Game 32: yankees

Indians: 3 7 0
Yankees: 0 7 0

Cliff Lee was once again, phenomenal. 6 hits, 7 strikeouts, no runs. Chien Ming Wang suffered his first loss of the year. Clevelands hitters were able to elevate the ball off of Wang which is generally a difficult thing to do. Wang didnt pitch that bad, Lee was just simply better. Cleveland has taken the first two games against the yankees on the road making it the first time since 1992 the indians have won a season series against New York.

WP: Lee (6-0, 0.81)
LP: Wang (6-1, 3.21)
SV: Betancourt (3)

Game 31: Yankees

Indians: 5 6 0
Yankees: 3 8 1

A home run by david dellucci secured the indians late inning heroics tuesday night. Fausto Carmona (3-1, 2.95 era) went 5 innings, walked 5 and gave up 3 earned runs on 6 hits. although he wasnt completely terrible, it was arguably his poorest start of the season. Sizemore and Peralta walked and dellucci pinch hit for Gutierrez and it turned out to be a wise decision. Dellucci jumped on the second pitch from Joba Chamberlain and put Cleveland ahead for good.

WP: Perez (1-1, 4.11)
LP: Joba Chamberlain (1-2, 3.38)
SV: Betancourt (3)

The Francisco era begins.

Taken from Indians.com ..."The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has recalled OF BEN FRANCISCO from the AAA Buffalo Bisons. To allow room for Francisco on the Major League roster the Indians designated OF JASON MICHAELS for assignment."

This pretty much spells the end of Michaels in Cleveland for good, Save the september call-ups, but lets hope the indians are playing for something and leave michaels in buffalo when the time comes around. word also is that Michaels has already left for his home state of florida and appears that hes not going to report to the Bisons.

I've been a huge Ben Francisco fan and have followed him throughout the minors for years. All the scouts that have watched Francisco are often left wondering what kind of adjectives to use when describing Franciscos potential. At 6'1 190lbs, he is extremely quick with a very fluid swing. deceptive power and has an above average arm for a left fielder. To me, francisco is the best outfielding prospect in the entire indians system (sizemore and gutierrez are no longer considered prospects) and I believe he is considered to be above players like Shin Soo Choo, Brad Snyder or Trevor Crowe.

Again, Francisco has good pop in his bat and looks like he could hit anywhere from 15-20 home runs a season, perhaps more. He only had 3 homeruns in 62 at-bats last year but consider the musical chairs that was our outfield last season. Maybe this move will put some life into the Indians offense. I've actually got to give credit to shapiro for really starting to make moves no matter who the player is. Demoting Cliff Lee was the last move I saw coming last year.

Game 28: Mariners

Indians: 3 8 1
Mariners: 2 9 0

It looked as though the indians offense was once again going to ruin another solid inning by one of its starters. Only able to muster 3 runs after scoring 8 the night before, it took extra inning dramatics by Asdrubal Cabrera to solve this one. The bases were loaded with Peralta at 3rd, Hafner at 2nd and Jamey Carrol at 1st. Gutierrez was retired on strikes and all cabrera needed to do was find a hole and he did. He drove an 0-1 pitch up the middle. Game over.

Fridays night game was rained out. Saturday nights game is a 7pm start. C.C. Sabathia (1-4, 7.88) looks to make it 3 quality starts in a row against the Royals promising young pitcher Luke Hochevar (1-1, 5.91).

Game 27: Mariners

Indians: 8 11 0
Mariners: 3 9 1

Grady Sizemore led off the game with a home run and the indians gave Mariners started Jarod Washburn an early night. Cliff Lee wrapped up the first month of the season in the same fashion he began it. Lee went 6 full innings and faced a few batters in the 7th before getting into trouble. Wladimir Balentien hit a 3 run home run but Jensen Lewis and Jorge Julio kept the game in hand. Cliff Lee is now 5-0 with an unbelievable ERA of 0.96, the best in all of baseball.

