Tigers @ Indians 5/31/07

I have a list of my top five least favorite baseball players. Gary Sheffield is on that list. So tonight was pretty enjoyable.

It's always nice to score extra runs on Jose Mesa.

I'm beginning to run out of ways to talk about how amazing our offense is. Suffice to say, we're starting to hit our stride. After tonight, 7 of the 9 guys in our line-up are hitting over .270 (8 of 9 when Michaels is in). June should be interesting.

And what about Perez? He looked pretty good. Here's hoping they give him a chance in the bullpen. Then again, they'll probably send him down again; we don't want him eating any innings we could give to Hernandez, of course. *sigh*

And how 'bout them Cavs?? Not for nothing, but every time the Indians beat Detroit, the Cavs beat Detroit. Fingers crossed for Saturday.

1-3

I know we're all watching it, but in case you don't know the specifics:

C.C., Fausto, and Byrd are a combined 19-3 with a combined average ERA of 3.33.

I think we probably just faced the only better 1-3 in baseball.

Indians at Red Sox, 5/30/07

That ump MUST have a problem with us. While Barfield was completely caught, from what I understand you actually have to TAG the guy to get him out.

But thank you, Grady. That was a big pick me up.

Let's hope we can hang on; it would be nice to go into the big weekend series with a win.

UPDATE: Top of the 8th

I will give grief to Cabrera and Hernandez all day long, but you have to love the guys we CAN depend on in our bullpen. Mastny was brilliant and Fultz was absolutely FEARLESS against Ortiz. I'd be really happy with our bullpen if we could find another lefty (to be our situational guy so Fultz can come in more regularly) and another end of the game guy (to give Borowski time off) and I'd be pretty happy. As my friend Matt suggested, I bet you Brad Lidge will be available at mid-season...

Pronk seems to be recovering from his slump, which is a good sign for the weekend. He also knocked in another run, which we'll probably need as Hernandez is warming up in the bullpen.

UPDATE: Bottom of the 8th

What did I say? WHAT DID I SAY? It's now 8-4. I really do feel bad for the other late inning guys in the bullpen. Every time they think they're going to get a chance to relax. Hernandez comes in and makes it interesting.

More Ray Chapman

I was on a plane during the game tonight. I take the fact that they lost as a sign that I can't miss any games. Fortunately, the Tigers lost as well, so that means I'll still be speaking to my friend the Red Sox fan at work tomorrow.

Honestly, though, my dreams of the Indians winning the World Series are going to be challenged by the Red Sox -- that there is a hell of a team.

BUT, never let it be said that I take a vacation from Ray Chapman's Revenge. On the plane ride back to L.A., I finished a fantastic book by Mike Sowell called "The Pitch That Killed," the story of Ray Chapman, Carl Mays, and the 1920 pennant race.

The Cleveland Indians won the World Series in 1920 (after winning a tight penant race against the New York Yankees and the defending world champion Chicago White Sox). But as with any sucess for a Cleveland sports team, it was bittersweet. Why?

Well, there was the shadow of the 1919 Black Sox scandal, which starting come out during the 1920 post-season.

But more importantly, the championship was overshadowed by the death of Ray Chapman, starting short stop for the Cleveland Indians, and the only man to die playing baseball.

Chapman was hit in the head by a pitch from Carl Mays, star pitcher for the New York Yankees. The pitch fractured his skull. He died early the next morning.

Chapman, Mays, and the 1920 Indians are fascinating characters. I can't recommend the book enough, even for those who don't have a blog named after a deceased ball player. It's just really interesting stuff.

More on this another time, I'm sure and at the very least on September 3rd -- Ray Chapman Day in Cleveland.

Cleveland Sports-apalooza

An unexpected perk of this trip back to Ohio is that tonight (in Kent), I was able to watch the Indians/Tigers game (and the Cavs/Pistons game) at a bar with fellow fans. It was a pretty heady night for Cleveland fans and it was awesome to watch it with a bunch of like-minded folks. An old man with a beard suggested buying lottery tickets with our good luck.

To me, the epitome of this team came at the beginning of the game, when Ryan Garko made a diving stop at first and tossed it to Fausto for the out. Fausto gave Garko the fist on fist salute, and Barfield came over and tapped him with his glove. All three were smiling and clearly having a great time. It was just one of those moments when you realize what a great bunch of guys we have on this team. How could we NOT support them?

