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May 15, 2009
AP Photo / Chris O'Meara
(Indians 11 – Rays 7 box)
Coming off a four game losing streak, all of a sudden, your Cleveland Indians have taken three out of the last four. They won two out of three against Chicago at home, and now have taken the first of four against the american league champion Tampa Bay Devil Rays. It is a strange time to be an Indians fan. They are really infuriating to watch right now only because we had expectations of this team. Imagine if somehow this season you expected the Cavs to be a top 3 or 4 team in the conference and they had to fight their way into an easy-ish playoff field? That is exactly how it feels right now to be a Tribe fan. They are in last place but they are only 4.5 games back at this point. How is this team not out of it?
Last night’s game in Tampa comes down to three factors. 2 – 3 – 4. Asdrubal Cabrera, Victor Martinez, and Shin-Soo Choo. Never mind that Jhonny Peralta was playing third base and went 1 for 3 with an RBI and 2 walks. Never mind that Mark DeRosa was playing first base and went 2 for 5. Never mind any of that. Asdrubal, Victor and Choo combined for 12 hits in 15 at-bats. They combined for 9 RBI. The trio also combined for 8 of the Indians’ 11 runs.
You can forget about homers too. I don’t need your stinking home runs. Well, Choo did get one dinger, but that isn’t important right now. Last night the Indians were circling the bases with doubles. Asdrubal Cabrera even had a triple in there. This is more important than any home run ball. This team was spraying the ball to all fields. They were smacking the ball over the second baseman. They were going with pitches and putting them in the power alleys. It is exaclty the type of hitting that sticks out in my mind from a couple years ago when the Indians were making us think they were going to be a perrenial playoff contender. In all, the Tribe had 4 doubles, 1 triple and 1 home run.
But it wasn’t all positive. The Indians were out to a 9-0 lead before they gave back 6 runs in the sixth inning. Fausto seemed to lose some of his focus in that inning and Tampa made him pay. Fausto let three runs cross the plate while he was still on the mound before giving way to Matt Herges and his gas can. Herges only gave up 1 earned run, but he didn’t save Fausto from the last two runners that were on base when he handed the ball off to Eric Wedge. Herges gave up a three run dinger to officially close the book on Carmona. That left the game 9-6 giving the Rays life.
Thankfully the Indians finished the game off. In the top of the 8th Grady Sizemore even got into the action. He blooped a single and scored on an Asdrubal Cabrera triple. Victor then drove in Cabrera to provide some insurance to Aaron Laffey who pitched the final two frames. Aaron Laffey appeared to be in a bit of a jam in the 9th but in the end, the run that scored occurred on a double play. This finally took the remaining wind out of the sales of the Rays.
Other notes: On his 4 for 5 night Victor Martinez raised his average to the mythical 0.400 level. It is early, but the 400 number is impressive after the first game of the season let alone after 36 games. Reyes and Pavano are scheduled to pitch the next two games, but we don’t yet know who will pitch in place of Sowers on Sunday. It would be a great time for the Indians to get hot as Detroit has lost 3 in a row and KC has lost 6 in a row. There is a three-way tie atop the AL Central with those two and Minnesota right now.
14 Comments
It should be mentioned that Jhonny was actually excellent defensively at 3B. Whether or not that was a fluke remains to be seen…but I hope that we actually do get to see.
Probably no one wants to hear this in light of the Tribe’s current winning “streak,” bit let me just throwing something out there. If by mid-June or so the team still appears unable to compete this year, should they consider trading Cliff Lee before this year’s July trade deadline?
Consider: 1) As a Cy Young-winning lefty in his prime, with only one real off year, his next contract will presumably put him in the “Hundred Milliion Dollar Club.” 2) The Dolans will want no part of the “Hundred Milliion Dollar Club.” 3) With an option year in 2010, he is a more valuable trade commodity this year (unless maybe a trade voids the team option next year, I’m not sure). 4) A team with a rich farm system might give up seriously high quality prospects to have Cliff for a season and a half, or even most of this year, and those prospects might rectify some of the organizational holes (like, when are we ever going to produce our own quality back of the bullpen pitchers?).
I know trading him would run up the white flag this year and kill attendance. I’m just asking. Thoughts?
LM – agreed. Charging bunt, ranging way to his left and then the backhand late in the game. Not sure if it was luck or not, but he looked good.
One more, and they call that a “streak.”
3 out of 4 is nice, but I’m still waiting to buy my MLBTV out-of-market package…
@5 – I am so glad I didn’t buy that this year and instead put it towards the NBA package at the allstar break
I think what I liked most about last night was the fact that with 2 outs and only up 2, the Tribe hitters cashed in on the Iwomura error and tagged two doubles and hustled to beat out an infield single to score three more runs. It’s been a long time since they a) cashed in like that with two outs alone, and b) made another team seriously PAY for their mistakes.
@DP
In fairness, their big inning on Monday against CWS was with two outs, too.
#8, true. And, on Wednesday, Jhonny beat out a DP ball to keep an inning alive, and Garko hit a bomb right after that.
So, perhaps what I’m encouraged by is that they’re finally doing some 2-out work this week.
Plus, with this lineup, I’ll get added eligibility for Peralta and DeRosa! 😀
The Cavs will have more wins than the Tribe this year.
Brad – Q is if they already have.
@6 – I did the exact opposite, I bought the mlb premium package instead of the nba package. Now I regret it……
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