The series wraps up tomorrow night at 7pm. Paul Bryd (1-2, 4.85 era) goes against either Miguel Batista(injury) or former Orioles ace Erik Bedard (2-0, 2.04)

game 26: Mariners

Seattle: 7 15 0
Cleveland: 2 8 2

Fausto Carmona ( 3-1 2.60 ) was dominant as usual going 6.2 innings, scattering 8 hits and only giving up 2 runs but got no help from an anemic offense. The mariners put the game away for good in the 9th inning against Craig Breslow and Rafael Betancourt who surrendered 5 total runs.

WP: Mark Lowe (1-1)

LP: Rafael Betancourt (1-1)

off day and carmona.

Travel Day to come home and face the A's for 3 games. Fausto Carmona was resigned today for 4 years with a club option for 3 additional years. wonder where this leaves negotiations with Sabathia?

through 9 games.

I'm not even sure what to think about the indians right now. We're only 9 or so games in and already this season has been a strange one. The white sox lead the league in home runs with 11, the royals are tied for first place in the A.L. central division and have the 5th best record in the majors. The tigers (barring a red sox comeback) will win their first game tonight despite having one of the most fearsome and talented rosters in the game.

Yea, yea. "baseball is a marathon" and things can change very fast but who says its a bad thing to get off to a good start? The indians looked like they hadnt missed a beat when they fell behind in the first game only to put 7 straight runs on the board including 2 homeruns. Since then, they've looked lost, bored and completely over matched by the pitchers they've faced. Oh yea, Victor Martinez went down with another opening day hamstring. He's back now so its not all that bad but our hitters, all of them, have no patience at the plate. They arent working the count or showing even a glimpse of the patience they had last year that made them so effective. Ryan Garko looks like he lost some weight but it might have affected his swing, who knows. I'm just being an ass, by the way.

Why are Dellucci and Michaels still taking roster spots? 12 million dollars is being invested in these two rejects who have one hit combined, one hit! Why is Michaels, who lost his job last year to the 40 year old Kenny Lofton and is currently 1-18, batting second and now today third? Cabrera is our #2, thats where he belongs and he more than earned it last year. I know I keep saying "last year" but last year worked, last year was a success but leave it to wedge and his group of morons to forget that. Hey wedge, Chemistry is a good thing. Why does it seem like you intentionally do the opposite of right every game? did you pay attention to anything last season? Francisco outplayed both michaels and dellucci in spring training. he's our leftfielder, he's younger, has more potential, has a quicker and more fluid swing, has the ability to consistently hit for average. but who am I to question a "proven" managers decisions? Peralta third?! Cabrera 7th?!

Our pitchers? Carmona is still Carmona, Lee looks like he might have figured it out again (its only been one start though). Ironically, in his contract year no less, C.C. looks like a problem more than an ace, (again). He pitched so strongly on opening day but allowed the white sox to erase a 5 run deficit in under 3 innings. In his next start at Oakland he went 5.1 innings, gave up 4 runs on 6 hits and now his ERA sits at 7.59. it hasnt been the normal joy to watch him pitch, its been painful and frustrating. Westbrook had a good start he just needs to keep it up and consistency isnt exactly his trade.

The bullpen.. Jorge Julio? seriously? Betancourt and Perez are both on pace to pitch 92 innings in relief this season. Betancourts ERA is currently 8.00 and Perez is still very young. Thats too much responsibility for 2 guys. Using both of them this much already might be the only thing wedge has done right so far. He knows how good these guys were last season but there are other guys to use, such as Jensen Lewis. hopefully hes over using both raffies because he has no faith in anyone else. Which brings to my attention... Its not unorthodox or "against the book" to pull your closer. You dont let your pitchers, let alone your closer to walk the bases loaded with no outs and expect to get out of the inning. No one came out to talk to him, no coach, no catcher, no one! He was just allowed to single handedly blow the game. Borowski may have led the league in saves last year but he also led the league in blown saves. What did the Indians do? They resigned him.

We returned everyone except for lofton and have absolutely no reason to not be as good as we were last season. however, The tigers wont be this bad for long and when they get it going I dont want to have to face them. The white sox are drastically improved and will no doubt be in it all season. Its still early but with the talent within this division any kind of step back or slump will turn this year into a repeat of 2006.

The Indians dropped 4 games on their west coast road trip. They come home on friday to face the same A's team that should have swept them. Then its the Red sox and tigers. This team better get it going and soon.