The Tribe were once again were victim to the big inning as they lost the first of three to the Detroit Tigers 8-3 Friday night. With the Indians down 4-2, Jason Davis relieved Jake Westbrook in the sixth with the bases loaded but gave up a three-run triple to Curtis Granderson to blow the game wide open. Seven of the runs were charged to Westbrook, who continues to have trouble against the Tigers. In 16 starts against them, he now has a 6.54 ERA. Nate Robertson got his fifth win of the season for Detroit. Jhonny Peralta and Eduardo Perez each had two hits and an RBI for the Tribe.

The sacrifice fly by the Tigers in the seventh really captures the Indians’ season so far in a nutshell. On a deep fly ball to center and Ordonez on second base, Grady Sizemore threw a light toss towards the infield and Jhonny Peralta somehow just missed the ball, enabling Ordonez to score.

“That has nothing to do with Grady,” Wedge said. “No matter what the score is, that can’t happen.”

Even though the game was somewhat out of reach at that point, mental lapses and careless plays like that continue to kill the Tribe and are partially responsible for their sub-par start this season. That’s the second time Peralta has recently made an inexplicable mental error, the first being when he didn’t run out that grounder down the line that ended up being fair.

I don’t know if the Indians have checked the standings lately but it’s time to get serious. This lackluster attitude of “Oh, we’re a good team and everything will work itself out” is getting ridiculous. The players continue to say that they are a better ballclub than what they are showing on the field. Well boys, it’s about time you start playing like the playoff contender that you think you are. Perhaps it’s time for Wedge to step in and kick these guys in the behind.

Mike Brown was rewarded for his first-year success with the Cavaliers as he was given a contract extension Thursday by the organization. Brown originally signed a three-year deal worth $10 million, but the team picked up the option he had on his fourth year. Brown helped lead the Cavaliers to a 50-win season and their first playoff appearance in eight seasons.

“It seemed like the right thing to do,” general manager Danny Ferry said. “From [owner] Dan Gilbert’s perspective and my perspective, this is the guy we believe is the right one to lead our team, and why not show the commitment to him.”

While he had some flaws as a rookie coach, Brown did a great job communicating to his players and keeping them together through difficult times. Larry Hughes was lost to injury halfway through the season but Brown did not allow the loss of their second leading scorer to bring the rest of the team down. He kept them focused and playing at a high level. Danny Ferry says he is very respected by the Cavalier players and having that chemistry between coach and players is extremely important for any ballclub.

“You looked at the energy of the group, the trust that they had in him, the high level of communication. It was a good, healthy, strong, rich environment,” Ferry said. “That was a big reason. Making the playoffs just affirmed the direction we wanted to go. I really believe this is the right decision.”

Brown came in as a defensive minded coach and although the Cavaliers’ defense wasn’t spectacular, he was able to install his system in his first year. It was evident as the season progressed, and especially in the Detroit playoff series, that the players began to grasp Brown’s defensive strategies. After all, defense wins championships and Mike Brown seems to be the right kind of guy leading this team going forward.

Looks like C.C Sabathia is finally becoming the ace the Indians have been searching for. Sabathia threw his second straight complete game as the Tribe blanked the Twins 11-0 Wednesday afternoon. Casey Blake homered twice and Victor Martinez had three hits and two RBI. The Tribe scored eight runs between the sixth and eighth innings as they split the short two game series with Minnesota.

“It just seems like he’s not even trying out there,” Blake said. “It’s like he’s playing with the hitters and doing whatever he wants to do.”

Every time C.C takes the mound now it seems like the Tribe are going to win the ballgame and that’s the way it should be with an ace.

Justin Morneau delivered a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning off Tribe reliever Guillermo Mota as the Twins beat the Indians 6-5 Tuesday night. Cliff Lee and the Indians fell behind 4-0 early but with the help of a Grady Sizemore double and an Eduardo Perez two-run homer, they took a 5-4 lead. The lead quickly vanished, however, as the Twins tied it up in bottom of the 6th. Lee gave up five runs in as many innings and the Indians touched up Johan Santana for four runs in seven innings.

