Indians Confidential

While it’s just 9 games into the season, the highlight of the 2009 season clearly took place on Thursday afternoon at the new stadium of the New York Yankees, as the Tribe laid a beating on the Yankees, winning 10-2. The game was hailed as not only the opening of the new stadium, but also a matchup of the last two Cy Young award winners – C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee.

Both former teammates went at it tooth and nail, and in the end, it was Lee shining. He went six innings, allowing just one run on seven hits. He was much more in control than his first two starts, and seemed to pick up where he left off when he was able to rebound late last Saturday against the Blue Jays.

As for the offense, the hero was Grady Sizemore, who had a shot earlier in the game to break it open with the bases loaded and two outs tied at one, only to fly out. It was two innings later when Grady came up again with the bases loaded, and this time he delivered, slamming a grand slam to make a 5-1 game into a blowout at 9-1.

“To come in here and do what we did is something we’ll always remember,” Sizemore said.

Sabathia looked weird in pinstripes as far as I was concerned. The Tribe did a great job making him throw pitches, as by the time he left the game after 5.2 innings, he had thrown a whopping 122 pitches, the most in a game by a Yankee since Randy Johnson’s 129 on July 19, 2006.

He gave up five hits and one run, but walked five and struck out four. On this day, it was Lee who pitched better, and the Indians bullpen (Rafel Perez and Rafel Betancourt) actually did their job, allowing just one run between them in three innings and two hits with five walks and two strikeouts while the offense did their damage.

The Indians wrapped up their best day of the young season with 10 runs, 13 hits, five doubles and two homers. They made the expensive Yankees look like wannabe’s which is exactly what they are in the AL East – a third or fourth place team that is way overrated.

The win puts the Indians at 3-7 on the year, their first two-game winning streak of the 2009 season. The Yankees fall to 5-5. With three more games to go this weekend vs the Yankees, this is a great shot for the team to turn their early rocky start to the 09 season around.

So far, so good.

From watching the first 8 games of the 2009 Cleveland Indians season, the following statement had better be heard by those inside the organization – it’s time to panic. The numbers of a 1-7 start do not lie. The pitching has been bad, the offense sometimes worse, and there appears to be no end in sight to the losing. The team is trying to calm the nerves of the fans and media saying that it’s early, but if this crap doesn’t stop soon, this team will have nothing to play for by May 1st.

Mark it down.

Tuesday night the team was once again outplayed by the Kansas City Royals, as John Buck used Indians pitching as batting practice with a pair of homers, the second a grand slam in the 8th, as the Royals topped the Indians 9-3. Not that it really mattered, as the Indians once again swung and missed way too many times on the night, striking out 11 times (10 is their average in the first 8 games).

The team did make it interesting early, as after the Royals got two off of Carl Pavano, who did look much better in his second start, the Tribe rallied for a pair of runs in the 5th to make it a 2-2 game. Asdrubal Cabrera singled in a run, and Mark DeRosa singled to short to get the other run home.

After the Royals struck right back on the first batter in the bottom of the 5th (Buck’s first homer), and then scored another run off of Pavano to make it 4-2, the Indians tried to rally in the 6th. They drove a run home on a Jhonny Peralta single that brought in Victor Martinez to make it 4-3. That’s as close as they would get.

In the 8th, Martinez singled, then Josh Barfield pinch ran, only to have the inning end with a strikeout on Peralta and a throw out at second of Barfield. That’s when the wheels came totally off. The Royals started the 8th with a David DeJesus triple, a walk, a single to score a run, then another walk to load the bases. This was all while Rafel Perez was throwing.

Enter Vinnie Chulk, and one long Buck homer later to bring in four more runs, the final nail in the Tribe’s coffin was clearly driven in. Perez now has an ERA of 18.00, while Chulk sits with an ERA of 6.00. Ugh.

So the team has now lost all three series’ that they have played in so far. Pavano was about the only bright spot, 6 innings, four runs, 8 hits with no walks and 8 strikeouts. It’s all for not. They are still not getting clutch hits, striking out way too much, and Perez has given up 10 runs in 5 innings.

It’s hard to think of how this is going to turn around. It’s only 8 games, but boy oh boy, this team clearly looks like they could be back in Cleveland after tomorrow’s last game with the Royals and four with the Yankees with a mark of 1-12. I can’t wait to see Progressive Field on the first night back of that homestand should they be that bad. Some heads better roll…and fast.

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.

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.

DANA POINT, Calif. — Mark Shapiro and Chris Antonetti have been thinking about it for a while.

Are the Indians a better team with Kelly Shoppach catching and Victor Martinez playing first base or are they better if they trade Shoppach to fill a need and keep Martinez behind the plate?

The Indians feel they have enough depth if they have to trade a catcher for an infielder or closer. They have Chris Giminez, Wyatt Toregas and Carlos Santana, the man who has done nothing but hit since being acquired from the Dodgers for Casey Blake, behind Martinez and Shoppach.

On some days, the Tribe’s general manager feels his best lineup would be Shoppach catching and the versatile Martinez playing first. Then Shapiro thinks about a bullpen without an established closer and an infield one player short.

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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.

CLEVELAND, OH — The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has activated CA VICTOR MARTINEZ from the 15-day disabled list. To allow room for Martinez on the roster the Indians designated INF ANDY GONZALEZ for assignment.

Martinez has been on the disabled list since June 12 and underwent surgery on his right elbow the following day. He began a 20-day rehab assignment on August 15 and appeared in 8 games at AA Akron and AAA Buffalo (.308, 8-26, HR, 3RBI) before today’s activation. Martinez hit .278 (55-198) with 11 doubles & 21 RBI in 54 games (.333SLG, .332 on-base) prior to going on the DL in June. It marked his second career stint on the Major League DL, his first since the 2003 season.

Gonzalez has been with the Indians since July 26 and appeared in 10 games (5-24, .208)

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.