Obviously Betancourt was weighing this team down.

If you don't already know the results of this weekend's Cleveland Indians series in Seattle, I hate to ruin it for you upfront, but the Cleveland Indians have now won four in a row. This series the Indians offense scored 9, 10, and 12 runs, while the Mariners mustered a grand total of just six runs, with three runs apiece coming in the last two games of this three game series.

Getting things started for the Indians was Aaron Laffey. Laffey pitched a gem, going 7.0 innings, allowing only three hits and recording a career-high seven strikeouts. Laffey was backed by an Indians offense that only scored one run the first six innings. Both Travis Hafner and Ben Francisco homered in the seventh to give Laffey a relatively safe margin of four runs. Joe Smith and Tony Sipp split the eighth inning two outs to one, respectively, and Rafael Perez pitched a two-strikeout ninth to close the book on the Mariners. Oh and the Indians scored five runs in the top of the ninth too. Indians (39-58) win 9-0.

Saturday's game saw a bench clearing, well it wasn't a brawl really. Everyone just stood around but the benches were cleared nonetheless. Anywho, Jeremy Sowers took the mound for the Indians and the last post I may have referred to him as pretty much just a AAA pitcher. Let's not get too excited about this, but Sowers also went seven innings giving up, wait for it, zero runs. Offensively the Indians spread the runs out a little more this time scoring two, four, two, and two runs starting in the third inning and ending in the sixth. Chris Gimenez, Asdrubal Cabrera, and the hot-hitting Ryan Garko all homered with one guy on. Gimenez also had an awesome catch in right field to take away a home run. As for the fight, I'm not even going to go into details. However I will point out Jose Veras has pretty much sucked since we picked him up. This game's effort saw him give up two runs on three hits before getting out of the ninth. Tribe (40-58) win 10-3.

Today's series finally begins with me saying Cliff Lee started and pretty much ends with Jhonny Peralta hitting a grand slam. That's all you need to know. Sure, Lee gave up two runs in the first but that was it. Did the Indians hit any home runs this series? Yes Grady Sizemore, the aforementioned Mr. Peralta, Hafner, and Francisco all homered bringing the grand total for the weekend to 11. Tribe (41-58) win 12-3.

Make no mistake: the Indians destroyed this Mariners this weekend. Tons of offense, amazing starting pitching were my ridiculously obvious reasons for this series sweep. Laffey's outing was encouraging, Sowers' was more maddening but as always well see him pitch again later, and Lee was his usual self. The offense coming alive was something we haven't seen over a sustained stretch of three games yet this season. Sure, that series against the Yankees in New York was nice but this was different. So what does it mean? Probably very little. The Mariners are still over .500 and this is the same team the Indians lost three out of four in Cleveland just a week ago.

An interesting note is that the Indians will have faced nine straight left-handed starters coming Monday. I hope Garko and Francisco have enjoyed it.

The Indians now head to California to take on the Angels.

Game 1:Carl Pavano, RHP (8-8, 5.48) vs. Joe Saunders, LHP (8-6, 4.94)
Game 2:David Huff, LHP (5-4, 6.39) vs. Jered Weaver, RHP (10-3, 3.57)
Game 3:Aaron Laffey, LHP (4-2, 3.71) vs. John Lackey, RHP (6-4, 4.22)

I like our chances against Saunders tomorrow. Hopefully, the good Carl Pavano shows up. Jered Weaver and John Lackey are two pretty good pitchers. Weaver has been good all year and Lackey is coming off two strong starts. Starting pitching is what has really impressed these last two series and hopefully David Huff and Laffey can keep it going.

Go Tribe!

(AP Photo/John Froschauer)

FCF race season begins!

A picture of Pittsburgh? On a Cleveland sports blog? What's going on here?

Dont worry, there hasn't been a paradigm shift here; Nick and I just did the Pittsburgh Triathlon this Sunday. As an aside, even though I enjoy being here in Cleveland, have no plans to leave, and love the sports teams, Pittsburgh really is a superior to Cleveland in most respects. Trust me, I've lived in both cities, and in most categories (other than teeth per person), they've got us beat right now. But we're making a comeback. And we're still not Detroit.

Both of us opted for the Sprint distance: Nick because it best suits his skills, me because my recently-repaired knee probably can't handle a 10K run too well right now. The results were positive: out of 276 finishers (165 men), Nick placed 12th (overall and among men) and I finished 65th (55th among men). Yeah, I lost to 10 girls, but I have a bum knee, and you didn't do the race at all, so you lost to 111 women. So there. I also notched 14th in the male 30-34 age group, which infuriates me, because I'm fucking 29, not 30. USA Triathlon automatically makes you whatever age you'll be on Dec. 31, which ensures that, on average, half of all race entrants will be listed as a year older than they are. They do it to keep athletes in the same bracket during a calendar year, but what it does for me is bump me up to what turns out to be a harder (and inaccurate) division prematurely. Damn, I thought that after high school, my late birthday wouldn't cost me in athletics anymore.

