Category: Cleveland Indians (Page 96 of 96)

C.C. was awesome today in his first start of the season, leading the Indians to a much-needed 2-1 victory over the Twins to avoid the sweep. The offense is still under-performing, but the pitching staff looks great now that Sabathia is healthy. The bullpen delivered another fine performance, and Bob Wickman is starting to settle back in as a solid closer.

As for the offense, it looks like they could use some help from a healthy Juan Gonzalez. I hate to send Sizemore back to AAA, but it might be necessary when Juan gets healthy.

A ninth-inning Ryan Ludwick homer wasn’t enough as the Indians fell to the Twins 6-4 Saturday afternoon. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 but I didn’t understand why Kevin Millwood, who was brilliant again through most of his outing today, was back on the hill in the eighth with a pitch count up over 100. Sure, aside from a three-run homer to Lew Ford in the sixth, Millwood dominated the Twins lineup all afternoon but if you’re down 3-2 in the eighth and your starter has already eclipsed 100 pitches, it’s time to turn it over to your bullpen, especially this early in the season. Instead, Wedge kept Millwood in and, after allowing a single and a walk to the inning’s first two hitters, Millwood surrendered what proved to be a decisive three-run home run to Torii Hunter. Again, it’s easy to criticize after the fact but in that situation, I think Wedge needs to pat Millwood on the back for another job well done and then call on his deep bullpen to keep the score close.

These one-run losses are getting painful. Tonight’s 3-2 loss to the Twins was especially painful considering the Tribe actually hit Cy Young winner Johan Santana pretty well, with Victor Martinez and Ryan Ludwick each launching solo homers in the bottom of the second inning. They had several other chances to take control throughout the game but ended up leaving seven men on base while dropping to 4-6 on the season. Let’s hope for a rebound Saturday afternoon.

I know it’s only April 14, but tonight’s 8-6 win over the White Sox was big. The Central is going to be tight this year, with the Twins, Indians and White Sox likely battling atop the standings all summer. The Tribe was on the verge of starting the year 1-5 against the Sox, heading into a showdown Friday night with Cy Young winner Johan Santana in the first game of a weekend series against the Twins. Not exactly the way you want to kick off the season. Sure, there may not be a significant difference between 2-4 and 1-5 in the standings, but mentally there’s a huge difference between getting swept by a divisional rival and ending the series with a hard-fought win. Now let’s see how this young team responds to the Twins this weekend.