The Tribe Daily - A Daily Assault on One's Lifespan

Morning Rundown: The Cleveland Indians, Hottest Team in Baseball

2013-05-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

Regardless of what the Tigers did against the Rangers on Sunday Night Baseball, YOUR Cleveland Indians were coming into this week in first place of the AL Central and the hottest team in baseball. They've got one more left against the Mariners, and win or lose, they're going to welcome Detroit into Cleveland as the leaders of the AL Central for a first place show down.

Is this what it's going to be all summer? Because it sure as heck looks like it. Detroit and Cleveland look like the class of the Central right now. Kansas City looks okay and they may be in it, but the way the Indians look? Detroit and Cleveland could be taking this one to September.

Photo - AP via Yahoo! Sports

First things first of course. There's this little matter of Eric Wedge's Seattle Mariners, who are one game away from being swept in four games.

MARINERS - 0 | INDIANS - 6
W: Justin Masterson (7-2)
L: Felix Hernandez (5-3)
[BOXSCORE]

In his past three starts now, Justin Masterson has had ONE bad inning.

Seriously, go back to his start against Oakland, and other than a fourth inning in which he gave up a bunch of singles that scored three runs, Masterson has been untouchable. Date back to that fifth inning against Oakland and he's gone 19 straight scoreless spanning that game, the shutout against the Yankees, and yesterday's excellent start against the Mariners.

Sunday's game also marked the fourth game Masterson has pitched where he has gone seven innings and hasn't given up a run. He has two complete game shutouts to his name this season and two more of those starts and in both he has struck out eight. I mean coming into this year, he has had one complete game shutout, and now he has two.

Oh and the most impressive stat of Masterson's 2013 season thus far? He's 3-0 pitching in games with former Cy Young winners. If he keeps this up, he's going to add that title to his resume. He is now in the company of seven game winners in Major League Baseball, and has his ERA below 3.00. He's pitched more innings than anyone in the game and who would have thought, but he's third in the AL in strikeouts.

He came just one shy of his career high of 12 in just seven innings against the Mariners. In fact, it was his first double digit strikeout game since he struck out 12 in nine innings against the White Sox in his last start of 2009, the year he arrived in Cleveland. He was absolutely brilliant and incredibly fun to watch. Little traffic on the base-paths, lots of strikeouts, and he did it all in just over 100 pitches.

"When you're going against Felix, and there's not one guy in the clubhouse that didn't think we had a chance to win, that's a pretty big compliment to Masty," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "From the very first pitch of the game, he came out firing. And he not only was firing, but he was pitching. He was using both sides of the plate. He was using the two-seamer, four-seamer, throwing the breaking ball to both sides of the plate. He just kept going up, down, in, out and just worked ahead."

And in the credit where credit is due department, the most impressive thing about this particular start? The Mariners filled their lineup with left-handers against him. Only three were hitting right-handed and they were mostly towards the bottom of the lineup. With a few switch-hitters, the Mainers were able to load up on Masterson's kryptonite. That didn't matter in this one though and that is a supreme credit to Masterson.

Of course we can't credit Masty without crediting the offense that has been bashing these Cy Young pitchers. They made Felix Hernandez look completely ordinary. They worked him from the get-go, and chased him after five innings. He hasn't gone fewer than six innings all year, he hasn't given up more than four earned runs since June of last year. It was his shortest outing since May of last year. This guy rarely goes out and doesn't give you a quality start. And the Indians made him look like an ordinary starting pitcher.

What I love most about these numbers is the motivation behind it. Not only are the Indians aware of the fact that they have completely owned Cy Young award winners this season, they are making no bones about the fact that they want to dismantle all of them that they face off against.

"Are we aware of it? In this locker room? Absolutely, we are," Brantley said. "We talked about it this morning before we came in. But it's more about our approach, making sure that we don't do too much, and like I said before, we want to work the count and get him out of there in the fifth inning if we can. We did a great job today."

As Sporting News runs down, they have forced an 8.21 ERA and a 1.87 WHIP in eight starts against Cy Young award winning pitchers. They'll get a chance to do it again to Verlander on Wednesday, but these numbers alone are incredible. They have POUNDED these pitchers. Not just winning, but scoring five, six, eight runs off these pitchers. Forcing them out before five innings, collecting eight hits. It's incredible. MLB.com's Zack Meisel even notes that they've scored MORE RUNS than innings pitched against them. 42 runs in 41 and two-thirds innings.

It was Brantley's shot in the second inning that really put the exclamation point on the game. Felix would go on to give up one more run after that before exiting, but it was in the second that the game was really over for him. He got the first two outs of the inning, then proceeded to give up back-to-back singles to Bourn and Kipnis. Brantley then rocketed one over the center field wall. Bourn's hit was especially important in setting that inning up as it was an infield single.

It was as important as his hustle double was the previous inning to lead off the game. Bourn's hustle and heads-up running on Michael Morse in right enabled that double to happen and enabled him to score on Brantley's single later in the first. Brantley was able to score later on because he got to second on another Morse defensive play when he threw past the cutoff man to "try" and get Bourn at home.

So, yes, King Felix's defense let him down in several instances, but the Indians were putting in some great at-bats. Only one of the seven at-bats went less than four pitches in the first inning against Hernandez and after the getting the first two outs in the second on five pitches, the next four hitters managed to make Felix throw 18 more pitches. And just like that, the King had thrown nearly 60 pitches before he even reached the third inning. That is how you make an ace work.

Random Notes...

How about Mike Aviles? The heads-up baserunning by Bourn all game was fantastic, but the play in the fourth inning when Aviles rounded third on a weakly squibbed ball in front of the plate by Drew Stubbs was brilliant. Because Felix didn't cover home when Montero abandoned home plate, there was no one to cover for Smoak to throw home. That was all Aviles.

Jason Kipnis and Bourn had big games, each with two hits, Bourn with two runs scored and Kip with one. Combined though, they've really set the table for the lineup the entire series. They've combined for 13 hits, 6 runs scored, three steals and five runs batted in.

Call Brantley Mr. Fill-In. Brantley hasn't really been ale to settle into the fifth-sixth spots that he was supposed to be occupying because he's been filling in at first for Bourn and everywhere else in the lineup. This was just his second start in the three-hole for Cabrera. He responded with the home run and four RBI game of course.

Jason Giambi, four at-bats, no hits, two walks. He's hitting .188 this year but his OBP is .293 and has knocked in 12 runs. When you have played in 15 games and have 12 runs batted in, plus eight runs scored, you can hit sub-.200. All his at-bats are professional, as was the one early on that helped set up the rallying.

[CHRIS PEREZ VS THE WORLD, AGAIN]

You know what is really tiring? The people who hate Chris Perez to the point of absurdity. I feel like we've been here before with this. Let me outline this real quick.

I don't have a problem if you:

Dislike Chris Perez because of what he says
Dislike Chris Perez because his saves are too exciting
Dislike Chris Perez because he has a beard

Not everyone is going to like him, especially because of the things he said last year and because he can come off as a little outspoken. That's cool, great, don't like him, that's your opinion.

You cross the line though when you wish death upon someone, as was the case after Perez blew the save on Saturday, then proceeded to get the win after the Indians came back. Many if they didn't say they would "disrupt a moment of silence for him dying" tweeted profanities and derogatory comments toward CP. If he had previously blocked them (which he has been known to do) they would get even more feisty for having been blocked.

I wonder what those ignoramuses did to get blocked?

And to say he doesn't deserve the win is the most obvious comment to ever make. So obvious, even Perez admitted it didn't belong to him. That's baseball though friends. It's a meaningless stat compared to how many times your TEAM wins the game.

And then to boo him.

Look, I've had this argument with people before and it isn't one worth having, because when it comes down to it, people have their right to boo.

Just as I have the right to call them crappy fans. Why are they crappy fans? Because you are there to support the team. Boo the other team for hitting the home run, but when Perez walks off the mound, you showing your disapproval for his performance is not helping matters. Do you think he wanted to go out there and blow the game? Of course not, he doesn't need the reminder. Booing him won't help him go out the next time and pitch better because someone booed him last time out, your exercise in displeasure is futile.

But again, your hard earned money is being used to go to the game to see him pitch, so you can do what you want. I'm not going to tell you not to boo or to boo, but I will tell you that if you do choose to boo, you are not much of a fan you claim to be. The best example that I heard was from Andre Knott on the WTAM 1100 wrap-up show when a caller disagreed with him in his right to boo.

Knott simply said "Would you boo your mother after she cooked a bad meal at dinner?" No, of course not. The caller's response was that his mother isn't the closer for the Cleveland Indians. While that is also true, the point Knott is making is a valid one. Perez is a member of the team you support. He had a bad game. It isn't right to go out and boo him for that.

Do I come to your job and boo you when you make a mistake? Oh but you aren't getting paid millions of dollars? That's fine. Do you go and boo a lawyer when he loses a case? How about a doctor when he misdiagnosis someone? Do you boo a teacher for failing a student?

Of course this is sports, and those occupations don't have fans, no one is paying to go see them entertain you. You make your money and it is hard earned and you expect a good performance. But you are also a fan of the team you are watching and you are supposed to support them. This team is playing so well right now, winning games and playing an exciting brand of baseball. What reason do we have to boo anyone? Instead of that, can't we just get behind the rest of the team in the bottom of the frame and hope they rectify the situation (they did!)?

Booing aside, the people that want to trade Chris Perez or think he is "the worst closer ever" are sadly misinformed. Here are just a few statistics that I've seen boasted around in defense of Perez.

Bastian notes Perez has saved 89 percent of his opportunities dating back to 2011, which is the ninth best over that span. He's had 91 opportunities. Ten times he hasn't converted. Out of 91? Please people... He's one of the best.

Everyone blows saves! It happens. He's blown two this year and the Indians have managed to win both of those games. Craig Kimbrel is considered one of the best right? He's blown three. Fernando Rodney was awesome in 2012, right? He's blown three. Perez blew FOUR saves last year. That's six the past two seasons. Last year there were 31 relievers who blew more saves than him, nine of which had less innings pitched.

Aroldis Chapman is pretty good right? You know what he did yesterday?

He gave up back-to-back home runs to the Phillies in the ninth inning. Only got one out. He actually LOST the game for the Reds. He blew the save (his second) of the year. His ERA went up to 3.32. Chris Perez's team won (he managed to keep it at a tie, remember), his ERA only went up to 1.80, and he's made the All-Star team last year.

Stop your overrated garbage, stop your trade him rants, stop discrediting him for GETTING THE JOB DONE. Save your luck garbage too, this man finds a way to do the job 90% of the time. You want to know Mariano Rivera's all-time save percentage? He's 624 for 697, which rounds right out to 89 percent, the same number Perez has had these past three seasons.

So, there it is. Again, I'm not going to tell people not to boo. I don't support you if you do that, and I have my opinion on what kind of fan you are if you do. But withhold all asinine comments about a player to yourself. Because the next time you send out any sort of death wish through Twitter, I'm going to find it and put it on blast.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

As expected, the Indians optioned Nick Hagadone down to Triple-A Columbus before the weekend series began to make way for the return of Vinnie Pestano. The Vin Man pitched Friday and picked up the win in his return, and is now looking to adopt a "new routine" during down time.

"They think that may have been one of the reasons the elbow flared up," Pestano said. "If the situation arises where I go three days without throwing, I'll probably get off a mound, even if it's not in a game. It's just to keep throwing more consistently, so my arm doesn't have enough time to kind of regress.That's something I'm going to switch up going forward. ... It'll be able to stretch the arm, stretch that tendon, and make sure it's staying somewhat warm, even though there might be a lull or a slow stretch."

Pestano has been super-reliable these past few years, especially in the health department. So whatever he can do to stay fresh, healthy, and sharp is necessary. This bullpen proved they can get along without him just fine, but they are way better with him in the mix.

Hagadone meanwhile has been shuffled out for David Huff. Hags has struggled his past few outings having given up six earned runs against Detroit and New York and collecting just one out. He had a clean inning with a walk against the Phillies before his demotion, but he clearly needs to work on some things.

Brett Myers pitched three innings for Akron on Friday night and was back in Cleveland for all the walk-off dramatics that same night. He was so efficient (33 pitches, plus 17 more in the bullpen), that he was able to make the trip back up north after pitching for the Aeros. He didn't allow a run, walked one and gave up a hit. He now is set to make another start tomorrow, which paves the way for him to return rather soon.

Which means the Indians will have a decision on their hands the way everyone else in the rotation is pitching. Does Kluber go? Does he stay in the pen? Does Myers to go the pen? The Indians are building him back up to start, so you would have to think Kluber is the odd-man out, which sucks the way he's been pitching. But I'd rather have him back in Columbus working as a starter and ready to go if the need arises, rather than pitching a few innings out of the pen every once and awhile.

Speaking of guys who are down in Columbus playing everyday, Lonnie Chisenhall has been down for less than a week now and he's already hit a pair of home runs. He's 4-for-21 with two walks, seven runs scored, and four RBI. He's faced mostly righties, going 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts against left-handed pitching.

Yan Gomes is hoping to avoid visiting Columbus yet again as he continues to impress in the little time he gets as a backup catcher. Gomes threw out another guy on Saturday and seems to get hits any time he plays.

Think about this though. Even though he isn't playing every single day, the longer Gomes sticks around Cleveland, the more time he spends with Sandy Alomar Jr.

"It's definitely helping that I'm just catching now instead of being the utility guy," Gomes said. "Just working with [bench coach] Sandy [Alomar, Jr.] and [bullpen coach Kevin Cash] and all the catchers here, it's been a really big help for me."

He's producing. He's learning from a great catcher about defense and working with a pitching staff. Every time he's in there, he does something great. Can't really see anything you don't like about Gomes right now and he's even making a case to play a little bit more than the routine backup start if you ask me.

And working with Sandy is going to help him more than anyone. He's done wonders for Carlos Santana over the years, and he'll do a lot for Gomes. Sandy is such a great resource for the catchers in the organization, so much so that the Indians brought in newly converted catcher Tony Wolters to Cleveland.

"It's going really well," Wolters said. "I'm learning something new every day. It's fun. I like it a lot. You're looking at things from a different perspective, from a different standpoint on the field. I feel like it's making my overall game better."

On Sunday, Wolters returned to High-A Carolina to begin his trek as a catcher under former catcher and current manager Dave Wallace. Before that he got to meet with Sandy and Kevin Cash to get tips from them.

What I find amazing is that we now have found out that it was really Terry Francona who is the reason for Wolters getting converted.

"I didn't really want to say anything to anybody," Francona said, "because he's one of the high-profile players in our system. About a week later, we were sitting in the conference room one day and I just brought it up. ... All of a sudden, Ross was like, 'Why would we wait, if this kid is up for it?' And when we talked to him about it, we kind of said, 'Hey, this is what we potentially see, but you have to be all in for this.'

And again, the Indians couldn't have picked a better guy to do this with. He's an intangibles sort of player who has a great eye for the game. He's going to be able to get back there behind the plate and be even more of a leader.

Continuing the theme of our minor leaguers, you'd be remiss if you didn't take a few minutes out of your day to read the excellent piece Adam Burke penned on Trevor Bauer. He goes into the integral parts of his approach and the aspect of how the Indians may be dealing with him, opposed to how the Diamondbacks did.

Bauer started for the Clippers on Sunday against Scranton/Wilkes Barre and improved to 2-0 for Columbus. He gave up four runs off six hits and five walks, showing that his control is still a work in progress. But he managed to maneuver through six innings on 101 pitches for the win, so you take the good with the bad.

Finally, I'm finally starting to overcome all my business with my mouth. For those wondering, I ballooned up pretty good following my wisdom teeth surgery, but have been bouncing back, especially this past week. Things should be returning back to normal around these parts, if not more with summer ramping up. Nino's only class is online this summer, so that means more time to have fun with the Tribe. Expect more updates, more Positive Swish, more LOLTribe, and more ridiculousness, of course. Let's hope it is can accompany a winning squad this summer, yes?

Pulse of the Tribe: Cleveland Hates Chris Perez

2013-05-18T16:41:00.001-04:00

The last time I did this little adventure into the world of Twitter searches, I came away amazed at how creative some people were at bashing Ubaldo Jimenez.

We reached the brink of insanity with watching Ubaldo after he went out and had one of the worst games of his Indians career. Twitter exploded. I even had enough. I was ready to discard Jimenez along with his dirty socks.

This time, it's a little different. Maybe I'm preying on the vulnerability of Cleveland with this, but I'm sick and tired of seeing Chris Perez bashed for his pitching.

You can hate him for his mouth, which got him in trouble last year, but to wish death upon another human being over a baseball game? Perhaps it is the anonymity of Twitter that let's people get away with these things. I have no clue why people say the things they say.

They still say it. I'll have some good tweets for your viewing pleasure. The ones that can be creative in their dissing of Chris Perez get their just due. They're clever, witty, and tasteful. If you can rip someone in good fun, you are a good fan.

If you wish death upon someone because they gave up a few home runs, you need to seek help.. Or you need me to tell you why you are wrong, which I'll most absolutely do.

He gets the job done most of the time, but when Chris Perez blows a save, it always seems to be an epic and unexpected collapse.
— Andy Resnik (@AndyResnik) May 18, 2013

Damn Chris Perez. Where's angel Hernandez to review that?
— dannniel (@dmc0603) May 18, 2013

Obviously, Chris Perez entering the game was part of an Eric Wedge Diabolical Plan. Man's a genius.
— JJK (@MCHamr2) May 18, 2013

Chris Perez: MLB's most interesting closer.
— MaxwellSilverHammer (@maxschweik) May 18, 2013

I didn't know Chris Perez was Italian.Because he served some mighty fine meatballs there. #indians
— Evan CTOWN (@evan_CTOWN) May 18, 2013

Attention Chris Perez haters: His ERA was 0.61 before today's game. Go find me a better closer than that
— Matt Smaldino (@msmaldino) May 18, 2013

Chris Perez makes me want to punch inanimate objects.
— Stephen Hanhold (@tubasteve4) May 18, 2013

Tribe fans enjoy best of both worlds. Get to indulge in favorite pastime of booing Chris Perez, then walk-off win. 16 of 20 for Indians.
— Dave Briggs (@DBriggsBlade) May 18, 2013

All very well crafted Tweets that either put things in perspective or playfully roast Perez. All of the following? Not so much.

Gosh, Chris Perez is such a dbag sometimes.
— Joshua Gonzalez (@joshua__giraffe) May 18, 2013

I only put this one there because this is one example of all the Tweets that I CAN'T display because people use profanity and derogatory names. If "dbag" is on the low end of that spectrum, you know you have some rude people out there.

Chris Perez thank u for proving to me again that vinny pestano should be our closer
— ricky (@_Rick_Cole) May 18, 2013

Thank you for spelling Vinnie Pestano correctly....

Chris Perez is an awful closer. He just lays the ball right down the middle every time
— Matt Kellogg (@kellogg_matt) May 18, 2013

Right, every time, which is why he's saved 81 of his 91 past opportunities.

I hate people who say "Chris Perez is bound to have a bad game every once in awhile" no it's literally every game he blows
— Patrick Hudec (@phudec3) May 18, 2013

Yup, LITERALLY every game. Because he's saved over 70 games the past three seasons. Yup, every game, he blows.

Chris perez is an average closer. Way overrated and the fact that he's a 2x all star is a joke
— Tyler Markley ™ (@TheTMkid) May 18, 2013

Didn't think the two All-Star appearances were humorous. Not sure what this is about.

Chris Perez doing his Jose Mesa in Game 7 of the '97 World Series Impersonation
— George Ashburn (@jamdawg1) May 18, 2013

The only thing different is the fact that the game against the Mariners was Game 7 of the World Series, Edgar Renteria wasn't hitting, and the Indians were playing the Mariners and not the Marlins. Other than that, yeah it was a pretty good impression.

I hope Chris Perez gets no ass for the rest of his life. Such a bad pitcher
— Allen Allan (@allen2times) May 18, 2013

I doubt his wife will divorce him for giving up a home run to Justin Smoak

If Chris Perez died, I would go to the Indians game the next day just to disrupt the moment of silence they would have for him.
— Bob Lawblaw (@mankindmcfly) May 18, 2013

And you sir would be looked upon as a fool with no moral code. Have a nice life.

A Tale of Two Tribes: Between 2012 and Now, Talent is the Key

2013-05-16T11:42:00.002-04:00

Do you remember where the Cleveland Indians were on May 18th last year?

Do you want to remember?

Trust me, it isn't bad. It's actually quite good. It's what followed makes the memory a touchy subject. The Indians went 46-77 after May 18th. A steady slide down the standings. That record was the worst in the AL Central over the span of May 19th to the end of the year. If they had not caught fire to start the season, they might have made the Astros look good.

The losing streak, the implosion of the rotation, the left field mess, the injuries. There wasn't much good going on with the Tribe after May.

Yet we sat here, with our Indians three games up on the Tigers in the division, thinking, hoping, and believing that perhaps, there would be a run made out of this start. We weren't sure how, but maybe this rag-tag bunch of players that were assembled had some sort of extra factor that helped over come the talent gap other teams had over the Indians.

Yeah about that.

That's the word there, talent. When it comes down to it all, you can do a lot with an "it factor" or intangibles, and leadership. But none of that means anything unless you have talent. No team goes to the playoffs without talent. They can win a World Series with the other stuff, but they can't get to that position without players.

We're talking major players.

And that's your separation. That makes this year's Cleveland Indians team much better than last year's team. Take a trip with me as I show the incredibly different Cleveland Indians teams that share the same record.

2012 - Hot Start, First Place

Photo - Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports

Up through May 18th, the Tribe never got to high or too low. They never lost more than three games in a row, but never won more than four in a row. Nine of their 22 wins came by one run, while six more came by two or three runs. That's only seven wins by more than three runs. Their losses? 10 of 17 came by three runs or less. So a lot of close games, a lot of low scoring games.

They also played in six extra inning games, which is double compared to this year's version of the Tribe.

The Indians, above all though, claimed stake to first place in the American League Central. They were three games up on the Detroit Tigers, who got off to a sluggish 19-20 start. Despite the fact that freshly signed Johnny Damon was their left fielder, Jose Lopez was hitting ninth, and the top of the rotation in Masterson and Jimenez was flailing around 5-5 the Indians were playing good enough ball to lead. Jeanmar Gomez and Derek Lowe got off to a surprising 7-3 start, Chris Perez had blown one save to open up the season, but then reeled off 12 straight, somehow, the offense was producing enough to win led by new leadoff hitter Shin-Soo Choo.

Just where did the Tribe sit at May 18th, at 22-17?

22-17 (39 Games, May 18th), 1st AL Central (3 Games Ahead)
Detroit Tigers: 19-20 (3.0 GB, .487)
Last Game: L 3-2 to Miami (LP: Tony Sipp)
Record Post May 18th: 46-77 (.374)
Batting: 33 HR, 174 R, 253 SO, 179 BB, 25/35 SB, .246/.339/.385, .724 OPS
Pitching: 4.11 ERA, 1546 BF, 6007/3676 P/S, 249 K, 152 BB, 35 GIDP
Run Differential: -4
Longest Win Streak: 4
Longest Losing Streak: 3
Lineup: Choo, Kipnis, Cabrera, Hafner, Santana, Brantley, Damon, Kotchman, Lopez
Rotation: Masterson, Jimenez, Lowe, Gomez, McAllister

2013 - Re-energized, Re-loaded, and Refreshing

A 5-10 start, five straight losses. The early AL East scheduled wreaked a little havoc on the Tribe's early start after winning the opening series against the new-look Toronto Blue Jays. As April started to trail away, the Indians started to get into their division schedule with a four game set against the Royals. Some ugly rain forced a double-header on Sunday.

Game one was an absolute drubbing. Their ace, Justin Masterson got jumped while former Indians Jeremy Guthrie pitched a solid scoreless game. Then the night cap came and it seemed like everything changed. After a 10-3 win behind the arm of Corey Kluber and the offense, the Indians would go on to win six straight, the height of their season.

So while 2012 was a never get too high or low team, 2013 had become the exact opposite. A team capable of getting hot and lighting the world on fire, and that's just what they did.

As it stands right now the Indians offense has blistered opposing pitching. Their the fifth best run scoring team in the entire game, the leader in home runs and OPS, and a team capable of getting on (fourth in OBP) and moving around (fifth in steals). To put it in perspective, in the same amount of games as last year, they've hit 20 more home runs.

Don't forget their pitching either, which seems to have found some sort of consistency behind a return to form of Justin Masterson, a surprising start of Ubaldo Jimenez, and the breakout start of Zach McAllister. Their ERA has improved from 4.11 last year to 3.95 this year. Their starters rank fifth in total wins by starting pitchers, and their bullpen is holding up their end of the bargain with a reliever ERA that ranks 7th in all of baseball.