Anyway, though storms loomed overhead, it was overall a pretty good day for FCF Racing to make their 2009 triathlon debut. The night before was inauspicious; our free lodging plans fell through on us late, but another generous friend and his wife put us up for the night, so things worked out. Somehow, it seems the pizza, beer, and desserts we had the night before weren't ideal pre-race food.

We got up at 4:15 am on raceday, at which point Nick managed to lock himself out of the house. Always something with this kid. We actually got there, set up in the transition area, and ready to go with time to spare, which hasn't been our MO in the past. The three waves of International distance racers hit the water between PNC Park and Heinz Field starting at 6:45, and the under-39 Sprint men hopped in the Allegheny at 7:10. This group included me, Nick, and this hilarious costume Nick was wearing. The swim course was weird; the International people had to swim upstream a bit towards The Roberto Clemente Bridge then head back to the transition area with the current, 1500 m total. The Sprinters only had to do the downstream point-to-point portion, 600 m total. Were we a bit unclear at first on exactly where to go, but it made sense once we got out in the river. The Internationalers leaving first meant a bit of a traffic jam with us, but not too bad. You'd like to have the Sprint group lead off, but they did it this way to minimize the total race time. Fair enough. Nick was 14th out of the water at 9:09; I was 134th at 12:24. Who knew I was such a lousy swimmer?

We hopped on the bicycles for a 20 km ride that was mostly uphill on the way out (up I-279 North) and downhill on the way back. For me, at least, it was also pretty windy and rainy for a good portion of the return, though that passed before I got back to the North Shore. Nick was 22nd in the bike leg at 34:44; I was 35th at 36:38. Much better event for me.

Finally came the run, which I knew was going to be a problem for me because of the knee. Not only did the surgery cut into my training quite a bit, but it's still not fully healed, and running is much more difficult than cycling or swimming. It's a tough deal because running is typically my best event, but now is temporarily my worst discipline. The run went along the Allegheny river - a pretty pleasant course to travel. The only weird thing was how the signs pushed runners to stay to the left. Without elaborating too much: left is not the side runners (and bikers) generally stay on, and they didn't all that much at this race either. Seems maybe next year they could iron out that one. Nick kept up his all-around consistent work on foot, notching 18th in the run with a 21:45 5K. I turned in an embarrassing 152nd at 28:48, the slowest 5K I've ever run in competition, a jaunt that probably cost me 20 spots in the overall rankings. Oh well.

Overall, I really liked the Pittsburgh Triathlon. This was the first year they had a Sprint distance, so you have to expect a few logistical issues with integrating the two courses. Still, the race was really well located and set up; parking was easy, transition areas were numbered, course layout was logical, volunteer staffing was solid, and the post-race spread was excellent. I'll probably head back to the Golden Triangle for this event in 2010. And this time I'll be 30 for real.

Next up for our intrepid triathletes: the Cleveland Triathlon, August 2.

Wait, did we just win a series?

Without me even paying too much attention, the Indians went out and won a series. On the road, even! Against a .500 team! The real surprise was that both wins were one-run games. One was even a come-from-behind victory. Too bad no one is really going to notice.

The Tribe and the Blue Jays opened a three -ame set at the Rogers Center in Toronto Tuesday with our pitching savior Cliff Lee facing off against Brett Cecil (3-1). The Cleveland offense had been asleep for a few games and this game was no different. Luckily for the Tribe, Lee was pitching well. His only big mistake was allowing a solo shot by Scott Rolen, who is having a pretty decent season with a .849 OPS, in the seventh. As far as the Indians offense: all you need to know is what took place in the top of the ninth. Ryan Garko pinch-hit for Kelly Shoppach and proceeded to get an infield single. Yes, Ryan Garko legged out an infield single. Garko is so quick that he was immediately pinch run for by Luis Valbuena. Next up, Grady Sizemore attempted a sac bunt, Toronto first baseman Lyle Overbay threw to second to get Valbuena, but his throw was off and continued into the outfield. Valbuena ended up at third with Grady on second with zero outs. The Blue Jays intentionally walked Asdrubal Cabrera to load the bases, at which point Shin-Soo Choo grounded into a fielders choice that went to home plate for the force out.

