Indians Confidential

The month of April has come to a close for the Indians, and just like the past few seasons, the team has come out of the gates very slow.  With a mark of 8-14, the club is 4 games back in the AL Central, which could be worse if one of those teams like the Tigers or White Sox had gotten off to a better start.

The club was 5-7 at home, 3-7 on the road.  They ended the month losing 6 of their last 10, and were 4-6 vs the East, 4-5 against the Central, and 0-3 vs the West.

Here are some highlights and grades from the first month of the season:

Best Win: 4/18 at New York 22-4 – By far this was the teams shinning moment of the month.  They put up a crazy 14 runs in the second inning, and on the day scored 22 runs on 25 hits.  The sad part, they lost the next day after Carl Pavano’s best start could not be closed out by the bullpen.

Worst Loss: 4/29 vs Boston 6-5 - Fausto Carmona was dominating the Sox through five innings, but the wheels started to come off, and by the time Rafael Betancourt left the game, it was tied at 5.  Then in the 10th inning former Indian farmhand John Van Early hit a towering homer off of Jensen Lewis to win the game.  Sure would have been nice to win this game to start getting some momentum going for May.

Grades:

Offense – C-: The team was so inconsistant this month, it’s hard to give them anything better than this.  They had their moments, like the 22-run game vs the Yankees, and a couple of games vs Texas (8 runs), KC (8 runs), NYY (10 runs) and Boston (9 runs).  The problem right now is you just simply don’t know what your going to get.

Some of the key players on the team that were being counted on for offense did nothing.  Jhonny Peralta is lost at the plate (.211 this month, 0 homers, 6 RBI).  Kelly Shoppach is hitting just .231, 2 homers, 6 RBI, and one guy that was starting to show some life – Travis Hafner, .270 with 4 homers and 8 RBI, is on the DL for at least the next two weeks.

Starting Pitching – C: The starters had their major issues early, but did start to come on late, with Cliff Lee (1-3, 3.94) and Fausto Carmona (1-3, 6.28) pitching a bit better.  Lee threw 8 scoreless vs the Red Sox Monday, but the offense couldn’t score.  Who would have known that Aaron Laffey, who didn’t even start the season with the club, would be the best starter in April.  He’s 2-0 with a 2.41 ERA.  Carl Pavano (0-3, 9.50) and Anthony Reyes (1-0, 7.58) have done little to give much hope for the rest of 2009.

Bullpen – D: If it were not for Tony Sipp and Kerry Wood, this would have been an F for sure.  Sipp has been outstanding in 3 shots out of the pen, not allowing a hit and walking one and striking out 6.  Wood has 4 saves and an ERA of 6.75, but seems to have the look of the closer the team has needed.  Vinnie Chulk threw away a possible win in NY, but otherwise has been good in 6 outings, throwing an ERA of 1.93.

Jensen Lewis has allowed 5 homers in 12.1 innings, Rafael Betancourt has given up 11 hits and 6 earned runs in 10 innings, Joe Smith has been pretty bad, and Rafael Perez is awful, with an ERA of 11.70 allowing 13 earned runs in 10 innings.  If this unit does not get better, this team is going to struggle all of 2009.

The Indians today suffered a blow on offense, as DH Travis Hafter was placed on the 15-day DL with soreness in the shoulder that was operated on this past offseason. Hafner has appeared in 17 games for the Indians so far this season and is hitting .270 (17-63) with 10 runs scored, 5 doubles, 4 home runs and 8RBI. He currently owns an on-base % of .370 with an on-base+slugging % (OPS) of .910. Today marks the 4th DL stint of his Major League career.