22-17 (39 Games, May 16th), 2nd AL Central (.5 Games Back)
Detroit Tigers: 22-16 (0.5 GA, .579%)
Last Game: W 10-4 over Philadelphia (WP: Corey Kluber)
Record Post May 18th: 46-77 (.374)
Batting: 53 HR, 191 R, 315 SO, 132 BB, 21/29 SB, .264/.334/.457, .791 OPS
Pitching: 3.95 ERA, 1472 BF, 5769/3614 P/S, 324 K, 141 BB, 28 GIDP
Run Differential: +25
Longest Win Streak: 6
Longet Losing Streak: 5
Lineup: Bourn, Kipnis, Cabrera, Swisher, Reynolds, Santana, Brantley, Raburn, Stubbs
Rotation: Masterson, Jimenez, McAllister, Kazmir, Kluber

Finally Competing: What the Indians Are Doing Differently

MLB Ranks Offense: Runs (5th), HR (1st), OBP (4th), OPS (1st), SB (5th), SO (9th)
MLB Ranks Pitching: ERA (18th), QS (17th), K (8th), SP ERA (22nd), RP ERA (7th), SP W (5th), SV (21st)
MLB Ranks Defense: E (14th), FPCT (17th), TC (29th)

Look at those offense numbers. No lower than fifth in some major categories offensively. They're even 9th in strikeouts, not where many people thought they would be after adding high-strikeout players like Mark Reynolds, Drew Stubbs, and Nick Swisher.

The pitching, while middle of the road, has improved vastly over last year. The biggest feather in the Indians cap? Their ability to strike out opposing hitters has increased by so much. Last year they sat at 249 strikeouts after 39 games. This year they sit at 324, which is good enough for 8th in all of baseball. Scott Kazmir's addition has no doubt helped that, but the sudden emergence of Zach McAllister, and the retooled bullpen has no doubt helped that.

Indians Relievers - Strikeouts
Chris Perez - 14
Bryan Shaw - 19
Cody Allen - 23
Joe Smith - 14
Nick Hagadone - 12
Vinnie Pestano - 8
Matt Albers - 11
Rich Hill - 11

Aside from the effectiveness of the bullpen and the increased ability to miss bats by the whole pitching staff, the team is being more efficient and throwing more strikes as a whole. Last year the pitching threw just over 6,000 pitches with 3,676 of them going for strikes. This year they've thrown 5,769 pitches with 3,614 going for strikes.

That's a 61% strike percentage last year to a 62 strike percentage. Not an incredible increase, but when you factor in the 238 less pitches thrown through the same amount of games, the Indians are more efficient with the way they are throwing the ball. Their starters are going deeper into games, their bullpen is being less stretched out, and their entire staff is benefiting from it.

As nice as it has been to see this team's pitching staff have a turnaround like this, the reason they are sitting at the same record is the offense. The games they are winning are not close and that's because the offense is rolling. And that can also translate to helping the pitching staff out, which is never a bad thing. More run support means more relaxing of the pitching staff, which leads to more strikes being thrown, more positive results, and more confidence.

So what has this offense done exactly? Well, as noted, they've become home run happy. Not just hitting home runs to win games either though. Jason Kipnis' three-run shot on Wednesday against the Phillies was not needed to win the game. The only thing it did was put the game out of reach. The club is getting those home runs to help, but the biggest thing they're doing is hitting when it counts.

With men in scoring position they're hitting .278 with a .350 OBP, and an OPS of .838. With two outs and runners in scoring position, there are few teams as effective. The average bumps up to .309, the OPB gains .50 points to .400 and the OPS? The OPS is at .927, highly effective, highly deadly. They've hit 29 of their 53 home runs within two runs, so they are using the home run to either inch closer or separate themselves from the other team.

What is this leading to? A plus-25 run differential. That's a 29-run difference from last year. Despite being in first place and five games above five hundred, the Indians were at negative-4 last year. That is the biggest difference between last year's team and this year's team and the biggest reason as to why they have staying power in 2013, when they didn't in 2012. If you look at every single team that finished at .500 or above they had a positive run differential. Everyone below? Negative. You can't sustain winning the way the Indians were last year by scoring less runs than your opponents. Early season on, it can happen because things happen. But eventually, that stops.

That's all well and good, but can't it reverse trend? Of course it could, the Indians could start scoring less than the runs they give up, which means they've inevitably start to lose games and that number will go down into the red. But among all 30 teams in baseball, the Indians plus-25 run differential is behind six other teams. Detroit's 60 is the best in baseball and that will no doubt continue to rise as they look to be on track to be the team everyone thought they could be last year.

Photo - Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports

But this isn't a plus-one situation the Minnesota Twins are sitting at. This isn't barely above middle ground. They're doing this with a good offense and an okay pitching staff. The beauty is the pitching can get better and that number can improve.

Is the rotation as it is currently made up of one that can last? Are you going to argue with how well McAllister looks? I'd let you rip Jeanmar Gomez apart last year, he was doing it with smoke and mirrors. He wasn't going out and giving you six strong every night, quality start after quality start, missing bats and pitching efficiently.

That was a fluke, what McAllister is doing. That is real.

Ubaldo's sudden emergence aside, the Indians have some pitchers who can actually pitch this year. They may not be the best rotation. They may have games where they go out and it is a little rough. But the key thing that they have is consistency. They're going to have more okay games than bad. And with an offense that can make up for those middle-ground pitching games, you can afford to have a guy go out and give you six innings, three-four runs, and still be in the game.

Why? Because you have talent.

Jose Lopez is not hitting ninth, Drew Stubbs is.

Johnny Damon is not playing left field, Michael Brantley is.

Jack Hannahan and Casey Kotchman, God bless their defense, are not playing corner spots, Mark Reynolds and Nick Swisher are.

I don't need statistics or anything to prove that point. Nick Swisher could go in a 0-for-30 slump over the next week. By the time the season ends though, you know what you are going to get and that is a solid producer who knocks in 90 runs.

Mark Reynolds could go cold the rest of May and only hit one home run. He's still going to finish with at least 30.

Jack Hannahan goes in a 0-for-30 slump, you know where that leaves you.

Casey Kotchman is going to hit one home run in the month of May and that may be his monthly low, but his monthly high may be 2.

The difference is talent. Is Corey Kluber the best fifth starter the Indians can get? No, they can certainly do better. But he's missing more bats and going much deeper into games than Derek Lowe. He'll have a much stronger season than the aging veteran who may give you four runs of shutout ball, but he'll only give you four runs total. Kluber may give up a few runs, but he's going six innings and keeping you in the game and keeping your bullpen fresh.

Talent is going to win the Indians a lot of games. The leadership is great, the intangibles are fun, the enthusiasm is a breath of fresh air. But the Indians had some of that last year. They certainly don't have the same level, but that is largely how they were winning games. They're winning games on talent this year and talent will take them into summer as a contender.

And after that? Well, anything can happen when you just have a chance to compete.

Morning Rundown: Dazzling Masty and Kipnis Help Earn Split

2013-05-14T07:30:00.000-04:00

If you asked me before the double header if I'd take a split, you know I most certainly would. Yes, I would. Why am I good with a split? Because nothing changes going into the rest of the week and that to me is the important thing. Nothing changing based off two games with the Yankees.

Photo - AP via Yahoo! Sports

Say what you want about this lineup that seems to be pieced together with scotch tape and Elmer's glue, but the Yankees are in first place and after the first two games, just to win one would have been ideal.

Of course two wins would have been better, but after Sunday's big comeback, you had to wonder if the steam that has been powering the Indians train would soon run a little low.

YANKEES - 0 | INDIANS - 1 (GAME 1)
W: Justin Masterson (6-2)
L: David Phelps (1-2)
[BOXSCORE]

It wouldn't be in the first game, that was for sure. In fact things started great right out from the start with Jason Kipnis' home run.

And that was all. No really, that was it. If not for Bourn being caught stealing, it would have been 2-0, but the one run was all Justin Masterson would need. Aside from a eventful two that saw him load the bases after getting the first two outs of the inning, Masterson would go on to cruise through the game. The rest of Masterson's hits and walks were scattered over the following seven frames.

And with just slightly over 100 pitches going into the ninth, it allowed Masty to go the distance.

"Masty went out and did exactly what you want your ace to do," Francona said. "From the very first pitch of the game, he had power, he had breaking ball, he attacked hitters. There was no wiggle room because we had one run, and he made it stand."

Masterson said he and Santana were on the same page all afternoon and even the Yankees had to credit running into a guy who was just on his game. Three walks aside, he struck out nine, so you know the slider had an extra little bite to it that was missing bats instead of getting the groundout. Not that he didn't have a lot of those, but when you get all 27 outs, you're bound to get them in a variety of ways.

It isn't often a team goes 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and loses to a team that goes 1-for-3. But it happened in this one. The offense simply couldn't find a big hit after, but again, they didn't need to.

Unfortunately, it needed to happen again later in the day. And that's where the steam finally subsided.

YANKEES - 7 | INDIANS - 0 (GAME 2)
W: Vidal Nuno (1-0)
L: Trevor Bauer (1-2)
S: Adam Warren (1)
[BOXSCORE]

What the kicker of it all was, it was the lack of two out RISP hits as to why the Indians couldn't come through. They had plenty of chances to do what they do best. In fact, their only RISP situations came with two outs and three came in the fourth, fifth, and sixth frames. The other one came in the eighth after the game was decided when Nick Swisher doubled with two outs.

A team can't do that though. As good as the Indians have been hitting in that situation, you can't have four and four of those alone and expect to win a game on that. Not getting a runner to third or having a less than two-out run scoring opportunity makes it really difficult to score. And not getting that two-out RISP hit makes it really difficult to win.

The fun thing about it all? They had a chance to win for six innings. The deceiving part of the 7-0 score is that this was a game until things imploded in the 7th inning. And all the credit goes to Trevor Bauer for start that gave the Indians more than they could have expected. But the best thing he gave them, was a chance to win.

"You know what? He keeps 'em off the scoreboard," Tribe manager Terry Francona said about Bauer. "I'll tell you what. There's so much to like about him, and he's still developing, but even in the midst of that -- you know, coming up like he does isn't the easiest thing to do -- and he gives us a chance to win every time he pitches."

Through the first six innings, Bauer's line looked like this: 6 IP, 1 R (0 ER), 4 H, 2 BB, 4 K.

If not for an error, the game is even tied going into the seventh. Unfortunately for Bauer he got tagged up for a few doubles and after eclipsing 100 pitches, Francona decided that he'd trust his bullpen while it was still close. That didn't produce the greatest results. But more on that in a second.

Bauer continues to get better and better. It is fun to watch because his command seems to coming to him and each time he comes up for one of these spot starts, he looks more sharp and you begin to see even more why he's a top pitching prospect.

So that was really encouraging and something incredibly positive to take away from a loss like this. If ever a silver lining, that is one.

Of course that went out the window, especially after the Indians bullpen got in to get pummeled. It all started with Nick Hagadone, who continues to struggle. It's two outings in a row now that he's been roughed up quite a bit. On Saturday he blamed his lack of command for outright walking two hitters in a row and he did just the same on Monday against the Yankees.

Hagadone started by walking yet another hitter, then followed that up by giving up a few singles and a double to pretty much put things out of reach completely. His sequences were scary because all of his fastballs (which seemed to have a lack of velocity that we're accustomed to with Hagadone) were scattered. One was thrown for a strike that was fouled off to Gardner. He then went 3-1 to Nix before the single. Again, all low-90's fastballs.

Not sure if there is something wrong there with him, but it is starting to get a little concerning now two outings in a row.

All in all, even Nick Swisher admitted some fatigue in the second contest.

"We were a little tired today. It showed," Swisher said. "But to be able to come out of that with a split, I mean, we've got to be happy with that. We were dragging a little bit. ... Maybe that second game, we didn't really bring it as much as we should have. Sometimes that's going to happen."

But a split? Yup, I'm good with it.

Random Notes...

Everyone in the Indians lineup in the first game managed to reach base aside from Jason Giambi. And if you did the math, the Indians went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position between the two games. Ouch.

If you're also counting, the Indians have now not scored a run in 17 innings.

The return of David Huff. The Indians lefty went an inning and two thirds with just a hit and a pair of strikeouts in his first appearance since last year. More on him in a second

The first inning of the second game was a little dicey with the error that led to a run. But the dicier thing was the fact that Robinson Cano stepped on Bauer's foot on his way to first. Bauer went down and looked like he was in some pain. But not only did he stay in the game, he showed no ill effects of the scary moment. Crisis averted.

I know most of the Indians fans out there are going to look at the Yankees pitcher and say, "Who?" I wouldn't blame them for that. Some Yankees fans are probably doing the same thing. Would you believe he is a former Indian? A lot of fans probably knew that, but most had no clue Nuno was a 48th round draft pick back in the 2009 draft.

It is a shame the Tribe had to give up on a guy like Nuno. He is someone who was probably just a depth signing at first and ended up impressing so much that he couldn't be denied promotion after promotion. Then a numbers game caught up with the Indians minor league system and they had to cut ties. He found his way over to the Yankees organization and would you look at that. I always liked what Nuno brought to the table, but I'm not sure even I thought he'd make it to the majors. Congrats to him on his first major league victory in his first ever major league start.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

Yesterday I mentioned how I didn't think it was a good idea to be sending Lonnie Chisenhall down. I actually didn't think it was a possibility, but rather a way to calm the pitch forks some people had been sharpening and aiming towards Lonnie Baseball.

So I was a little shocked when I saw that the Indians actually did send him down to Triple-A Columbus.

"The outcome of his at-bats I think was starting to affect his play," Francona said, "and he even kind of admitted that. This guy is such a building block in our organization. This is not an indictment on him. He's going to figure it out, and he's going to be a force here. [We] just think it's better for him right now to go take a deep breath, get some at-bats, get himself rolling and you'll see him back here, leaning on some fastballs," Francona said.

I really hope that is the case. I hope it is a quick visit where he goes down, gets a little momentum and confidence back and comes right back up. I won't bother reiterating my point, because I think it made it pretty well already. He needs to prove himself at the Major League level.

However I can understand the move, at least if it is temporary. Other guys are hitting really well now and by doing this you get more flexibility with the lineup. You get a guy like Reynolds over at third, he's playing just about every day now. Swisher moves around less, gets more days at DH to keep him fresh and you can also see a lot more Raburn the way he's been swinging.

So I get it. He's not hitting well and instead of sitting him every day against the left-hander, you get him regular at-bats for a bit. He's a scary 2-for-22 against the lefties, one of those being that grand slam against David Price way back last month in the first week of the season. That tells you what kind of issues he's had against those pitchers since.

Taking Chisenhall's place on the roster is David Huff, who got used in the second game of the double header. Huff hasn't been anything special in Columbus, but he's back on the 40-man now and in the mix.

Who knows how long he's staying, but the way Hagadone has pitched, it may be Hags on his way out to Columbus and Huff may get an extended look. I say this because Vinnie Pestano could be back by the weekend series against Seattle at home.

Pestano threw a bullpen session on Monday and said he is slated to go down to Lake County for a rehab outing on Wednesday. That should lead to a reactivation after just one outing considering he's a reliever and hasn't even missed that much time anyway.

"It's easier when the guys are in town, but when they're on the road, especially watching the series against Detroit on TV, it's definitely tough to watch," he said. "I watched every pitch of the series. It was a good series for us, but it was tough watching everyone else go out there and have fun."

I will say that I will miss Pestano's Twitter activity during the game. He's as good of a fan as he is a pitcher, but he means more as a pitcher than he does as a fan, so that's more important.

The Indians should be back to full strength when Pestano returns too as it appears Chris Perez is alright too. He was warming up in case things got hairy for Masterson in the ninth. Francona even said that if Masterson put some guys on, they would have called in Perez.

Morning Rundown: Tribe Put Tigers On Notice With Series Win

2013-05-13T07:30:00.000-04:00

Indians fever...Be a believer...In the Cleveland....INDIANS!

Photo - AP via Yahoo! Sports

First place say whaaaaat?

You just get that feeling, especially after beating Justin Verlander on Saturday, that it didn't matter that the Indians hadn't led for a single pitch of Sunday's game until the top of the 10th inning. That club was going to find a way to take this series and send out the opening salvo to Detroit.

Statement made.

You're not taking the AL Central without a fight Detroit. Put up your dukes.

INDIANS - 4 | TIGERS - 3
W: Joe Smith (1-0)
L: Darin Downs (0-1)
S: Cody Allen (1)
[BOXSCORE]

The resiliency of this club. Not just to come back and win this game, but to come back and win this series after losing the first game, and having to face Justin Verlander in the second game to boot, is pretty incredible. There's no quit in this team and with the talent to make it happen, good things keep occurring.

As long as I've watched the Indians, there have been few spurts where I've felt that the Indians haven't fought incredibly hard or had that "fighter's mentality" sort of way to play. Now not only do they have that sort of thing, they've got talent that makes games and series like these possible. The fighter's mentality and the killer instinct.

And to go one step further, they show that quality during the game with the ability to get that two-out knock. All of the Indians runs came with two-out hits. In fact, they came away 3-for-6 in that category and as you may have noticed during the game, they lead the American League with two-out RISP average. No team is better in that department and that will win you a lot of games when you can consistently get that hit.

Let's talk about the ones that tied and won the game though specifically. Tito used all his bullets late, calling on Michael Bourn to hit for Raburn to lead off the ninth. And they always say good base stealers can steal a lot of bases. Great base stealers can steal bases when it counts. And Michael Bourn stole second base when it counted. A few hitters later, Michael Brantley comes through with the big two-out hit.

An inning later Tito used the other bullet in chamber. After Cabrera lead off the inning with a double, Darin Downs wanted not piece of Carlos Santana. Fine that's okay. With two outs and Cabrera now on third after a Swisher ground out, Mark Reynolds and his pink shoes were asked to do it again.

"I thought it was a good pitch," Tigers catcher Brayan Pena said. "It was down. Especially a power guy like him, you're always trying to keep the ball down, trying to get him to hit a ground ball, not to lift anything up. It just got the hole and it was a base hit."

And it was a win. Tito said the shoes were ugly, I would have to second the motion. They look silly, but he got the job done wearing them and it made for a nice story. I mean, we should have figured that he simply wasn't going to sit on the bench wearing those things. They had to be a story and he made them a story with his big hit.

The other two-out knock came on a Jason Kipnis double in the third inning. Just a half a frame before in the second, Brayan Pena homered off starter Zach McAllister to give the Tigs a 2-0 lead. So credit to the Tribe for coming right back with a few runs. Kip's hit was nice, simply going the other way with an outside pitch down the third base line. The umpire seemed to have a wide strikezone and that seemed to befuddle the Indians the first time through the lineup since the team went 1-for-9 against Rick Porcello the first time through.

So tie game. Great, you kind of felt that they were going to fight for Z-Mac in this one and that could have been enough for awhile. That was until the fourth when Chisenhall made a horrendous throwing error that set up a rough frame. Despite giving up the third run on a sac-fly, Zach showed how much he's grown by maneuvering out of that inning with just the one run given up, especially since he had to face both Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder with the bases juiced.

And that is perhaps the stark difference between why the Indians won this series and the Tigers didn't. The Indians got three big time hits with runners in scoring position and two out.

The Tigers? Pena hit the two-run shot after a leadoff single. Cabrera and Fielder failing with one two outs and the bases juiced in the fourth were just two of the many RISP opportunities the Tigers had but squandered. And Fielder, who came up empty twice in the two-out RISP situation was one of four hits the Tigers didn't get in the clutch.

You have to hand it though to McAllister for that inning. He buckled down and got through it and even though it forced him to throw a lot of pitches, he manged to get through a few more to put in another quality start, despite not having his best stuff.

"I battled. I didn't feel like I had my best stuff," McAllister said. "I was definitely happy with the way I battled against a good team like this."

Remember what I said about good and great base stealers? Well McAllister has always been an okay starting prospect. I think he's now graduated from being a capable fifth starter to someone who can possibly be a reliable rotation member on a good team. Because those guys don't get faced with situations like he faced in this one and come out alive. He's showing some incredible growth in just a few months and that moment right there sticks out as one of his best. It's one thing to go out and shutout the Athletics one night at home. It's another to throw six gritty innings and get out of a situation that your defense put you in against perhaps the deadliest 3-4 combo in the American League.

Respect.

Random Notes...

Of course there was some drama at the end of the game when the Indians took the lead. Because it happened with two outs, the Indians had to be warming up a few different guys. If you have a lead, Perez is your guy, if not, you go another direction. Chris Perez started warming up, then stopped. And then did not come out to start the 10th.

He didn't come out to get the second out either.

Or the final one. And then the speculation started. Is he hurt? Is it because there's a double header tomorrow? Do the Indians hate him?

Okay no one asked that last one, but hey.

Turns out Francona went to Perez to ask him to be honest about how he felt having had an intense save the night before and then looking at a quick turn around. Perez, was actually honest.

"Missing a day here is better than missing two months," Perez said after the game. "I might've pitched in the past. ... I always want to pitch. I always want to be up. But I felt a little better today knowing we have good arms down there."

Good for Chris putting the team first in that situation. Also putting his health in front. As he even admitted, he might have not done that in the past.

So it was Rich Hill that came out to face off against the left-handed Prince Fielder. Career numbers? 3-for-12 with a home run. Nothing overwhelmingly brilliant, but it is a left on left matchup and Hill has been completely nails against lefties this year. What's more awesome? He's destroyed right-handers. 1-for-12 against him this year after he got Victor Martinez on Sunday.

Dirks hit him up for a home run on Friday, which wasn't just his first home run blemish of the year, but the first lefty home run blemish since 2009. 2009! Francona says he constantly called Hill this offseason, urging him to sign with the Tribe. Usually you don't really credit the manager with free agent pickups, but you can give all the credit to Tito on that one. Hill is working out fantastically. Rafael Perez? Tony Sipp? Whatevs.

And then the first major league save for Cody Allen. The first of what could be a whole heck of a lot if he has the makeup. He certainly has the stuff.

More importantly, it gives me another reason to once again bring up the fact that we need to be calling him Cody "The Loose Cannon" Allen. Two reasons. One, it rhymes, so it's perfect. Two, because of this.

That is all..

Since we're praising the bullpen, you need to give the best shout out to Bryan Shaw, who pitched two marvelous shutout innings in relief of McAllister. Who knows if the Indians have this chance without him going out there and doing that. Too bad you can't pick a reliever to give a win to, because he probably deserved it a little more than Joe Smith, who was great in the ninth, but Shaw got them through that early on and kept them in it.

Ryan Raburn looked incredibly pissed after Porcello pegged him early on. Like someone dumped his bowl of cereal or something.

Yan Gomes was 3-for-4 and it seems like he does nothing but hit. And throw people out. And call a great game behind the plate. And oh you know, just be awesome.

Reynold's pink shoes weren't the only new pink thing in MLB games on Mother's Day this year. There was pink sleeves, pink lapels, and pink stitching on the baseballs. Incredible.

[DON'T TALK ABOUT IT, DON'T EVEN BREATHE ABOUT IT]

Part of me just wants to ignore whatever it is Ubaldo Jimenez is doing. Not watch his starts, not pay attention to anything he does, not even acknowledge him on here.

It's like walking into a shop with glass trinkets all around. I don't want to do it just out of overly cautious concern about knocking something down and seeing it shattered to pieces. Don't hand me that baby, because I just don't want to take a chance in dropping it. Oh, you want me to congratulate Ubaldo on his performance? No thanks, I'll just jinx him anyway.

Poor guy can't win. Gets bashed when he's bad, gets ignored when he's good. This is what it has come to though. It is like Ubaldo is a glass baby. I don't want to touch him out of fear he shatters to pieces. So I'm just gonna go over here and forget he exists.

"I've been able to go out there for the last three or four games and compete," Jimenez said, "and give the team a chance to be close on the scoreboard. I think it's all about my mechanics. The last three games I've been able to repeat my mechanics on every pitch."

Just keep doing that. I'll acknowledge you at the end of the season.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

It's going to be Trevor Bauer on Monday in the second game of the double-header against the Yankees. He'll get recalled for the one game using that 26th man rule, which is so good for the Indians in this current situation with Pestano out and the bullpen a little thin and an extra-innings game the day before.

It seems a little crazy to be using a top-flight pitching prospect like Bauer as your spot starter in these situations, which he has been used quite frequently in just a month and a half of work. But the Indians have actually broached the subject with Bauer and made sure it was something he is comfortable with.

"Chris was just down there the last three days and visited with him for a pretty long time," Francona said. "Part of the conversation was, I think he asked, 'Do you think this hinders your development?' Because that's the last thing we want to do. And he was all on board with this. As long as he can handle it, I think it's good for his development, as long as he doesn't view it as an interruption."

To me, I don't think Bauer is going out there and pitching any differently. It seems like he knows he is out the adjusting stuff and figuring it out. Perhaps as if he knows he is a "reconfiguration mode" that needs to be completed without interruption. So if the Indians are willing to deal with that on the major league level in a spot-start basis, doesn't seem to be bothering Bauer.

I guess you can count me as not the only one who noticed Scott Kazmir's velocity increase. The Indians noticed and even went back and looked. Pitching coach Mickey Callaway says Kazmir hasn't hit the mid-90s fastball in a game since 2009. Kazmir noted that he started pitching angry after he gave up that lone home run in the sixth.

"Those were some angry throws right there after that home run," Kazmir said. "I feel like a light bulb went off with how I was throwing it, how I was behind the ball and getting through it. Hopefully I'll keep it going."

Hey as long as he isn't hurting himself, he can throw angry all the time. He doesn't have to hit that consistently though as we've seen before that. If he's sitting around 91-92, he's going to be effective because of the way he's moving the ball around and throwing his secondary stuff.

Bourn being back in the lineup this weekend let the Indians flash that potent order to the fullest with Bourn leading off, Kipnis following and so on and so forth. Terry Francona admitted he was being "stubborn" with Jason Kipnis and Asdrubal Cabrera early, saying he wanted to split the lefties. Now he has Cabrera hitting third because he thinks that's where those two guys are more comfortable hitting. You know both will say they don't care, but just looking at it makes more sense, lefty/righty split be damned.