At this point in our story, Victor Martinez strides to the plate, having gotten a hit in only 9 of his last 83 at bats. The first pitch is hit foul and the second one is in there for a called strike. Victor is down two strikes and hits a double into left field. Both Sizemore and Cabrera score and we have two on with only one out having taken the lead 2-1. Hafner strikes out swinging, Peralta walks to load the bases again with two outs, and then Ben Francisco grounds into a fielder's choice. Inning over, but what an inning.

So you're Eric Wedge. You have Cliff Lee on the mound with a one-run lead in the ninth. Do you send him back out there, or bring in your $20 million dollar reliever with Toronto hitters Vernon Wells, Rolen, and Overbay, the number three, four, and five hitters coming to the plate? Well, you let Cliff pitch the ninth and he goes one, two, three. Tribe (37-57) win 2-1.

Wednesday's game was less fun, thanks to a seven-run effort by Carl Pavano in 4.2 innings followed by Jose Veras' 1.1 innings which plated three more Blue Jays. Offensively the Indians put up a heroic effort helped by a three-run home run by Valbuena, but it wasn't enough with the Indians first two pitchers spotting the Blue Jays 10 runs. Indians (37-58) lose 6-10.

Thursday's game was exciting too, but I won't go into as much detail. David Huff, who seems to alternate good and bad starts, went 7.2 innings and allowed four runs (which is good I guess). The Blue Jays pitchers, on the other hand only allowed two earned runs. However, thanks to two Toronto errors, the Indians tallied 5 runs and Kerry Wood picked up his 13th save of the season. Tribe (38-58) win 5-4.

The big news this week, besides these amazing victories, was the trade of Rafael Betancourt to the Colorado Rockies. In return the Indians got relief pitching prospect Connor Graham. In every article on Graham I've read it mentions how he is 6-6 235 lbs. Yes, he is a big guy who throws in the low to mid 90's. Control has been an issue which shouldn't be surprising for a guy who has only pitched in high-A ball. The Indians are sending him to AA Akron. The real reason the Indians made this trade was they thought that Betancourt's 2010 option of $5.4 million wasn't looking like it was going to happen and they felt their return was worth more than what they were giving up. Relief pitching prospects are scarce in the Indians system, in case you didn't know. Senor Slo-Mo will be missed.

Word around the internets seems to speculate that neither Lee or Martinez are likely to be moved. The asking price is simply too high for either. The post-steroid era seems to skew performance back to the under 30 crowd, so teams must be considerate of how valuable a cheaper, young, and maybe better player is.

The Indians take on Seattle again this weekend, beginning a six-game West Coast trip. Hopefully the results against Seattle are a little better this time around.

Game 1: Aaron Laffey, LHP (3-2, 4.27) vs. Ryan Rowland-Smith, LHP (0-0, 0.00)
Game 2: Jeremy Sowers, LHP (2-7, 5.77) vs. Erik Bedard, LHP (5-2, 2.70)
Game 3: Cliff Lee, LHP (6-9, 3.17) vs. To be announced

For the record, Ryan Rowland Hyphen Smith is a lefty who has never faced the Indians. I'm leery of any lefty call-up against the Indians based solely on their history against them, despite the fact I know history doesn't mean much of anything. Jeremy Sowers gets another shot to show everyone how he's a AAA pitcher. I don't remember seeing half this many TBA pitchers last year. If the Indians can set some semblance of a rotation I suspect most teams should be able to as well.

Go Tribe!

(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darren Calabrese)

The Downtown report

Checking in from my perch in Downtown Cleveland, trying to stare the leaves into turning colors...

- The sports scene here Downtown is absolutely dead, at least for the moment. The Indians are playing, yes, and the ballpark is as nice as ever, but it's hard to imagine there being any less enthusiasm for the club. As I begin this post, the Wahoos are leading 2-1 in the 9th and my stomach is starting to churn.

- A while back, I ranked the sports months of the year. July placed 11th and August 12th. Fallow times for sports fans.

- I think most people are sort of trying not to think too much about the Indians right now, keeping loose tabs in case they go crazy and win two games in a row or something. In the meantime, there's sort of a cautious underbubbling of excitement for the upcoming Browns and Cavaliers campaigns.

- In the case of the Browns, it's not so much that anyone (except, maybe, Nick) thinks they're going to be anything but lousy, but more that damnit, we like professional football. I, personally, am of the mindset that the Football Gods can't beat me. 10 years of terrible football, and I'm ready as ever to break out the beers, jerseys, and game-day text messages in 2009. Bring it on.