Cabrera, Sauerbeck, and Betancourt did a great job shutting out the Twins in four innings of relief work for the Tribe. However, Mota struggled again as he had another rough appearance. Mota walked Torii Hunter in the 10th and it came back to haunt him.

Kenny Roda will be writing a weekly blog on Cleveland Scores covering the entire Cleveland sports universe. Check back often for his updates!

The NBA’s second season, known as the playoffs, has brought joy and pain to Cavalier fans everywhere. Expectations were high this year. Making the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons and securing home-court advantage for at least one round were reasonable goals at the start of the season. LeBron and the Cavaliers did both. Win a playoff series and give “The King” valuable playoff experience? Check those off the list as well. Shock the NBA world by upsetting this year’s favorite to win the NBA title, the Detroit Pistons? Well that’s where the pain part comes in.

The Cavaliers held a 3-2 series lead over the Pistons after stealing Game 5 in Motown and set up a golden opportunity for the city of Cleveland to celebrate an upset of major proportions and do so on their home floor in Game 6. The script was written. LeBron James, in his first playoffs, would lead a late fourth quarter charge at “The Q” and the Pistons would be history, while the Cavs would make history in front of their hometown fans. One problem. Well, actually, there were a number of problems. Never underestimate the heart of a champion. You can’t give up four offensive rebounds to Detroit in the final minute of a closeout game. Mike Brown, the rookie coach, failed to use a timeout to draw up a game-tying play for the world’s best player.

You lose the home-court advantage you stole from Detroit. Then you go and get pounded on their court in Game 7 and it is vacation time for the players, as well as more pain and disappointment for the fans of C-Town.

But even though that was the way the Cavaliers’ season came to an end, it was a season in which LeBron James and the rest of the team grew and got better. And they did so without having their key free-agent acquisition, Larry Hughes, for over 40 games. Hughes was supposed to be Robin to LeBron’s Batman and even though that dynamic duo rarely played together, the Cavs still found a way to win 50 games and reach the goals we stated earlier. Now it’s time for General Manager Danny Ferry to go to work and make this team even better in the offseason.

Ferry will have to decide on whether to keep unrestricted free agent Flip Murray and/or restricted free agent Drew Gooden. Who does he spend his $5.3 million mid-level exception on? Does he spend that on one player or two? What about the biannual exception of $1.8 million? Who gets that? With the 25th pick in the June 28th NBA draft, will Ferry find a point guard that this team desperately needs, or does he go after a power forward?

Can he find a diamond in the rough in the second round of the draft with picks 42 and 55? Will that diamond come from France, Italy or Greece, similar to how the Spurs, his former team, found key players? Is there a big trade out there waiting to happen? Will free agents want to come to play with LeBron? Ferry will be very busy and needs to make the right decisions in order to make LeBron happy because the superstar is eligible to sign a contract extension on July 1, 2006. Ferry has already told me they will offer that max contract of 5 years and about $75 million as soon as they are permitted to. Will LeBron accept it, or play out next season and become a restricted free agent at the end of the 2006-2007 season?

So many questions with very few answers at this time. However, if Ferry is able to convince LeBron to sign the extension and the Cavaliers find a few answers to those questions, the pain of the way this season ended will be forgotten. The future for Cleveland could be full of so much joy for the King and his court that it could make up for all those years of futility that included “The Catch” by Willie Mays in the 1954 World Series, Red Right 88, The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot, Jose Mesa…well you get the idea! All Hail the King! Please stay!

Grady Sizemore could sleep a little easier Sunday night. After going 0 for 5 with four strikeouts, the Tribe’s center fielder delivered the game-winning base hit in the bottom of the tenth inning to give the Indians a 3-2 win over the Pirates.

“Until then, it was a pretty bad day,” said Sizemore. “Nobody wants to strike out, but I had to try and put all that behind me.”