The sweep was nice, but let's not forget that we've just passed the first part of our big road trip. We head into Boston with the back end of our rotation, facing a team that looks unstoppable.

Should be fun.

Series Win!

It's creeping up on 3 AM Ohio time and I will fully admit that I missed most of this afternoon's game due to wedding.

So, congrats to old school RCR reader Brett and his new wife Katie on their wedding -- a kick ass affair it was, as indicated by the time of this entry.

That said, of COURSE Delucci would hit a two run homer today after I basically wondered aloud last night why Michaels isn't the every day guy in left. The baseball gods have to remind me why I'm not a manager every once in a while.

Another dominating performance by C.C. It's not that he's always on, but the man just has a talent for getting outs when he needs them. It's unreal.

V-Mart seems to be in the HR zone as of late.

And let's not forget our duel lead off men in Sizemore and Peralta. JP was up a lot at the beginning of the inning and he always seemed to do something good. Grady was 1 for 2 and Jhonny was 2 for 4. Hitting .500 against the Tigers is no small feat.

Across the board our averages continue to go up. Imagine what we'll be like when we peak!

Tomorrow we go for the sweep behind a fella named Fausto Carmona. I like our chances.

First!

I missed most of the game tonight, but listened to the last few innings on the drive back from Athens. Yes, I'm in Ohio. I'm spending the weekend in Columbus for a wedding and tortured the RCR Significant Other with a trip to my alma mater, Ohio University. And then I further tortured her by listening to the game on the way back.

Who doesn't love Casey Blake?

Just last night I mentioned to my dad (we were at my parents' house last night) that Jason Michaels must be wondering what he has to do to play every day. The man has definitely earned a shot at it, given tonight's catch (and Michaels' much higher AVG. over Delucci).

We've got our three best pitchers going in this series, which is nice, but the series against the Red Sox could be scary (particulary since they'll have their 1-3 going, although we've always done well against Beckett).

Oh, and I'd be remiss in not mentioning Barfield's homerun. I know that it's early yet, but if this is the "adjusted to the AL" Barfield we're seeing then he's insane. Best trade we've made since we sent Bartolo to Montreal.

Pitchers

I think it was clear to however watched the Mariners game on Monday that C.C. did not have his best stuff. He got a no decision, but he kept the Tribe in the game.

I think it was clear to however watched last night's game that Fausto did not have his best stuff. He also got a no decision, but he kept the Tribe in the game.

I think it's clear to everyone watching the game right now that Cliff Lee does not have his best stuff. Unfortunately, he is doing absolutely nothing to keep the Tribe in the game.

If it were simply his pitching, that would be one thing. But the first two runs they scored were gifts due to an extra out because Lee didn't even cover first base!

I have faith in our offense.

But, still, did anyone imagine there'd be a chance we'd be looking to Sowers to prevent being swept by the Royals?

I know there are a lot of games in the season. But this is the AL Central. We can't have our offense shut down one day and our pitching shut down the next, then hand the ball to a starter who's ERA is over seven.

In other words, I think it's Miller time.

Mariners @ Indians, 5/21/07

A few questions:

So what is it going to take for people with influence to start talking about the fact that Roberto Hernandez is bad?

When did Barfield become Mr. Clutch?

What do you think Mike Hargrove thinks when he sees Jacobs Field more empty than full?

Does the resurgence of Casey Blake have less to do with playing 3rd every day and more to do with his beard?

Is it a conspiracy that when Victor Martinez shows throwing prowess by throwing behind a guy at first the STO camera operators miss it?

Is anyone else worried about the upcoming series in Kansas City, since the Indians seem to always have trouble against teams they're supposed to beat?

Calm Before the Storm

I'd forgotten that Miller's next start in Buffalo has been pushed back a few days due to a minor finger injury. In an odd coincidence, he'll now be on the same cycle as Sowers...

I'm not Wedge or Shapiro, but I would think that the upcoming series against Kansas City (not to look past tomorrow's game against the Mariners or anything) should make or break both Sowers and Cabrera. I would expect to see Cabrera once or twice as Kansas City IS the worst team in baseball at the moment (by record, at least, which is a bit unfair as they're in the best division in baseball).