Bourn was out of the starting lineup on Sunday for a day off coming off his layoff and with a double header on Monday, so Michael Brantley was atop. Just need to mention these stats as a "tip of the cap" for Brantley during Bourn's absence. Hitting leadoff this year, Brantley was sitting at .310/.356 with a .772 OPS, 12 runs and two steals. He did a great job filling in and a big reason the offense was able to take off while Bourny was out. That needs to be mentioned.

The two hurt pitchers, Brett Myers and Vinnie Pestano resumed throwing this weekend. Myers on Saturday to Lou Marson and Vinnie Pestano on Sunday back in Cleveland. Myers will be with the team in Philadelphia, his old stomping grounds, to throw around the team. Obviously Vinnie takes less time in his return program, but we'll see how they progress this week.

Lonnie Chisenhall is struggling. He had that horrendous error that led to the extra run and put a lot of undue pressure on McAllister on Sunday, and Rick Manning even mentioned that he thinks the offensive struggles are now creeping into the way he plays defense.

Hey, that could be the case. Chisenhall was hitting well earlier in the season and Tito had been more likely to use him against a left-hander here and there. But with the way Reynolds is playing and now with Bourn back, I think you can pretty much guess that Chiz sits when a lefty pitches. And when there's a situation late, he's going to get yanked.

"He's just gotten himself into a little bit of a rut," Francona said. "You see him getting fastballs that he's normally all over and he's fouling them over the third-base dugout. ... He's a couple games away from being nice and respectable."

-
"A little bit," Francona said. "Early in the season, I didn't want to pinch-hit for Lonnie, because I thought I want to let guys kind of play, get their feet wet and not look over their shoulder. Now that we're into the season a little bit, I think you can start doing some things off the bench a little bit more."

First off, Francona did something that I've KILLED Acta and Wedge for for years. Taking a guy like Chisenhall out of a situation late in the game. You gotta do it sometimes, let them try and get the confidence, or establish the proof that they can get it done, especially with a young team. But this is a winner right now, so I don't blame Francona for now switching up his methodology and going with the matchups that make sense.

Secondly, Chisenhall is still young. He needs to play at this level, so there's no reason to be sending him down. He has nothing to prove at Triple-A and if you do that, you are only furthering his development and potentially risking him to be damaged. Let's not turn him into Matt LaPorta. Let's let him stay up here and hit. He can do it at this level, he just needs to go back and make an adjustment like all major league hitters have to learn to do.

The beauty? The Indians can afford to do this. Why? For one, they can most definitely sit him against lefties with all the options they have, getting guys like Giambi, Aviles, or Raburn more than just backup time. And they can afford to see him figure things out otherwise because he's hitting eighth in a loaded lineup that's producing.

Guys are going to struggle. It happens. Lonnie is going through a growth stretch. He'll be better for it if the Indians let him go through it and take his lumps. As I said, there is nothing left for him to learn in Triple-A. He needs to learn how to re-adjust to major league pitchers adjusting to him. This has to happen. He can't make defensive blunders like the one on Sunday though. That was downright atrocious.

Credit to Terry Francona for saying something that a lot of us in the Cleveland Indians amateur blogging community have been saying for sometime. Maybe now some people will listen.

"Everybody keeps talking about, 'Let's get back to where it was in the '90s.' That's not fair. The city's not where it was in the '90s. These people have hit some hard times. I don't show up and rate our fans by attendance. I want our team to play good baseball. I know that when I walk around downtown, which I do a lot, people are excited and they're friendly."

This is not the '90s, that's never going to happen again. So there's two people that need to get over that. The ones who are not attending because of it, and the ones who are blaming those people because of the '90s. I used to be in that latter group. I get it now. It isn't the 1990's, the glory days are over, the Browns are back and the Indians are not the top draw.

I think the 8, 9, 10-thousand number crowd draws are a little poor. But at least it isn't some of the 5, 6-thousand number draws we've seen. I understand it. I don't like it. Those are unacceptable. But early on it's going to be around 10,000 for the most part. As Francona would also note. It's cold and school is still in session. People are graduating. There are other things people are doing and occupied with. Things will pick up.

The only thing that I can now sit here and hope for is that things pick up a little more than last year because of the team's enthusiasm and the way they are playing. It has to be a little more real last year.

But I guess I'll let those fans that want to wait be the judge.

Indians Hot Play May Be More Than Just a Streak

2013-05-10T11:03:00.001-04:00

Not much has changed since we last talked. The swelling in my face has gone up and come back down in the span that the Indians swept the A's and have won four straight.

And to be quite honest, I spent a large part of my three days recovering watching the Indians at night. I did a lot of day naps so passing the time was hard, until the Tribe came on. So the fact that they were winning was a good thing.

Who knows how painful that would have been.

I still have some chipmunk features and there's a little pain, but I'm getting back into the routine. I could have just waited til Monday and took the entire week, but that seems like an awfully long time to not say something about the way this team is playing. So I'm going a little throwback here and doing this a way I haven't really done in awhile. You all know the 9-2 win yesterday, blah blah sweep, 10 of the last 12 for wins, just a game and a half out of first place, yada yada.

There are just some astonishing things going on with this club right now and I'll try to get to all of them.

[NEXT MAN UP]

Where did this starting pitching come from? Seriously, this isn't just a few good fluke starts here and there, there's some consistency starting to get established. Is this a case were Jeanmar Gomez and Derek Lowe got good for a month?

No, this is all five guys in the rotation, going out night after night and putting up winning efforts. Right now the Indians sit at a starting ERA of 4.50 with a 14-14 record in 32 games. They've pitched 184 innings and have five shutouts.

Since Kluber's game on Sunday night in the double header against Kansas City, these are the starter's numbers: 2.50 ERA, 9-1, 70.1 innings pitched, 3 shutouts. Seven of those 11 starts have been quality starts and two of those that weren't were just an out away from being quality starts. McAllister, Kazmir, and Ubaldo have all gone 2-0 and this is probably the most incredible part.

Of the 20 earned runs surrendered in the 11 games, Masterson has surrendered eight of them. Are you kidding me! That's almost half of the runs. The Indians best pitcher is responsible for almost half of the runs the Indians have given up in 11 games.

Did the A's just not play good offensively? I mean what's the deal here? Even after the Indians held them to eight runs in four games, the A's are still the major league leaders in runs scored. They're technically the best offensive team in the game. And Kazmir strikes out 10, McAllister almost goes eight shutdown, even Ubaldo is pitching well. What is going on here?

And I'm not going to say this in regards to Ubaldo, because he needs to double it as far as I'm concerned...but when you do something once, that's cute, prove you can do it again. You do something twice, now I'm starting to pay attention.

You do something a third time, then, look out, there's something real there. The Indians have gone through the rotation twice and will begin the third turn with the Tigers tonight. And good thing because they are an offense that you can certainly test yourself against.

If they go through it a third time, especially against the Tigers and a Yankee team that scored 25 runs in two games in early April, then there's something real here. This will be a true test as to where the Indians pitching staff may actually be. Doing it against the Phillies, Twins, and Athletics is nice. But regardless of the A's standing as an offensively big team, they do it with less. The Tigers?

They can be lethal. They've got serious batters in there from start to the end of their lineup. Nothing against Eric Sogard, but nine times out of ten he was an easy out for that pitching staff and he wasn't even the A's worst hitter in the four games.

So point being, we'll see how this rotation continues to pitch as a whole, but individually, there's a lot to like.

Zach McAllister: What's different with Z-Mac? Looking like the sudden development of a splitter/forkball/offspeed pitch of sorts. Whatever the pitch is that he has started throwing (as recently as a few weeks ago) has worked, especially in neutralizing the left-handed hitters.

"I was openminded. It felt pretty comfortable, so I stuck with it," McAllister said. "It's just another pitch I can have at my disposal. Having too many pitches can be a bad thing, but if you use it in the right situations, it can be to your advantage."

Francona has noted that McAllister is a quick learner, point proven in that it was in spring that the pitching coaches suggested it during the spring and he only in the past few weeks started throwing it in games after developing it in some side sessions.

It's working. Along with all the other stuff. The thing that I love most about McAllister is that he throws strikes. He gets ahead early and throws strikes when he needs to so he doesn't have to worry about walking many people. He is almost never in bad situations with the count, and when he does walk people, it seems to just come really quickly. Almost as if he is doing it on purpose, pitching around a hitter, not giving them a real good pitch to hit, but hoping they foolishly get themselves out.

The point is, the guy knows how to pitch. He's a purposeful pitcher, which is why the new pitch is working so well. He's using it with a purpose and the purpose is effective.

So does Mac have some staying power? Absolutely. This is not a Jeanmar Gomez flash in the pan. This is the development and emergence of a more than capable starting pitcher.

Photo - Getty Images via Zimbio

Scott Kazmir: And there's this guy... Is this guy really back? Remember the days when Kazmir would strike out 10 in a single game? Yeah, he did that against the A's on Thursday and um. The last time he did that it was 2009.

"I just feel comfortable, and I feel confident out there," Kazmir said. "And I feel like it's going to get better and better."

Guys, this man used to be an ace. When he was at his best, he was the best and most nastiest pitcher on a staff. He is not that same pitcher, but he looks to at least be some part of that pitcher he used to, with a more rounded approach to pitching. Kind of like McAllister, as he is pitching with a purpose. His command is there, he seems to have his velocity back, at least at times when he's hitting 94 on the gun, and his secondary stuff is just doing its job.

I can't help but get excited that he is going to continue to be a viable pitcher for this team this season. I want to buy into him being back. I want to buy into this reformation so bad. I'm cautious to not fully give in and start counting on him, because you can't do that after two starts.

But a few more and you have to start believing in what's happening here. What's happening here may be pretty special.

Ubaldo Jimenez: I'm just going to keep quiet. Keep doing it Ubaldo...

I do need to say one thing. Is this guy's velocity coming back? He's not hitting 99 or 100, but the dude is at 97 at times. Which is a far cry from the 90-91 he was sitting with his fastball at times. He's getting it back up there. Obviously he's also not walking everyone in sight, but a somewhat consistent Jimenez is a more effective Jimenez than the one that was walking six guys a game and exiting after two incomplete innings.

Next man up people, next man up.

[WHERE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE AT?]

The big question that has been raised, especially after this last home stand with the Indians playing really well is a simple one, and one that seems to be asked all the time. Where are the fans?

In the past, I've stomped my feet and breathed fire to everyone. But I'm done.

I get it. The Indians can say that this is a "Tribe Town" all they want. It very well may be a Tribe Town, but it is more of a Brown Town than a Tribe Town or a Cavs Town. It is all three of those things, but first and foremost, it is a Browns Town and that is something I've resigned myself to.

So I'm not going to fight it. This fan base can be very loyal, they used to be when the Indians were virtually the only show in town. But this town loves football and that's where they are going to spend the bulk of their free money.

Why is the attendance down? I'm not sure why it is slightly down. But I know why it is not very good. Yes they made signings, yes they paid money, yes they are playing well. Virtually no reason to not be attending, especially this week with good weather. Why are less than 10,000 fans attending these games?

Its just how it is here in Cleveland. Get used to it. April and May are not very good months for attendance regardless of weather, team, performance, etc. This has been the trend the past few years, so we might as well just adhere to it and stop wondering.

So yeah, Jon Heyman is asking what's the deal and says there's no good reason for the lack of fan attendance.

And yes, he's right, in a way. But this is Cleveland. This is how it goes. When summer returns for real and kids are out of school, and people have nothing better to do, they'll go to games.

I haven't been to a game myself, so I'm in no position to judge. Granted, I have financial and time reasons as to why I haven't attended a game (one of the two have gotten in the way at any opportunity for me to go). But this is Cleveland and as much as the Indians want to tell us about how it is a Tribe Town, it really is not. At least not as much as it is other towns.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

Peter Gammons suggested that Angel Hernandez simply "ignored" instant replay and went with what he originally saw and believed to be the correct call. Or that he didn't use it at all because he doesn't want replay to be a part of the game.

The thing that is annoying to me is that the suggestions floating around that the MLB should force the teams to resume the game at 4-4 and play it out. I don't want to say "you can't do that" because you can do that. It has been set before as a possible thing to do if something is so egregiously decided that a call was completely blown.

But how does that prevent these instances from happening in the future? I was joking around on Twitter when I said you need to threaten these umpires by lighting them on fire. But I'm also not really joking. Seriously, you need to start holding them accountable for things. Until you do that. Angel Hernandez is going to continue to ignore replay and act like he cannot be overruled.

This is Indians, all Indians, all the time. Very rarely will I go onto rant about MLB-related issues, until the Indians are involved. But this isn't a total Indians issue, so I'm not going to dig really deep into it. I think that is where we are at with these umpires in baseball. It isn't a replay issue, it isn't a technology issue, it is a personal and personnel issue. Time to start clamping down on these umpires, or this will continue. Not all of them are ridiculous, but a lot of them are showmen, or else they wouldn't have animated strike calls or anything like that.

The number one rule for any sort of official is to not attract attention away from the game. MLB umpires do it with regularity and sometimes intentionally.

Michael Bourn is returning today. How's this going to impact the team? It certainly is a good thing, but it will be interesting to see how this lineup now changes with the potent leadoff capabilities Bourn brings to the table. You get to shift Brantley back to the middle of the lineup, push everyone else down, give it more length.

It means a decrease in playing time for Ryan Raburn, who's simply been rakin', but that's a good thing. It was nice to ride a hot Raburn, but he's not a regular all year, he's a bench player. A really good bench player, but an okay starter. He'll still be in there though, at least early on with a double header next week and Bourn only having a few rehab outings.

Bourn's back, and that's really really really good for the Indians.

Vinnie Pestano should be back rather soon, not long after he had to be placed on the disabled list for elbow soreness. Shriek at elbow soreness, you always should. But the good news is that it was a retroactive placing and he's eligible to return by Thursday and it doesn't seem like it will take very long for him to return as he could have pitched Monday.

But, better safe than sorry. And with the way the bullpen is going, you can afford to see someone like Pestano get fully healthy then having to push him out there. Nick Hagadone came up and got it done in a big spot, the starters are going deep enough that Joe Smith can safely take care of the eighth inning, and the other guys like Allen and Shaw are doing a good job.

I'm not sure Manny Acta would have tolerated someone throwing sunflower seeds on him during an interview. He might have laughed, but then he might have smuggled the person behind the scenes. Very nice guy and very "lively" when he's on camera, but I got the feeling he rubbed guys the wrong way behind the scenes. And I think that is why Francona is so effective.

He's the same guy in front of the camera, away from the camera, on the field, in the clubhouse, off the field, whatever.

So when someone throws sunflower seeds on him, he knows it's all in good fun and Mike Aviles knows he'll have fun with it.

That's what's making this team look so good and so fun to watch.

Finally, someone needs to get me a GIF of Nick Swisher saying "WOW" after the Mark Reynolds home run against Jarrod Parker earlier this week. Because as good as it is to watch him do the Fresh Prince dance in the dugout, I feel like I could use the WOW more effectively.

[BRO OF THE MONTH]

This of course leads me to the fact that Nick Swisher's first Bro of the Month has been decided on.

There was some poll malfunctioning, so I apologize to anyone who had any issues. But malfunctions aside, Carlos Santana had enough votes from Twitter, Facebook, and the site poll to garner the first honors for April. That GIF is for you Carlos. Because you are a Bro... A Bro of the month.

Morning Rundown: Streaking Into Sunday, Indians Fall in Series Finale

2013-05-06T07:30:00.000-04:00

Today was the day I have been dreading for awhile. Perhaps, years... I didn't think it would ever come.

Today I'm getting my wisdom teeth out. Depending on when you are reading this, I may be currently in surgery or passed out in my bed hoping to wake up without any sort of agonizing pain. Or you are reading it so quickly after it posted that I'm actually just awake roaming around nervously before my surgery.

Either way, I'm not looking forward to this experience as everyone has a story, and none of those stories involve anything other than some sort of pain or discomfort.

Of course you didn't come here for me to tell you about my teeth, but I did feel I should share that tidbit, as it means I will be out of action here for a few days. It shouldn't prevent you from voting for Bro of the Month though, because you only have a few days for that.

So, the last rundown for, like maybe a day, two at the most I guess. I won't let a few teeth keep me down too long.

Photo - Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports

TWINS - 4 | INDIANS - 2
W: Mike Pelfrey (3-3)
L: Corey Kluber (2-1)
S: Glen Perkins (7)
[BOXSCORE]

Just wanna point some things out before we go any further.

5/5 Kluber: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 4 BB, 5 K
5/4 Kazmir: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 7 K
5/3 Masterson: 6.2 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 2 BB, 5 K
5/1 Bauer: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 6 BB, 5 K
4/30 McAllister: 7 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 4 K
4/29 Jimenez: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K
4/28 Kluber: 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 6 K

Alright so those were the last seven starts by Indians pitchers, the six game win streak and the game that ended it yesterday.

I mean shoot, the first thing is, wow, the starting pitching has brought it to the table in a big way.

The second thing is that Corey Kluber started the win streak, and while he may have ended it, it was in no way his fault. Kluber pitched just as well as other pitchers during the streak. The only one that didn't earn a win was Masterson and that is because the bullpen temporarily gave it away.

Kluber put in an effort worthy of winning had the offense played as out of their minds as they did in the previous six games. Score six, game over, Kluber does more than enough. The overall point is, The Klube is pitching well, very well in fact. The four walks were a little troubling, but it was the first four walks he's surrendered this year.

"I just missed with a lot of pitches," Kluber said. "The result was four walks and three runs. It could've been a lot worse with four walks."

He really made one mistake that ended up costing him and that was the home run that came after he gave up his first walk on four pitches in the second. He gave up another one in the sixth, but he was an out away from a quality start. Don't fault him for a good effort in this one. So yeah, four walks could have hurt more, but when you don't make mistakes, like some other pitcher we know does, then things will usually end up minimized, which he did.

And if he had some offensive help like the other games, we'd be sitting here talking about a 3-0 Corey freakin' Kluber.

Seemed kind of surprising that the Twins got it from Mike Pelfrey though, who is just a year removed from Tommy John surgery.

"Sometimes it's just not your day," Indians designated hitter Nick Swisher said. "We really just couldn't get anything going. Then again, hats off to Pelfrey. I think that's the best game he's pitched this year. He was reaching 95-96 mph. I haven't seen that all year. Good job for him. For us, we've got to forget about today and get ready for tomorrow."

Who knows what got into Pelfrey, but he was very aggressive early. Perhaps knowing that the Indians were a bit of a patient team. Then when the Indians starting jumping on him being aggressive early on, he played with them. Got them swinging at some pitches they probably don't normally swing at. Overall it probably was not the Pelfrey the Indians expected to see, the one that struck out seven hitters and walked just one is a huge different to the one who has been walking at least two a game and striking out no more than two hitters.

In fact, he doubled his strikeout total in just that outing. He hadn't ever made it out of the sixth and gave up on average five-plus hits a game. In this one? Six innings, less than five hits, just one walk and doubled the strikeouts.

It happens. A pitcher has a good game, things don't fall your way. Tito makes a good point though. As long as the starter is giving you a chance, that's all you can really ask for.

"There's been times when maybe we haven't got a runner over, but then the next hitter gets a base hit. We've extended innings, for the most part, and we've taken advantage of that. You put yourself in a position to win. That's the best thing you can do. You're not always going to win, but if you give yourself a chance, more often than not, you'll be OK."

And more times than not, if you give yourself a chance to win, you will win, like the Indians had been doing all week until Sunday. A shame the streak had to end, but the way the offense has been going, things should turn around and pick right back up. Stay cool.

Random Notes...

How about the run that six game win streak was? The offense was absolutely on fire. So much so they did some things they haven't done in awhile. In those six games they had at least six runs and 12 hits. The last time the Indians scored six runs or more in six straight games? 1935. You know you have done something incredible when it has been 78 years since your franchise last did something.

The Indians almost extended the streak to seven with a comeback win. Santana, who didn't have the greatest series until Sunday, busted out in this one and then clobbered a Glen Perkins offering over the little monster in left. Ryan Raburn fights his way on and the drama intensifies.

I think going for Aviles was the right move, as Chisenhall probably doesn't need to be in there against the lefty in a tight spot like that. Aviles makes more sense. Surprised it wasn't Giambi, but when your dealing with just the tying run, I could see wanting the quicker guy on if he makes it. Aviles put up a good at-bat and I'd rather go out fighting than without a whimper.

Nick Swisher looked a little befuddled at the plate in his 0-for-4 game with two strikeouts.

Asdrubal Cabrera had probably the most brilliant, yet incredibly stupid plays of the afternoon when he stole third in the fourth. He was dead to rights on the throw AND the tag, but he made a great move to avoid it with his hand and he ended up safe. It was downright silly to be doing that with Reynolds at the plate and him not being 100% sure he could take the bag.

But it worked out because Cabrera being on third with less than two outs changed the complexion of that at-bat. It let Reynolds look for something he could drive deep enough because he knew it would score a run. He did exactly that and just missed a 3-1 fastball that was almost hit into orbit had Reynolds made contact.

How about the two frames from Scotty Barnes? Four strikeouts, no baserunners, impressive two innings.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

Sorry if this rundown seems more like the Injury rundown.

In an effort to talk non-injury news, might as well mention the two wins on Friday and Saturday. It was the first win in two freaking years, 958 days to be precise, for Scott Kazmir. Two years man! September of 2010. It was comical of someone (cough Sheldon Ocker cough) to ask him if he remembered the last time he won a ballgame. OF COURSE HE DOESN'T! Why would he? It has been so long and do you really think a pitcher keeps track of his wins.

He just knows he's had a hell of a journey to get back to this point and boy did he look reaaaaaal good on Saturday. He was moving the ball, had some surprising good velocity on his fastball, and had used his change-up to perfection.

"Throughout everything I've been through so far, you have to be mentally tough," Kazmir said. "I'm a little bit more mature now. I turn the page and keep attacking hitters. When you're young out there, you want to be perfect. If one thing goes wrong, it can just snowball into something way worse. I figured that out and am going out there a little bit more relaxed. I know what I need to do. I know what I'm capable of doing. It's just [a matter of] executing."

Couldn't happen to a better guy who's worked really hard. And hopefully he can build off that start, because he looked fan-freaking-tastic. Everything about his start was impressive and the Indians can really stand to have someone like him do that all year long.

The Drew Stubbs walk-off hit on Friday was the second of the season for the Indians and his first as an Indian. He was able to smash three doubles on the night, which doubled his season total.

Important to note that Stubbs has continued his trend of righty/lefty splits. Career he is a .228 hitter off right-handers and .283 against left-handers. This season he is hitting .226 against the righties and .359 against the lefties. Both his homers have come against lefties and while he was 2-for-2 against their starter Hernandez (lefty), two doubles late came off the righty relievers, including the winner of Fien.

I think the most perplexing part of Friday's game against the Twins was the use of Cody Allen in the seventh inning. After Masterson was chased from the game, the Indians went into their bullpen and used someone they don't usually use in that situation.

Up one run, Allen was called upon, which begged of curiosity, what in the wide world of sports did Joe Smith do? Or is Cody Allen just getting more respect from manager Terry Francona that he is coming on to get just one out in a close game?

Answer: None of the above. Turns out it would be more apparent the next night when the Indians were once again faced with using their bullpen in the seventh inning of a game they led. Bryan Shaw would be the man Tito turned to and it was all because Joe Smith was actually being held out to be used in the eighth inning.

That's the last thing you want to hear, because it means Vinnie Pestano isn't available, which is currently the case as he battles through a sore right elbow.

I take that back. THAT is the last thing you want to hear, sore elbow. No one wants to hear sore elbow, not with a pitcher who throws with his right arm.

Pestano says he feels better after playing catch on Sunday, but that a disabled list stint is not out of the realm of possibilities.

"The decisions aren't up to me right now," Pestano said. "I felt better than I thought I would after not throwing five of the last six days, and throwing long toss and in the bullpen [on Saturday]. I've done everything I can to try to get as healthy as I can as soon as possible. It's just day-to-day right now."

If he can prove he's okay by the time Bourn is going to be activated, which we'll touch up on a second, he will probably avoid it. If not. You can't continue to go with a man down in the pen. Scott Barnes was recalled to be the extra arm there right now and he will be around until Bourn is ready to come back.

So, time is ticking there, hopefully the Indians dodge whatever bullet this could potentially be.

That roster situation we discussed last week in regards to Bauer and and needing an extra starter in a few weeks was pretty much ironed out.

To make room for Barnes, Ezequiel Carrera has once again been jettisoned as he was designated for assignment. Seems likely a team would claim him again, but maybe there are no spaces on the teams that would. Or maybe there is a team out there that wants to try and sneak him through. Who knows, poor guy. Zeke was around for two games, had a huge bunt on Friday and came up with a few hits on Saturday, including a RBI and a run scored.

Either way, he was temporarily filling in either way. Once Bourn was healthy, he was going. And the Indians will now be able to call upon Bauer in a few weeks when they have a double header against the Yankees, and they can use that 26th man rule to do so.

Unless of course things get all wacky.

Michael Bourn is scheduled to come back really soon after he completes a quick rehab assignment. He'll start with the Clippers on Monday and it should not take more than a few games for him to get things right and get back up with the big league club.

