Author: John Blake (Page 52 of 68)

Cliff Lee was cruising through the first six innings until the seventh when he ran into trouble. He gave up three in the inning as the Tribe fell again, this time to the Detroit Tigers 5-4 at the Jake. With the game tied at two, Craig Monroe put the Tigers up with a two-run homer in the seventh. The Tribe battled back but it once again wasn’t enough as they lose their fourth straight. Casey Blake homered twice in the game for the Indians, giving him six on the season.

We are really pressing right now. As Wedge mentioned after the game, the players may be putting too much on their shoulders and think they have to get the job done themselves.

“We’re in one of those stretches right now and have to work our way out,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said. “Some guys are trying to do a bit too much. If they just do what they are capable of individually, it will work out as a team.”

The Indians sure aren’t playing good baseball and may have hit their lowest point of the season Wednesday afternoon. For a team that is expected to be a playoff contender this season, getting swept by one of the worst teams in the league shouldn’t even be an option. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened as the Indians lost to the Royals 10-8, completing a three-game sweep. Despite another poor start by Jake Westbrook, in which he gave up seven earned runs in 5 2/3 innings, the Tribe was still in the game in the eighth. They fought back to tie it at eight until the bottom of the inning when Aaron Guiel and Angel Berroa put the Royals up by two with two home runs off Guillermo Mota. Jhonny Peralta and Casey Blake both homered for the Tribe in the ballgame but once again the pitching was not there. Royals starter Scott Elarton did not pitch particularly well against his former mates but was able to smile at the end of the day.

“We’ve all got to fight through this and stay strong mentally,” Wedge said. “We’ve got to make adjustments on the mound.”

This is getting a little ridiculous. Maybe they should start holding pitching tryouts at the Jake. Thank God the Indians have an off day tomorrow to possibly take a step back and collect their thoughts.

The Royals sure are giving the Tribe fits this season. The Indians lost their fourth game in a row to the Royals out of five meetings this season. The Tribe held leads of 2-0, 4-2, and 6-4 in the ballgame but ran into a rough sixth inning where Kansas City put up six on the board behind catcher John Buck’s three-run homer. Starter Jason Johnson left in the sixth with the lead but Danny Graves promptly gave up the bomb to put the Royals ahead as they went on to win 10-7 at Kauffman Stadium. Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner and Aaron Boone each had two RBI for the Indians.

This is a little frustrating to say the least. Almost half of the Royals’ wins this season have come against the Tribe. I think it’s time that we cut the string with Graves and bring up a young arm like Carmona or Andrew Brown to take his place in the bullpen. Yes, he’s a veteran and people may say “give him time” but it really doesn’t look like he has anything left in the tank.

Paul Byrd finally delivered a quality start but couldn’t get enough offensive support as the Tribe lost to the Royals 4-3 Monday night. He gave up three unearned runs through seven innings but the Indians failed to capitalize on several opportunities with the bat. Royals reliever Mike Wood entered in the fourth and pitched over four scoreless innings. Grady Sizemore hit a late ninth inning home run but the Indians ultimately fell short in the first game of the series.

“We created opportunities for ourselves but we didn’t finish innings off,” Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said.

In the last three games the Indians have scored a total of six runs, two of which have resulted in losses. They have been hovering around the .500 mark for awhile now and have not been able to get any type of consistency whether it be pitching or hitting. We are facing the Royals and we must take advantage of that.