But I think decisions need to be made after that. Because once we leave Kansas City, we get Detroit, Boston, and Detroit again -- ten games against two of the top three teams in the AL, ten games against a team we're going to have to fight to win the division and a team we're going to have to go through to win the AL.

We've got some heavy lifting coming up.

Miller Time

Well, I think it's time. I honestly don't know what's wrong with Sowers, but he needs to figure it out in Buffalo. We can't afford to carry a starter who's ERA is over 7!

Cliff has been shakey, but decent. Byrd has been really good. And we all know that C.C. and Fausto have been dominant. So I don't think we'll be hurting ourselves if we give Miller a shot. We might be complicating things come the middle of June, but I think we should just make the move before we do any more damage to Sowers' psyche.

Even better, if he can step into Sowers' spot, Miller can make his debut against Kansas City.

Make it so, number one!

Marte Mania

People seem to be going crazy because Andy Marte will be returning to the big leagues today.

It seems to me that most Tribe fans online love to overreact.

I truly believe that in a perfect world, Marte would stay in Buffalo to improve his game.

But here's the deal: we need him on the roster. Why? Because we need someone else who can play third.

At the start of the season everyone wondered why the non-hitting Casey Blake was still with the team, particularly considering we had a great hitter at first (Garko) and plenty of great young outfielders sitting in Buffalo. The answer was simple: Casey can play third base.

We have Rouse as a back-up at short or at second. We have half a dozen guys who can play first if need be. But we don't have much depth at third.

Marte has to be on the bench in case a) Casey is injured b) we need to give Casey a break during a rout or c) Casey starts making errors. Our infield defense is too important to give guys too much rope to hang themselves with. We have to carry another third baseman on the roster for insurance.

I'm sure Marte will get starts, but I don't think this means he'll be our every day guy. That would be lunacy.

But Marte is back for a reason, and it's not because Wedge and Shapiro are insane.

And speaking of roster moves, what do we do if Sowers has another bad outing? Westbrook isn't back for another three to four weeks and I don't think another bad start is going to allow the Tribe to wait that long before making a move. Personally, if Sowers doesn't perform tonight I think they should send him down for a few starts and give Miller a shot. They can go from there when Westbrook is back.

Red @ Indians 5/18/07

Indians knock out Lohse after 1 and 1/3!

There was a shot of Garko in the dug out after his home run and they mentioned that he still looks bummed about his error -- after tying the game back up. You like to see that sense of responsibility on a team.

I've said it before, I've criticized Wedge plenty, but it's clear to me that he's managing differently this year. I mean, we steal bases now. They are taking advantage of Grady's speed like never before and it's paying off. I mean, he had 22 stolen bases all of last year. He's got 15 so far this year.

Adding Barfield to that mix is only going to get better as he starts getting on base more.

And Jhonny with an RBI single! Our offense seems so much more well rounded than it's been in a while.

Stupid

It's probably off to call me a baseball purist. But...

I hate interleague play.

It's ridiculous, it's stupid, and I can't imagine there are people who sit around all season ignoring baseball completely save for those few days when the two leagues play each other.

If the Braves and the Red Sox happen to make it to the World Series this year, they will have already faced each other SIX times. The whole point of the World Series is that these teams are seeing each other for the first time. It actually proves how good a coaching staff is.

My mood is not helped by the fact that Cliff is looking bad. I know, there was an error by Garko, but that game after hitting the lead off batter. Let's not put everything on Garko here.

Did I mention I hate interleague play?

Sweep...again!

I love this quote from C.C. regarding the Twins/Indians rivalry:

"Everybody knows the history of these teams, but that's old," Sabathia said. "A.J. Pierzynski is in Chicago now. All that animosity is long gone."

Ha! It's funny 'cause it's true. Pierzynski sucks.

I realize it's two years off, but the Sabathia/Carmona duo is just so devastating that I would hate to see that go.

At this point I would think that even if Sowers sorts himself outin his next start, he's still going to Buffalo.

3rd Base

I just read a few articles online (Plain Dealer and Dispatch) about the return of Andy Marte. And the general vibe I got from these articles is that they're going to option him to the minors.

I will go on the record as saying this: YES.

The Indians are not known for being proactive with such decisions. Let us not forget that Grady Sizemore was benched for a certain aging outfielder who injured himself in his first at bat back. And let us not forget that we had to wait until the last few days of spring training before Garko even made the team, and even after that it took them weeks to realize that he deserved to be the every day first baseman.