The team needed to bring up a pitcher, so they called up lefty Rich Rundles to take his spot on the roster. Rundles has gone 0-1 with a 1.50 ERA in 7 appearances out of the bullpen at Columbus (6.0IP, 3H, 2R/1ER, 3BB, 7K) after being optioned out of spring training on March 15. He has not allowed a run in his last 4 appearances (3.0IP, 1H, BB, 4K) with the Clippers and has limited AAA hitters to a .136 (3-22) average against so far this year. He wears #56 and will be in uniform tonight as the Indians take on the Red Sox at 7:05PM ET in Progressive Field.

The offense has had severe moments of drought already in this first month of the 2009 season, and now with losing Hafner it remains to be seen if someone else can step in and take up the slack. Tonight Kelly Shoppach is hitting in the 9th spot as the DH.

So I am sitting at the Cavs beating of the Pistons Saturday and I get a text message from a friend: “Indians just scored 14 runs.” What? I thought, didn’t the game just start?! And that was the beauty of it.

There’s nothing better in the world than the beating of the pompous, too good for everyone else, let’s spend as much money as possible and still suck Yankees. And in two of the first three games of the new Yankee Stadium, that’s exactly what happened.

Saturday the Tribe slammed New York every which way but loose with a 22-4 win. “It was just one of those games for the entire team,” said Mark DeRosa, who went 4-for-7 and tied a career high with six RBIs. “Just a lot of guys getting good swings.”

The WHOLE team got good swings it seemed like, and it’s a shame you can’t bank some of these runs for today, or tomorrow, or next week for that matter.

DeRosa and Shin Soo-Choo hit three-run homers, Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore and Victor Martinez had solo shots for the Indians, who made it a laugher before some idiot Yankee fans could even get in their seats. It was also the 500th win for Eric Wedge, and couldn’t have been any better.

Fausto Carmona got the win to go to 1-2, and went 6 innings allowing four hits, six hits, and two homers. It seems like in three games the new Yankee Stadium is surely going to be a place where some home run records are broken.

So today the team has a shot at now 4-8 to come home on a high note. They have quickly won three of four, and today with a win can take 3 of 4 from the Yankees. How sweet that would be,

For the second straight series, the Indians looked rather ugly in losing the first two games of a series, only to then rebound and win the finale. They did that same thing again earlier today as they topped the KC Royals 5-4 in Kansas City to move to 2-7 on the season.

The win didn’t come easy by any means, as it was Travis Hafner that had a huge double that keyed a three-run 7th inning that got the Tribe the lead which led to the win. Hafner, who I think has been a bright spot during the early part of what’s been an ulgy start, had two doubles in the game, went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a walk, and is hitting .286 on the season.

The team got enough from spot starter Aaron Laffey, who was called up from AAA Columbus earlier in the day for Josh Barfield. While he didn’t earn the win (Jensen Lewis 1-0 got that), he did go 5.1 innings, allowing two runs on three hits with three walks and five strikeouts.

Laffey, who didn’t have a good spring, now has a chance to make an impact, as this is sort of his second lease on life as a guy that can make and stay in the rotation. I thought Scott Lewis was going to be able to have a good season, but he’s already on the DL, and you know that Laffey will get another start at the big league level in this stretch, and it’ll be at home next week vs the Royals.

Joe Smith, Lewis and Rafel Betancourt held the fort down till the 9th, when Kerry Wood came in and got his first save of the season with a solid inning. The offense, which I thought has been downright awful at points in the first 8 games, looked good on Wednesday. They had 10 hits, 5 doubles and struck out just 6 times, which is a vast improvement from the first 8 games.

Now the hoopla of having to head to New York and the opening of the new Yankee Stadium is upon the team. They get a shot at C.C. Sabathia tomorrow, and I think they can steal one since we all know how C.C. pitches when the pressure is on. If Cliff Lee can follow up the last few innings of his outing from Saturday, the Tribe I think can steal a win in NYC on Thursday.

Yuck. On a night made more for football than baseball, the Tribe’s first game in KC in 2009 was one to forget. Royals pitcher Zach Greinke was in control from the start, and by the time it was done it the team had put up a goose egg, struck out 9 times, and were behind 4-0.

