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June 29, 2010
Believe it or not, your Cleveland Indians actually won a game in which they scored two runs or less. Amazing, I know. Consider this stat: coming into last night’s 2-1 win over Toronto, the Tribe was 0-20 when scoring two runs or less. Then you consider how they pulled this one off, and it makes it even sweeter.
It was Jayson Nix’s squeeze bunt in the sixth that broke a 1-1 tie and propelled the Tribe to their second straight victory. All the credit goes to manager Manny Acta for making the gutsy call for the second time this year. Both times it has worked. It was also one more time than Eric Wedge called for the squeeze play during his seven years as Tribe skipper.
“Only one thought was going through my head,” Nix said. “I had to get it down.”
The play came with Travis Hafner, one of the slowest Indians, on third base. It caught everyone off guard, especially Hafner. “You get the sign and you say to yourself, ‘Did he really just call that?'” Hafner said.
Nix, already down 0-1 in the count after looking at a strike, laid down the bunt that rolled towards Blue Jays starter Ricky Romero, who had no choice but to try and glove the ball and scoop it home all in one motion. Hafner, who read the play perfectly, got a good jump and scored what would be the game-winning run. “Its all about speed,” he said with a laugh.
The Tribe bullpen held that one run lead to the finish after Jake Westbrook pitched six strong innings, allowing just one earned run on six hits. Joe Smith and Rafael Perez combined to get the Jays in order in the seventh before giving way to Chris Perez in the eighth. Perez got out unscathed and turned the ball over to closer Kerry Wood.
Wood, who struck out the side on Sunday, pitched around a two-out Lyle Overbay single to close out Toronto and record his second save in as many days. Amazing that this is only the second that Wood has recorded back to back saves as an Indian. That tells you all you need to know about how bad the team has been the past two years.
Could Wood be rounding back into form just in time for one team to show interest in him before the trade deadline? Even I will admit he has looked great the last two outings. His cutter has been on and that makes all the difference for him. “It’s just nice to get out there and throw,” Wood said. “Right now, I have better command.”
All it takes is one team to be desperate enough to need a reliever and Wood immediately becomes a top target. The Indians would probably have to eat a portion of the salary, but they probably would to send their closer to a contender while moving the job over to the closer of the future, Chris Perez.
Speaking of trade chips, Westbrook did his part to improve his stock. It looked like it would be a long night for the veteran right-hander after three of the first four batters reached base. But Jake dug in and held down the Jays the rest of the way. He allowed just the run one, striking out four and walking one.
“That’s a very good, aggressive lineup, and I was able to settle in and keep them off balance,” Westbrook said. “It’s just about consistency with me right now. Hopefully, I can keep pitching well and put us in a position to win, which is what I always try to do.”
The Philadelphia Phillies have been said to be looking at middle of the rotation options as the trade deadline gets closer. Find me a better fit than Jake. First off, doesn’t Phillies GM Ruben Amaro owe us one for rooking the Indians so badly for Cliff Lee last summer? In all seriousness, Westbrook’s toughness and ability induce the double play ball would work perfectly in Philly.
Regardless, it was good to see the Tribe win back to back games for the first time in seemingly ages. They go for three in a row tonight with Fausto Carmona taking the mound (6-6, 3.64 ERA). He faces hard-throwing Brandon Morrow (5-5, 5.40 ERA).
24 Comments
You’re getting as embittered as many commenters, TD. What makes you thing they’d be looking to trade two suddenly productive pitchers? And if they do, let’s just root like heck for whoever wears our uni. That’s what real fans do.
Umm, a couple reasons for trading them would be cutting salary and moving players that aren’t part of the future for some who hopefully would be.
Wood and Westbrook are both free agents at the end of the year. It wouldn’t make any sense to hang on to them if they got offers for them.
Maybe they should be part of the future. Golly, they seem like a couple of good guys.
(sigh)
I’ll stop now. Sarcasm font not an option, as everything re tribe would be all caps.
Hah, well played Harv. Completely missed it.
Harv.. we are talking about the indians… we have one of the best AAAA team out there. As soon as someone shows promise or gets back to form it means they are too good for us..
Bobby, you should just stop torturing yourself and start rooting for one of the big market clubs already.
It’s not going to change. All the Indians can hope for is that all their prospects grow together for a 2-3 year window before they price themselves out of Cleveland. Dolan spent a ton of money on Hafner, Westbrook, and Wood. Look how that turned out.
There was no way either Sabathia or Lee was staying here long term. Even if the Tribe offers 20 million/year for 6 years the yankees will just add 5 million and another year. The Dolans don’t have the YES network to bankroll their team. Victor was soon going to be overpaid and underperforming as well.
Again, if you don’t like the current system the Tribe is forced to play under, then start rooting for the Red Yankees or stop watching MLB alltogether.
Or just keep yelling that Dolan is cheap.