But Casey Blake has earned the job.

He was hitting .206 on May 5th. He's currently hitting .265. In 11 days he's raised his average nearly sixty points! And he's been solid defensively.

I hate to say it, but we screwed him over from the start. Casey Blake should have been at third base for the Tribe all this time.

And there it is. No more platoon at first. No more platoon in right. And not for nothing, but Jason Michaels is hitting .278 vs. lefties and .286 vs. righties. So why are we platooning him? And if not him, then what about Choo?

I love this. I love seeing the creme rise. I love being able to rattle off the names of nine guys for our line-up.

Now if only we knew who our starting pitchers were...

Series win!

It's the top of the ninth and Mastny just gave up a hit to move Hunter to third.

Does our bullpen just relax too much with a big lead?

Also, with C.C. coming out in the 9th and the Tribe ahead by 6, wouldn't this have been another chance to get Cabrera some exercise? Or maybe they're worried he'll just get worse.

All of baseball should be concerned that Grady is heating up. They should also be worried about a lead off hitter with such a high OPS who leads the league in steals.

Mastny gets the rookie to leave the Twins with one out.

Tomorrow should be a hell of a game, but I won't lie: it will be nice to have this series already won by then. A sweep would be pretty awesome, though, considering we've yet to lose to the Twins this year.

Now if the Red Sox would just help us out a little.

Question: who's the lesser of two evils, the Yankees or the White Sox? I can't even hope for a split since they're playing three games.

Wicked pitch gets the strike out for Mastny!

Home Sweet Home

First, the bad: something has to be done with Cabrera. Sowers is getting lucky that we had an off day and can skip him. As they mentioned in the broadcast tonight, there are only so many non-important moments to get a reliever into a game, and tonight was one of them. Considering the division we're in, we can't waste too much time waiting for him to come around.

I really do get the feeling we'll make a deal for bullpen help at mid-season. It would be a shame if it's Sowers (as I think he could return to form), but he's got be on the list with Lee and Byrd.

Now, to the good!

Attendence has GOT to go up at home, as the Tribe now has the best home record in baseball. That's got to bring people in, right? They're not just winning, they're winning at HOME.

Also, it's time for the Barfield/Kouzmanoff comparisons to end. There was an article about the Central over on ESPN.com and they did it again. At the time, Barfield was hitting .212 and Kouzmanoff like .123, giving Barfield the edge. But what people forget is that we didn't pick up Barfield for his bat -- we picked him up for his fielding and he's done a great job. The Padres specifically picked up Kouzmanoff for his bat and he's been miserable. So we really are getting the better part of that deal across the board.

Let's hope tonight is the beginning of a new streak.

Speechless

The perils of doing a daily blog about the Indians is that there are times when you have nothing to say.

Although I'm beginning to worry about Cabrera's confidence.

At least the Tigers lost yesterday.

Killer road trip. It's good to be home.

Indians @ A's 5/12/07

Casey just singled up the middle to drive in the 2nd run for the Tribe.

I've talked around it before, but it seems to me that Casey is turning it up and I have to believe it's because he's playing 3rd every day. He's hitting .240 now, which is nearly 40 points better than when he took over that job. AND he's driving runs in.

Wild pitch means two runners in scoring position for Franklin Gutierrez.

We've got five hits so far, which is a good sign. I tend to give Wedge grief over his constant micro-managing of the line-up, but sitting Pronk was probably a good idea.

TWO RUNS SCORE!! Chavez made a great play, but his eyes were bigger than his stomach -- no way he could get an out there, all he could have hoped for was saving a run, and then he caused two to score.

Back to the point, mixing up the bats seems to have worked.

Fausto had some problems in the first, but he's throwing more strikes than balls, so that looks good.

WTAM guys are right -- we need Grady to pick it up. Speaking of which, I need to track down a Sports Illustrated today.

Bad Streak

Strangely enough (16 runs in two days), I'm not concerned about our pitching. I think we've got that well in hand. I'm definitely worried about our bats.

Particularly Pronk.

That said, it still always great to see Garko hit the ball. I think his performance is going to be key for us this year.