- The Buckeyes, on the other hand, should be pretty solid this year. I think Figgs touched on this earlier, but their season looks, on paper, pretty easy to map out: lose at home to USC and on the road to Penn State, take down everyone else and beat the tar out of michigan, and maybe score a BCS berth. You know what? I'd take it.

- Expectations for the Cavs this year will be the highest they've been since...um, last year. Even more so in 2009-10, though, you get the feeling they're going for broke this season. LeBron's final year of this deal, Shaq - anything less than a title is a disappointment, and that's all there is to it. Incidentally, I love the Jamario Moon signing (provided Miami doesn't match the offer sheet). Not just because I like his package of skills, but because I saw him play as a member of the Albany Patroons when I was a resident of the Capital District. He was a fan favorite then ("Mooooon!") and I was happy to see him finally break through in the NBA. Now he's got a chance to get himself some fancy jewelry.

- Triathlon season kicks off for Nick and I this weekend in Pittsburgh, PA. 10 weeks off my knee surgery, I'm still not running too fast, so my times are going to be pretty pedestrian this year. Some days I still can't run at all; let's hope this Sunday isn't one of those. We'll also be participating in the Cleveland Triathlon the following Sunday, August 2.

- Hated listening to the TV broadcast booth this past weekend, for a number of reasons. First of all, can we stop lionizing Ichiro Suzuki because he gets a lot of infield hits? They're not any better than walks. Second, can we stop pretending that pitching and defense are somehow "old school"? Yes, teams are scoring less now than in the home run era, and runs were hard to come by back in the day, but teams always needed strong pitching and defensive play to win. This annoys me.

- 2-1 Tribe. Winning gives me a chill even when it pulls us to within 13 games of first. There will be other seasons.

So what happens now?

As a quick crib, Terry Pluto had an article yesterday 13 thoughts on what should happen in the Cleveland Indians' second half of the season I suggest you check out. My feelings mirror much of Mr. Pluto's, so: what are those?

- Trading Carl Pavano is a no-brainer. Actually it would probably be stupid not to. Re-signing him is pretty much out of the question, since the Indians' payroll next year shouldn't be expected to grow, since the weather's lousy, downtown is a pit, the stadium's falling apart, and we can't draw dick. Well the stadium isn't falling apart but that drawing dick part is true and isn't helping things.

- Actually trade everyone you can not named Sizemore, Cabrera, Martinez, and Choo.

- Victor Martinez is someone I don't want to see traded because he seriously signed a below-market deal to stay an Indian.

- Cliff Lee is the only pitcher we have that is even close to reliable. However, if the braintrust who put this year's contender together thinks the return is worth it, I really won't shed too many tears over losing a pitcher I've been a fan for a long time.

- No one is taking Hafner or his contract, so I guess he's going to be an Indian for a few more seasons.

- I'm not sure what we are doing with the bullpen so I'm not even going to mention it.

- Where is Matt LaPorta anyway?

- If Wedge is done this year, can we get Bobby Valentine back from Japan?

The Indians return to action tomorrow with a four-game series against the Mariners. The following are your expected starters:

Game 1: Garrett Olson, LHP (3-2, 4.42) vs. Cliff Lee, LHP (4-9, 3.47)
Game 2: Felix Hernandez, RHP (9-3, 2.53) vs. Tomo Ohka, RHP (0-3, 6.40)
Game 3: Jarrod Washburn, LHP (6-6, 2.96) vs. David Huff, LHP (4-3, 6.71)
Game 4: Erik Bedard, LHP (5-2, 2.63) vs. Aaron Laffey, LHP (3-2, 4.24)

Back in the day when Canton had a Frontier League team they had guaranteed wins, where if you brought a ticket from a loss you could get into another game. Well, Tomo Ohka's starts are looking more like guaranteed losses. Last series he was teamed up against Detroit's All-Star Indian killer Justin Verlander and now he draws Felix Hernandez. Prove me wrong Tomo, prove me wrong! Otherwise, the absence of Pavano is the obvious factor here. Pavano shouldn't be in an Indians uniform for too much longer.

Marge: What makes you think this Darryl Strawberry character is better than you?
Homer: Marge, forget it. He's bigger than me, faster than me, stronger than me, and he already has more friends around the plant than I do.
Bart: You make me sick, Homer. You're the one who told me I could do anything if I just put my mind to it!
Homer: Well, now that you're a little bit older, I can tell you that's a crock! No matter how good you are at something, there's always about a million people better than you.
Bart: Gotcha. Can't win, don't try.

Go Tribe!

