Author: John Blake (Page 45 of 68)

Bob Wickman blew his first save of the season as the White Sox came back to beat the Tribe 4-3 in an extra inning affair Saturday afternoon. Victor Martinez, who had all three RBIs for the Indians, put Cleveland on top 3-2 with his second homer of the day in the top of the 11th. Wickman had registered a major league best 24 straight saves dating back to last season but couldn’t close the deal as Tadahito Iguchi got the game-winning hit in the bottom of the inning. Starter C.C Sabathia and Mark Buerhle went toe-to-toe with each other, allowing only three runs combined in the ballgame. The loss drops the Tribe to three games below the .500 mark.

“I’ll say one thing, I wasn’t fooling anyone,” Wickman said. “They put some pretty good at-bats on me and I didn’t get the job done. We got the lead with Vic’s home run and I came out there and blew it.”

It’s always something new with this team. Wickman has been the most consistent, steady player for the Indians all season and you’d think him coming into the game with the lead would most likely secure a victory. However, this year’s Indians always find ways to lose games and Saturday was no different.

Travis Hafner and Jermaine Dye both homered but it was Dye’s two-run shot in the eighth that sent the White Sox to a 5-4 victory Friday night. The Tribe took the lead in the sixth on Hafner’s three-run bomb but then it was Chicago’s right fielder’s time to shine. Dye singled home a run in the sixth and delivered the big homer two innings later. Rafael Betancourt gave up the costly late inning runs for the Tribe and Cliff Lee gave up four runs in 7 2/3 innings.

“We did a real poor job with runners in scoring position,” manager Eric Wedge said. “We had some great opportunities. We just didn’t finish it off and get a big hit.”

In other news, left-hander Scott Sauerbeck was designated for assignment and Rafael Perez was recalled from AA to take his place in the bullpen. I think we all can agree a change needed to be made in regards to Sauerbeck. From his performance on the mound to his arrest, things obviously weren’t working out for Scotty this season.

Oakland starter Esteban Loaiza returned from the disabled list to beat the Indians 4-1 Thursday afternoon. He baffled the Tribe, surrendering only four hits through seven innings. The Indians scored their lone run on a Ben Broussard home run. Jason Johnson gave up 11 hits but only allowed three Athletics to cross the plate. He was able to get out of a few jams with some double plays and kept the Tribe in the ballgame but Loaiza was too dominant for the Indian offense. Four of the Tribe’s six hits came from Broussard and Belliard. On the other side, Eric Chavez was the only one without a hit for Oakland.

“I don’t think getting one run on three hits off him is very good,” said Indians DH Travis Hafner, who went 0-for-2 with a walk off Loaiza. “We didn’t have many good at-bats and I didn’t have any.”

The Indians will now face a stretch of nine games on the road, including two key series against the White Sox and Yankees.

The Tribe’s strange season continues. For the fourth time in the last five series, the Indians have won the second game after losing the first game. The Tribe got a big three-run home run by Aaron Boone and Victor Martinez awoke from his slump to deliver four RBI as the Indians destroyed the A’s 11-2 Wednesday night.

In their last 13 games, the Indians have won four times by at least nine runs — 11-0, 9-0, 14-2 and 11-2 — and also lost by scores of 11-0, 10-3 and 14-2.

“We would like to keep going this way and eliminate the other ones,” Boone said. “It is bizarre. Every time we’re in one, I’m on the bench going, ‘Gosh, we’ve played in a lot of these.'”

Paul Byrd pitched very well for the Tribe and earned his first win since May 3, which was coincidentally against the A’s. The Indians pounded out 15 hits in the game, including four home runs. Victor Martinez homered off ex-Indian Steve Karsay in the eighth and Grady Sizemore homered for the third time in the last four games.

After a rough month of April, Paul Byrd has seemed to settle down. He has pitched pretty decent in his past seven or eight starts and is finally starting to look like the Byrd of 04′ and 05′. As far as these insane, lopsided games the Indians have been a part of recently, I wish I had an answer for it but I don’t. I’ve never seen anything like it. How do you get blown out in the first game of the series and come back to rout the same team the next day as many times as the Tribe has in the last few weeks? Totally mind-boggling.

A couple of three-run innings by the A’s led to their 7-6 victory over the Indians Tuesday night. With the Tribe holding a slim 2-1 lead, Jake Westbrook served up a three-run homer to Frank Thomas. The Tribe then scored in the fifth, sixth, and seventh to build a 6-4 lead but it didn’t last long as Eric Chavez’s two-run shot off Scott Sauerbeck in the eighth tied the game. An Aaron Boone fielding error in the same inning set up Oakland’s seventh and go-ahead run. The Indians were able to find some success off Oakland stud Barry Zito, tagging him for six runs and 10 hits in seven innings. Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner each homered and Ronnie Belliard had two RBI but Cleveland’s bullpen struggles were really the story of the game.

Some interesting stats on Sauerbeck this season: He has a horrendous 6.23 ERA but opponents are only hitting .196 off him. Besides the nine walks, five of the nine hits he’s given up this season have been doubles or home runs. Too many times he puts himself into jams via the walk so the hits he does give up are extremely costly.

Struggling Jhonny Peralta was dropped from the third spot in the lineup for the first time this season. Hitting in the six hole Tuesday, Peralta struck out three more times, bringing his K total to 64 and dropping his average to a dreadful .232.