Category: Cleveland Indians (Page 17 of 96)

If it were his last outing of the season, Jeremy Sowers went out in style. The rookie went seven innings and allowed the only two Jays runs to earn his seventh major-league victory. The Tribe doesn’t want to overwork their young star and prefer he finish in the 180 – 190 innings range for the season. Sowers currently sits at 180 2/3 innings.

I’d love to see Sowers continue pitching, but the organization is probably doing the right thing with him. He’s still extremely young and you’d hate to risk injury late in a season that is already a wash anyway. While he is pitching fantastic, Sowers hasn’t thrown this many innings in a season before and it is smart on the Indians’ part to work him up the ladder slowly. The Indians have found themselves quite a gem in Sowers and they must be careful with him.

Grand slams are supposed to be considered one of the rarest feats in the game of the baseball. Not for the Indians. The bases-clearing bomb has become commonplace for the Tribe and it’s to the point now where it would be odd if a week passes and the team doesn’t hit one. They added one more Tuesday night in their 7-2 win over the Blue Jays, bringing the Tribe’s 2006 grand slam total to a league-best 13. Andy Marte found himself in another bases loaded situation, similar to what he faced in the previous game when he popped out. This time, fortunately, the result was much better . Marte sent Jerremy Accardo’s first pitch over the center field wall in the eighth to break a 2-2 tie.

“It’s a different game,” Wedge said. “He’s a very intelligent player. He’s very aware of what he’s doing out there and you saw a big difference from night to night. He hit a ball about as well as you can hit it — squared it up and drilled it to center field. It was great for him and it was huge for us.”

Some missed opportunities in the late innings caused the Tribe to lose 4-3 Monday afternoon to the Blue Jays. It marks the first time the Indians have lost consecutive games since August 15 and 16, a testament to how hot they have been recently. They couldn’t muster any magic against the Jays, however. Starter C.C Sabathia wasn’t his best but kept his team within striking distance. With the game tied at two going into the bottom of the sixth, Vernon Wells hit a game-changing two-run homer to give the Jays the lead. The Indians would have their chances in the eighth as Ryan Garko homered and they proceeded to load the bases with one out off closer B.J Ryan. Perhaps a little too anxious, Andy Marte popped up on the first pitch and Grady Sizemore struck out to end a possible rally.

“We blew opportunities there at the end of the game,” said Indians manager Eric Wedge. “We had every opportunity to tie it and win it and we didn’t take advantage.”

The Tribe got another good outing from their starter but failed to come through in the clutch offensively.

The Indians didn’t pay for Kevin Millwood in the offseason, so he delivered a little bit of payback Sunday afternoon against his former club. Millwood had a perfect game going until the fifth and struck out 10 batters in his eight innings of work. The 2005 AL ERA leader was in top form and prevented the Indians from completing a sweep. The Tribe lost 5-2.

“He was outstanding,” manager Eric Wedge said of Millwood. “We weren’t able to get anything going against him.”

The Tribe actually took the lead in the fifth on another home run by Kevin Kouzmanoff but were buried after allowing five in the seventh. Paul Byrd was pitching fantastic and even looked decent in the seventh. However, some of the balls hit were able to find holes and Byrd gave up the lead and was relieved by the recently dominant Fernando Cabrera, who surrendered a pivotal three-run bomb to Mark Teixeira.

The Indians now will travel to Toronto, a team they swept at home a week ago.

For the second straight night, Grady Sizemore led off the game with a home run as the Tribe yet again exploded in the first inning and went on to win 6-5 against the Rangers. Most of their offensive power, however, came from the bat of a surprise guest. DH Kevin Kouzmanoff, called up from Triple-A Buffalo and filling in for the injured Travis Hafner, launched a ball into the seats for a grand slam in the Tribe’s five-run first inning. Not only was it his first major league home run and grand slam, it was on the first pitch in his first at-bat. What a way to enter the big leagues.

Cliff Lee got his first win since August 10, allowing two earned runs in seven innings. Tom Mastny gave up a run in the ninth and experience more trouble than usual but still was able to save his fifth straight game.