For all the grief that Cleveland fans might get (some deserved, considering the attendence numbers), at least they're not A's fans. I mean, the only thing worse than that stadium are the fans who refuse to support a team who ALWAYS competes. I think we all know that Cleveland fans would actually turn out in groves if we had a team that has been as good as the A's over the last few years. Not to give into a stereotype, but your average Oakland sports fan doesn't seem like the target market for baseball. I can't picture many members of the Raider Nation arguing righty vs. lefty.

We need a stopper. We can't afford to lose another series...particularly to the stupid AL West.

Rotation

I meant to post something today about Byrd's performance last night, which was incredible. He's really turned it around this season.

In fact, look at the last four starts by our rotations: 6 earned runs in 30 innings of work. They've been really impressive lately.

Which, of course, leads to the misery of today's game.

It's just the bottom of the 5th now, and Sowers is no longer in the game. It's 6-0 Angels.

I like Jeremy Sowers. I think he's talented. I think he's smart. But I think expectations are getting to him. I think he's pitching scared.

Look at Fausto. I would imagine he goes out there and pitches without fear. After what he went through last season, what could possibly happen to him this year? And it's not like he has to worry about whether or not he's going to get sent down, because he's pretty sure he will.

It's 8-0 now.

But Sowers is a different story.

He joined a Tribe staff that had already destroyed one potential 5th starter (Fausto) and had no other options. He joined a team that was already out of it. He was facing teams for the first time. There was no pressure.

It's a whole different story now. The Indians are expected to win and Sowers is a big part of that. And there are two or three guys in AAA waiting for their shot.

Now there's no reason to panic, not with the rest of our rotation throwing like they are. But you have to wonder how many starts like this they're going to let Sowers have and how much damage they're causing his pysche.

My theory? Well, if his next outing is like this, send him down. Give him a chance to right himself against the AAA batters. Get his confidence back. And give Miller a shot. What do we have to lose?

Sea of Red

Two years ago I took a trip back home to Ohio and was able to go to an Indans game with my dad and my brother. It was July 14th and we watched Kevin Milwood pitch a great game, only to lose 1-0 to the hated White Sox.

Tonight's game was almost as painful.

Nothing can be as bad as losing to the stinking White Sox, but losing 2-3 to the Angels while surrounded by a sea of red is pretty close. It's not that I dislike the Angels by any means, it's just that it's hard not to be annoyed by 40,000 people jumping up and down because their team just hit a home run to tie it.

As luck would have it, however, I was in the bathroom when Cabrera gave up the go ahead homer.

In the end, though, if you live by clutch hitting, you die by clutch hitting, and tonight the Indians died by it. The fact that we forced the Angels' starter to throw nearly 50 pitches in two innings and didn't do more damage is both shocking and sad.

Angels Stadium is nice, but it's no Jake. The rock/water fixture is just silly and there's barely an announcer. It's not surprising that the fans got behind the Rally Monkey as the Rally Monkey seems to be the only attempt at fan interaction at the game.

That said, it was a Wednesday night and they had more than 40,000 people there. How many people did the Tribe get on their last Wednesday night game?

There were a decent number of Indians' fans there, too, actually. And an Angel fan yelled "Rick Vaughn" at me. That was weird.

At least the Tigers lost. Blown chance to increase our lead, but at least we're still in first.

Cliff!!

Cliff Lee is DOMINATING in his 50th career win. He's now 50-28 lifetime; you don't let someone like that go.

He lowered his ERA nearly 4 points. Wow.

And Casey Blake, two for four with 2 RBI and a run scored. I think I'm going to go ahead and say that I like Casey at third, and it's for one reason: pressence. I don't see Marte going up to Cliff after he gave up that first hit and giving him a pep talk. I know, I know, Casey's not exactly a huge improvement over Marte, but what our infield is missing is someone who will step up and be a cheerleader, someone who will step in and calm everyone down, and I feel like Casey will do that more than Marte. I think Marte's still too young.

Pronk looked bad, but it's a credit to his talent that he was able to drive in a run after striking out (badly) four times.

Victor is money.

I'm going to the game tomorrow! Hopefully Byrd can maintain his great start.

SI

For those who haven't heard, the one and only Grady Sizemore graces the cover of tomorrow's Sports Illustrated. Even better, there's a blurb about Clemens at the top, but Grady gets the cover (granted, this is probably due to time constraints, but whatever).