Keep waiting for Lou Marson to come back, it may be awhile. Seriously, not a single update in this little snippet about Marson. When you have "no clear timetable" on anything and Marson himself saying "Hopefully I can get going" to he can even think of playing... Oh boy.

And it turns out that this may be the overall root problem as to why Marson has declined defensively in throwing out runners, something he was way better at than Santana and just about every other catcher in the American League. His shoulder problems date back all the way to last year.

"Maybe, maybe not," he said. "Maybe it was just a down year. It started bothering me in the spring. I haven't felt the same in a couple years. I need to get back to where I'm at the top of the league again and feeling good."

Come again? A couple years? Why hasn't this issue been remedied by now? He's had an offseason to fix it, yet here he sits a hurt man. Is rest really the answer at this juncture if rest over an offseason didn't get it done? Perhaps he needs something cleaned up.

The way Yan Gomes is playing in Marson's place will not have the Indians rushing LouMar back behind the dish. You know they will let him take his time and get fully healthy.

The Indians will also continue to be overprotective in regards to their big time investment in Nick Swisher. The Swish returned to the lineup on Saturday and belted a home run in his first at-bat. But Swish missed three games with a sore shoulder and when he returned on Saturday, played DH in both that game and on Sunday.

And to round up this edition of the walking wounded, Brett Myers has resumed throwing. The Indians say he is still "weeks away" from returning, but he is making progress, which is nice. Myers says this issue is one he deals with every year, only it subsides much earlier than it has this season.

Today, I'll be wounded and fit right in. So it only makes sense.

Positive Swish: Stubbs! You Kiddin' Me?!

2013-05-04T11:00:00.000-04:00

I think that even though the Indians have won five straight, because they never even won more than four games in a row last year, we have a small reason to celebrate.

And while I thought we would be reserving Positive Swish for the occasions when we needed a pick-me-up, I think after I used him after the Indians destroyed the Astros too, all occasions are acceptable. Including walk-off victories and five game win streaks.

If anything, Positive Swish can turn the tide, or keep it moving positively in the right direction. So if it leads to six and even seven wins in a row, why not? And don't worry, I know the rest of the team might be getting jealous that there is Positive Swish and Bro of the Month, but none of them have run around on the field like an airplane.

So here we go. We've got our Nick Swisher upbeat message for you this weekend. Enjoy it and breathe in the positivity.

Because even though he is has been out the past three games with some soreness, a bro is never too hurt or injured to celebrate a big W. Hence the fact he was one of the first people out to high-five and then beat up Drew Stubbs after his walk-off double last night against the Twins.

Oh, Swish.

Bro, never ever pass up an opportunity to smile and celebrate! Get excited any chance you get. Sore shoulder? Stubby's hit was enough medicine to make it feel better. I might just be in the lineup today because of it. We have to keep this train rolling... Rolling? How about, Roll Tribe! Say it with me...WE.GOT.THIS!

We got this? Do we ever. Do we ever...

Bro of the Month: April 2013

2013-05-03T09:20:00.000-04:00

For the past few years, we've done this little thing around the blog were we've voted for the player of the month, every month.

It had a fancy title, because Manny Acta, the former manager, wore fedoras. It was a play off the idea of the "golden sombrero" only this was something you were okay with being saddled with.

Manny Acta is now gone though, so to continue the tradition of having a Manny Acta Golden Fedora of the Month would be really, weird. And awkward.

So the search began for months after Acta's dismissal as to what would happen. Would we abandoned the concept completely? Would we choose a new person and unique trait about them to represent the award? Would we just call it Indians Player of the Month?

Anyone who knows me and this blog knows we can't just have a standard name or way of doing things, so that wasn't going to work.

Then Nick Swisher showed us how much of a bro he is, and thus, the idea was born.

April is over, so without further ado, here are your five candidates for April's Bro of the Month. Voting will commence at this juncture. You can vote over on the side via the site poll, on Facebook through The Tribe Daily page, or through Twitter by sending me a Tweet @TheTribeDaily using the hashtag, #BroOfTheMonth.

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Photo - AP via Yahoo! Sports

Mark Reynolds
April: .301/.368/.651, 8 HR, 22 RBI, 17 R, 1/1 SB
-Reynolds' month of April was the best of his career and he did something no other Indian has done offensively since the early 00's when Juan Gonzalez was a member of the team.

Carlos Santana
April: .389/.476/.722, 5 HR, 13 RBI, 16 R, 1/2 SB
-Santana currently leads baseball in average, on-base, and OPS. He's solidified the Indians middle of the lineup and if he doesn't get a big hit, he's usually trotting down to first.

Nick Swisher
April: .265/.386/.410, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 13 R, 0/0 SB
-Nick Swisher has been flipping between first and right field and while he hasn't had the numbers the other two offensive players here have, he is smack dab in the middle of the lineup. His presence has been huge.

Justin Masterson
April: 6 GS, 4-2, 3.12 ERA, 1.26 WHIP 40.1 IP, 39/17 K/BB
-Masty's had a few rough starts, but when he's on, he's been fantastic. The Indians number one has pitched like a number one at times and even has a complete game under his belt.

Zach McAllister
April: 5 GS, 2-3, 3.30 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 30 IP, 24/9 K/BB
-Steady but not spectacular, the Indians rotation would be in trouble if not for the consistency of Zach McAllister. While he doesn't have the record to support, he has been the most consistent starter the Indians have, and he hasn't been issuing many free passes either.

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Previous Nominees
April Nominees: M. Reynolds, C. Santana, N. Swisher, J. Masterson, Z. McAllister
Nomination Leader board: M. Reynolds (1), C. Santana (1), N. Swisher (1), J. Masterson (1), Z. McAllister (1)

Previous Winners
April: ?

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Vote now on the side in the poll, on Facebook, or via Tweet with the hashtag #BroOfTheMonth.

Morning Rundown: Rakin' Raburn, Walkin' Bauer, Winnin' Tribe

2013-05-02T09:01:00.002-04:00

I may have dreamed it. Yeah I think it definitely was a dream, because this actually wouldn't happen. Somehow I remember seeing a bunch of people picking the Indians to win the division or win a wild card spot.

Because I don't remember specifics, it had to be a dream, because I don't have any names, website, television network, or news source that I saw this on. Cleveland! In the playoffs, I said. What the heck are all these people doing now on the Indians bandwagon?

Photo - AP via Yahoo! Sports

So now the Indians have infiltrated my dreams. As much as I love our Tribe, I don't think I've ever had a dream that I remembered where the Indians were involved, so maybe something is speaking to me. Maybe there's something at play here that no one can control.

Maybe the tide is turning.

Or maybe I'm just crazy.

PHILLIES - 0 | INDIANS - 6
W: Trevor Bauer (1-1)
L: Cliff Lee (2-2)
[BOXSCORE]

Now look, fourth place has never looked so good as the Indians are just three games out of first place with their two-game sweep of the Phillies and the four straight they've pulled off. And baseball is so mish-mash right now, that the four games constitutes as baseball's hottest team. No wonder I'm dreaming, Indians fever is contagious, everyone is catching it.

Charlie Manuel put it precisely in as few words as possible. Things are going good right now.

How good? Enough to derail Cliff Lee, another former Cy Young winner, to improve their record against winners of that award to 4-1 this season.

Good enough to overcome a shaky six-walk outing by Trevor Bauer, even though he didn't give up a run and just one hit. There must be some sort of magic that overcame Bauer, because he was able to wiggle out of all instances of the trouble he put himself into.

"It was kind of interesting," Bauer said of Wednesday's effort. "Everything was working at points, but not everything all at the same time. For whatever reason, I lock in more when there's guys on base. I'm a really competitive guy. I don't like giving up runs. I need to do a better job of doing that when no one is on."

It shouldn't surprise you based off the fact that they had just three hits and no runs that they were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. The only surprising thing is the fact that they had 10 at-bats with runners in scoring position, but that's how much traffic Bauer was dealing with.

Bauer's five innings shaped out like this: He walked two people in the first and the fifth, with the fifth being a little more shaky considering the walks came to lead off the inning. There was other traffic, including a hit in the fourth paired with another walk, and a stolen base in the third, with the second inning being the only 1-2-3 frame for the youngster.

What's interesting is Mark Reynolds not sugarcoating what it was like playing being Bauer.

"The potential is there," Reynolds said of the young pitcher. "But it's frustrating playing behind him. He's all over the place. It's hard to find a rhythm, but he gets the job done. He got it done tonight for us. Hopefully he can harness what he has and be a little more consistent throwing strikes. That will come with time. He's still young. Hopefully he gets a couple more chances up here to help us out."

As long as he gets the job done right?

I mean Reynolds has a point, it is hard playing behind a guy who does that. He isn't putting guys on base via the hit, so the defense is pretty much stagnant. With five strikeouts, six walks and just one hit, that's 11 batters to just one that are not putting the ball in play. Throw in seven more outs via groundout and flyout and that's 11-8, with four of them being flyouts, that infield defense is probably frustrated.

Thankfully, they didn't make any errors, like the Phillies did, so it all turned out well.

"We're looking to get excited, but that's real stuff," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "And I think what maybe goes under the radar a little bit is how much he competes, because he's a quiet kid and doesn't say much. He really competes. I think that showed when there were runners on base."

So while the start against Tampa was a little depressing, it had much of the same stuff, only Bauer was able to buckle down when he needed it and get the outs. Not only that, his walks were a little more spread out. He still threw a lot of pitches, 93 in just five innings, but it is right in line with the 105 in five he threw against the Rays.

What's funny is that he now has just three hits surrendered in 10 innings, which is pretty good. But he also has 13 walks in 10 innings, which is downright scary. Either way, he kept the team in the game, which wasn't difficult the way the offense has been going, and eventually earned his first Indians victory, so all is well for now. He'll probably be on his way back to Columbus at this juncture as the Indians will go back to their five-man rotation with regular days ahead. But he could return in a few weeks when the Indians have a double-header scheduled for the 13th of May against the Yankees.

Plus it is more than 10 days from now, so they can send him down today without worrying about not being able to call him up on the 13th. All dependent on how Brett Myers turns out I guess.

The other story is the absolute human torch that Ryan Raburn is right now. His perfect night ended with a strikeout late in the game, but before that Raburn was 4-4 with two more RBI, a double and seven straight at-bats with a hit. He's now hitting .364 on the season and is a huge reason this offense has been able to do what they are doing without Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher.

Part of Bauer's success was also a play that Raburn made in the fourth when he made a nice catch in right field to take what was surely extra bases and perhaps a run away from Ryan Howard.

"That catch he made," Francona said, "we had a leadoff walk, it's the fourth inning, and the game's so close. That kind of changed things. He's been huge for us."

Throw in a huge night offensively and he's a one-man wrecking crew right now. Stay out of his way.

I'd also like to take this time to say that I appreciate the nicknames being thrown around, but they all sound like the true original that we've established for him. So tell your friends, it's RAKIN Raburn. Not Raging Raburn, or Rockin Raburn, or Ra-diculious Raburn. I mean, they're all pretty good, but Rakin' is the original and that's what he's doing right now.

Random Notes...

Quietly Michael Brantley has really stepped up in Bourn's absence by being the guy in the leadoff position. He's upped his average to .302 after a 3-for-5 night with a run scored.

Asdrubal Cabrera continues to come up with some clutch hits with a huge double that scored a pair in the third to really start the scoring. He and Aviles now have 24 RBI between them. How lethal is that?

Two more hits and another walk for Carlos Santana. His .395 average, .483 on-base percentage, and 1.194 OPS lead all of baseball. He's on another level right now. He's not just elite in terms of catchers, but perhaps all players.

Both he and Mark Reynolds have led the charge in the month of April, putting up numbers the Indians haven't seen in one month in a long time.

Last year, Reynolds notes he struggled with no homers in the month of April for Baltimore. Now he and Santana are among the best in the American League in offensive numbers and early candidates at their positions for All-Star consideration.

Great outing by the bullpen, which finally got to shine with Bauer going just five innings. Bryan Shaw had some issues with a few hits and a walk, but the rest of the pen buckled down and didn't let anyone on.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

Not sure how the Indians are going to handle this situation they've put themselves in with having to send Nick Hagadone down to make room for Bauer. As I mentioned, they could need another spot starter on the 13th, but they also cannot recall Hagadone for 10 days unless they place someone on the disabled list.

Considering that doesn't look to be happening anytime soon, they're in a position to where they may need to call up another reliever other than Hagadone or a position player. Tito said that they did not want to send Hagadone down, especially with how well he's been pitching and how the Indians would have two lefties in the pen if he were around.

But it is the roster bind they are in right now. If Michael Bourn were to be ready to come back, like today, it would work out pretty nicely, but that is not the case. Their 40 man options right now are very limited, but they do have Cord Phelps who they could call up until Bourn is ready to be activated. The only pitcher is Scott Barnes, but I'm not sure how that new "one day for double header" rule works in regards to the 10 day limit or if it still applies.

There is still no clear indication as to when Bourn will go out on his rehab assignment.

So where they go from here, should known soon. They could always just use Bauer out of the bullpen for the time being until they need him to start on the 13th, but I'm not really sure you'd want to do that with your prized starter. If the Indians are going to do something though, they'll do it relatively soon because of that 10 day rule.

Francona had the future of the season and beyond this season in mind in treating Nick Swisher carefully with his sore shoulder. And hey you won twice, so you were rewarded with that decision. Swisher sat out again on Wednesday, giving him three days off in a row with today's off day. He'll be back in there Friday.

"We're obviously going to lean on him all year and for years to come," Francona said. "I think what will happen is he'll take [Wednesday] off and [Thursday], too, and then he'll come back Friday and feel really good."

Can't really argue with that logic.

The head slide into first by Jason Giambi is still getting rave reviews. And it will continue to be immortalized with this awesome GIF, which so many people have spread around.

My favorite is the helmet positioning when he stands up. He almost looks like he's a cyborg.

GIambi said he felt like Mr. Potato Head... What?

"My parts were going everywhere."

Ohhhhhh.. Haha!

Brantley went as far as saying it was better than any of the seven home runs that were hit. He also went on to praise the awesome teammates Giambi has been. And how could you not feel that way? He's 42-years-old, he doesn't need to do that in a 14-2 ball game. But he did and THAT is why people respect him. He commands it, doesn't ask for it, doesn't need to ask for it or tell people to respect him. It's there, and that is huge.

"You know what?" Francona said. "If you're a young player, and after you watch that, you don't run a ball out, you should be humiliated. Anybody in baseball. I was so [darn] excited. That's just a guy that cares."

And there is nothing more true than that statement right there. Francona also noted that that play showed exactly how Giambi feels about the game. He cares so much.

Finally, Bastian notes that the Indians have 23 of their 36 home runs coming from the right-side, which is just 15 behind their ENTIRE total for 2012. Wow... Did this team need some right-handed pop or what?

Mini Rundown: Indians Ambush Halladay and Phillies, Pile Up Homers

2013-05-01T09:35:00.003-04:00

Speechless. Absolutely speechless as to what the heck is going on with this offense right now. Three days in a row now that this offense has suddenly erupted. And while beating up on a guy just called up from the minor leagues is one thing, getting to Wade Davis is another, absolutely ambushing Roy Halladay is a whole different story.

Photo - AP via Yahoo! Sports

I don't care if it is Roy Halladay's former self, a Halladay that is not as good as he used to be. It's still Roy Halladay, a capable major league starter even at this stage of his career.

The Indians made him look like Will Smith.

Who is this offense and where did they come from? Is this the offense that we all thought was possible when this lineup was assembled? I mean, I think it is what they are capable of, and that's without Bourn setting the table.

PHILLIES - 2 | INDIANS - 14
W: Zach McAllister (2-3)
L: Roy Halladay (2-3)
[BOXSCORE]

On the win over the Phillies, Jason Giambi pretty much summed up what I said right up there in a few shorter sentences.

"I think we're starting to get on that roll a little bit," Indians designated hitter Jason Giambi said. "We've pushed through the tough times and we're starting to play really well offensively. That game tonight, against Roy, that's unbelievable to have that type of game tonight against him."

So yeah, I'm not sure why I wasted the letters. So what I'm going to do now is just go through all the fun statistics from last night. Why not start from the top?

Michael Brantley's two-run homer came in the fifth inning off Chad Durbin. He was the last regular who had not yet hit a home run. So, welcome to the party Michael.

Jason Kipnis had a pair of hits and scored a run, and it is clear that he is starting to turn things around and regain his footing. He also stole his fifth base. Kipnis was quick to dismiss his one home run on Monday and looked toward stringing multi-hit games together, which he did last night.

"We're just looking at last year's videos right now," Kipnis said. "We're looking at last year's hits, what was going right, what was going well. I'm trying to get back to that swing. I'm just trying to shorten down the swing and get quicker to the ball."

Asdrubal Cabrera had a run of multi-hit games going, but that ended last night. No bother, he managed to knock in a pair of runs off a measly single. It wasn't one of the seven home runs hit last night, but it came at a time when the game was only 4-1 and Roy Halladay had two outs looking to get out of the frame. Cabrera's single not only scored a pair and extended the inning, it chased Halladay from the game before the fourth inning could even end. No telling where the game could have gone from there had Cabrera not come through. Cabby was the only starter to not score a run.

Carlos Santana had probably the best game of anyone in the game. Santana's lone hit was one of the home runs, a two run shot that started the party in the first inning (with two outs). He then proceeded to walk three times. He didn't score anymore runs, but he effectively made Halladay and the bullpen work extra hard by throwing more pitches and having to deal with him on base. Santana is in a different world right now.

Jason Giambi did not homer, nor did he knock in any runs, but he doubled and scored twice and had the comic relief of the evening when he dove into first base when he didn't even have to. Seriously, not only did Howard not attempt to throw the ball on the hit that ricocheted off Ryan Howard's glove, it was the eighth inning of 14-2 ball game. That's a ball player people. Giambi was the only starter to not knock in a run, but also the only one other than Santana to garner a walk.

Mark Reynolds upped his team leading RBI and HR totals with a two-run shot in the first inning, following Santana's shot a few batters later. He now leads the team with 22 RBI and eight home runs. According to Jordan Bastian, that is the most by an Indian in April since 2001, when Juan Gonzalez matched the HR total and knocked in 26 runs. What's the best about this? Historically Reynolds has only had one worse month, September where he averages .204/.307/.388. In April after this month he averages .230/.321/.476. It only goes up from here with the numbers for Reynolds in terms of his hot months.

Lonnie Chisenhall blasted his third of the year off Roy Halladay in the fourth inning, also a two run shot. He has now homered off Halladay, Lucas Harrell, and David Price. He didn't do anything else in the game, but the home run had some separation early on when the game was still close.

Ryan Raburn, or should I say, Rakin' Ryan Raburn, hit two home runs for the second game in a row. The last Indian to do that? Travis Hafner some nine years ago. Raburn said his homers come in bunches, and that bunch of homers is enough to last a month. He has upped his average in just two games from .214, which what he was hitting after the second game of the double header against Kansas City, 20 .320, which is where he stands now. His seven hits in two games is two less than his total before Monday. So there's that.

And finally, Drew Stubbs' 3-for-4 night was capped off by a solo shot, which immediately followed one of Raburn's two blasts, in the seventh inning. Stubbs stole his fourth base of the year, and scored three times total.

Two other at-bats were had, one by Mike Aviles who had a single, and Yan Gomes who hit into a double play with the bases loaded. Rats.

So what else can we dig up?

All but one of the Indians home runs came with two outs, meaning they hit six home runs with two outs and the number of two-out RBI in this one? 12, two less than the runs scored. That is some clutch hitting, regardless of the score.

All but two of the homers were two-run shots, so they were double the fun for the most part. The one thing the Tribe did not manage to do? Hit an eighth home run, which is the team record for most home runs in one game. It was set in 1997 against Milwaukee and matched in 2004 against Seattle. The seven homers was the most they've hit in Progressive Field though.

And the last time Roy Halladay gave up that many runs in so few innings? 2000 against the Indians.

Fear the Tribe.

Random Notes...

Oh yeah the Indians did have a starter go last night, despite not needing one. He said he had a lot of fun and his name was Zach McAllister. He went seven strong innings and gave up two solo shots. other than that he gave up five hits and a walk. He was as solid as solid can be, but that got lost in all the runs scored.

The name that was conspicuously missing from all that fun? Nick Swisher, who is usually in every sentence that contains the word fun, except for that previous sentence because I used it to set this sentence up. Anyway, Swisher was held out and will likely be held out on Wednesday too with a sore shoulder. Francona says it is a result of him switching so much between first and right field.

"His left shoulder has been nagging at him a little bit," Francona said on Tuesday. "We've been playing the heck out of him. I told him I'd give him tonight off. ... It wouldn't be a shocker if he doesn't play [Wednesday], either."

And after that, no need to force him in there.

Nick Hagadone walked a pair, but managed to wiggle his way out of the inning, playing magic man for the second straight night. And Matt Albers had a clean frame himself in the ninth inning.

In addition to the Swisher news, the Indians have a few other ailments. Michael Bourn will be starting a rehab assignment soon, but the date has yet to be determined. He was hitting off a tee yesterday and playing catch, so it could be within days at this point.

Brett Myers still has not begun throwing yet, but could after two weeks of rest which will be marked on Friday. Re-evaluation will happen at that point and he could begin slowly progressed throw a throwing program.

Morning Rundown: Oh Just Ubaldo, Taking Care of Business, No Biggie

2013-04-30T07:24:00.000-04:00

I sat here ranting and raving how I'd given up. I was waving the white flag and tapping out. I had seen enough of Ubaldo, I wanted nothing more to do with him. Regardless of what ended up happening, I had it. It was time to move on.

Photo - Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports

I'm not ready to take it back, because the minute I do that, whatever Ubaldo did on Monday to suppress his inner-Ewwbaldo will seep its way out.

What was last night? I have no clue, but it was certainly a welcomed site two and a half years in the making.

INDIANS - 9 | ROYALS - 0
W: Ubaldo Jimenez (1-2)
L: Wade Davis (2-2)
[BOXSCORE]

It quite frankly was the best start that Ubaldo Jimenez has ever made for the Cleveland Indians. He looked like a totally different pitcher, one capable of giving his team seven solid innings of no-run ball in which he moved the ball around effectively, pitched aggressively for strikes, and had a command of all his pitches.

He worked efficiently, both in actually getting the ball in pitching and with his pitch count, never really building the total up in one frame at any point. He was everything you need a pitcher to be. Did he have to bear down and strike out everyone? No and he was just as effective. Perhaps that is a lesson he can learn going forward.

Just one hit through seven innings, it wasn't until he was trotted out for the eighth that the Royals really started to get to him with a single and a double. But prior to that, just a Billy Butler infield single and two walks. Really? That's it? Tito said it best, there was so much to like.

"He had life on his fastball. He had all of his offspeed pitches working," Francona said. "Hitters, they had to respect everything he threw. You saw some rollover ground balls to first, some awkward swings, late on the fastball. There was just so much to like tonight."
I was kind of stunned. I didn't want to say anything at all out of fear that I would jinx whatever it was going on. Even though the no-hitter was gone in the fourth, I feared touching or even glancing at the screen when he was pitching out of fear that it would disturb the earth and something bad would happen.

But it never did and while he did start to run out of gas in the eighth when Francona brought him back out, Nick Hagadone did a masterful job in dancing his way out and letting Ubaldo get through this one with no runs given up and just a few blemishes in the other columns.

Here's how effective Ubadlo was. He ran the count to 0-2 right off the bat six times out of the 25 batters he faced. Three more times the count went full, which means to 16 other batters, he was still in good counts, and counts with low amounts of pitches. He didn't go to a full-count until the fifth and his one walk of Cain early on? It was on four pitches.

Jimenez was as solid as solid can be early on through the first five innings of this one. He got a few good defensive plays, and was a Cabrera specialty away from keeping his no-hitter, but largely was effective because he wanted to be. Ubaldo said that the extra couple of days he got because of the rain-out and doubleheader helped him.

"That felt really good out there," said Jimenez. "Those extra couple days really helped my arm. I was able to throw everything for a strike."

For future reference, he won't get extra days off, so he better find a way to make it so he can still perform with the customary number of days in-between starts. It is kind of mystifying that he did so well after a longer layoff though, considering his main problem has been repetition of mechanics and staying in-tune. How did he manage to do that with a few extra days?

Point blank, he's an enigma.

I was most impressed with how quickly he worked. The game last just over two and a half hours, which is a credit to Jimenez and the pace he kept because lord knows when the Indians were batting, it was taking some time because of all the runs they scored.

So a big tip of the cap to Ubaldo and whatever part Mickey Callaway is playing in what just happened. Hopefully it continues to stick and Jimenez can make us eat words.

"You're always looking to be encouraged," manager Terry Francona said. "I think we flew past encouraged and got excited."

I'm not ready to jump on quite yet though. He needs to show that consistency to remain slightly trustful. I would caution to jump on the excited train. It is encouraging and it was fun to watch and it makes us hopeful. Looking at Alcides Escobar say "Wow, incredible" in regards to Ubaldo is great. It wasn't some fluke, he had the other team befuddled. He didn't simply waltz his way through those seven innings, he was dominant.

But we can't get excited about it yet. It was exciting to watch, but don't go getting excited that he's doing this every time out, not until he does it five times in a row. But even then that would be risky.

It was nice and hopefully this story is not over, but I'm skeptical to say the least.