(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Nice - three straight days without the Indians

I looked, but I wasn't able to find the crying Chief Wahoo graphic.

Needless to say, this first half has been almost impossibly bad. Consider that all four of the FCF writers picked the Indians to take the division, and here they instead sit at 35-54, 14 games out of first and dead last in the American League. Granted, we're all homers, but there was some general optimism nationwide about the Tribe headed into this campaign, enough that it was at least reasonable to pick them to win the Central. It's hard to imagine a team underperforming expectations any more than this year's Indians.

For comparison, consider that I started watching baseball in 1986, before several of this site's authors were even born. The Indians went .519 that year yet somehow finished 5th of 7 teams in the Al East. They spent 17 years in a 7-team division, of which 1986 was the 10th. Here's where they placed:

7th: 4
6th: 9
5th: 2
4th: 2
3rd: 0
2nd: 0
1st: 0

That's horrible. They were so bad that they made an awesome movie about how futile the franchise was. They were a blight. Why am I bringing this up?

Because the 2009 Indians are still the worst Cleveland baseball team I've ever seen. They are horrible. There is nothing good about them except, possibly Shin-Soo Choo. They're completely unlikable, they're starting to turn on each other and the management, they're constantly inventing ways to lose (6 games behind their 3rd-order Pythagorean prediction), and I've already been to three rain-delayed games. This sucks. It's been a long time since I had to look this far forward to the Browns posting their annual complement of 5 wins.

But, hey, we get three days off, and we can use them to make a cursory look into the numbers to see why they're so bad, even though we pretty much already know.

Batting
We've slipped to 5th in runs scored, which is still respectable, especially for a club with a team OPS+ of just 98. Very little has changed since we last looked at the data. We have two and a half good batters:
- Choo (OPS+ 129, OBP .403)
- Victor Martinez (OPS+ 121, team-leading 14 home runs)
- Travis Hafner (OPS+ 142, but only has played in 41 games)

That's it. Ryan Garko is a bit above average but not really when you consider where he plays in the field, and we wisely dealt a consistent performer in Mark DeRosa before he got hurt. Grady Sizemore is up to 99, but an on-base of .324 is not nearly good enough for him. I can't even talk about the rest of the team's batting - it's too annoying. We don't even put up good at-bats anymore. Speaking of which, am I the only person who's noticed that Rick Manning and Matt Underwood only call an at-bat a "good at-bat" if it involves more than 6 pitches and ends in a walk? Not only that, but they excitedly label every such plate appearance as a "good at-bat"? And that, as I just realized, a walk is in fact not an at-bat at all? And that this is a bad baseball team?

Pitching
Our second half rotation will be: Cliff Lee, Tomo Ohka, David Huff, Jeremy Sowers, and like one start from Carl Pavano. Is there any point in continuing this article?

A couple of subpar outings have dropped Cliff Lee to a still-easily-team-leading 129 in the ERA+ metric among starting pitchers. Rafael Betancourt and Matt Herges have been OK out of the pen, and Tony Sipp has been valuable (ERA+ 162). Everyone else is a total nightmare except the oft-injured Aaron Laffey. Our fire starters, other than Lee, with the most starts, have an average ERA+ of 72. Seventy-two. The bullpen isn't much better, because even with Lee, the team ERA+ is a putrid 83+. This isn't my computer and I don't want to ruin the keyboard, so I'm going to stop now.


Go Tribe, I guess.

They were who we thought they were.

The Tribe played a three-game series against the very much still in first place in the AL Central Detroit Tigers in that expanse of a ballpark they call Comerica. Were there some highlights? Sure - this is baseball - but mostly it was pretty much the same results we've come to expect from these Indians over the last couple of months.

Friday's series opener saw Edwin Jackson and Cliff Lee taking the mound for their respective teams. While Lee went seven innings and gave up three runs on five hits Jackson's line of seven innings one run on four hits was better. Cliff Lee got no run support and that pretty much says it all. That single run is thanks to Ryan Garko (starting in the huge right field in Detroit) hitting a solo shot in the fifth. Garko in the outfield meant Kelly Shoppach and his .194 average was behind the plate. Having to squeeze Victor Martinez, Shoppach, Garko and Travis Hafner into a lineup is not a part of Eric Wedge's job that I envy. Tribe lose (34-53) 1-5.