Yeah, I should have realized that everything about the Indians is sarcastic. There’s no way to take them seriously this year…
@5KDM
FINE, DOLAN IS CHEAP.
It makes no sense to hang onto Westbrook or Wood. I can’t see the Indians getting a lot for Wood, he’s been inconsistent his entire career. Westbrook has been inconsistent as well, but his ERA usually hangs around 4, so a good offensive team like the Dodgers (under staffed pitching) or the Red Sox (injured Bucholz and Beckett) would be teams interesting in bringing in Westbrook.
Umm, back to the game for a second, but I found this quote from Dennis Manoloff’s PD report hilarious: “Not long after Jayson Nix stepped in, Tribe manager Manny Acta apparently decided conventional means were not going to get the job done.”
The Tribe had runners on third base with less than two out *three* times last night (2nd, 6th, and 8th innings) and failed even once to get a run in via a sac fly or RBI groundout.
I just read a title for an article at Yardbarker.com that Joel Zumaya blew out his elbow. Maybe the Tigers would want Kerry Wood now. I don’t see any other closers readily available for them in the trade market.
They’ll probably retain both Wood and Westbrook because the Indians only trade producing players like Lee, Sabathia and VMart. And the Dolans are cheap make no mistake about it. I realize the attendance is low but why should people pay to see a team that is so fundamentally flawed? It’s one thing to have a young team but it’d be nice if they could play defense, move runners, hit cutoff men, you know fundamentals.
@ MattyFos:
That footage of Zumaya was awful. It looked like it could be career-ending. That said, he wasn’t Detroit’s closer, just a set up man for Valverde. I doubt they’d take Wood to replace him, but maybe.
The Twins may want Wood, but again, payroll is an issue. I wish that Seattle were in the race, because they’d take him over Aardsma.
It’s terrible to be hoping for season-ending injuries to closers, but that’s pretty much where I’m at.
Jon, I thought Zumaya was the closer. WHOOPS.
I can see Minnesota going after Westbrook. They don’t really have that great of starting pitching, and their offense is great.
Jon, I just watched the video.. I love Delmon Young’s reaction. He’s like “What the!?!?”
The Dolans are not cheap. They are poor, over their heads in this business. That’s a major distinction. Yes yes yes the current system favors the biggest markets, but no, doesn’t keep all medium markets from competing. I rue the day the Dolans bought this team only because because they don’t possess the business acumen necessary to cleverly play the hand dealt, or the common touch necessary to keep our spirits and attendance up to a level where they can take an occasional shot. I’d be really surprised to see another 2007 because, as dumping Cliff Lee a year early revealed, now even a moderate payroll is too much. Fans aren’t stupid. When an owner throws all hope out he risks ye olde death spiral of losing/decreasing attendance/payroll reductions/worse losing/lower attendance … And that’s where we are. The Dolans are Vernon Stouffer. The new boss, same as the old boss.
When I was a kid, I saw Dave Dravecky break his arm while pitching (search for the video if your stomach can take it). It was gross: it just fell apart. The Zumaya video reminded me of that. It’s a reminder of how violent and unnatural pitching can be.
When Zumaya hurt his arm playing guitar hero, it was funny. But last night was just sad.
Jon, I’m surprised Delmon didn’t add insult to injury and throw his bat at Zumaya.
“Indians only trade producing players”
IF RUSSELL BRANYAN WAS PRODUCING, WHAT IS HE LIKE WHEN HE ISN’T?
(with hats off to derosa, jason michaels, etc. who have also left the team via the trade and were underpeforming individuals at best)
in all seriousness, if Kerry Wood looked like this the past 2 years, he’d be one of my favorite Indians.
he’s nearly unhittable with the movement he’s getting and mixing th pitches up. as a closer, dang. nice.
and that’s me knowing that he’s going to probably go back into his shell in the next couple of outings and be erratic for the year again, so there must be some GM out there that only sees the past few outings and starts drooling.
mgbode, Kerry Wood is my favorite player because of that white trash goatee he is now sporting.
@8- I was just piggy-backing on some of Harv’s sarcasm.
On a side note- I dont really watch the MLB all too often as is. When I do I can only watch the tribe, but geez its tough for me to watch them. I usually get to around 3 games in the summer… but I dont want to pay to watch a team with a bunch of minor league-rs. Yes they do have a lot of young talent, but as a buddy from cincy pointed out, Santana is one of our best players this year… and he’s been up for a week. So I think Ill stick to being hopefully optimistic about the browns, then be all pissed off every Sunday next fall…
@8 well said…
i am starting to just not read Indians comments anymore because 95% of the people that whine about them DONT EVEN WATCH THEM.
I agree with the sentiment that if you dont like it, just root for another team. baseball is a flawed sport, and its not going to change anytime soon. get over it. root for players to improve and help garner interest and get people back in the seats to help with the payroll. thats what its going to take… deal with it…
that being said…people need to enjoy it and stop complaining…or watch something else 10 times more boring…like soccer…or tennis…