Young Angel starter Jered Weaver, brother of Jeff Weaver, followed up his major league debut with another dominant performance as the Angels trounced the Tribe 10-3 in the first game of the series. He gave up only two runs and struck out eight in a little over six innings of work. On the flip side, Jason Johnson reverted back to his inconsistent ways, surrendering four runs and walking four in five innings. Johnson had trouble locating the ball all night long, which led to getting behind in the count. Mota relieved him but did much worse in a shorter period of time, giving up two homers and five runs in only 1 1/3 innings. Ben Broussard, Ronnie Belliard, and Jason Michaels each had an RBI for the Tribe. Michaels homered for the second straight game, extending his hitting streak to 11 ballgames.

Why Wedge insists on using Mota is beyond me. We have Carmona sitting in the pen and he hardly ever gets any work. Perhaps it’s time to give Mota some time in AAA to iron out his issues. I’m not sure if he has any options or exactly what the rules are in his case whether or not it’s possible to send him down to Buffalo but whether it’s health problems or mechanics, something is wrong with him.

As for Johnson, he can never seem to string together more than one quality start. I wish Wedge and Shapiro would stop being so stubborn and realize what they have under their noses in Buffalo. Get Sowers and bring him up now. So what if Johnson is making $4 million or whatever a year. It’s Jeremy’s time and he needs to be up here sooner rather than later. Hell, he can’t do any worse than Jason. After the game, Johnson got a little testy with reporters.

“It’s you guys who are putting me under the microscope,” he said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with me. If that’s what you guys want to do, that’s fine. I don’t care what anybody else thinks.”

Jason, you’re 3-5, you have one win in your last eight starts, and boast a 5.92 ERA. You must have some pretty thin skin if you can’t take a little heat from the media.

The Tribe outlasted the White Sox in a wild and thrilling seesaw battle Thursday night at the Jake. The 12-8 win by the Tribe featured five lead changes and multiple big innings by both teams. The Sox scored four in the third off Paul Byrd and opened up a three-run lead. After getting a run back in the bottom of the third, the Tribe put up four of their own in the sixth to take a 7-5 lead. However, the fun was just beginning. After Scott Sauerbeck walked two in the seventh, Fernando Cabrera came in to face Jermaine Dye, who hit his second homer of the night to give the Sox a one-run lead. Then, as they had done all night, the Indians returned the favor and scored four more in the bottom of the inning with the help of Ronnie Belliard’s three-run home run off Brandon McCarthy.

“There were so many emotional swings, but when Ronnie kept fouling off those pitches, I think everybody on our bench just knew — just felt — he was going to come through. But to end that at-bat with a home run, that’s just incredible,” Jason Michaels said.

With the exception of Jhonny Peralta, pretty much the entire Indians lineup contributed to the wild victory. Ben Broussard had four hits, amazingly one shy of the whole Sox team. Usually dominant, Jose Contreras was rocked for six runs in five innings. This was one of the biggest wins of the season for the Tribe, especially considering who was on the mound for the White Sox. A win like this can be a huge boost for a ballclub. With the way the game was going and how the Indians’ bats were on fire, it just seemed like there was no doubt they were going to come back and win. It’s three in a row now and slowly the Tribe is getting it’s swagger and confidence back. What a great game to be at!