Saturday's game was the first STO game I've seen this year thanks to a free MLB.TV preview. I missed the first few frames due to a phone call but I saw what I suspect were the important Cleveland Indians parts. It was Negro League night before a sold out crowd in Detroit, so the Detriot Stars were taking on the Cleveland Buckeyes. Carl Pavano had a really good game for the Buckeyes. He got a first pitch strike on 90% of the Stars batters he faced. That and eight innings of work and Pavano was everything a team playing this bad could ask for. The Buckeyes didn't have a home run, but did hit four doubles and a triple by Grady Sizemore. OK, one of those doubles was stretched into a triple and Luis Valbuena was called out because the umpire couldn't see that a tag was never applied, but that's the way it goes I guess. The play that put the Buckeyes up for good was a two RBI single Hafner blooped into left field that Ryan Raburn had in his glove but couldn't hold on to on a dive. After that Pavano cruised. Kerry Wood, who is our closer and all, was called on to pitch the ninth. Wood walked Placido Polanco on four straight fastballs and after falling behind Miguel Cabrera 1-2 he gave up a two-run homer, making it a one-run game. After that, Wood settled down and got two flyouts and an infield ground out. Kerry Wood's outing aside, this was a nice game. The picture for this article is of an Adam Everett bunt that Peralta fielded barehanded and threw a strike to Garko at first. It was a impressive play. Other than that some guy named Clete Thomas is platooning with Magglio Ordonez in right field. Really Clete? Buckeyes (35-53) win 5-4.

Sunday's match-up was All-Star Justin Verlander against Tomo Ohka. Guess how this one turned out? I'll make this short. Ohka goes 3.2 allowing five, followed by Mike Gosling's 1.1 and three runs, followed by Winston Abreu's 1.0 and two runs, Chris Perez and Rafeal Betancourt finish off the final two bottom frames with scoreless innings. The Indians lone run came in the ninth. Jhonny Peralta walks, Valbuena hits a double, Ben Francisco walks to load the bases and then Jamey Carroll walks. Take that, shutout! Tribe (35-54) lose 10-1.

The good news is we have the All-Star game to thank for a break in this mess of an Indians season. Tomorrow is the sometimes way-too-long Home Run Derby, followed by the game Tuesday and an off day Wednesday, and we don't have to see this team take the field again until Thursday against the Mariners. With Pavano's excellent eight-inning effort on Saturday, his future is almost guaranteed to be with another team come the July 31st trade deadline. So expect to see a lot more of Ohka and Jeremy Sowers since they might not be going anywhere soon.

(AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Pretty much sums it up

Tribe manager Eric Wedge after Saturday's game:

"That was one of our best all-around games this year. It was great to see us playing good baseball."

This, following a 5-4 win. A one-run win was one of the Tribe's best all-around games on the year. Wow.

And the Tribe played on.

I'm going to say that we've hit an all-new low in Indians interest here but they keep playing them so I occasionally listen to them, at least for a few innings.

Game one was a typical Jeremy Sowers start - he was doing OK for a few innings only to see it fall apart after the fourth. Jeremy's customary 5.1 innings resulted in four earned runs on five hits. Newly-acquired Chris Perez pitched the rest of the sixth inning, which resulted in two more earned runs and his second blown save. Yes, he already has two blown saves with us. Chris you're fitting in just fine. Fellow newcomer Winston Abreu did his best to fit into our bullpen scheme by getting one out and surrendering four runs on three hits. I once named a cow Winston, after Sir Winston Churchill. Somehow everyone's favorite back-end reliever Tomo Ohka pitched the remaining 1.2 innings and didn't allow a hit. Offensively, Grady Sizemore did hit two home runs, netting a whole three runs batted in. Shin-Soo Choo and Travis Hafner both had two hits each. If you've added up all the runs given up by Indians pitching you might see where this is going, Indians (33-51) lose 6-10.

Thursday saw the return of Aaron Laffey to the Indians starting rotation. While his rehab starts from the oblique injury were less than spectacular, he is back after missing the required minimum six weeks the oblique injury seems to require. Unfortunately for Laffey and the Tribe they were facing Jose Contreras who has been lights out since being sent down to AAA and recalled. Maybe the White Sox threatened to send him to back to Cuba because Contreras had the Indians swing and missing on his way to striking out nine Indians in 6.1 innings of work. Laffey did OK but maybe six weeks off and some bullpen work hadn't done him any real favors as demonstrated by his 6.0 innings and four runs on seven hits. Actually, four runs in six is above average for this staff, so I guess Laffey did fine. Jhonny Peralta hit and scored the only Indians run with a solo shot off Contreras in the seventh. Other than that the only other highlight was Chris Perez pitching a scoreless and hitless eighth. Indians (33-52) lose 1-5.