Paul Byrd went seven solid innings, giving up only two runs. Jhonny Peralta had a nice day, going 3 for 4 with an RBI double that tied the game at two in the seventh. With the win, the Indians take the series from the Pirates and move back to the .500 mark.

You have to give Grady a lot of credit for staying in the game mentally. He could have easily gotten discouraged after his strikeouts but even though he was facing a tough lefty, he stayed focused and got the big hit.

The 2006 College Football Season is around the corner and many see Ohio State as the favorite to make it to the Championship game. After the Buckeyes made such an impressive showing in this years NFL draft, you would think they were re-building.

The Ohio State defensive did take a major hit returning only 2 starters from last year, but many experts feel that this team is talented on the defensive side and it will pick up right where it left off.

The main reason for this high ranking is the offensive side of the ball is loaded with talent. The return of Troy Smith, Ted Ginn Jr. and the rest of the offensive is enough to make people shake their heads with envy. This is not a normal Buckeye formula for success, but with all this experience and speed, this team should be fun to watch.

The Cavaliers battled with the Pistons and kept it close in the first half but the experience of Detroit and some horrible shooting by the Cavs in the second half resulted in a 79-61 win for Rasheed Wallance and company. LeBron scored 21 points in the first half and the Cavaliers went into the locker room only down two at the break. Unfortunately for the Cavs, the second half was a totally different story. LeBron scored only 6 and the Cavs as a team shot a putrid 19 percent in the second half. Detroit turned it up a notch and held the Cavs to only 23 points.

“Detroit showed why they are champions,” Cavs coach Mike Brown said.

Tayshaun Prince led the Pistons, who will face the Miami Heat in a rematch of last year’s Conference final, with 20 points in the game.

LeBron did what he could but couldn’t get any help from his supporting cast. Jumpers did not fall and the Cavs offense was a complete struggle in the second half. They failed to move the ball around and often stood and watched as LeBron tried to create. It’s a disappointing end to a magical season but I think everyone can agree that this experience will only make us better for the future. We went toe-to-toe with the mighty Pistons for seven games and that’s something that the team and the city can be proud of.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are heading into game 7 with a full squad. The team announced yesterday that Larry Hughes will join the team in Detroit for their final game of the series. The winner of this game advances to a meeting with the Miami Heat.

Larry Hughes missed games 3 and 4, spending that time with his family after the death of his brother. He attended game 5 but didn’t’ dress, sitting on the bench and cheering on the team.

Coach Mike Brown said he highly doubts that Larry Hughes would start, but says it’s likely he will get some playing time. Cleveland is going to need every advantage they can to win this game 7.

Starter Jason Johnson could not follow up the strong outing he had previously against Detroit. He was tagged for eight runs in 3 2/3 innings of work in the Tribe’s 9-6 loss to the Pirates Saturday night. Six of his runs came off of three Pirate homers. Jason Bay went yard twice in the ballgame and had four RBI for Pittsburgh. Johnson’s poor pitching gave the Pirates a large cushion and put the Indians in a hole early, one that they could not battle out of. Some credit has to be given to Fausto Carmona who kept the lead where it was. In his first major league relief appearance, Carmona pitched over three scoreless innings. Grady Sizemore had three RBI and homered for the third straight game and the fourth time in the last five games.

After his first few starts of the season it looked like Shapiro found a gem in Jason Johnson. However, it has gone downhill since then and Wedge expressed some displeasure.

“I think there is some reason for concern,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said. “We saw what he was capable of in his first three or four starts. Right now, Jason is in our starting rotation. It’s early in the season. We believe in sticking with guys, but he needs to make some adjustments and give himself and our team a chance to win.”

We can’t have Johnson go out and continue to give away games with his horrible performances. I know we have him under contract and he was brought here to be in our rotation, but meanwhile, we have prospect Jeremy Sowers totally overmatching hitters and dominating in AAA. Hmm…