Category: Cleveland Indians (Page 46 of 96)

Nor should he be. The Tribe’s pitching has been a disaster. Paul Byrd and Jason Johnson have been pretty bad, and stiffs like Mota and Graves in the bullpen have been even worse. Shapiro didn’t hide his displeasure in a conference call with reporters:

“In general, I’m disappointed and concerned,” Shapiro said. “And not just because of the last three days. All that did was bring to a head things we were evaluating for a period of time.”

Things need to be fixed in the bullpen, and Shapiro is looking at a number of options. Mota has already lost his set-up job, and Graves is probably the most vulnerable regarding his spot on the roster.

Many of us thought Shipiro did a great job in the offseason in filling some of the holes left by Kevin Millwood and Bob Howry. I still think he made the right call not resigning those guys because the price was way too high, but the other moves have not worked well so far. Paying $14 for Paul Byrd appears to be the biggest mistake so far. Let’s hope that changes.

Fortunately, this team is loaded with young arms, and it looks like Shapiro might be willing to give them a chance.

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.

C.C Sabathia had his second outstanding start in a row as he blanked the Seattle Mariners 2-0 Sunday. The Tribe only managed four hits in the game but it didn’t matter as Sabathia went eight innings. Grady Sizemore and Ronnie Belliard each had an RBI for the Indians and Bob Wickman got his 130th career save as an Indian, moving him to first all-time among Tribe closers.

“He pitched smart. I was really impressed with the way C.C. and Victor worked together,” Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. “We talked about starters finishing off innings, whether it be the sixth, or seventh or, in C.C.’s case today, the eighth inning and getting us through that. He did a good job of that.”