Today's day game was intermittently listened to through the flimsiest-constructed free Chinese-made headphones you can find in Mexico. About halfway through the game the right speaker goes out and listening to the game becomes almost unbearable, but not for the usual reasons. Kelly Shoppach had one hit, a grand slam, and two walks and two strike outs. What are the three true outcomes again? Ryan Garko added four hits and Peralta chipped in three and Choo struck out three times going hitless. Pitching wise this wasn't a game to remember. Three of the six pitchers used by the White Sox combined for ten walks. Chicago reliever D.J. Carrasco accounted for five in 1.2 innings alone. On the other side of the coin, David Huff (pictured above since I wasn't even sure what he looked like) gave up a massive eight runs on eleven hits in 4.1 innings. However, the Indians' bullpen some how, some way, (keeps coming up with funky ass shit like every single day) pitched 4.2 innings of shutout ball. The headline was that Kerry Wood pitched his first ever 1.0+ inning save going 1.1 innings. Betancourt pitched a scoreless inning and it was nice to see him back. The Tribe (34-52) was ahead all day and needed every single run to win 10-8.

Well I'm beyond the point of saying stuff like, Garko shouldn't be in the outfield (he had a few hits today and a clutch RBI) and Sowers should be pitching out of the bullpen. What I will say is when our radios announcers spend a good deal of time talking about the Twins and the White Sox playing a series this weekend you get the sense that this season is over for those only interested in competitive baseball.

The Indians head to Detroit for a series against the Tigers who lead this AL Central by 2.5 games...but not over the Tribe.

Game 1: Cliff Lee, LHP (4-8, 3.45) vs. Edwin Jackson, RHP (6-4, 2.59)
Game 2: Carl Pavano, RHP (7-7, 5.36) vs. Armando Galarraga, RHP (5-7, 5.03)
Game 3: Tomo Ohka, RHP (0-2, 5.65) vs. Justin Verlander, RHP (9-4, 3.59)

Wait Ohka? Didn't he pitch in relief Tuesday? Yes, Carmona isn't ready and so To-mo Oh-ka (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap) is taking the mound. The Cliff Lee / Edwin Jackson matchup is obviously the pitching centerpiece of this series.

Go Tribe!

(AP Photo/David Banks)

Coupla serieses

Having visited with my esteemed colleague John Hawkins this weekend, I'm fully aware of how pressed he is for time. Thus, I'm bringing you short recaps of the two three-game series played this past week in Progressive Field.


Chicago White Socks
Wow, this series sucked. Uneven weather and a totally lifeless, hapless Tribe club made me realize on Tuesday night just what a bad product the organization is putting on the field right now. The value of a night or day spent at the ballpark has rarely been lower than it is now. How's that for an intro?

I was fortunate enough to be seeing No Doubt instead of Game 1 of the series, a 6-3 loss to the Socks. Carl Pavano turned in a strong start, yielding just 2 runs over 7 innings; unfortunately, the punchless Tribe offense was kept off the board by White Sock starter Gavin Floyd. Newly-acquired reliever Chris Perez came on in the 9th to try to keep it at 2-0, and, in a rather transparent effort to "fit in" with the bullpen and be regarded as "one of the guys," walked a guy, hit a guy, and gave up 4 runs while recording just 2 outs. Welcome to the worst bullpen ever, Chris!

The Indians actually managed a bit of a rally in their half of the 9th, cutting it to 6-3 on a solo shot by Shin-Soo Choo and a two-run job from Ryan Garko, but they would get no closer. Two of the runs were charged to Matt Thornton, who was still awarded a "Hold," the dumbest stat in the land. Tribe manager Eric Wedge was ejected for arguing (incorrectly) that a squibber hit by Ryan Garko should have been called foul. Blah.


Game 2 of the series was even worse, as the Tribe parlayed a rare bad outing from staff ace Cliff Lee into a rain-shortened 11-4 loss. Lee gave up 4 in the 1st, which reminded me of the part in Airplane! where Robert Stack is telling everyone in the control tower how they need to build up Ted Stryker's confidence and then after the first thing Stryker tells him he freaks out, starts swearing, and declares it hopeless. If we can't even depend on Lee, then things are worse than we suspected.

Not much to say here. Lee was the real story, smacked around for 7 runs in just 3 innings. Lest fans might worry that his outing might have interfered with another horrible bullpen outing, Mike Gosling allayed any such fears by yielding 4 runs in 2 2/3 innings to bring Chicago's total to 11 runs. The Wahoos touched Clayton Richard for 4 runs in 6 innings on a Travis Hafner solo home run and a three-run double by Asdrubal Cabrera, but it was far too little for the home team.


