And now for the rest of the story

I thought of maybe writing up this post twice. Once in a optimistic, hey look what went well and its still early, format and one in a pessimistic, our starting pitching is killing us and the bullpen has been less than helpful, format. However, having made the trip from our nations capital to Cleveland, I'll make this short, with an optimistic eye to the future.

Wednesday's game saw potential team ace-in-waiting Fausto Carmona take to the mound. Carmona had done well in spring training and much had been made of his improvements. Well, forget about all that because the second inning was once again our starter's undoing. Four runs that inning and a total of five over six innings of work for Carmona. That's the real story here. Tribe lose 8-5.

Today's game was actually worse, kinda. Our cheap third starter Carl Pavano went 1.0 innings of work and gave up nine runs. I'll let that sink in. Really, the offense had five homeruns; Grady had two, Hafner, Martinez, and Francisco each with one. But hardly any amount of offense can make up a deficit like that. Zach Jackson came on to pitch four innings in relief and gave up only two runs. Yes only two. The day did also see the debut of Kerry Wood who struck out the side but gave up a run. How does Andrew Jones, who hit .178 or something last year, get three hits? Anyway, let's move on.

Most importantly, the Indians' rainy day home opener is tomorrow, to be attended by myself, Andy, Nick and Figgs. The road to 159 wins starts tomorrow.

Game 1: Scott Richmond vs Scott Lewis
Game 2: Roy Halladay vs Cliff Lee
Game 3: Somebody vs Anthony Reyes

Last year the Tribe had quite the road record early on: it sucked. Home field can hopefully be something to motivate the team, but really I'm just talking to the pitchers here. A friendlier park and a softer hitting team than the Rangers should be a good change for this team. Baseball is often like pizza (or sex if you prefer) even when its bad its still good. Today I saw Asdrubal stretch a hit into a double and I was pumped. Sure, the team had no way of winning but there are usually small things to be excited about. Hopefully a few things start going the Indians' way and we'll all forget this series with Texas ever happened.

Go Tribe!