Random Notes...

I guess the afterthought is the offense, even though they scored nine runs and banged out 14 hits. Michael Brantley (who doubled twice), Asdrubal Cabrera, Mark Reynolds, and Ryan Raburn all had multi-hit games, with Cabrera collecting his third in two nights.

But it was Raburn's blast in the sixth inning that opened things up big time and topped off that big frame. He added a solo shot later to up his RBI total from 1 to 5. I was dogging him earlier thinking that the way he was swinging the bat was enough reason to consider making some sort of move down the road if that continued and Yan Gomes finds a way to continue to hit. Put that on hold I guess.

Raburn's homer was his first this year and first since mid-May of last season.

Remember all ya'll who wanted to do something or other to Jason Kipnis? Shows you that ya need to be patient with a young hitter in the first month. He deserves as much, especially after the homer and walk on Monday.

Carlos Santana with another two-out RBI hit in this one. He just continues to do great things in the clutch and leads the American League in a lot of impressive categories.

Kudos to Nick Hagadone for his inning of work, coming in with two on and nobody out. He not only gets out of it without damage, he strikes out a pair.

Key at-bat offensively in that sixth inning was Mark Reynolds getting the single with two outs to keep that rally going. Without his hit, Santana doesn't come up and Raburn can't hit the homer. Sure the Indians had gone up 3-0 at that point before it, but they had been letting Wade Davis off the hook all night.

More Ubaldo Notes...

This was the first time since last September since Ubaldo went seven innings or more. It was the first time since June 10th of last year since he went seven innings and giving up one run or less. And it was the first time since May 6th that he went at least seven innings and didn't give up a run.

It was also the most strikes he has thrown in seven innings since August 10th of 2011 when he faced Detroit and went eight innings and threw 117 pitches, 74 of them for strikes. His strike percentage last night was 67%, which is exactly what you are looking for.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

And suddenly, Asdrubal Cabrera is heating up. You know we knew this was coming sooner or later. Cabrera always hits a streak and he is in the midst of it right now.

"He really knows how to play the game," Francona said. "By that, I mean he sees the field really well. Whether it's moving up on a ball or going first to third. Those types of players, it's like they've got [more than two] eyes. It's a big compliment. He's got a good baseball clock."

And now look. Between him and Santana, they're starting to carry the offense. Mark Reynolds is a nice piece and the Indians were scoring when he was carrying things, but with those two guys on? Look how potent that group is. Imagine how effective they will start to look when Bourn returns and is integrated into this situation.

Speaking of, on his own accord, Michael Bourn will be headed out on a rehab assignment shortly.

"It's about time to discuss it," Bourn said. "I'm tired of sitting down. Hopefully, I can try to get back quick, but at the same time be smart about it. I don't want to go in there and it's not ready and I have a setback. So far, I haven't had any setbacks.'

So the Indians will probably send him out on one so he can get his footing back and when he returns to the club, he's ready to go full-out. He probably also wants to knock off any rust stepping into the box since he hasn't really been able to do that at all with the finger injury.

In other finger news, Chris Perez had X-rays on his thumb following that ball that he tried to catch with his pitching hand on Sunday. Perez said he'll be good to go despite some bruising. He finished the inning, a meaningless one at that, so not sure there is much of an issue.

And of course, as predicted, Trevor Bauer was a healthy scratch in yesterday's Columbus game against Pawtucket. He'll start on Wednesday for the Indians and could be in line for more than one start depending on the Myers situation.

Morning Rundown: Indians Split Doubleheader with Royals, But KC Gets Klubbbered

2013-04-29T07:37:00.000-04:00

Friends, the Kansas City Royals actually have some pitching. Cleveland will leave Kauffman Stadium without having James Shields, pretty odd for a four game series, but if that statement doesn't tell you anything, you must not be paying attention to what is going on in KC.

The Royals have pitching, and we didn't even see James Shields.

The ROYALS HAVE PITCHING!

It was a stark contrast this weekend. Sure there's one more game and while the Indians can still split, you tell me which team deserves to be leading the division right now and which one has the potential staying power.

Hint: my answer is not Cleveland.

The difference? The Royals pitching is near the top in the American League. The Indians? Well, the rotation is at the bottom.

Photo - AP via Yahoo! Sports

INDIANS - 0 | ROYALS - 9
W: Jeremy Guthrie (3-0)
L: Justin Masterson (4-2)
[BOXSCORE]

INDIANS - 10 | ROYALS - 3
W: Corey Kluber (2-0)
L: Will Smith (0-1)
[BOXSCORE]

So according to some stats that the great Tom Hamilton was rattling off during the first game on Sunday, only nine pitchers have ever won five games in April twice or more in their career.

Justin Masterson had an opportunity to join the likes of Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez in that club and become the 10th pitcher ever. He was stopped short of that and will finish April with a 4-2 record.

That's it. That's all the Indians have. And on Sunday afternoon, he got battered around by the Royals lineup. The Indians best pitcher struck out nine hitters, but he gave up nine hits to match that total and tacked on four walks for good measure.

And before I even get into it, I need to continue to point out Masterson's continued struggle against the left-handed parts of these lineups.

Alex Gordon - 1-3, BB, 2 K
Eric Hosmer - 1-3, 2 K
Mike Moustakas - 1-1, 2 BB
Jarrod Dyson - 2-3, 2B
Chris Getz - 1-3 (bunt out)

Those lefties went a combined 6-for-13 with three walks. They struck out four times between the five hitters. The righties?

Alcides Escobar - 1-3, K
Billy Butler - 0-3, GDP, K, BB
Salvador Perez - 0-3, 2 K
Jeff Francoeur - 2-3, 2B, RBI, K

Those four hitters combined for just one walk, struck out five times (among four people), and were 3-for-12, half the hits the lefties had. The split is scary, especially if teams continue to load up on the left-handers against Masterson. He issued two walks to Moustakas with two outs and both times it led to back-to-back hits from Fancoeur and Dyson.

"I think there was a force field around the strike zone for [Moustakas'] first two at-bats," Masterson said. "I couldn't put it there. I have no clue why. It was unbelievable."

Perhaps it was because you can't effectively pitch to left-handed hitters and those guys know it. Moustakas laid off the sinker EIGHT TIMES in a row. They aren't fooled by it when you can't throw it for a strike, so perhaps you need to figure something else out. Seriously, go look at what he threw Moustakas in those two at-bats. All sinkers anywhere from 90-to-93 mph. Why throw that? He's clearly going to continue to lay off of it considering he knows it won't be called a strike.

Masterson needs to figure it out. He needs a pitch to effectively show these left-handers. It's getting the righties all right when it works. He does nothing but throw the sinker and his slider to the right-handers and it works. He made Perez look like a fool with his sinker. But if a lefty steps up there and he throws them that same pitch, they're spitting on it.

As Francona said on the pitch to Alcides Escobar that was hit for a home run. First pitch fastball that got the plate, Escobar did what a major league hitter does, and it happens, you make mistakes. You take that away and Masterson was barely touched by right-handers.

So yeah, regardless of the offensive struggles, this is going to continue to be an up-and-down year for Masterson as long as he struggles like this against left-handed dominant lineups, which is exactly what teams will continue to do. Is Jarrod Dyson a regular? No, but he's a lefty and he played and had a great game against Masterson. Normally it'd be Lorenzo Cain, someone who hits in the middle of their order, but Ned Yost made a brilliant play to put Dyson in there in the first game and it paid off.

But about those offensive struggles. I mean, there's nothing struggling about eight hits, three walks, plenty of traffic. The problem is not sending anyone home, which the Indians managed to do in every single inning against Guthrie.

Granted three times the traffic came with two outs and one of those times Kipnis ran out of the inning, but how do you not come through at some point? Especially with four other innings with legitimate opportunities to put something on the board? Especially in the seventh with runners on first and second in the 7th, with Guthrie at the end of his rope and one out.

Before Tim Collins got the last out, Drew Stubbs' ground out killed all momentum. Collins came in to face the lefty in Brantley, so that was Gutrie's last batter either way. And all Stubbs did was look at a ball before chopping at a garbage changeup.

FHQWGHADS!

Now this was contained to just the first game, because in game two, things started to turn around. What Guthrie was doing by the time he got to two outs and how it mystified the Indians is beyond me. But things started getting jiggy against Will Smith later in the second game.

It didn't take long with a few runs in the first by Santana and Aviles, but it was opened up big time by Mike Aviles in the third when he hit a three-run shot that scored Santana and Asdrubal. And that was really it. Aviles had the big hit that charged the offense and really broke the chill that has been over the club the past few games.

Photo - Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports

"It was definitely, definitely good," Aviles said. "Things haven't been going the way we wanted them lately, and everybody knows that. But, at the end of the day, it's still early in the season. It's always good when you're able to respond after the first game. We lost 9-0 and [the Royals] have been pitching well."

I know a few people are ready to send Jason Kipnis to Columbus and let Mike Aviles start full-time. To that, I say slow down. It has been one month and that is in no way a logical thing to do. Kipnis has been hurt and if anything, he needs a trip to the DL to get completely healthy. Aviles is a nice guy off the bench who can come in and do that type of stuff, but it is way too early to stick him in their on a regular basis in place of Kipper.

The Indians would go on to collect more runs throughout the game, three of them coming via the sac-fly, but the real story was Corey Kluber.

COREY KLUBER PEOPLE! Pitching! Starting pitching in the form of Corey Kluber. Can you even believe it?

"He was aggressive, especially in," Francona said. "He was kind of moving guys off the plate and opening up the plate. Considering how much he's been bounced around and things like that, for him to do what he did is very impressive."

Brett Myers will get his rotation spot back when he returns, but if someone like Ubaldo doesn't pick it up, Kluber might take his spot if he can pitch like that. Not only going the seven innings, but he did what you need your starting pitchers to do more often than not. He threw strikes. He didn't walk a hitter, struck out six and yeah he gave up a few runs, but he was aggressive and had the backing of his offense to make up for that. He didn't try to be perfect like some people and the results were stellar. He looked fantastic out there.

And so far, in all his outings he's looked pretty darn good. If it comes down to it and Kluber continues to pitch like this, I would hope the guy who is pitching the worst is the one sent to the bullpen, and not Kluber. Because right now, other than Masterson and McAllister, Kluber has been the only other guy that has given the Indians solid outings that have given them the chance to win games.

Random Notes...

First multi-hit game for Asdrubal Cabrera came in the first game yesterday. No joke, it took til April 28th.

For perspective, Carlos Santana had two of them yesterday. Yes, he had multi-hits in both games, including the four hits in the night cap. Of course Cabrera would also get a second multi-hit game going 2-for-5 with a RBI in the second contest, but, yeah.

Lonnie Chisenhall probably should have been 3-for-4, but Hosmer robbed him. Just part of the great defense Guthrie got to help him.

Luke Hochevar seems to be taking to his relief role. Not even the always pesky Indians could help him revert to his old ways. Five strikeouts? As many as Guthrie had in the first seven innings in just two frames? Holy smokes.

The Indians called up Scott Barnes to utilize the new common sense rule in MLB that can be applied to double-header days in which both teams get the opportunity to call up one player to utilize during the day. The Royals used the rule to call up Smith to start as to not ruin their rotation. The Indians have an off-day on Thursday, so they'll be okay long term, but will need to find a starter for Wednesday before that off-day. Looks like Bauer Power.

Anyway, Barnes gave up a pair off that Alex Gordon bomb in the eighth inning. Otherwise, a solid day at the office.....

Mike Aviles is second on the team in RBI with 11 after his Hercules effort last night. He has about less than half the at-bats some of the people he is ahead of. Well, aside from Reynolds, he's ahead of everyone so. Play Aviles more?

Yan Gomes with two triples this season, two more than any of us will ever get and two more than Jason Giambi will have this year. Heyo! Kluber also spoke highly of Gomes and it just seems to mark yet another pitcher who has had a good game with Gomes behind the dish.

Chris Perez and Vinnie Pestano both got some much needed work in the second game and Perez was hit by a comebacker to the mound. He tried to catch the ball with his pitching hand, purely reactionary, and was able to stop the ball's momentum, pick it up and toss to first for the out. He made a few warmup tosses and was ready to go, so crisis avoided.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

Well that lasted long. Lou Marson was just activated off the disabled list earlier this week and is headed right back. This time it relates the shoulder inflammation that Marson has been apparently dealing with since spring. Tito said that it simply wasn't fair to Marson to be playing him.

"He tried to work through it during the spring," Indians manager Terry Francona said of Marson's arm injury. "I know he had it last year, which a lot of guys do. And then when he got hit [on April 6], that didn't help. He's battling a couple things. First, his neck hurts. And then his routine was thrown off with his throwing. We sat down and talked to him and we're like, 'Hey, man. This isn't fair.'

So it sounds like Marson may be down for awhile as the Indians let him get back to 100% completely. They can do that because of Yan Gomes, who returns because Marson was placed on the DL and you can call up a player despite the 10 day rule when you place a player on the DL. Gomes' bat, and you saw it in the nightcap last night, is really catching a lot of attention and as long as he keeps doing that, the Indians will not be in a rush to get Marson back.

And why not? The only reason to keep Gomes down in Columbus is to get him regular playing time, which is the thing that Francona is trying to juggle. Gomes sees being up with the big league team the best experience though.

"I feel like you're in a way going to get your best experience by being up here," Gomes said. "But if it's the development stage, it's definitely good to play every day. You just can't [treat] it [like you're] a backup guy. You've still got to work hard every day kind of as if you're a starter, talking to the pitching staff every day and hitting. You've got to do work every day as if you're playing every game."

I think you can play Gomes a lot. Jason Giambi is not playing everyday right now, so as long a Bourn is out and that extra spot is open with Swisher playing a lot more right field, Gomes will get more playing time. And even when Bourn gets back, you can give Chisenhall more regular days off by moving Reynolds to third and playing Santana at first.

Because lord knows Santana playing so much behind the plate may be the end of him the way he gets battered back there.

These things always work themselves out. The Indians want Gomes to play regularly, but they also want to win. Gomes' bat though may be helping them win, so when push comes to shove, they'll find a way.

By the by, Michael Bourn is stewing. He can't play right now and while he's eligible to come off the disabled list on Tuesday, the Indians don't seem to know if he'll even need a rehab assignment, so his return is cloudy. The Indians have the two games against the Phillies on Tuesday and Wednesday and then another day off on Thursday. Bourn said sitting is not a fun thing to do.

So, day to day. His stitches are out but he hasn't resumed catch playing. He's been able to partake in light-hitting, but that tells us no more than him being day-to-day does, so we continue to wait and hope he's back soon.

Carlos Carrasco exited his start last Thursday for Columbus after being struck by a line drive. Things look okay though and even though T.J. House was promoted to start in his place, Carrasco is considered day-to-day but has not been placed on the disabled list, so he should be fine. The Indians could have used Carrasco for that start on Wednesday had they called him up and appealed the suspension immediately, but that is obviously out of the equation now. House may end up staying as Daisuke Matsuzaka also left a game this weekend being pulled after three innings due to injury.

Aside from a Salvador Perez blast, pretty satisfied with Scott Kazmir's last outing on Saturday. He didn't look great, but he managed to get through five innings and kept his team in the game. If they put the run-production they put up the last time he pitched, he wins that game. Not spectacular, but definitely not "loss-worthy" in the way he pitched. Even more appeasing is the fact that he walked just two, so he seems to have a good command of what he's trying to do, which is always the first step.

That aside, I don't think I've ever seen a team use four pitchers in one inning and give up just one run. Which is exactly what happened and was the difference in that game, that one run.

It wasn't apparent at the time, because it would not be until the ninth in which the Indians would come back and there was one detail about that inning that sort of irked a lot of people. Two outs, Indians down to their last out but with the tying run in Brantley on third.

Jason Kipnis strikes out. Game over. Right? Until Perez couldn't corral the pitch and meant that the ball was live. Kipnis doesn't run to first though as you're supposed to do when the ball gets away, instead he looks up.

"He came in and said he was sorry," Francona said on Sunday. "I thought that took a lot of class. It means he cares. When guys don't always run, it doesn't mean they don't care. Sometimes it's frustration. It's human. You live and learn."

Clearly, if you watch the video, Kipnis has no clue that Perez didn't catch the ball. He's turned around. It isn't until he turns around to walk away that it's too late. Even if he starts running, Perez throws him out at first baring an incredibly bad throw.

I get it, run it out. You never know. But as Francona said, this wasn't a blatant "I don't care, so I'm not running" type of thing. Kipnis not only apologized to fans on Twitter, he admitted that his first reaction should have been to see if a the curveball hit the dirt than react in frustration at the fact that he struck out.

I say, this doesn't need to be a thing and he doesn't deserve any heat. He's not off to a great start, so let's not pile on for an unnecessary reason.

Tribe Versus: Kansas City 4/26-4/27

2013-04-26T13:17:00.002-04:00

The Tribe travels out to Kansas City to take on the red-hot Royals with a four game weekend series. After splitting a short series against the White Sox, Cleveland looks to steal a few games from the Kansas City sovereigns in monarchial systems of government.

[Due to rainouts for both teams, starting probable pitchers have not been set for all games. Because of this, I'll be breaking down this preview into two parts.]

Cleveland Indians (8-11) vs. Kansas City Royals (11-8)

Kauffman Stadium, April 26-29

Game 1: LHP Scott Kazmir (0-0) vs. RHP Ervin Santana (2-1)

First pitch: 8:10PM EST

Game 2: RHP Ubaldo Jimenez (0-2) vs. RHP Jeremy Guthrie (2-0)

First pitch: 7:10PM EST

Ervin Santana is a familiar foe for our feathered friends. He came up through the Angels organization and got his first career start against the Tribe back in 2005. He has since pitched against us 11 times, losing 10 of those games. The one win? A no-hitter back in July of 2011. The Royals acquired Santana in October of 2012 from the Angels after a disappointing 2012 campaign where he registered a 5.16 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, and a whopping 39 dingers. The trade filled a gap in the Royals rotation, giving them a solid number two who so far this season has a 2.48 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 26 strikeouts, and has held opposing batters to a measly .239 batting average.

The Dominican hurler likes to lock in his 92 mph fastball early in the count, using it an average of 62% of the time on first pitches and 69% of the time if batters get ahead in the count. And once he gets that count into his favor, batters better beware of breaking balls below the belt, not blowing by them but bringing batters to begin botching base hits (how’s that for some alliteration, huh?). In other words, Santana gets about 47% whiffs per swing on a breaking ball when he’s ahead of the batter.

Santana will be matched up against Indians southpaw, Scott Kazmir. Kazmir is coming off his first major league start since 2011 which was...well...it was pretty bad. In three innings, Kaz gave up eight hits, two homers, six earned runs, three walks, and four strikeouts. His ERA is sitting at a hefty 16.20. Granted, it was only one game, but it still wasn't pretty.

Guthrie was a former first rounder (22nd pick overall) back in 2002 by your Cleveland Indians. Although he spent most of his time in the Indians' Triple-A affiliate, the Buffalo Bisons, but did make several appearances for the Tribe out of the bullpen in 2006. Out of options, Guthrie was removed from the 40-man roster after the Indians signed Trot Nixon and was DFA'd back to Buffalo. He never made it. Baltimore claimed him off the waivers in January of 2007. He had a breakout year that season, only giving up 72 earned runs in 175 innings with 47 walks to 123 strikeouts. After a five year stint in Baltimore, Guthrie was traded to the Colorado Rockies where he pitched in 19 games before being traded to the Royals in July of 2012. He emerged as one of KC's best pitchers with a 3.16 ERA with 101 strikeouts in 91 innings. So far this season, Guthrie has an ERA of 3.86, 1.21 WHIP, and 19 strikeouts in four games.

The righty has several pitches at his disposal, but expect to see his 93 mph heater, an 85 mph slider, and his weapon of choice, his sinker that sits in the low 90s. Although Guthrie tends to mix and match his pitches like a well tossed salad, he tends to use his fourseamer and sinker early in the count or if the batter gets ahead. He's got an average groundball per balls in play percentage of 52.13% for both of these pitches combined. Tribe hitters will need to watch out for Guthrie's slider, which happens to be his go-to strikeout pitch. He can pepper the outside corner of the plate like Emeril seasoning spaghetti sauce. Bam!

Opposite Guthrie will be U-bad-though, I mean Ubaldo. Although his last start against Houston was mediocre in terms of any decent pitcher, it's safe to say it was pretty good for Baldy. With 65 pitches made in five innings,44 were for strikes. He surrendered four hits, four earned runs, and one dinger, but for Jimenez, that's pretty good. He'll need to do much, much better than that to get a W against the Royals.

Kansas City is coming off a major win, going toe-to-toe against Verlander and the Tigers. An Alex Gordon grand slam in the 10th inning capped off their road trip as the Royals sit pretty at the top of the division at 11-8. Center fielder Lorenzo Cain leads the team offensively with a stat line of .359/.419/.500. Actually, six of their starters are batting over .260 with only Mike Moustakas hitting below the Mendoza Line at .154. The Indians have three guys at or below .200.

This is going to be a tough matchup for the Indians. The Royals offense is rolling and their pitching is the best it's been in years. Combine that with as streaky as our offense has been, we'll be lucky to split this series.

-

Justin Johnston is a contributing writer to The Tribe Daily. You can follow him on Twitter @WahooJay.

Mini Rundown: Sick Lineup Can't Support Shaky McAllister

2013-04-25T07:30:00.000-04:00

I've figured it out. I keep saying that I like day games. I do, I really do. But I always find myself disliking them and I think I figured out why.

If the Indians lose, I highly dislike it. I dislike it more if I was to watch the game. These day games that fall during the week. I can deal with them, and I like the aspect of day baseball when its nice and can be watched with the enjoyment of good weather.

But I figured it out. I just hate the outcome of the Indians losing and not knowing all the full details. I can survive on an Indians win and not knowing the small details that went into it. I simply just can't stand a loss that I know little about.

So how to add context to this defeat? Just muscle through I guess. I'm a regular Z-Mac.

INDIANS - 2 | WHITE SOX - 3
W: Jose Quintana (2-0)
L: Zach McAllister (1-3)
S: Addison Reed (6)
[BOXSCORE]

So several aspects to this one just looking at it. The first is Zach McAllister, who I thought, given his numbers, did okay. He made one mistake to Rios, or even if you ask him, made a decent pitch that a really good hitter put a good swing on. Tito was pleased with his starter's effort though.

"He dodged some traffic," Francona said of McAllister. "They almost left with one run. He got ahead of Rios and a fastball came across the wrong part of the plate. Even though it was elevated, he ran into it for two runs -- two big runs. He kept competing and he kept them off the board."

This has really what McAllister has done all year. He really hasn't earned any of the three losses he has this April, having gone at least five innings in each start and not giving up more than three earned runs in any game.

The best part of his start thus far (even though it's 1-3) is that he has not pitched his best baseball. These past two games have been a little shaky with the eight walks, compared to the zero he had in the first two games (and in more innings to boot).

So McAllister will get better. Sure that start looked rough and you can probably correlate a better game for him that he goes deeper into and gives up less runs with the amount of walks he has. But he is doing one important thing that Francona mentioned already. He's keeping his team in the game and that's what a pitcher in his position just needs to do.

Photo - Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports

Perhaps if his offense came to his aid, but it was part Jose Quintana's continued success against the Indians, and part dismal situation hitting by the Indians, particularly in the case of Ryan Raburn.

Two situations, the first came in the fourth inning following a Mark Reynolds double and a Nick Swisher walk that loaded the bases with one out. Raburn promptly grounded out into a double play on the first pitch, a fastball.

"It's one of those at-bats I wish I could go back and do it over," Raburn said. "But I can't. It's part of the game. Sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't. ... I was trying to be aggressive. I was just a little too over-aggressive. It wasn't quite the pitch I should have went after."

And yet Raburn would get another chance to chip in and contribute in the lone inning the Indians would score runs in. But he would end up with a similar result. On yet another first pitch fastball, this time from reliever Nate Jones, Raburn would fly out to left to end the sixth.

It begs the question. Why is Ryan Raburn hitting fifth?

I mean in this game, there really was no choice. So I can understand it more I guess. He's either fifth or sixth. With Carlos Santana out with the flu, and Asdrubal Cabrera having some weird quad injury, the "punch" was gone and people had to be moved up. So you accept that and move on.

But from now on, if Francona has the choice, he can't continue to hit Raburn up in the meat of the lineup. I know he doesn't want to move guys around, but it is not a sound move to make for a guy who is a bench player. It just doesn't work for me and I hope he has come to that realization that it makes the lineup suffer.

There was plenty of opportunities in this one. It wasn't for the lack of them. They may have not all been the best, but when you have the starter on the ropes, bases loaded and one out, you need a run out of that. You get a run out of that, you add on the two later and things are tied. Hell, you get a big hit with the bases loaded and a few runs score and this game is totally different.

So that's there.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

Carlos Santana was out with some sickness, something that has him on medication and should be fine. Lou Marson ended up getting the start in his return from the disabled list. It marked the optioning of Yan Gomes to Columbus as was discussed earlier this week.

"It's nice to be back," Marson said. "I was hoping when I was hurt that I could travel with the team, because I didn't want to have to stay in Cleveland and be away from the guys."

Marson will now get his chance to reestablish himself as the backup and get more playing time against the left-handed hitters. He did not do well in this game with a left hander though. Marson said that he could not rotate and turn his neck without hurting, so he didn't feel comfortable playing in that state.