Game 3 was what they mean when they talk about a team "mailing it in." The Tribe lost 6-2 in a game where it never seemed like they had any interest in playing. Jeremy Sowers took the loss, giving up 5 runs in 6 innings while the bulllpen actually kept the Socks to just one more over the final three frames. Jose Contreras stymied Tribe bats all night, giving up just 2 runs on 5 hits over 8 innings to earn the W. That guy kills us.

The key to this game was Sowers; more specifically, him once again being left in the game too long. I rarely fault managers for losing games and prefer to seek out the logic behind their decisions; this one, however, is largely on Wedge. YOU CAN'T LEAVE SOWERS IN TO FACE A LINEUP A THIRD TIME!!! It's logically incoherent to play all the percentages with lefty/righty matchups and lineup construction, and then ignore the fact that Sowers' batting average allowed numbers look like this (approximate):

1st time through: .220
2nd time through: .256
3rd time through: 2.567

This guy gets killed the third time through, over and over again, and we don't make an adjustment. I know our bullpen isn't strong, but this is flatly unacceptable. An organization that puts such an emphasis on research and data analysis should not tolerate ignoring this fairly obvious and well-established trend.

The sweep at the hands of Chicago left the Indians at a season-worst 31-49. But hey, off-day! Not only did I not have to watch the Indians lose, but no Tomo Ohka start! I very nearly titled this article "Looking Forward to Off-Days," and would have had they not played a little better against Oakland.

Oakland Athletics
The A's came to town over the Independence Day weekend, and the Erie Warriors fared significantly better. Game 1 was the Shin-Soo Choo show, as the Cleveland right fielder had a carrer night by going 4-5 with 2 home runs and 7 runs batted in to lead the Tribe to a 15-3 rout over Oakland. David Huff got the win with a Bare Minimum Quality Start (6 IP, 3 ER), and the Indians' bullpen shut down Oakland for three innings when it didn't really matter.

The Tribe hitters just battered the A's staff, notching runs against the first 5 pitchers that faced them. Though Choo was the undoubted star, other Tribesmen chipped in as well: Cabrera had 2 hits and drove in three runs; Grady Sizemore reached base 5 times and scored thrice; and Ben Francisco reached base four times (3-4 and a walk) and rounded the bases all four times.


Game 2 was a surprisingly well-played affair that saw the Indians claim a 5-2 victory. Pavano delivered his second good outing of the week, yielding just 2 runs over 6 2/3 innings for his 7th win on the year. Relievers Tony Sipp, Joe Smith, and Kerry Wood allowed just one baserunner for the next 2 2/3, and Wood even did this bizarre thing where he simply got out three opponent batters in a row and the game ended. I kinda liked the new approach. Trailing 1-0, Cleveland struck for three in the 3rd on a Luis Valbuena RBI single and a two-run shot from the suddenly-hot Ben Francisco. Grady Sizemore plated the final two Tribe tallies with a solo home run in the 6th and an RBI groundout the following inning. This is the kind of games this team was supposed to be winning all year, but the bullpen so often turned them into 9-5 losses.


Game 3 was basically the same thing as Game 2, only it was the A's taking home a 5-2 victory. Oakland starter Gio Gonzalez played the Pavano role, yielding only 2 runs through six innings. The only Indians markers came on a two-out RBI double from Sizemore to score Jamey Carroll and a solo home run from Jhonny Peralta. The A's never put together a big rally against Tribe starter Cliff Lee (another BMQS of 6 IP, 3 ER), but were consistent throughout the afternoon, adding a single run to their total in each of 5 different innings, including insurance markers in the 8th and 9th. In avoiding the sweep, the A's dropped the Tribe's mark to 33-50.


So, another week remains before the All-Star Break in this so-far disastrous season for our club. If I'm available, I'll post some first-half thoughts; in the meantime, congratulations to Victor Martinez on his selection to the American League All-Star team. It's too bad we never score any runs for Lee, or he might be headed to St. Louis as well. Choo also deserves a mention, as his .407 OBP puts him 3rd in the AL behind Boston's Kevin Youkilis and Minnesota's Joe Mauer, who's reaching at a remarkable .464 clip. Anyway, there's time for that later; here's the lefty-loaded rotation with which we'll be exacting revenge from the White Socks in their park this week:

Tuesday: Sowers, L, (2-6, 5.68) vs Buehrle, L, (8-2, 3.09)
Wednesday: Laffey, L, (3-1, 3.93, welcome back!) vs Contreras, R, (3-7, 4.84)
Tuesday: Huff, L, (4-3, 6.06) vs Richard, L, (3-1, 4.42)

Go Tribe!