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 Indians made a pair of expected roster moves today to get some fresh arms in the bullpen. Below is the press release from the team sent out about 5:20 this afternoon.

CLEVELAND, OH — The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has recalled RHP BRIAN SLOCUM and purchased the contract of RHP RICK BAUER from the AAA Buffalo Bisons. To allow room for Slocum and Bauer on the Major League roster the Indians optioned RHP JENSEN LEWIS and RHP TOM MASTNY to AAA Buffalo.

The Indians 40-man roster now stands at 40.

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.

In a move that is sure to be short-term, Tom Mastny will start tonight for the Indians vs the Rangers.  The Indians sent out a quick one sentence presser announcing the move:

RHP TOM MASTNY will start for the Indians against the Texas Rangers at 8:05PM ET in Rangers Ballpark in Arlington… Will be his 1^st Major League start.

The team for whatever reason will go with Mastny over calling up Jeff Harris or Brian Solcum from Buffalo.  Both those pitchers would also though have been guys that would have been lucky to give you more than 5 innings.

The Indians have made a roster move to put another arm in the pen, as today they called up Tom Mastny and sent down Michael Aubrey. Here is the official presser:

The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has recalled RHP TOM MASTNY from AAA Buffalo. To allow room for Mastny on the Major League roster, the Indians optioned INF MICHAEL AUBREY to AAA Buffalo.

Mastny is 1-0 with a 3.14 ERA (14.1IP, 14H, 6R/5ER, 6BB, 17K) in 11 appearances out of the bullpen for the Bisons this year. He will be joining the Indians for the 2nd time this season as he was with the club from April 14 thru May 11 going 0-0 with a 10.80 ERA (1.2IP, 2H, 2R/ER, 3BB, 3K) in 2 appearances. After being optioned back to Buffalo on May 11th, he allowed just 1 run/earned in 9.0 innings (7G, 5H, 2BB, 8K) for the Bisons. He wears #40.

Aubrey hit .185 (5-27) with 2 runs scored, 2 home runs and 2 RBI in 9 games with the Indians. Each of his first two Major League hits were home runs.

The Indians announced their latest roster move moments ago, as Jason Tyner gets the call up to the big league roster for pitcher Tom Mastny. Below is the release on the move:

The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has purchased the contract of OF JASON TYNER from the AAA Buffalo Bisons. To allow room for Francisco on the Major League roster the Indians optioned RHP TOM MASTNY to AAA Buffalo.

Tyner has spent the entire year to date in AAA Buffalo where he has hit .234 (22-94) with 16 runs, 4 2B, 1HR & 7RBI in 31 games. He has also stolen 6 bases in 6 attempts and has 13 walks against just 6 strikeouts on the year. He is hitting .370 (10-27) in May w/4RS & 1RBI in 8 games and for the season is hitting .254 (16-63) off RHP. Jason was a non-roster invitee to Major League camp this spring after being signed to a minor league free agent contract on February 21. He wears #16. Tyner spent the entire 2007 season in the big leagues with Minnesota and hit his first Major League homer in July in Progressive Field.

Mastny has been with Cleveland since April 15 and has appeared in 2 games (1.2IP, 2H, 2R/ER).

Matt Loede sits down and talks with Canton Repository beat reporter Andy Call about the Tribe and the latest with the team.  Among the topics talked about include the offense and their latest surge, the lineup as it stands, the start for Aaron Laffey and his options, the latest roster move with Tom Mastny and Jason Tyner, and if the team may make a move for a hitter at some point.  Click below for the interview with Matt and Andy Call.

 

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