Some people have already freaked out about the curse from the '87 SI cover, but let's all remember that the curse there was about the team. Joe Carter was on the cover of that issue and I'd say he did pretty well for himself after that.

Grady on SI...that's kind of unreal.

Casey at the Bat

What do we do with Casey Blake?

I don't know what a guy would have to do to get the every day job if Trot Nixon doesn't move from platoon right fielder to every day guy. Nixon is hitting both lefties and righties so there's absolutely no argument to be made for replacing him.

So what do we do with Casey when Marte comes back?

Put him at 1st? Garko is hitting .275. Blake is hitting .210.

Leave him at 3rd? Sure, his .210 AVG is better than Marte's .179, but Marte has only had 39 AB as opposed to Casey's 101. Even worse, Marte has 8 RBI -- only 3 less than Casey!

Here's something else to think about: it's clear that we are winning in the most precarious ways possible. We only have three guys hitting around or above .300 and one of them is Trot Nixon, whose average went up .067 against the Orioles! This isn't an offense that's going to win the Central.

And in case anyone hasn't noticed, our rightfield platoon consists of a .247 hitter and a .241 hitter.

(Not to go off on a tangent, but last year Choo hit .280. In his brief stint this year, he hit .294 and I think we all remember his arm.)

At some point we're not going to be able to win games with the long ball. At some point the bottom half of the order won't step up when the top half begins to slump and vice versa.

I can't help but think that Trot Nixon's performance the last two days is an indication of how this team needs to go. We need nine guys, every day, who can gel together. Grady needs to know who's hitting behind him just as Victor needs to know who's hitting behind him.

Am I crazy in thinking we need a solid 1-9?

Proof Positive

For those who aren't convinced (and I can't imagine there are many) that Roger Clemens is an arrogant, egotistical douchebag, there's no better proof than his announcement today.

It's not about baseball for him anymore; it's about his ego.

I realize the game as we know it is about money. But aside from a few players here and there, it's not about grandstanding. It never has been.

It is in New York.

There's the mighty Yankee tradition, ladies and gentlemen: money and egos. What a great example.

Cleveland @ Baltimore, 4/6/07

Okay, C.C., this is when we need you most. We need you to step in and stop this losing streak. We need you to dominate.

And after half an inning, it looks like this umpire has a wide strike zone, so hopefully that goes both ways.

UPDATE, Top of the 4th

Interesting stat just given out by the Orioles' announcers. Baltimore has the highest fielding percentage in the AL. Cleveland has the lowest. BUT, Cleveland has given up the same number of unearned runs as Baltimore has.

More proof of the Indians living on the edge, which is worrying.

Peralta with another single and we've got two on with one out...

And Nixon comes through again! This is what we need, the lower part of the order getting hits, hopefully to get the upper part of the order going.

God, Casey, please don't kill another rally...

Alright! Bases loaded! Let's go Barfield, we need something here...

Shoot. Pop up, but at least he didn't hit into a double play, so it gives Grady a shot.

Yes! Single by Grady and we're tied up! Bases loaded again for Michaels. I can't say I'm thrilled with his odds here. I like Michaels, but he never seems like a big threat in these situations. Hopefully, he'll prove me wrong here.

WOW! Could I be more wrong?? J-Mike off the TOP of the wall -- inches from a homer -- and two more come in! WOO!!

Okay, Pronk, let's keep this going!

Cleveland @ Baltimore, 5/5/07

Oy, Sowers, that hurts. He gives up three on the long ball, but we get out of the 1st without giving up any more.

Considering how dead our bats were last night, this is not a good position to start off in.

UPDATE, End of the 2nd:

So the question has to be asked: are the expectations getting to Sowers? Let's face facts, he's been less than phenomenal so far this season.

Things are going to get interesting. Let's face facts, Westbrook was not exactly dominant before he went on the DL. Byrd has looked far better than last year. C.C. is definitely our ace. And Cliff is going to need a few more starts before he's back to normal.

Right now we're winning despite our starting pitching, unless C.C. is pitching.

If this keeps up it's going to get harder and harder to keep sending Fausto back down.

Rouse leads off the third with a ground rule double...it's a start...

UPDATE, Top of the 4th:

Runners on second and third, Garko goes down swinging and JP pops up on the first freaking pitch he saw. Casey Blake with a chance to prove me wrong about him...

