Red Sox @ Indians, 7/23/07

Show of hands, who didn't know we'd lose tonight? Let's count the many reasons why we were bound to lose:

1) Nationally televised game (kiss of death for the Tribe)
2) The return of Jon Lester after battling cancer (akin to playing the Saints in New Orleans)
3) Jake Westbrook

I haven't seen the story on the game yet, but I can only assume that Wedge will go with the party line he used after Cliff's last game, something along the lines of "he turned it around after that first inning and we saw the pitcher we know he can be" or some load like that. Yet the fact will remain that yet again the back end of our rotation dug our team into a hole they could not get out of, right from the start.

Evidently, Adam Miller (who has been awful since coming off the DL) has been shut down for the year because of a sore elbow. The upside here is that this means there's a reason why he's been awful. The downside, obviously, is that he's yet another pitcher lost to us.

Jason Stanford might have given up a run tonight, but it was unearned, which means after his first inning it was 1-0...after Westbrook's it was 4-0.

The big question, of course, is whose spot to you put Stanford in? At this point I say Lee, although I don't know why. Wait, he has options left, that's why.

From what I've been told (by one of the fine folks on the Indians livejournal), Aaron Laffey is the next to get a call up. Matt Miller has actually started returning to form, which is a good sign, as we clearly need to bolster the bullpen, particularly if we move Stanford to the rotation.

And, as usual, we have to hope that C.C. and Fausto win their next two starts...their next twenty starts, for that matter.