Category: Cleveland Indians (Page 79 of 96)

Bob Wickman made it interesting but in the end, the Indians beat the visiting Yankees 6-5 Tuesday night. Victor Martinez continued to sizzle, going 2-3 with a home run and an RBI single, while Ronnie Belliard drove in three runs and Grady Sizemore tallied two hits and stole a base. Scott Elarton delivered a decent performance considering the opponent, yielding three runs on four hits in six innings, but after Arthur Rhodes and Bobby Howry surrendered single runs in the seventh and eighth, Wickman allowed the tying run to reach second base before getting Derek Jeter to ground to second for the final out of the game.

It was a significant win for the Indians, moving them to within 1.5 games of the Yankees in the wild card race, five behind front-runner Oakland. The question is, will they follow through tomorrow and Thursday? It seems that, whenever this team has been faced with the opportunity to improve their playoff chances, they fail. Let’s hope that trend ends this week.

Torii Hunter was injured in the Twins’ loss to the Red Sox. He apparently tore a tendon in his ankle and will miss 4-6. (UPDATE: It now looks like Hunter will miss the remainder of the season with a broken ankle.)

Despite a slow start in the second half of the season, the Tribe is in the race for the Wild Card, and this injury will hurt the Twins. The Tribe has had to play recently without Travis Hafner, but they are thumping Seattle tonight and they can’t be counted out.

The key for the Indians is pitching. Other than C.C., the pitching is keeping them in it, and if they make it to they playoffs they can do some damage with this pitching staff. If C.C. wakes up and remembers how to pitch, then the Indians can be very dangerous.

The Indians offense had scored a total of two runs in Kevin Millwood’s last four starts, dropping the right-hander to 3-9 on the year. But Sunday, the bats came alive for Millwood in a 6-3 win over the Mariners. Victor Martinez hit a big three-run homer in the seventh to put the Indians up by four while Jhonny Peralta, batting third again, knocked in his 41st run of the year. Millwood, meanwhile, improved to 4-9 by allowing an earned run on three hits in 7.2 innings, striking out five. The victory gave the Indians a 2-1 series win over Seattle, with a west-coast swing up next.

Whenever the Royals come to town, you’re hoping for a sweep but at least the Indians avoided losing the series by beating KC 10-1 Thursday afternoon. Jake Westbrook earned his seventh win of the year by allowing one unearned run in seven innings while Jhonny Peralta, Casey Blake and Victor Martinez each homered in the victory.

Up next for the Indians, currently at 49-47 and four games behind the Twins in the Wild Card race, are the Mariners, who come to town for a three-game series beginning tonight at 7:05.

The Indians traded Jody Gerut to the Cubs Monday for outfielder Jason Dubois, who spent most of the season in Chicago before getting sent down to Triple-A Iowa earlier this month. I’m not sure what this trade accomplishes for the Indians, other than the fact that Dubois is a righty and Gerut a lefty. Neither player has played particularly well this year, though Dubois had seven homers in 142 at-bats for the Cubs while Gerut had just one dinger in 135 at-bats. Still, if you’re thinking this is the “right-handed power bat” Mark Shapiro has been talking about getting, think again. Dubois will be nothing more than a right-handed stick off the bench and should also see time in place of Casey Blake, who has been awful all year.