista was able to tie the game up with a two-run single that made it 6-6. Despair once again.

The nice thing though is on this night the bullpen (other than Wood) was able to do what they get paid to do – get outs when they need them. Rafael Betancourt pitched two scoreless extra innings, then after the team was able to pound out three runs in the 12th, Rafael Perez of course gave up a run, but then Jensen Lewis came in and got the final three outs to earn the save.

The 9-6 win came about with that three-run 12th that included a single by Josh Barfield that scored Mark DeRosa, and then Grady Sizemore doubled to right, scoring Barfield and Lusi Valbuena to give them the lead that would end up finally holding up.

Betancourt got the win to move to 1-1, and Lewis got his first save of the season. The game also featured Matt LaPorta’s first Major League homer, and the team pounded out 15 hits total. Brain Tallet, a former Indian, no-hit the Tribe for the first 6 innings until the team got to him with LaPorta tying the game at two with his first homer, and then the team scratched out another run to take a lead.

The win improves to 10-16 on the season, dropping the Blue Jays to 18-10. The team will play a 12:37pm game Tuesday before heading to Boston for three games to wrap up the road trip.

You really expect me to talk about this game?!

Where do we start? Well, there was the good start that saw the Indians go up 3-0 early. That was followed by the Blue Jays coming back, taking a 4-3 lead in the 5th, then the Heavens opened. Bad. We waited. And we waited, and waited, and waited.

Finally, 27 minutes after 9 pm the groundscrew had done enough to make the field playable again for baseball. They might as well not even had bothered.

The Jays added another single run in the 6th (Scott Lewis, who did not take the loss, was long gone), then they scored two in the 7th, and a six-spot in the 8th put it to bed. Not that the Indians offense didn’t make it somewhat interesting.

They were able to put a single run over in the 6th (Shin-Soo Choo a solo homer), and three more in the 7th (Victor Martinez two-run homer helped out). Put that was about it.

Bottom line, five pitchers allowed 13 Toronto runs on 17 hits. Ugly. The offense should be able to win on a night when they score 7 runs, but at least in the first four games of 2009 – it was not meant to be.

Don’t fret, we get to do it all over again in about 13 hours. Joy.

The Indians are done with right fielder Shin-Soo Choo and his playing in the World Baseball Classic. He has a sore elbow, and today’s Plain Dealer says that the team wants him back in camp with them before anything else bad happens to him:

The Indians want right fielder Shin-Soo Choo to go one better than E.T. They don’t want him to phone home, they want him to come home.

Choo has come down with a sore left elbow while playing with South Korea in the World Baseball Classic. The Indians can’t snap their fingers and bring Choo back to Arizona because he’s in Japan prepar ing to play Tai wan on Friday.

“At this point the Indians’ wishes are to get him back here so we can examine him,” said GM Mark Shapiro, “just because we’re not comfortable with him being somewhere else and experiencing an injury. We’re going to keep an open mind until we get full information.”

Shin-Soo Choo of the Indians has been named the Sharp Presents the American League Player of the Month for September. This marks his first career monthly award.

In 24 games, Choo batted .400 (34-for-85) with five home runs and 24 RBI. The 26-year-old outfielder scored 21 runs and posted a .659 slugging percentage and a .464 on-base percentage. The South Korea native collected 11 extra-base hits, including five doubles and one triple. Choo compiled a nine-game hitting streak from September 17th-27th, batting .359 (14-for-39) during that stretch.

He notched 12 multi-hit games, including five consecutive two-hit games from September 3rd-8th. Choo went 3-for-4 with a home run, three RBI and two runs against the Royals on September 12th. He added his third three-hit game of the month on September 19th vs. Detroit, going 3-for-4 with two home runs, two runs scored and four RBI. Choo finished the season hitting .309 with 14 home runs and 66 RBI in 94 games. His 98 hits on the season were the most ever by a Korean-born player.

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The Indians had one wild fifth inning Friday night at Kauffmann Stadium, seven consecutive hits, five successive RBI singles, six runs, as the Tribe topped the Royals 9-3. The fifth inning took what was an Indians 2-0 lead and extended it to 8-0. Pitcher Anthony Reyes wasn’t able to do much Friday night, as a sore elbow stopped him after just three innings. He is still having a solid year for the Indians, as he continues to make a push for a look at being in the rotation in 2009.

The win for the Tribe matches the fourth-longest road winning streak in franchise history and they now have won five straight and 13 of 18 overall. The win puts the Indians at 68-71 on the year, just three games under .500. They are still 10.5 games back of the White Sox, but are looking more and more like the worst they will be this year is a third-place team, as they are two full games ahead of fourth-place Detroit.

The offense for the Indians was paced by 12 hits. Everyone minus Franklin Gutierrez had at least one hit, and Jamey Carroll, Victor Martinez and Shin-Soo Choo each had two hits. Zach Jackson (0-1, 6.17) goes Saturday night for the Indians against Royals starter Gil Meche (10-10, 4.07 ERA) at 7:10pm.

It seems like forever a go that the Indians had won five straight games. The locker room at the time was full of players that were ready to make a run at a title, like C.C. Sabathia, Paul Byrd, Casey Blake, and players like Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner  were healthy. In other words – it was a time when the Indians felt they had a shot in the AL Central. Fast forward to August 12th. The team has moved the first three players on the list, while the other two are on the DL. Nevertheless, this Indians squad now simply playing out the season is at least showing some signs of life.

Tuesday night against the equally as bad Baltimore Orioles, and just about three hours after moving Byrd to the Red Sox, the Indians built an early 4-2 lead and led at one point 5-2, but like Monday night saw the game slip away only to then regain the lead late for a 7-5 win. The team gave up the 5-2 lead by allowing the O’s a single run in the 5th and two more in the 7th to tie the game at 4. The Tribe offense continued to stay hot, as they scored twice in the bottom of the 8th to seal the deal.

Shin-Soo Choo was hit by a pitch, then Andy Marte bunted Choo to second. Asdrubal Cabrera stayed hot, hitting a single to center that scored Choo with the winning run to make it 6-5. Two batters later the team added an extra run when Ben Francisco singled to left that scored Cabrera to make it 7-5. Jensen Lewis pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to earn the save and send the Indians to their second straight over the birds.

Jeremy Sowers went for the Indians to start the game, and was good after a shakey first that saw him allow two runs. He lasted 6.1, allowing four runs on six hits. His fastball seemed to have pretty good movement, and he continues to make progress in his development in trying to make sure he’ll be a part of the starting rotation in 2009. The bullpen of dispair saw Masa Kobayashi not retire a batter and allow a run on two hits.

Rafael Perez, who is the best of the pen’s bunch right now, went 1.2 scoreless innings, and picked up the win to improve to 2-2. Lewis’ 9th inning gave him his second save of the season. It’s the second night in a row the team threw him out in the 9th, and the second time he was able to come through with a good outing. The Indians will continue their series with the Orioles tonight. Anthony Reyes, who’s 3-and-1 with a 3.86 ERA, will start for the Indians. The Orioles will send out Jeremy Guthrie, who’s 9-and-8 with a 3.26 ERA. First pitch at Progressive Field is set for 7:05 p.m.