Marson spent a lot of time on Twitter asking his followers how he could listen to and watch the Indians game. Must have been bored. He didn't tweet a gameplan or analysis like Kobe Bryant did though.

Good news in that whole, lengthening the lineup thing. Michael Bourn will be in Cleveland today to get evaluated and have his stitches removed from his finger. He will then resume baseball activities with the team in Kansas City and perhaps may be ready to roll on Tuesday when he's eligible to be activated off the disabled list.

Tito has noted that he's been pitch tracking in bullpen sessions, so he hasn't been totally inactive and I'm sure he's keeping the legs loose by running and working out in ways not related to his finger being used.

Morning Rundown: Cabrera and Baserunning Help Masterson Win Number 4

2013-04-23T08:12:00.000-04:00

This is bizarro world right now in Major League Baseball. You have the Twins and Royals at the top of the division early on, the Rockies playing like no one thought they would and aside from all that, team's are going on some really weird streaks.

So as quickly as the Indians went on a streak that was bad, they've pulled off three straight and are now 3-1 against their division foe Chicago. Must be a good sign of things to come when they get the rest of their division.

At least, I would hope it is. Despite losing two games to rain, the Indians have played just as many, if not more games than everyone in their division, which is kind of weird. But nevertheless, we are now entering a point in the month where an AL East team is not lurking in every series, which should help considerably.

INDIANS - 3 | WHITE SOX - 2
W: Justin Masterson (4-1)
L: Matt Thornton (0-1)
S: Chris Perez (3)
[BOXSCORE]

The stat was given at some point in the game by the boys in the booth, or maybe in pre-game how the Indians are 4-0 when leading after sixth, and without a win when behind. Well they tested that theory in this one as the comeback came in the eighth. Had to happen sometime.

It just shows you how this team has really been starting pitching dependent. They needed a good start or an offensive outburst early in order to win a game. And it also shows you that their bullpen is so good, when they have that lead, it is time to shut the door.

So the game plan is simple. Get the lead, hold it until the sixth, and most of the time, you've got a win. If half of these starters can at least do that consistently, we may have something here.

How about the play in the seventh inning? Not only was it the turning point, it was reason the Indians really won. This game came down to one thing: baserunning. It was the reason the White Sox lost and the reason the Indians won.

The seventh inning is where it happened. White Sox two guys on to start the frame against Masterson. After a visit, this is basically Masty's situation to get out of, the trust you give your ace. So right after the visit, the pinch runner gets picked off second. Not just a Masterson from the mound pickoff, a Santana catches Blake Tekotte too far off second and guns him down pickoff.

Double play, inning over, Masterson through seven in brilliant fashion.

"We really needed a play," Masterson said. "[Santana's pick-off] was like a momentum swing for us, because then it was the next inning where we scored the couple runs. Cabby had a real clutch hit for us. I was just happy. That was nice to see."

You could almost sense that momentum turned. Not long after, the Indians get some traffic and it's their speedsters. Stubbs steals second, making Matt Thornton all sorts of flustered to the point he ends up losing Brantley, who walks. Then his pickoff attempt at second goes awry and puts not just the tying run on third with less than two outs, but the winning run in scoring position.

Photo - Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports

Of course, Kipnis comes up empty, but it was almost if that momentum was gained for a reason. And the reason was for Asdrubal Cabrera's clutch hit that knocked in both Stubbs and Brantley.

And all was right in the world. Because Asdrubal has not been hitting the ball well. Perhaps this is the thing that gets him going.

"That was perfect," Cabrera said of Thornton's mistake. "That's what I was thinking when I was waiting. That was the perfect time for winning the game."

The other aspect to this was the brilliance of Justin Masterson. He had his second game against the White Sox and while it wasn't as dominant, he battled to the point of keeping his squad in the game. He walked four, but kept his pitch count low enough to get through seven and kept the traffic to a minimum. He gave up the solo shot, otherwise almost got out of that fourth inning without a blemish. Unfortunately Brantley couldn't come up with the fly ball that was hit deep to left, had he did though, that game was still tied.

That wasn't the case though, so it was good for the club to come back and get the lead right before Masterson would exit. It's textbook and it really is the exact science to winning a baseball game. Your starter goes seven, keeps you in it, the bullpen gets the final two, the offense manufacturers runs with fundamental baseball and takes advantage of the other team's mistakes.

And Tito feels really good about this ace.

"I was convinced in Spring Training," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "He's good, and he's backing it up. That's the biggest thing in our game, is being consistent and he's backing it up at a pretty high rate."

I think we all feel good about our ace. Or at least with the fact that we have one.

Random Notes...

Justin Masterson is the first pitcher in MLB with a loss to get to four wins. He's the the third pitcher int he AL to get to four wins and fourth in Major League Baseball. He's an inning behind CC Sabathia for most innings pitched.

Chris Perez and Vinnie Pestano have matching 1.29 ERAs. It's like matching t-shirts or bow-ties. Let's go with bow-ties. Or maybe beards, with Vinnie sporting one lately.

Chris Perez was pretty locked in. He did float one over that almost sent me through a window, but he was able to reel it in and get the job done.

Perez noted in the post game interview that Matt Thornton has presented trouble for the Indians in the past. Probably cause: Travis Hafner (5/24), Grady Sizemore (5-18), and Shin-Soo Choo (7-25) were always making up the middle of the lineup for the Indians. Put a few right-handers in there to break up that middle, and you are either using Thornton to match up against the Indians, or live and day with the results of facing the right-handers that may be tougher than what you are used to.

Sox manager Robin Ventura obviously picked the latter.

You know who had a great game? Lonnie Chisenhall, who had two hits, but one was that bloop double that opened up the scoring. It wasn't a typical double as it was a falling blooper in center that was overran, but it got the job done and did so with two outs. So, score several for the clutch hitting.

Every Indian struck out except for Brantley and Chisenhall. But yet no one struck out more than once. Talk about weirdness.

This Connor Gillaspie kid for the Sox is turning out to be a pain in the pants for the Tribe thus far. Two more hits against the Indians, one being a home run, and a walk. Go away already.

He didn't do anything big on Monday, but it needs to be pointed out that Mark Reynolds leads the American League in home runs and is fourth in RBI.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

No reason for why the extended absence of reliever Matt Albers (and we don't really deserve to know unless Albers wants everyone to know), but he is back with the team after dealing with the family related issue that has taken him away.

Albers was activated and tried to keep sharp by throwing at a local high high school in Houston. Fernando Nieve was designated for assignment to make room for Albers, who was on the restricted list, and therefor didn't require a 40-man roster spot. The Indians will need the extra arm.

For Brett Myers' arm, the Indians are going to go the "rest" route for him to recover from, whatever it is that is wrong with him. It will be more than a few starts before Myers returns though, as he will take two weeks before he is even looked at again. But that's the thing when you deal with elbow problems.

"I'm not happy about [being injured]," Myers told MLB.com. "There was inflammation in there. They saw something on the UCL ligament they weren't sure what it was, but they diagnosed it as a sprain. The doctor told me it's usually six weeks for a younger guy because they want to be sure. I'm hoping that it's just two weeks and in 10 days I can start throwing again."

What's a little scary is that Myers has been "dealing with the issue" since Spring. Uh what? He had elbow issues from the outset? Why was he pitching like he was? Why didn't they ease him in or hold him out then. Of course Myers is a warrior and unless his arm is falling off, he probably won't say anything or be willing to sit.

If it hurts the team though, he really shouldn't be out there. Again, I'd rather have a Corey Kluber out there, throwing strikes, challenging hitters, where a gimpy Brett Myers may not actually get that job done.

Lou Marson hasn't made much progress with the Clippers, but he is expected to be activated by Wednesday, which means Yan Gomes will be headed down.

"We've talked to Yan about this," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "We haven't made a move yet, but he understands that he does not need to be sitting here not playing. It's not in [the best] interest for his future."

Hard to do that based off the awesome offensive games he has had in a limited role, however look at it in the way Francona put it. He needs to be playing everyday. He'll do that in Columbus. This is very much someone the Indians can make their regular catcher and they need him to be able to catch. He does that by playing everyday. He also gets better as a hitter.

Gomes has had some good games, hit a few homers, looked impressive swinging the bat. But this is the right move at this juncture. It may not be fair, but as Francona noted, it is better for his log term future.

And finally, yesterday was Terry Francona's birthday. So it was only right that they won the game. For birthday reasons, of course.

Morning Rundown: Pitching, Defense and Playing the Astros

2013-04-22T07:30:00.000-04:00

The three best biggest elements to winning a baseball game. The Indians somehow got the first one, had a good amount of the second, and of course, the third was a given.

Especially after Friday's game, it became really necessary for the Indians to find whatever it was that was bugging them (especially offensively) and win this series.

Well, they did that on Saturday in a huge way, as you probably saw. But you can score 50 runs in one game, and it still only counts for one win. So the task was simple. Come back on Sunday and win the game, win the series, and hold back the pitch-fork wielding mob that would be charging forward.

Photo - Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports

One man did that in particular, at least for four days.

INDIANS - 5 | ASTROS - 4
W: Cody Allen (1-0)
L: Hector Ambriz (0-1)
S: Chris Perez (2)
[BOXSCORE]

If I said to you that at one point, Ubaldo Jimenez retired 13 straight hitters, you would of thought he pitched a pretty good game.

Now if I said to you that at one point, Ubaldo Jimenez gave up a two-run shot in the first inning and was chased from the game after 65 pitches after giving up a single and a triple, you would of thought he pitched poorly once again.

The reality of it? It was somewhere in between. Jimenez started off rocky, somehow found a groove, all until he was chased having not been able to record an out in the sixth. He only threw 65 pitches, but just as smoothly he was sailing through that Astros lineup, he was quickly yanked when trouble was afoot in the sixth.

"You know I wouldn't be happy," he said of coming out of the game. "Starting pitchers want to keep going. I did [feel strong]. But it's not my call. I threw everything -- four-season fastball, two-seam fastball, split, slider."

That's no way for a starting pitcher to have to be used. But that is the short leash that manager Terry Francona has his starter on. Sure he retired 13 straight, had only thrown 65 pitches, but trouble was brewing and Tito probably felt lucky having gotten to that point in the game with Ubaldo to begin with.

Why ruin any sort of confidence that he garnered in this start. Not to say it will go a long way in trying to fix this headcase, but you're still in the game, you're offense is playing well, you have a strong bullpen that is pretty rested with an off day on Thursday. Might as well make the move.

Runs crossed, Ubaldo was factored out of the decision, but the Indians found a way to win the game in the end, so all in all, Francona made the right moves. Jimenez finished with a five inning, four hit, four run, four strikeout, and one walk line. He pitched considerably better than his last outing and didn't seem to be all over the place. But he also seemed to be facing a lineup that simply is not very good.

So keep that all in perspective moving forward. It was a good step, but it was the tiniest of baby steps if there ever was one.

I guess the other story in this one was the bullpen that kept things even after Jimenezs exit in the sixth. Despite Hagadone letting up the last runner Jimenez had put on, the big three in the back managed to slam the door shut for the series win. Not without drama though, as Perez was a little shaky, giving up a hit, a walk and hitting a batter in the ninth. It all started when Ankiel doubled to lead off the inning, welcome to the game Chris.

"With a three-run lead you can come in, sort of feel out the strike zone a little bit," Perez said. "Ankiel, I made a good pitch but it caught too much of the fat part of the plate and he did a good job getting on it. I wasn't going to let Dominguez get a hit. My ball was going all over the place today. First and second, nobody out, I don't feel comfortable throwing strikes yet. You can't simulate the intensity, the at-bats the hitters are taking on the other side, laying off close pitches. You can't replicate that."

Not to mention, Perez has barely been pitching and even more rarer is the save opportunity for him thus far. As Chris said, it is difficult to replicate the intensity of that situation. But Perez managed to follow suit behind Pestano and Smith and he nabbed his second save of the season.

But not without help, because that's where the defense came into play. Mark Reynolds, who is making an early bid for not just team MVP, but league MVP with the heroic performance he is putting on. Not just hitting big home runs (another go-ahead shot in the 7th after the 'Stros tied it, but the huge defensive play that ended the game. What a dive, what a stop, what a play by Marky Mark and the Bash Bunch (ehhh!?).

Seriously, is this guy going to keep this up? If so, he's going to be in the MVP discussion. I mean, I know he probably won't, but why not? He's not hitting smack dab in the middle, more towards lower end of the middle, but he's still up there so he'll get some pitches to hit. But if he keeps this up.

Part of me wonders if the Indians may need to consider locking this guy up for three years. He's only going to be 30 by the time the season ends, still with some good years ahead of him, right in the middle of his prime years. We know he can hit 30 home runs if he tries.

"It's a good day, a good series," he said. "I'm not going to take too much from it."

Hey man, if this continues. I don't see why not. A good day? Series? How about month?

Random Notes...

Let's not forget that Drew Stubbs really saved Ubaldo in a big way in the first. He was able to hit the cutoff man on a fly out to center when he doubled off Jason Castro. That was an out that Jimenez may or may have not been able to get, you just never know. He tends to let things "spiral" if you haven't noticed.

Drew Stubbs also had the highlight of Sunday when his home run caused a fan to lose their popcorn. Seriously. At first I thought someone threw confetti on Rick Ankiel as a joke. And then when Ankiel banged his glove, I thought he was furious about that. Turns out he was just disappointed the ball wasn't close enough to grab, and that it was simply lost popcorn. Either way, it is funny. And it does kind of look like the guy is trying to catch the ball with his bucket of popcorn. But this picture, rocks.

Yan! How about Yan Gomes in his short stint as backup catcher? He hit a solo shot in the second and would later triple. Lou Marson may have to start sweating a bit and maybe the Indians have found themselves a reason to move Carlos Santana.

Speaking of, the Indians catcher was at first, which let the Indians keep him in the lineup, give him a break behind the plate, give Swisher a break from fielding, and give Chisenhall a break against the left-hander while keeping Reynolds in the lineup...phew. Santana also homered, an absolute smash of a shot off Brett Oberholtzer, who was facing his first major league batter, ouch. Man is that guy locked in right now.

You know for a team that scored five runs and won the game, it sure didn't look like they were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, but when you waste Gomes' leadoff triple, that type of number can happen. At least they weren't 0-for-7 like the Astros, and that one is the difference.

Erik Bedard struck out eight Indians in four innings of work. That's perhaps another reason the Indians were 1-for-10. They made Bedard work, but they couldn't really knock him out like they did to Phil Humber on Saturday.

Hector Ambriz is the Astros' setup guy. Or at least one of their more "reliable" arms. That tells you just about everything you need to know about Houston this year. Poor guys. Jason Castro and Brandon Laird are in the middle of their order, and former Indians Jose Veras and Hector Ambriz are the top arms in the pen. Sounds like a winner.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

Terry Francona said that Brett Myers wouldn't be making his next start, so placing him on the disabled list was pretty much a given. Myers is officially bothered by inflammation in his elbow, or a strain, or forearm tendinitis. Depending on who you ask. Corey Kluber is going to take his place in the rotation the next time or two around, but it isn't figured that Myers will be out very long.

Myers went ahead back to Cleveland for tests and from what Francona was telling Tom Hamilton on the pregame show today, if this is just inflammation, he could be back sooner rather than later. I think I'll welcome the opportunity to see Corey Kluber though. He pitched well in his four inning stint on Saturday after Scott Kazmir had exited. He was throwing strikes and looked like had some good movement on his pitches, especially to the right-handers.

And hey, Kluber can be auditioning for a spot in this rotation if other guys, like Ubaldo and Myers continue to struggle. So could Carlos Carrasco, who struck out 10 in six innings the other night for the Clippers. He gave up just two hits and walked one. That's the dominant Carrasco.

Taking Myers spot on the roster was Fernando Nieve, who was added to the 40 man and flown in from Columbus. He'll probably be jettisoned as Matt Albers is slated to return from the restricted list any day now.

Asdrubal Cabrera should be fine, but a bit of a scary moment after he tripped coming up the steps in the dugout. At least he didn't trip going down. Cabrera fell on his wrist and although he was okay to start the game on Saturday, the wrist bothered him enough to be removed and not start on Sunday. He's simply sore, with Tito even saying he could be back Monday.

And I feel like if his teammates are making taped outlines of where Cabrera fell, that he's going to be okay.

Unfortunately, Cabrera missed out on the fun that was had on Saturday with the offense. That was one heck of a performance, and by one gentlemen in particular. Nick Swisher was huge, Reynolds hit a bomb, everyone really was good. But Jason Giambi was just incredible. And it was probably Giambi who was behind the players meeting that was held before the game on Saturday. And hey, you have to assume that it worked.

"We're pressing a little bit, trying to get that big hit," he said. "Everybody's trying to do a little too much. We have guys on base, and sometimes we just need a single instead of a homer. It's about doing the little things, moving guys over. Trying to keep adding on. We'll score some runs, but we don't do that in multiple innings. With two Wild Cards, every game matters now. You look back and say, 'We should have won this game.' It adds up. That could be the difference in going to the playoffs or not. That second Wild Card makes it interesting because you're never really out of the hunt -- if you can play some good baseball."

I'm not going to lie. I admit it. I laughed when the Rockies were thinking of of hiring Giambi right out of the gate as their manger. But shoot, as Francona said, Walt Weiss must be really good (and you can't argue with the start the Rockies are off to). Giambi is an extra coach in that dugout right now. And one who can come off the bench and hit a home run, like he did on Saturday. Heck, he almost had two, had he not hooked two balls foul in one of his later at-bats.

And what's nice is that now that he's in the American League, he can start more regularly with that DH spot. He'll get more at-bats. He'll get more than one at-bat in a game. And stuff like what happens on Saturday will happen. He gets more work, he's less rusty and more in-tune. He played back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday, it isn't a coincidence.

We Got This Bro!

I would like to point out that while the players meeting probably helped the guys get loose, if the newest #PositiveSwish craze didn't provide good karma, I feel like I should punch you in the face for telling a lie like that.

We got this!

And finally, from the "bet you didn't see this one coming" department. Pretty funny how things work. Current third base coach Brad Mills has a son. You may have heard of him. The Indians picked him as their first round pick a few years ago. Beau Mills never made it past Columbus, was traded last year to the Reds, and is now retired. Yeah, now he's raising young bulls. One of them being named 'Tuve (like Jose Altuve). You can see that awesome picture right here. Unfortunately, Beau is not the one in the yellow, but he is present in this picture with his dad, Altuve and 'Tuve.

What a world we live in.

Positive Swish: Scott Kazmir Will Save Our Rotation!

2013-04-20T11:42:00.000-04:00

Things have been rough this week. I know how you feel. It looks kind of bleak, like there's no hope for this team. I mean, the Astros? The Red Sox, okay, that's different. Once we get over the fact that Ubaldo is just bad and there's no hope, we could at least look for the other four games he doesn't pitch. There's got to be something there.

And hey the Astros are everyone's favorite whipping boy, we can get a few wins, maybe three off of them. A sweep? Sure. But at least two.

Yeahhhh...about that. Two wins are still possible, but look ever so hopeless with Ubaldo's start on Sunday. Or at least, one inning of relief work at the beginning of the game. Whatever it turns out to be.

I know how you feel. You feel kind of cruddy after watching this week of Indians baseball and hope it turns around here with two days left. So let's go with that, and let's bring some good karma with a positive message.

You're probably saying, "save your positive hokum and just give us a starting pitcher!" and to that, I say, okay. You're a little crazy, because this isn't hokum. This is real man! Or should I say... Bro

If that doesn't clue you in to what is coming next, maybe the title will. I know you may be a little sick of LOLTribe, considering I haven't been on the greatest roll with them, so let's try something new, courtesy of the awesome photograph we got a week ago thanks to Nick Swisher's walk off win.

And his positive energy.

And his upbeat attitude.

And his overuse of the word 'Bro'.

Introducing to you, Positive Swish and his upbeat message for you on this Saturday in April, where the weather is gloomier than the rotation. Take it and feel good about it. We got this Bro!

Don't worry bro, I've got you. A starting pitcher. A new one. He starts tonight and he gets us a win. Believe it and and believe in it. We got this man! I'm excited for it. He's got it! Roll Tribe!

So there you have it. Positive Swish, here to give you some hope, to get you excited for tonight's game against the Astros. Remember, Bro, we got this!

Morning Rundown: Notice - Indians Will Pay for Two-Out RBI Hit

2013-04-19T08:13:00.000-04:00

Jimmy Haslam's company is in trouble, so the Browns are obviously effected. Not to mention, their 2013 schedule is out and the draft is approaching. Byron Scott got fired and the Cavaliers are going to be looking for a new coach as their season ended.

And yet here we are. I want to talk about the Indians? But they got swept by Boston, they suck. Their pitching is garbage and the money they spent on the new offensive talent is just not working. People are hurt, some guys are off to painfully slow starts, and blah bah blah blah.

Why would we possibly want to talk about this last place baseball team right now? We could talk about a franchise in trouble and who they'll be playing five months from now and one that just came off a horrible season and will be looking for a new coach.

Why should we talk about this team!?

If you didn't get the point of that, you never will.

Photo - Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports

RED SOX - 6 | INDIANS - 3
W: Jon Lester (3-0)
L: Zach McAllister (1-2)
S: Andrew Bailey (2)
[BOXSCORE]

Indians manager Terry Francona got to see a lot of old friends, but as he said, he didn't enjoy the series much. And how could he? His new team got roughed up a little. Not that all the games were just drubbings, but rather a little emotionally draining. Boston just seemed to have better everything, from pitching to hitting to defense.

Make no mistake about this. They have a good club this year. They've seemed to iron out all the issues that plagued them in the short Bobby Valentine Era, they've got a good manager, and their pitching is coming around.

As Francona would go on to say after Thursday. They pretty much did what they wanted to Cleveland in the series. That will happen to any team throughout the course of a season. You run into a team that is just playing really good ball or is just better than you in that given period.

Boston was just better. Three solid pitching performances, some offense that executed early. In fact, they executed early in ever single game. Of the 19 runs the Red Sox scored, 11 of them came in the first two innings of the games. That's just establishing a mood early, taking the fans out, settling your pitcher in with a lead and some confidence to execute their game plan. Simple stuff.

And look, this is all really early. Two weeks worth of games in already. This was a tough slate to open up the season playing just about every AL East team, a division that is expected and looks to be loaded from top to bottom. This isn't the AL Central, this is a division that sent two teams to the playoffs last year and coulda sent one more and could do the same this year.

To make it through this beginning stretch with some victories is a good thing. Of course they only got three of them, but the important thing is, a hard part of the schedule is out of the way.

In this game, like the others, seemed like getting a big hit was the thing holding the team back.

"It was a tough one," Indians designated hitter Mark Reynolds said. "We just couldn't get the big hits when we needed them. We had guys on base all series -- we just couldn't come through. It's a little frustrating, but at the same time, we've got a long road trip ahead of us and we'll go out and try to win some games."

The Indians were 2-19 this series with runners in scoring position. Yup, that's not going to win a lot of games, end of story. They also left 11 runners in scoring position with two outs. That was the biggest issue we've had in this one and Francona even said it mainly concerning the game on Thursday too. The Indians just could not get that big two out hit that they needed to win a game. When you can't get that big hit, things just seem to not go right.

Which sucked for Zach McAllister, because he did what you want any pitcher to do when they are laboring, which McAllister was, get through a good chunk of innings and keep your team in the game. I think that was worthy of anything other than a loss, but the offense couldn't get him anything. McAllister, admittedly, threw a lot of pitches, but still found way to wiggle through innings, get five out of the way and strike out seven.

He had some walks, gave up some hits, but when you only get tagged with three runs, have your team fighting to win, you put in a valiant effort.

Random Notes...

The Sox swiped three bags last night.

It is worth noting that the Indians have four stolen bases this year, which puts them towards the bottom in the American League. Opposite of what is expected from them, but hey, Bourn is out, it's a slow start. Stubbs half the steals. Francona was also sound to point out that teams respect the speed a team has if they have it, and that has resulted in better pitches to hit for the hitters.

Speaking of speed, Mark Reynolds would have definitely been thrown out at second if a fan did not touch that ball he hit in the second. Thanks fan.

Mike Aviles had five RBI as a semi-part-time player. More than the likes of Asdrubal, Stubbs, and Brantley, one less than Santana and Swisher. Just a note.

Cord Phelps is just rough. I mean, he as some tools, he seems okay, does well in Columbus. But every stinkin' time the guy comes up to the major leagues he seems to just have issues. He committed an error at second and was 0-for-3 with a strikeout. Rough rough rough, bark bark bark.

Not cool for Bryan Shaw on the part of Phelps as that error led to him giving up a pair of runs, all unearned. Shaw is a strikeout machine though, leads all the relievers in that category (of course also most innings pitched), but he is a nice piece in there. He had two more punch-outs on Thursday and just seems to be yet another weapon for the Indians in that bullpen. Needs a mafia name though.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

That Guy! Jason Giambi is That Guy! I love this quote.

"They would always say, 'Hey, enjoy it. It's going to go by fast,'" Giambi said on Thursday. "I'm like, 'Ah, what do those guys know?' And here I am. I'm that guy."

Giambi also said the he doesn't think of himself as being old, even though he knows he is. This of course off the heels of him becoming the third oldest player to hit a home run in an Indians uniform, behind Sam Rice and Dave Winfield. Giambi said he is pleased at where his swing is at and he feels really confident after hitting his first homer.