The team is now 1-6, and while they (like Saturday), made it a game in the 9th with two runs and the tying run on second with no outs, the game came down to KC closer Joakim Soria, who struck out Victor Martinez, got Travis Hafner to hit a weak grounder to the mound, and struck out Jhonny Peralta to end the game. Ugly.

The Royals jumped on Fausto Carmona (0-2) with three runs in the first inning, and needed little after that. Carmona went five innings, allowing four runs on five hits, walking four and striking out four. It would have been a great night for Carmona to rebound from his shaky first start, but it was not to be.

The offense did have their shots, as they put up 10 hits, but Hafner and Peralta going 0-for-8 hurt, and they left 10 men on base and continue to really struggle with runners in scoring position.

The team continues to have their issues with falling behind early. Carmona needed to set a tempo tonight with a good outing, and he couldn’t, and the offense wasted their shots against Greinke and that was all she wrote.

They left five on base in the first three innings, and four of those were in scoring position. Things are bad right now, and it some ways, they only have themselves to blame for it.

Tuesday night again at 8:10pm it will be Carl Pavano against Kyle Davies.

The sun was shining, everyone was dressed in their Easter Sunday best, and the Indians finally got a win. It was a good day at Progressive Field. Anthony Reyes and a couple of offensive stars – Mark DeRosa Travis Hafner, each homered as the Indians got in the win column for the first time in 2009, beating the Jays 8-4.

Reyes pitched well, and I wonder why he was not named the third starter in this rotation? He did allow four runs in six innings, but only gave up three hits. He walked three and struck out two. He wasn’t outstanding by any means, but considering the way that the first five starts went by Indians pitchers, the team will take it.

He was the first starting pitcher on the team to go five innings or more, and gave the team some much needed innings. Rafel Perez and Jensen Lewis pitched in relief, and Kerry Wood came in looked good in striking out three batters in the 9th to preserve the win.

On offense, how great was it to see Travis Hafner come through with a big hit?! His two-run homer in the 8th turned a 5-4 game into a 7-4 game. Hafner is hitting .300 with three homers and 6 RBI in the first six games, a HUGE lift that the team needed.

DeRosa also kept up his hot hitting from Saturday, going deep as well to give the team a 3-0 lead from a 1-0 lead. Eric Wedge said Saturday after the win that the team needed to get back to “controlling” the game, and they did that today, which was great to see.

Also, it was great to see a youngster like Trevor Crowe come through as well. His clutch double gave the team some breathing room from 3-1 to 5-1. Now they get to see if they can keep the momentum going, as they head to Kansas City on Monday.

Wow. Well, you kind of had that feeling that Cliff Lee was going to have one of those days today after he won 22 games in 2008. No one though probably thought 2009 for Lee and the Tribe would start out as ugly as it did today. The team was shelled by the Texas Rangers, as Lee allowed 7 runs on 10 hits over 5 innings as the team was beat 9-1.

Not that the Indians offenese, as you could tell from the final score, did much better. Kevin Millwood, a one-time Indian, handcuffed the team for one run on five hits over 7 innings. He walked just one batter and struck out five. No on in the Tribe’s lineup managed more than one hit on the day.

Lee’s beating started in the second inning, as he needed just 10 pitches to get out of the first. He allowed four runs, all on two outs in that second inning, and the Rangers hit parade was on from there. Three innings after the Rangers put up a four spot, the game for all intensive purposes was put away when Hank Blalock hit a three-run homer to right in the 5th to make it 7-0.

The only Indians run came on a wild pitch in the 7th by Milwood that scored Travis Hafner. It was that kind of day.

It’s only one game, but let’s hope things get back to normal after a day off on Tuesday, as the team will throw Fausto Carmona on the mound Wednesday night. Carmona needs to get some early confidence, and let’s hope the Rangers got all their runs out of them today.