And I'm still right. *sigh*

Just a matter of time

Well, this was going to happen sooner or later. We can't keep winning like this and not lose one in the same manner.

We asked a lot of our bullpen in our last series, so I wasn't that bummed out to see Raffy blow a hold or Mastny lose the game. Honstly, considering all the timely hitting we've gotten lately, I wasn't even that bummed that we had so many chances and wasted them.

Honestly, Blake's play at third summarized the whole night for me. He made a great stop, but given all the good karma we've had lately, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that he blew the throw.

The main downside was not getting Byrd a win after another good outing.

At least the Yankees and the White Sox lost. I suppose it was too much to hope that Detroit would, too.

Also, Rick Dempsey is a god awful announcer. Yes, I know you won an MVP with the Orioles, Dempsey, but you can't be a homer about every little thing. Good lord.

I Love the 90's

Yesterday I mentioned to my friend Brett that this team reminded me of the Indians teams of the 90's in that they seem to have a certain swagger about them, like they can win any game at any given time. Then O.G. RCR reader Mike mentioned the same exact thing in the comment section of the last entry.

Strangely enough, just two days ago someone at work asked me if I could name at least 15 members of the '95 Indians, which was easiest enough for me. Naming the '97 team was actually a little bit harder for some reason.

So are these guys really similar to the team from '95? I'm sure it's early to say such things, but it's undenialable that they have that...feel to them.

Sure, Nixon/Blake aren't exactly Manny Ramirez, but then again Pronk isn't exactly Eddie Murray. Obviously Jhonny Peralta's no Omar Vizquel, but who here is going to take Carlos Baerga over Josh Barfield? And let's face facts, Garko could be the next Thome someday (yes, I know Thome was at third in '95 and at first in '97, but work with me). And while Victor might not throw people out like Sandy Alomar, he's got him in hitting.

But you know the big difference between this team and those teams? We have pitching.

Buster Olney wrote in his ESPN.com blog on Thursday that the Indians probably have the deepest rotations in baseball from 1 to 7, considering how good Fausto 4.0 and Miller are. But have you looked at Jason Stanford's numbers in Buffalo lately? He's just as good as Miller!

Sure, it was nice to have (at various points) Tavarez, Plunk, Ausenmacher, and Jackson, but Betancourt, Mastny, Fultz, and Cabrera are growing on me. And Browoski has yet to scar me the way Mesa did.

And yet...

We've only played 25 games. But we're not even playing all that well. And we keep winning.

Maybe it's the whiskey talking, but I have hope. And I will cry like a baby if/when we win the World Series.

The "O" word

This team...this team...

I have this wary optimism about this team. I find myself watching games and actually believing we can win, no matter how many runs down we are. When we're tied in the late innings, I actually believe we can win. I honestly believe that one run games can go our way.

It's freaking me out.

It's hard for me to not see this as set up for a big fall...

Shocker

Wow.

What a shocker.

Hernandez gave up the lead.

I'm so surprised.

*sigh*

Move over Casey Blake, there's a new "does he have compromising pictures of Wedge" guy in town.

UPDATE: We're headed to the eleventh after Barfield was robbed of a steal by the umpire. Yes, yes, we all thought it was a great throw from the catcher, but let's not get lost in the pretty lights, shall we? Let's actually watch the play.

Did I mention the fact that we shouldn't BE going into the eleventh? Thanks, Roberto.

UPDATE 2: Holy cow! WHAT AN ENDING!! That was unreal -- Travis Hafner goes the other way with it. That was just stunning.

I don't know about you, but 16-8 sounds mighty good to me!

Gumption

Credit where credit is due: Wedge sent the runners with one out and Victor at the plate. Granted, we scored plenty of extra runs on top of that, but for all the grief Wedge gets it's only fair to give him credit when he makes a good call, too.

Tonight was a good indication of why I like C.C.: He doesn't stop. And he adjusts. Signs of a great pitcher -- signs of an ace.

Also impressive, as always, was our offense. Man, we just GRIND people down. Here's a fun fact: Jim Thome leads the AL in walks. Travis Hafner is tied at third with Gary Sheffield. This all makes sense. But who's at numer two? Grady Sizemore! That amazing, really, and an indication of who we make pitchers work. Our lead off guy is getting walked...and then our #3 guy is getting walked. It's amazing how our hitters battle.

This was a nice way to start the month.