One thing that will really benefit him as opposed to when he was in Colorado is actually getting three at-bats in a single game rather than just one or two every week or so. He'll pinch hit, but he will get three chances in a game, not just in a week. So that should help him keep in some sort of normalcy, even though we know he's used to the pinch hitting role. The homers should fly a little more with more rhythm, but hey, I think we'll take any hit or walk from him that he can get.

No Lonnie Baseball on Thursday as the Indians were keeping him out against Lester, getting Aviles' bat in there against the lefty. But the Indians are working on fixing an issue with Lonnie Chisenhall.

"All spring he was thinking left-center," Francona explained. "Not necessarily wanting to hit the ball there, but being lined up so he could cover the plate. And he did it extremely well. I think as he continued into the season, his batting stance started to close off more and more and more, and I don't think he realized it. Ty's trying to get him back more to even. Now, setting his sights on left-center is great. I just think it all of a sudden became a little more physical also, and he got himself into a position where, for him to get to the ball and square it up, he had to get more out front than he normally does."

Francona also mentioned that he has hampered the quick bat he has and correctly points out that Chiz's bat is as quick as anyone's. The swing is really sweet and smooth and while I haven't paid close attention to him and his at-bats in this series, it would explain some of his performances. He has such a quick smooth stroke and if he isn't right, that is a problem.

Tito also explained his reasoning for sitting and playing against certain lefties, simply guessing that maybe he'd run into one of Price's fastball. Correctly guessed. Being a manager is all about pushing the right buttons. Right button pressed there.

To continue talking about approaches and swings, Tito loves what Carlos Santana is doing, and things don't seem to be really different since Santana returned to the lineup after his little injury scare. Boston employed a shift on Wednesday in the sixth inning and Santana tried to take the ball the other way to beat the shift with what ended up as a check swing.

"The idea is good," Francona said of trying to beat the shift. "When you're down, when you can't tie the game with one swing, getting on base is the most important thing. I've talked to [Giambi] about that a lot. He told me, 'Yeah, I've bunted before. I'm not too proud.' When you can't tie it up, I love it."

In that situation, Santana was leading off the inning and really, down 5-0, you gotta just get on at that point. And he did with a walk later on, Swisher hits a blast, turned out to help. But I've seen David Ortiz do it. If you think you can pull it off, why not? If you are down a substantial amount of runs and hitting a home run doesn't really cure it all, why not? Great approach, great idea, and it just is another thing to highlight about Santana and the start he is off to.

He seems to really be getting it. His approach at the plate is good, he is swinging the bat well and more importantly, garnering the walks still. His average has left a lot to be desired the past few years. Sure he gets on and creates runs, but we all though the was a better hitter than he was showing us to be. And he seems to be coming into that and filling in the mold we had all made for him.

So that's a great thing.

Lou Marson just can't catch a break. The Clippers and Mudcats played til the end of the fourth inning on Thursday and Marson got just two at-bats (struck out twice) in the suspended game. They'll finish today, but likely without Marson.

What's more interesting from that game? The fact that they only completed four innings and Daisuke Matsuzaka walked eight people. Yes, EIGHT people in four innings, that's two per inning. Dice-K is not off to a great start with the Clips. The scary part is that the eight walks doubles his current total for the season in just two games. So 11 innings, 16 walks. And you thought Ubaldo was bad.

It's on to Houston now. This is a serious you probably should win, so hopefully the funk ends here. As tought as the schedule has been, it now looks a little nicer with Houston. Brett Myers gets to face his old team.

Morning Rundown: Masterson Can't Buck BoSox Tough Lefty Lineup

2013-04-18T09:36:00.002-04:00

Well, 19 scoreless, a perfect record, all went away in one game, heck in one inning.

There's something deflating when your ace goes out and gets bombed in the first inning. Granted, the Indians weren't really ever out of this one, but it is an uphill battle when your offense can't get it going immediately and your best starter who has accounted for three of your team's five wins thus far has given up a three spot right off the get-go.

Oh gosh, if Masterson doesn't start, the Indians pretty much lose. Now we have to wait four more games for another chance to win. Great.

The Indians did have some chances in this one, but were put in too much of a hole early on to ultimately overcome. They had a specific chance that we will talk about in a second, but when you are analyzing one specific chance and saying "things could have been different if this specific chance went the other way" you are probably not in the best position to win the game.

Now the Indians just need to focus on avoiding the sweep, if they can do that without their ace on the mound.

Photo - AP via Yahoo! Sports

RED SOX - 6 | INDIANS - 3
W: Alfredo Aceves (1-0)
L: Justin Masterson (3-1)
S: Andrew Bailey (1)
[BOXSCORE]

I'm going to point something out right now and I hope you all don't hate me for it.

Ellsbury, Victorino, Nava, Carp, Drew, and Saltalamacchia were all hitting left-handed. Mike Carp, Jacoby Ellsbury, Shane Victorino, Mike Carp, and Daniel Nava all had really good games and Drew was able to coax the only walk out of Justin Masterson all night.

It is easy to get enamored with Justin's start, I was myself. But up until Wednesday's game against the Red Sox, Masty didn't face a real left-handed heavy lineup like he did against Boston. I know I've made his point for years now, but Masterson's struggles against left-handed hitters is completely real. He'll have amazing games like he did against the White Sox, then he will come out and face a lefty-heavy lineup against Boston and struggle.

Not that five innings, four runs is struggling, but it isn't that good. After a game in which the starter couldn't get out of the second, you would have hoped for more from Masty.

Now Tampa and Toronto both boasted six left-handed hitters, just like Boston. The difference being that I don't think Tampa's lineup is all that good. Toronto's has some hitters, but Masterson seemed to wiggle out of things, must like he wiggled out of trouble against Boston. The Red Sox were able to make Masty pay at several points early on.

And the White Sox? They had four lefties, and like Tampa, I'd consider them more on the weak side. They have that lethal middle with Dunn and Konerko, but outside of that, it was something Masterson could easily carve up, and he did. Boston, not so much.

"They made him work really hard," manager Terry Francona said. "Their approach to him was very good. They all stayed in the middle of the field or went the opposite way. ... There's a lot of trust in him. That's what I told him when I took him out. He didn't give in and it was a hard five innings, but when he left, we had a chance to win the game."

That is true and that is what good number ones can do. Even when they are not having their best night, they keep their team in the game. You can't really argue with that. Last year, Masty's bad games were bad and he really let things go. If this is his bad game, I will take it.

But you just need to consider this going forward. These tough lefty-heavy lineups like the one Boston has will be the thing that challenges him the most. Especially the ones who take the approach that the Red Sox did.

The other aspect to this game was the offense, which didn't quite seem to get going against Aceves until late.

They managed to have just as much action on the bases against Aceves as the Red Sox did against Masterson, considering Aceves gave up seven hits and walked three. But the Indians couldn't cash in, given their 0-for-7 RISP number. I think part of the problem was everything that Asdrubal Cabrera hit right was caught by the opposing defense.

He ended 0-for-4, but definitely could have had a much better night than that. In the fifth with two outs and the bases juiced, at the time the Indians were down 4-0, Cabrera clobbered one to right that was sinking hard and fast, but was tracked down by Shane Victorino and snagged. If Cabrera gets that, with two outs and Brantey on first and Stubbs on second, heck it might have been a 4-3 game and things look much different.

But it wasn't and even though Cabrera looks like he is struggling numbers wise, Francona is not worried.

"I try to keep an eye on everybody," Francona said. "He looks to me like he's OK. He's been through this. He's played a lot of baseball. His outlook in the dugout, he's OK. You watch. As cold as he has been through maybe 50 at-bats, his next 50 he'll be just that hot. That's just the way it is with good players, and he's every bit of that."

And I would agree based off some of the at-bats he had last night. The guy is hitting the ball well, it just isn't falling right now. He'll break out of it and the Indians will be better for it. This is really how Cabrera is, we just have to get used to it and accept it. When he gets hot, he will really help power the lineup.

What offense the Indians did muster though was nice to see, mainly because it was back-to-back home runs by Nick Swisher and Jason Giambi. Swish's two-run shot and Giambi's solo blast were welcomed sights and kept the team in the game, but when that's the only way you can score runs on a particular night, you are probably in trouble.

Random Notes...

A little curious as to why Terry Francona is messing with his lineup. He had Drew Stubbs in the leadoff spot on Tuesday and Stubbs turned in a good game. This game he switched Stubbs back to ninth and moved Brantley up to the leadoff spot. Perhaps he did that because he had Giambi and Reynolds, and because he was simply playing the lefty/righty matchup, but what happened to regularity? Doubront is a lefty, so I can understand him putting Stubbs up there for that reason and then moving him back down against Aceves. But I guess I don't agree. I'd have kept them in place since Stubbs had a good game, because he went ahead and was on base two more times, doubling and garnering a walk.

But hey, he's the manager, I'm not. It isn't anything big, just curious and a difference of opinion. Stubbs also stole his second base, so really, a few doubles on his part.

Chisenhall rebounded against the right hander, speaking of matchups.

I guess while we are on the subject of the lineup, Carlos Santana is in the three-hole now. I guess with Kipnis out and Brantley moved up because of Bourn's absence, you have to get someone up there. Santana seems to be taking it well, but as we've discussed, I think he's much more lethal down in the middle surrounded by Brantely and Reynolds. He takes on a different role in the three spot and while he can do it, he does the other role better.

Getting a little worried that the Indians haven't had a chance to really use Chris Perez these past two weeks. Francona managed to get Pestano in the game, but Perez hasn't really been utilized a whole lot since the Indians started this home stand.

Giambi's home run marked a home run by the third oldest player in Indians history. Hey, 42 isn't that old.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

The Indians officially placed Michael Bourn on the disabled list yesterday and recalled pitcher Corey Kluber, who pitched in the loss to Boston. The move is retroactive to Monday, so that makes him eligible to return before May starts. Terry Francona seems to think he'll be activated just about there when he's ready.

The plan seems to be to have Kluber for yesterday, today, and Friday if needed, especially after what Jimenez did to the bullpen on Tuesday. He'll probably go back down to make room for Scott Kazmir when he is activated to start on Saturday. Kluber was sent down not 10 days ago, but was allowed to return because the move was related to placing someone on the disabled list.

As for Jason Kipnis, he will return to the lineup on Friday, getting another day off today in the series finale against Boston. Word is he can play, but the Indians are taking precautions.

"Kip wanted to play today," Francona said prior to Wednesday's game against the Red Sox. "I thought if we gave him two more [days off], he has a chance to get back in the lineup and stay in the lineup, rather than come back too early and maybe still feeling it. I don't think that's fair to him, and he didn't put up a huge fuss, so I think it's probably the right thing to do. If I'm going to err, I'd rather it be on the cautious side than the other way."

It is what you have to do, especially when you are dealing with something like soreness. Soreness can start as soreness, but if you play and make it worse, it turns into a strain, and a strain can turn into something getting pulled or torn. So, let's let all the soreness go away, be cautious about it, and hold him out for one more game. It sucks right now, but as Francona said, it would suck to lose him for more than one or two more games. Like, two weeks, or a month, or two months.

Kipnis will also avoid the tough left-hander in Jon Lester, and give the Indians the ability to play another right handed bat, like Ryan Raburn or Mike Aviles.

And finally, Lou Marson. He was not able to play on Tuesday because of the rain in Columbus, and was not with them when they played their early double-header on Wednesday. The Indians will send him down Thursday to make his first rehab start.

We should have figured that Ubaldo Jimenez's leash was a little longer than we all hoped. Because Terry Francona is the manager now, he does not care about what happened last year, he's giving everyone, including Jimenez, a clean slate. He wants to give Jimenez a real chance to get it together, and try to help him in the process.

"Last year is over," Francona said on Wednesday. "You can't pitch for last year. It doesn't work. It just makes it harder. So we need to separate that, first of all. We need to figure out, 'What did he do good? What didn't he do good?' Build on what he did well and fix what he didn't do well. If you start going back to last August, then he's got no chance. Nobody is good enough to go back and fix last year."

That is all well and true. And you have to respect that Francona and Callaway haven't really had their chance to get Ubaldo on track, and they deserve that opportunity before you start cutting bait. But it doesn't mean any of us have to agree or think Jimenez will turn it around. We've seen Ubaldo for the better part of two years now, so we know. We know that this is just another instances of him being Ewwbaldo. If they can turn him around, I think we'll all gladly eat our words, but until that happens consistently, no one has to buy into it. We just have to hope he keeps the team in games and can get through five innings for now.

The other point that I can't really begin to argue with is the fact that Francona said you can't start getting rid of pitchers right now. If you do that, you start putting yourself in trouble come June and July if injuries mount, and they've already had an impact. Which is true. However if there is a way to hold onto Jimenez and try and work on him where he isn't hurting the team, perhaps you have to at least look into it, or at least I would hope they do.

Turns out that the 15 strikeouts the Indians bullpen racked up because of U-Bad-o on Tuesday is the most strikeouts by a bullpen in Indians history. That pen is so deadly with the strikeout artists they have back there. And that didn't even include Pestano. Perhaps they should have just started with the bullpen and brought Jimenez in at the end to pitch his one good inning. Reverse the roles...

Hopefully you didn't miss this awesome post where I compiled all the best tweets I could possibly find on Ubaldo's start.

Pulse of the Tribe: The Best of Ubaldo Jimenez's Worst Start Ever

2013-04-17T11:00:00.000-04:00

Last night's adventure with Ubaldo Jimenez was certainly not fun, but the day after, we need to be able to laugh about it. Well, at least try to. Why wallow in our own pool of misery?

So I went ahead and piled through to find the absolute best of Ubaldo's worst.

Perhaps one of the best things I came across though? The related search suggestion, and only suggestion, to searching "Ubaldo" on Twitter.

Yup, that'll about some it up.

Tweets after the jump...

Hate to say it, but I'm about done with Ubaldo. He's had plenty of chances to impress.
— Michelle L. (@shell24_7) April 16, 2013

Even Jimmy Haslams Flying Pilot J accountants think Ubaldo's career is in trouble.
— Rich Swerbinsky (@TheClevelandFan) April 16, 2013

@castrovince Another cock&bull story about how much work he's put into his mechanics. Probably should have learned auto mechanics instead.
— Clay Collins (@GoTribe028) April 16, 2013

I'm officially done with ubaldo. Get him off this team @theclevelandfan @thetribedaily @gotribe31
— Chris Donahue (@cdonahue728) April 16, 2013

After that last pitch I can't stop laughing. What was that?
— IgorRamone (@igorramone) April 16, 2013

Seriously, enough is enough. It's time to cut bait. DFA him and be done. What a disaster Ubaldo has become. Dan O'Dowd is in Denver laughing
— TD (@WFNYTD) April 16, 2013

Ubaldo Jiminez has decided to celebrate Jackie Robinson Day with an ERA of 42. #Indians
— R. John Boyle (@Real_RJB) April 16, 2013

If the @indians DFA (or trade) Ubaldo by June 1, I will buy a 10 game flex pack regardless of their record. @markshapiro @indiansgm
— Mark Kroboth (@mkroboth) April 16, 2013

.@lou_mar6 I believe it's 1100 AM in Cleveland. Just below Ubaldo's 11.25 ERA this season.
— Dave (@dconeil) April 16, 2013

That moment of silence wasn't for Boston. It was for Ubaldo's career. @sirfranksnbacon
— Michael John (@mjk_lo) April 16, 2013

Ubaldo walked it into the Red Sox endzone. RT @justice_3so: Just tuned in to #indians. What the hell happened?7-0???
— BrownsGirl19 (@BrownsGirl19) April 16, 2013

Ok I understand being mad at Ubaldo, but that doesn't give you the right to say he needs to be deported.
— Cole Lopez (@ColeLopez77) April 16, 2013

"Yeah sure, I'll take a chance on Ubaldo Jimenez in my super deep fantasy league" -- me, clearly delusional, two weeks ago
— Bill (@billviola) April 16, 2013

The fact that Ubaldo Jimenez is still a major league pitcher inspires that I have a chance to be a major league pitcher
— Danny Karliak (@DanK_18) April 16, 2013

Morning Rundown: Ubaldo At His Worst; Eww-Baldo At His Best

2013-04-17T08:14:00.000-04:00

Not sure if I ever got to this point last season, but I'm tapping out. I'm done, wave the white flag, cancel my subscription, check please, I've seen enough, take him out back and end it.

I think we have gone through enough Ubaldo Jimenez. Yes, it's only three starts, but it is emotionally draining watching his man pitch. He has completely lost any and all good will with giving him a chance with his second outing.

And for me to say this, at this juncture of the season, not even halfway into the first month of baseball, must tell you a lot. I'm the last one to light up a torch or sharpen a pitch fork, but I'm doing it. I'm joining the angry mob. I'm getting putting gasoline in the glass bottle and finding a lighter. I'm grabbing a megaphone and leading the charge.

Ubaldo Must Go!

RED SOX - 7 | INDIANS - 2
W: Felix Doubront (1-0)
L: Ubaldo Jimenez (0-2)
[BOXSCORE]

Terry Francona didn't want this series with his former club, the Boston Red Sox, to be about him.

Don't worry, Ubaldo Jimenez quickly made it all about him.

"I'm sure when we go back to Fenway it'll bring back a lot of special memories and a lot of thoughts, but we're in Cleveland and this is my home, and the home team," Francona said. "It's not just another series, but at the same time, it's not like I woke up this morning and it's all I thought about."

He probably thought about who he was going to have to use and abuse after Jimenez exited after three or four innings with 100 pitches.

Photo - Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports

So he was probably shocked when Jimenez couldn't even make it through the second without walking nine-hundred people. Tito thought he had at least one more inning before that decision was made.

I'm joking of course, because in the face of this abomination of a pitcher, all we can really do is laugh and hope things change real soon. Jimenez was terrible. There's nothing much more you can say about it. He has reached a maddening level of predictability. The unpredictability was something you could live with because you thought maybeeeee there would be a good night or that he would come out and at least try and keep his team in the game.

Now? Nope. It's pretty obvious what is going to happen. Eww-Baldo went right out there and walked five guys in one inning. He went from having a 15 pitch clean first inning to walking five, giving up a pair of hits, and recording just two outs with 44 pitches in the second frame.

He has reached the point of being un-watchable with his 11.25 ERA in just three starts. He's given up seven runs in two straight games. He double his walk total in just one night, and the fact that he had five coming in and five on Tuesday is not a good thing.

Beyond these horrible numbers is that un-watchable factor. He cannot throw a strike. Whether he's 3-1, 2-0, or 3-2, he's not throwing strikes when he needs to. He's losing batters after getting up because he's trying to be too fine or trying to strike them out, and then when he gets into these 3-1 counts, there's absolutely no hope to begin with.

When he's in the stretch, he's god awful and the thing is, he's always in the stretch because he's always putting people on.

You can't even get through two innings and you had only given up four runs? Something is wrong, something is seriously wrong.

So it begs the question? Are we ready to just punt Ubaldo right now? Of course, I don't really think that will happen right now. The Indians are not reactionary, especially after three games. They'll continue to run Ubaldo out there a few more times.

"Mickey worked on direction to the plate and throwing the ball downhill, just pounding the zone down," manager Terry Francona said. "You can be frustrated, or you can try to make it better. I think we choose to try to make it better. As long as he keeps working, we're going to work hard. We want to get it right."

But if this continues, something needs to be done. You'd almost be better off paying him to not hurt you than you would be to attempt to "get your worth" for what you are paying him. Because I at least know that Corey Kluber will hit the strikezone more often than not. He may give up more runs, but at least he will give himself a chance for success.

Jimenez gives himself and his team no chance because the outcome is predicted before it even happens. He's going to walk someone more times than not.

Sure, the Indians won't do it right now, but I would. I'd kiss his ass to the curb and never look back. Waive him, designate him, whatever. If he ends up back in your system in Columbus, that's fine, try and fix him down there if you have to, whatever. As long as he isn't punting games up with the Indians, it doesn't matter. You aren't trading him, and if you are, it's for peanuts in return, and if someone else wants to take on his salary, all the more power to him and it is something the Indians most definitely should do if presented the opportunity.

"I have to erase everything," Jimenez said.

Can you erase your past two starts? No? Fine...

The guy is beyond fixing in my opinion and if he is, let someone else try and do it. He has mental issues that translate well beyond his broke mechanics. How many times can you adjust his mechanics before you realize it is more than that? The Indians have tried and it is clear they cannot for whatever reason. Jimenez needs to go and if it isn't today, it should be real soon. He'll continue to do this, maybe the next time out he'll come out and be respectable, go five innings, whatever, but soon again, he'll bite you in the ass.

Ubaldo said he's going to go back to throwing two side sessions between starts, because that's what he did this spring. I say, whatever.

Cut bait. Pay him to go away if you have to, it wouldn't be the first time a team did it and it won't be the last. He is gone after this year anyway and it makes no sense to live through this when you would rather live through the growing pains of Trevor Bauer, or whatever potential Corey Kluber may have and to see if he can figure it out.

Random Notes...

I know that kind of turned into a Ubaldo diatribe, so we'll try and figure everything else out here...

The bullpen was awesome. Cody Allen gave up that hit when he came in, but he was just properly adjusting Ubaldo's ERA to reflect actual performance. Other than that, he struck out six in three full innings of work, quite stellar on his part.

Hagadone also gave the Indians two solid frames, and really those two saved the bullpen from what could have been a disastrous situation that Ubaldo put them in.

Jimenez's stuff aside, the Indians could have won this game actually. Like, if they had better at-bats with two outs, there would have been a whole different story on the scoreboard than what it ended up with. Plenty of baserunners, plenty of chances against Dubront, and they even got him out early. The team left nine guys on base and were ultimately very bad with runners on as a whole.

Six walks, six hits, plenty of guys out there to knock in, specifically in several instances in the 2nd and 5th. Gotta capitalize, especially since it was still relatively early and with the way the bullpen pitched, very much a game they could have found their way back into.

Drew Stubbs had a great first game in his new temporary leadoff role, two walks and a hit, doing his part.

The umpiring was bad, like real bad. I'll give Ubaldo one thing. He should have been out of that inning way before it unraveled. It isn't an excuse though because he can't let that get to him in that way. The fact that it spiraled that out of control is on him. But he got robbed of several clear strike calls that should have got him out of that inning.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

Turns out Michael Bourn will actually miss more than the Boston series, contrary to what was thought initially after the game on Sunday where he cut his finger open sliding in head first to first base and getting stepped on.

Bourn will likely hit the disabled list within the next few days, it will be back-dated, as the Indians make some roster moves. It will be a temporary pain in the rear-end to not have the Indians leadoff hitter and center fielder for a few more games than we thought, but if there is one thing the Indians did by acquiring Bourn, it was deepen their bench. So it won't hurt them as much as it does when you lose someone like Carlos Santana.

It still hurts though. Thankfully, it is just a cut and when he's back, he'll be back and there will no worry about any lingering issues, nor will his game potentially suffer.

Along with that piece of news, Scott Kazmir will go for the Indians on Saturday when he's activated off the disabled list. Kaz pitched for the Clippers on Monday going through five innings with no walks and just an unearned run given up off five hits. He also struck out five.

"[The reports were] very good," Francona said. "Because he's building up, he was limited to [around 60] pitches. That's something to think about, but he threw the ball very well. [Pitching coach Mickey Callaway] went down there to watch. All the reports were very positive. I think Scotty felt really good about himself."

He threw 60 pitches in just five innings? Get him up here, please. It will be nice to get him in and going. I think we're all eager to see if he's really a new pitcher and if his changes can translate to re-finding his success at the big league level.

One move the Indians already did make involved the call-up of Cord Phelps, who had been on the Columbus disabled list. He only played in a few games, but with Kipnis sore, the Indians sent down Omir Santos and brought up the extra infielder just in case. But it also works towards what the Indians will do with Bourn in the coming days, likely activating Kazmir and putting Bourn on the disabled list. Phelps can play the infield and you can throw him in the outfield if need be, but Ryan Raburn should remain the primary outfield replacement.

With Bourn out, you'll probably see Giambi DH and Swisher play right more than anything, but the need for another bench player is necessary with Bourn out, and if Kipnis is banged up, all the more reason to have someone like Cord around with your primary bench player (Aviles) playing second and games like last night where Raburn played the outfield. As for Kipnis?

"I feel better. It's getting there," Kipnis said on Tuesday. "Hopefully everything goes well today and I show up fine tomorrow and go from there."

Yeah can't have him ailing too, so hopefully that gets figured out.

The catching situation is starting to work itself out with Carlos Santana back and Lou Marson starting his rehab stint with the Clippers this week. The Indians still need some depth, which prompted the trade for Chris Wallace from the Astros organization.

Eric Berger's Glorious Stache

Going to Houston was Eric Berger, who had quite possibly the greatest mustache the Indians organization has ever seen. Glorious mustache, such a beautiful thing. Best wishes to Berger, who had fallen into that AAA/AA relief/start limbo so many players fall into.

Wallace was sent to Double-A Akron, which was rolling with just Alex Lavisky at catcher with Roberto Perez called up to Columbus. Omir Santos is now back to C-Bus to back him up, but they'll also have Marson in and out to utilize for the time being. Marson did not get to play last night due to the Clippers rain out.

In other roster news, if you're wondering were Matt Albers is, he's still away. He was placed on the Family Medical Emergency List, which is different than the paternity list. Hopefully everything is okay with him and his family in whichever is going on. Albers can miss seven games on the list he's on now, so he will need to return by the weekend.

And in other Minor League news, Jerrud Sabourin of the Mudcats was named the Indians first minor league player of the week for the 2013 season. He's off to a blazing hot start, hitting almost .500 with three doubles.

Tribe Versus: Boston Red Sox 4/16-4/18

2013-04-16T10:00:00.000-04:00

Photo - Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports

Our Wahoo Warriors stormed into battle last weekend against rival Chicago and won the first divisional series of the season, but at what cost? As a major contributor to our offense, losing Michael Bourn for even one game will be felt. The Indians list him as day to day, but reports out of MLB.com say that he's likely out until the five stitches in his right index finger are removed. This could be anywhere from five to seven days. Bourn is hitting .333/.375/.600 and leads the Tribe in hits with 15 which includes four doubles, one triple, and two homeruns. To compensate, look for the skipper to play Drew Stubbs in centerfield with either Nick Swisher or Ryan Raburn taking right, and the trio of Swisher/Giambi/Reynolds at first base during this weeks series against the rosy stockings from Beantown.

Boston Red Sox vs. Cleveland Indians

At Progressive Field, April 16-18, 2013

Game 1: LHP Felix Doubront (0-0) vs. RHP Ubaldo Jimenez (0-1)

First pitch 7:05PM EST

Game 2: RHP Alfredo Aceves (0-0) vs. RHP Justin Masterson (3-0)
First pitch 7:05PM EST

Game 3: LHP Jon Lester (2-0) vs RHP Zach McAllister (1-1)

First pitch 7:05PM EST

Coming into his second full year, youngster Doubront had a decent spring in the Florida based Grapefruit league, posting a 3.00 ERA with 22 strikeouts and only six walks in 18 innings. The Venezuelan lefty has five pitches in his arsenal, but he leans heavily on his 93 MPH fastball. He tends to use the four-seamer almost 60% of the time whenever batters get ahead in the count and 50% of first pitches. He mixes in an 85 MPH changeup and a sick 76 MPH curveball, mainly in pitcher-friendly counts. Last year, Doubront was 12th in the American League in strikeouts with 167, but his 4.86 ERA and 1.45 WHIP were both over league averages.

Aceves is generally a guy best used out of the bullpen, but due to an injury to John Lackey opened a spot in the BoSox rotation which was granted to Aceves. The righty recorded a no decision on April 11th against the Orioles in which he fired 47 of his 79 pitches for strikes. In that game, Aceves gave up two earned runs on six hits and three walks with four strikeouts. The Mexican native uses four pitches, a fastball that sits in the mid-90s, curveball, changeup, and sick cutter. He's known to be able to mix in all of his pitches evenly with marksmanship-type accuracy.

Lester has looked like the Jon Lester of old so far this season. After a rough 2012 in which the southpaw recorded a career worst 4.82 ERA and 216 hits, Lester seems to have righted the ship and is back on course to being one of the most dominate pitchers of the AL East. In his three starts this year, the hurler has a 1.42 ERA with 18 strikeouts and only three earned runs on 15 hits. The Red Sox are leaning on their ace as they've gone 3-0 in games that Lester has started. The Beantown lefty sports four pitches including a 93 mph fastball and mean cutter. Look for that fastball early in the count as Lester tends to use it heavily on first pitches (70% against left handed batters and 65% against righties) and that cutter once he gets ahead in the count.

The Red Sox are coming into Cleveland red hot with a record of 8-4 and sitting atop of the AL East after sweeping Tampa Bay in a three game series in Boston. The heart of this lineup is proving to people early that they are going to be taken seriously. Second baseman Dustin Pedroia and centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury have 28 hits between them, eight of which are for extra bases. Mike Napoli seems to be enjoying the new scenery at Fenway, who has 11 hits, two homers, and leads the team with 11 RBI. Shane Victorino is hitting a solid .313 batting average with a .358 on base percentage. The Flyin' Hawaiian already has recorded three stolen bases this season and has five hits in his last three games.

The Tribe's offense will have its work cut out for them with Bourn's likely absence. Struggling Jason Kipnis is suffering from a sore elbow which had been bothering him in spring training. Hitting just .125/.171/.219, the Kipper often looks overwhelmed at the plate, as if he's thinking too much. If he can't turn it around here soon, Kippy might find himself in a similar situation Asdrubal Cabrera was in back in 2008. Droobs struggled at the plate early on that year, earning himself a trip to the Indian's minor league team in Buffalo where he could work out the kinks. If Kipster ends up on a bus to C-bus, the Tribe might call up utility guy Cord Phelps who had a monster spring training, hitting .375/.455/.688 with four doubles, one triple, and three homeruns.

You've got to be pleased to see both Masterson and McAllister going up against the BoSox. These two work horses have been lights out in their collective five starts, all being quality starts. Plus Carlos Santana made a brief appearance in Monday night's game against Chicago, so hopefully we can expect his bat back in the lineup full time very soon. Having him preceded by Nick Swisher and immediately followed by Mark Reynolds could be very potentate.

Oh, and here's a non-baseball related joke. Why not?

Knock knock. Who's there? Smell mop...

Say it out loud if you can't get it.

Yes, it's a little immature, but I was struggling to think of a good one. Guess I could have Googled one, but that just seems cheap. Just wait for the infamous "three strings" joke. That'll really put you in stitches.

-

Justin Johnston is a contributing writer to The Tribe Daily. You can follow him on Twitter @WahooJay.

Morning Rundown: Indians Fall to Sox, But Seeing Lefty Success

2013-04-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I've given up on my quest to find Mark Reynolds a nickname. I'm sure something will come along, at least all my brilliant ideas do when I'm not trying. Which means, I have no brilliant ideas, because I'm always trying. See what I did there?

Reynolds has reached rock star status in my mind. The guy hits some incredible bombs at the most opportune times. Granted it is only two weeks, but the man is quickly endearing himself to Cleveland. Which is all the more reason he needs something cool to call him by. I mean, Mark is so plain and boring. And with a regular last name like Reynolds? Come on now.

Until that happens, I <3 Reynolds will have to do. I could just add a 'y' on the end like Tito does for everyone. Swishy, Bourny, Stubby (heheh), Yany (haha!)....Reynoldsy. Yeah that doesn't work.

WHITE SOX - 3 | INDIANS - 1
W: Jake Peavy (2-1)
L: Brett Myers (0-2)
S: Addison Reed (4)
[BOXSCORE]

Do not look down on Brett Myers for his start against the White Sox in this one. Of course, if you just look at his line, six innings, two runs off six hits and one walk with four strikeouts, you would be impressed and hopeful that maybe Myers can be a functioning member of those rotation.

But if you were to watch the game, you might be a little mad that Myers surrendered the lead in the sixth. Never mind the fact it was a 1-0 lead and it was in a game in which Jake Peavy was on.

Photo - Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports

Peavy didn't walk one, struck out 11 (we told you the Indians would have those days), and made one mistake. And it was on the first pitch to Michael Bourn. Without that mistake, Peavy goes seven scoreless and Myers isn't even in that position.

Myers pitched well, he made one mistake as well. And it came after he had his one walk of the game. Other than that? His breaking pitch was working, he worked the zone, he looked really good. He looked like the veteran pitcher the Indians signed him to be, and then some. He made a mistake and unfortunately it cost him the game. And it is worth pointing out that the mistake was to Paul Konerko, someone who is no stranger to hitting mistakes or beating the Indians.

"It's easy to tell somebody to have confidence," Francona said. "But once you do it and you feel good about yourself, the idea then is to grow off of that and continue to do that. I'm sure it helped. It should. He threw the ball very well."

You couldn't have expected for him to be perfect could you? It's a shame that it had to end that way, but you couldn't have asked for more from him and if he can give more performances like that this year, the Indians may be fine after all. A quality start is all you need, especially with the lineup that we saw on Saturday.

This was all Jake Peavy though. The man was spot on. Just as the White Sox could do nothing about Justin Masterson on Friday, it was all Peavy on Sunday. It just happens. You tip your cap and move on, especially since the Indians not only won the series, but also battered around that ace of the Sox on Saturday.

Random Notes...

Going into the game, the Indians were 5-1 when their starter lasts at least six innings pitched and winless when (0-4) when they don't. Obviously, Myers went six so that turns to 5-2, but it goes to show you that the starter going six is big in a victory or not.

Half the hits, the lone run, Michael Bourn ladies and gentlemen, the Indians offense on Sunday.

Bourn's leadoff home run was shades of Grady Sizemore, who is second to Kenny Lofton with 29, but actually, according to Tom Hamilton, through Waiting for Next Year's Scott, only Bourn and, wait for it....Matt Lawton...have ever hit a leadoff home run on the first pitch in Progressive Field. Yes, Matt "My Kid's Bike is Better than Your Kid's Bike" Matt Lawton.

Nick Swisher has hit in 20 consecutive games at Progressive Field, dating back to his run with the White Sox in 2008. Incredible, three teams, several years. And it isn't like he has spent the entire time in the National League either. Granted he finished up with the White Sox and went onto the Yankees, not a division rival, but he was there every year. It's the longest streak in park history. Michael Young 20.

Lonnie Chisenhall deservedly got an error in the sixth when Keppinger reached to lead off the frame, but it was not an easy play. The ball took a weird hop. He's no Hannahan, but he's also would have had to make an amazing play to make that play an out.

Jason Giambi, 0-for-4 but best walk-up music in a long time.

Ryan Raburn got picked off at first. We also found out he is severely balding.

[HEADED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION]

I just need to continue to make this point, especially since the evidence continues to mount.

The numbers of the two lefty horses the Indians have faced the past few weeks, prior to 2013, against the Indians...

David Price: 5-0, 7 ER, 22 H, 7 BB, 43 K, 2 HR (38.1 IP)
Chris Sale: 2-0, 8 ER, 25 H, 10 BB, 37 K, 3 HR (34.1 IP)

And in the one game they pitched against the Indians this season...

David Price: 0-1, 8 ER, 10 H, 3 BB, 3 K, 2 HR (5 IP)
Chris Sale: 0-1, 8 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 3 K, 2 HR (4.1 IP)

First, look how dominant the two guys were, especially Price. He has insane numbers against the Indians in his career prior to this year. So insane that in one start, essentially everything was doubled. The amount of home runs he gave up, the amount of runs, hits even.

And if you think Sale was good against the Indians in just three starts, look how amazing Price was in a few more.

And in just one week, the Indians have completely dismantled the body of work those two gentlemen put up against the Tribe. Why? Probably because for once in their careers, they faced an Indians lineup that had more than two or three right handed hitters in it.

Sale against left-handers in his career: they hit .220 with just three home runs in 396 at-bats. He has walked just 22 lefties. Price? An incredible .198 average with 10 home runs and 51 walks in 706 at-bats. That's 1 home run every 70 at-bats. Compare that to the one home run he gives up every 35 at-bats against right-handers. These guys feed off hitters who hit from the left side.

Nick Swisher (.324, 1 HR, 10 BB in 37 AB) is one of the few guys who has faced Price more than 20 times and has had success. Look at this:

Asdrubal Cabrera: 3-16
Shin-Soo Choo: 2-14
Michael Brantley: 1-10

And Travis Hafner, the Indians would completely avoid using Hafner (or he happens to be hurt) every time Price pitches against the Indians. But those are the numbers of those three gentlemen against Price in their careers. All hitting lefty.

How about Sale?

Asdrubal Cabrera: 5-21
Shin-Soo Choo: 1-14
Michael Brantley: 1-12
Jason Kipnis: 4-12
Travis Hafner: 2-7

These are the main guys the Indians have featured in their lineup the past few years. All hitting left-handed against Chris Sale and David Price. And look at the results. They can't hit those guys! That is why they've had so much success.

Put a few right handers in the lineup and look what happens. Now part of it might have just been some bad games. Sale didn't look quite right, David Price quite wasn't hitting the zone. But you have to applaud both the approach the Indians took against those two guys in the particular games, and the lineup the Indians are able to put out.

Instead of Shelley Duncan (bless that man), Lou Marson, and Jose Lopez, the Indians backups that hit right handed that are put out there are Ryan Raburn and Mike Aviles. And these are guys just replacing someone like Kipnis against Sale or Brantley against Price. That isn't even considering the fact that guys like Choo and Hafner are not the middle of the lineup guys, Swisher and Reynolds are.

Has acquiring these guys solved everything? No, but it has at least made the Indians much more viable against left-handed starters. Granted, you don't see them everyday, like Manny Acta would like to point out, but you see them at least once, sometimes twice a week and the really good ones have killed the Indians in the past.

The results have been clear, aside from batting around those aces. But check out how consistent the numbers look prior to Sunday's game against the White Sox, something I tweeted out during the game.

Indians V LHP: 42-175 (.240), 7 HR, 15 BB, 34 K

Indians V RHP: 41-170 (.241), 7 HR, 20 BB, 50 K

Think that's awesome? According to Bastian, those lefty numbers lead the American League. Who would have even thought that?

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

What's helping these situation is not only Mark Reynolds, but the fact that Reynolds gets to hit with runners on base. He's making things happen and is incredibly dangerous down in the lineup in those situations. Think about it. This is a guy who just absolutely crushes strikes. If you throw him a fastball, he's hitting it a long way.

By the Indians getting on, they're forcing pitchers to throw Reynolds strikes. They have to! And Reynolds is making them pay. If Reynolds was hitting a little higher, like fourth or third, he wouldn't be having this success. It's those guys that get the tough pitches and the ones getting pitched around because there is no one on base. So credit where the Indians are able to put Reynolds in the lineup and the lineup ahead of him for getting on and making it difficult for him.

"It's been fun," said Reynolds, who signed a one-year contract with Cleveland this past offseason. "Every time I'm at the plate, I have somebody on base -- it seems like that. I've just got to keep doing my job and driving those guys in."

One guy that is being used to being driven in, did so on his own on Sunday and counted for the Indians lone run. Then he exited late after getting stepped on trying to beat out a base hit. Michael Bourn left with a cut on his right finger that required stitches.

"It shouldn't take too, too long," said Bourn, who added that he would surely miss Tuesday's series opener against Boston. "I'll probably be in a little bit of pain for the next day or two. Other than that, I should be fine."

He can't play with the stitches, but they shouldn't need to be in long, depending on the severity of the cut. The good news in my mind is the fact that he didn't break anything. Any sort of broken bone in a finger or the hand is bad news. So he's probably out for the Boston series, on the low end. Hopefully that is it. You can see the cut in this image.

I'd venture to guess Giambi gets some more time in the absence of Bourn, with Stubbs in center, Swisher in right, and Reynolds playing first. I'm sure it will be a match-up thing.

Carlos Santana ended up missing the entire weekend series (or so about) against the White Sox due to the left thumb injury that forced him out of the Tuesday game against the Yankees. The good news is that he didn't miss two Yankees games and he will probably be back when the Indians return to action on Tuesday. Given the fact that he hit in the bottom of the ninth on Sunday, I'd say things look good for him returning.

The Indians had plans of potentially playing him on Saturday, but after Santana went out and took swings in the cold weather, they all decided that it was best to not push it. Francona said not to read into Santana being pulled from the lineup and that he didn't suffer a set-back, and that it was simply a decision before the game to avoid the weather conditions.

He then went on to mention that Monday's off day would make it really easy for them to just hold off for one more game and get him two more days of rest. So he's essentially been out a week, but has really only missed three games, which is a really good thing for the Indians.

Santana even said that Tuesday would be a good day for him to return, but that's Santana's word, not the Indians. We'll see, but I would assume if there's no issues moving forward, he'll be back. He looked great in his at-bat, almost ripping one gone and then working the walk. As if he never left. The one issue was gripping and swinging the bat, so if he was able to hit, you have to imagine he's good to go.

The other injury that has suddenly come into focus is the elbow soreness that has been felt by Jason Kipnis.

"He doesn't even know when he did it," said Indians skipper Terry Francona. "He thought the last time he might have slept on it wrong, because it didn't hurt last night and it was a little tender this morning."

Hey man, I had this soreness in my shoulder earlier last week and I had no clue how I did it. Everyone says I slept on it wrong, but that's what everyone says when you tell them you don't know what you did to it. Kipnis was out of the lineup on Saturday and Sunday. Francona said it made sense to give him a rest against the tough left hander in Sale and get a bat like Raburn in there, and hey, it paid off. I'm sure the extra off day reasoning was why Kipnis also sat on Sunday, and should be back there on Tuesday, provided he doesn't sleep on it weird again.

Scott Kazmir may be on the verge to make Saturday's start, the next time the Indians will need a fifth starter. He'll make his first rehab assignment start on Monday with the Clippers, which lines him up for Saturday's start. Let's all hope that goes right.

For those of you keeping up on what Trevor Bauer is doing in Columbus, his debut was a well-pitched game. And for those of you keeping track, good news, we actually have quotes. Yes, this is how big Bauer is, he's going to be followed like this. He's an attention grabber.

Bauer pitched well, going six innings and striking out nine hitters, allowing just a solo home run as his lone blemish. he did walk three and give up four hits, but the strikeouts...the strikeouts! Perhaps that is difference between the Major and highest level of the Minor Leagues. Maybe all those strikeouts Bauer was tallying up came on the same types of pitches he was throwing against the Rays a little over a week ago.

Or maybe he just had his stuff. Or maybe it has something to do with Bauer "permeating his curveball." Yeah I don't know what that means.

"I decided yesterday I was going to throw a good curveball and, thankfully, it was there today," Bauer said. "I watched video from last year to find out what was working best then and it seemed like I should work on permeating my curveball more. I've been focusing on a lot of other stuff lately, but I spent about 15 minutes visualizing my pitches, with most of that going to the curveball, and it seemed to work."

Anyway, it's good Bauer got back on track in his first Columbus start. He talked more about the "changes" he is trying to make and how it will work into a big change for him on the mound. Bauer picked up the win in a shortened first game of a doubleheader and will now continue in a rotation that will feature Carlos Carrasco, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Corey Kluber moving forward.

If you want a little more Bauer, check out a video from Next Level Ballplayer where they sat down with Bauer to talk about mechanics and pitching and his "explosive" training regimen.

I've ALWAYS had an issue with cell phone service at Progressive Field. There are times that I cannot get anything I'm trying to access to load. I watch the game, don't get me wrong, but I'm also on my phone, whether I'm looking something up or sending out a tweet here and there.

To be fair, I think I've had issues at other stadiums and arenas as well. But I go to Progressive Field more than any sporting venue, so when I have issues, I'll remember them more specifically. The reception was an issue on Opening Day in an irritating way for fans. Maybe it was the mass-number of people, as everyone was trying to access the closest cell towers.

You can take the "You're there to watch the game" mentality, and you are. Trust me, I don't ruin my experience by being on my phone the entire time like some people may do. But if someone goes out, you wanna know what's up and Twitter is an easy way to find that out. In an age when controversial calls are not replayed in the stadium, you want to know from people watching on television what actually happened. I've done it on more than one occasion, or at least tried to sometimes, and it is frustrating when things don't work.

TD on WFNY makes a good point though. As much as the Indians promote the use of social media, it is pretty sad when the local service doesn't even work well enough to gather enough pictures or tweets to post up.

The opening series was dampened not by the cell phone service but the rain, which claimed two games and my productivity on the blog this week. Let's be honest, not only was the bullpen tired out, so was I. The canceled games gave me a chance to take a little break, which was needed with the amount of things I have going on right now. If you held tickets to either of those games though, congratulations. If you didn't, congratulations, you have a chance to see the Yankees. The Indians have all the logistics on that here.

The two games will be made up as a part of a doubleheader next month, taking place on May 13th, a Monday. And this is one of those traditional doubleheaders that starts at noon. Not this day-night stuff. One game ends, the next one starts just about right after. That's the way it's done. We need more of these actually scheduled in baseball. Of course that will never happen, but it should.

We joke around about how annoying it was to have Austin Kearns around, but best wishes to the former Indian as he was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat. That is not cool at all.

Carlos Carrasco Suspended Again; Eight Games for Hitting Youkilis

2013-04-12T15:50:00.001-04:00

The hammer came down on Carlos Carrasco for his beaning of Yankees third baseman Kevin Youkilis on Tuesday, his first start since 2011 and his first start since serving a reduced five game suspension for a similar situation against the Kansas City Royals.

Photo - AP via Yahoo! Sports

Carrasco was suspended eight games and fined, according to Tom Withers of the AP, $3,000.

That's peanuts, the game amount, not so much.

Eight games? A repeat offender will get a more heavier punishment, especially since he technically had no games pitched between the serving his last suspension and this incident.

The big question, of course, surrounds the idea of if he was intentionally trying to hit Youkilis or not.

Does anyone remember the situation in which Carlos Carrasco originally was suspended for way back when in 2011?

In case you forgot, let's take a trip down memory lane. Of course the major detail, that it came one pitch after a home run, is the one mentioned because it was the exact situation in the instance earlier this week against the Yankees.

However, not only did Carrasco not actually hit Billy Butler last time (the pitch went behind Butler's head), it came after a home run in which current Blue Jays, then-Royals outfielder Melky Cabrera hit a grand slam and then stood in the batters box to watch his damage.

Cabrera contended he didn't do it on purpose.

Carrasco contended he didn't throw at Butler on purpose.

"I didn't throw at anybody," Carrasco said. "The baseball just ran away. I know it looked bad after the home run, but nothing I can do right there."

Right, I don't believe any of that. What made the situation different though was the fact that Carrasco's pitch was purposeful. He can say he didn't do it all he wants, but he did it. He had the control, he simply was sending a message. Don't stand in the box. That pitch was meant to send a message. Carrasco was not lying when he said the baseball ran away. It did, but he wanted it to.

At the time, Manny Acta "talked" to Carrasco, leading us all to believe he did do it on purpose. He was even called immature by Acta.

"He's a young guy -- immature at times," Acta said. "He showed his frustration the wrong way. He was talked to."

Let's now fast forward to what happened against the Yankees and what Carrasco said after it.

"I know it doesn't look good," Carrasco said. "I really want to say sorry. I don't want to hit anybody."

Yankees manager Joe Girardi had the best line, basically saying that whether he intended to or not, no one will ever know, but also in that regardless, it did not look good. Of course it didn't look good. The guy just gave up a home run and then he hits a dude?

The different to me in this one as to why the first one was intentional, where as this one wasn't? Perhaps in the response after. Carrasco did not apologize after the pitch that he threw behind Butler. Which speaks to me in that he had purposely tried to send a message to the Royals for what Cabrera did by standing there.

He apologized after hitting Youkilis, which leads me to believe he actually had no intentions of hitting Youkilis. Am I crazy for believing that? Perhaps. Does it mean I disagree with the suspension? No, but more on that in a second.

In addition to apologizing, he practically fell down delivering the pitch. No control. The guy was abysmal after two outs against the Yanks, it was pathetic.

"It didn't look good," Francona said. "So situationally, I understand it. I understand the umpire's viewpoint and what he just came off of. But he was throwing 96-97 [mph] all night and, I think if you look at the video, he slipped and he threw it 90. I can see, under the circumstances, that it didn't look good."

So, Carrasco gives up home run, throws to Youkilis, completely falls down while doing so, hits him. Apologizes after the game. No benches cleared or brawls were had. Carrasco got ejected and will not get an eight game suspension whenever it is the Indians decide to call upon him.

Some suggest it will be in September when the Indians don't have to deal with roster issues, like they put up with just to get Carrasco that start on Tuesday and into the rotation.

Scott Kazmir is coming back soon and it seems as if Trevor Bauer or Corey Kluber are more in-line for the next opportunity anyway, it could be very likely September before we see Carrasco again.

And perhaps that is a good thing. Carrasco may need this trip to Columbus. Not only are there immaturity questions that stem from this, whether he intended to throw at Youkilis or not, he has some obvious pitching issues. His velocity is back, he was hitting mid 90's, at times 96 on the radar gun. He was getting outs, until he got two of them and everything went wrong.

He needs fine-tuned and fixed mechanically. Because whatever went wrong, in my mind, went horribly wrong when he hit Youkilis. Yes I don't think it was on purpose, I think it really did get away from him. How could it not when he's falling off the mound like he did?

But does that mean he doesn't deserve a slap on the wrist? Maybe he doesn't, but given the situation, if you are MLB and the Commissioner's office, you have no other choice. You have to make a decision based off what you are seeing, contextually. Carrasco gives up a home run, hits Youkilis. Previous history, Carrasco gives up a home run, throws at Billy Butler.

You have to. Doesn't make it right or wrong, you just have to. We can choose to believe Carrasco slipped or we can choose to believe he has immaturity issues.

All of that aside, he has some pitching issues that he needs to resolve. And the Indians need him to resolve them. With a rotation that clearly is leaking as bad as some basements with all the rain in Northeast Ohio, the Indians need Carrasco to figure it out and return to a point where he was starting to look like a major piece to the rotation.

He has the stuff, as even evidenced by his start on Tuesday. Because even if Trevor Bauer turns out to be everything and more, there are still spots in this rotation that need filled behind Justin Masterson down the road. And as the last and only real viable piece to the Cliff Lee deal, the Indians need something to stick.

Michael Brantley was the saving grace to trading CC Sabathia, no thanks to Matt LaPorta. So with that in mind, and Jason Knapp officially retired, the Indians need Carlos Carrasco to turn out for the sake of trading Cliff Lee.

Until we meet again Car²...