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The Indians got some big offensive contributions from some unlikely sources in their 8-4 victory over the Yankees Thursday afternoon. The bottom of the order did most of the damage as Todd Hollandsworth hit his first home run of the season and had four RBI. Ronnie Belliard had four hits and the recently dormant Jhonny Peralta went 3 for 4 with two RBI. Nine of the Tribe’s 12 hits and seven of their runs came from the work of those three. Hollandsworth, in particular, will most likely see more playing time as a result of Casey Blake going on the DL with an oblique strain. Cliff Lee, who gave up three runs on three solo homers in 6 2/3 innings, got his fifth win of the season as Mike Mussina took the loss for the Yanks.

As Peralta said after the game, the important thing for him is being patient at the plate and staying back more on pitches.

“The key for me is staying back,” said Peralta, who was benched Sunday and Tuesday to work on his hitting. “That’s what [hitting coach Derek] Shelton has been telling me. ‘Stay back and let the pitchers throw the ball.’ I hit a good changeup.”

The Tribe will begin interleague play this weekend when they travel to Milwaukee to face the Brew Crew.

He’s struggled for awhile now but Johnson was able to temporarily get back on track Thursday night. Unfortunately for the Tribe, it was Randy, not Jason. In the battle of the Johnsons, Randy allowed only one run in over six innings as the Yanks beat the Indians again, 6-1. Jason, on the other hand, kept the Tribe in the ballgame until he ran into some trouble in the sixth. With the game still in reach at 3-1, Jason gave up three in the inning, including a two-run Andy Phillips homer, to essentially put the contest to bed.

“Not good,” is how Johnson described this latest outing. “I didn’t pitch as well as I should have.”

The suddenly anemic Tribe offense could only manage one run, which came as a result of Ben Broussard’s double play groudout in the fifth. The Indians have now totaled just one run and ten hits in their last two games.

Great, just what we need, an entire offense going into a slump at the same time. That little break Peralta received really seemed to help a great deal…0 for 3, 2 K’s. As for Jason Johnson, the guy has absolutely no poise or mental toughness on the mound. The dude cracks under pressure. He can never bear down and get an out when his team needs one. I feel guilty even wasting my time talking about him anymore.

The Indians have now lost their last seven series openers dating back to mid-May. Chien-Ming Wang shut out the Tribe as the Yankees were victorious in a 1-0 pitchers duel Tuesday night. Indians starter Paul Byrd was almost equally as effective, giving up only one run in seven innings. For the first time this season, Byrd’s ERA dropped below 5.00. Unfortunately for the Tribe, it was the sixth inning that turned out to be their undoing in the ballgame. In the top of the inning after Grady Sizemore led off with a double, they stranded runners on first and third with only one out when Victor Martinez grounded into a double play to end the Tribe’s only threat of the game.

“It worked out perfect for them,” Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. “That kid has a real heavy sinker, too. It has some run on it as well as some down to it.”

Then in the bottom half, Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano homered off Byrd for the go-ahead and eventual winning run. With the Cleveland loss and Detroit win, the Indians continue their fall in the standings. They now sit 11 games behind the Tigers in the Central.

Byrd followed up his previous strong start against the A’s and pitched another stellar game. For the first month of the season Byrd was getting the best run support of any pitcher in the league. The offense was averaging somewhere around a ridiculous 12 or 13 runs per game every time Byrd took the mound. They couldn’t have saved a few of those runs for Tuesday night?

Another bullpen shakeup took place Tuesday as Jason Davis was sent down to Buffalo and Jeremy Guthrie was brought up. In eight starts in AAA this season, Guthire was 3-1 with a 2.78 ERA. Davis continues to be a mystery. With his electric stuff, he has all the makings of a dominant pitcher but just has never been able to settle into any role, whether it be in the rotation or in the pen. He’s not getting the job done up in Cleveland so Shapiro had no choice but to give Guthrie a shot.

Indians GM Shapiro says the club is exploring options to improve the team, but trade discussions are moving slowly.

“That’s involving a whole lot of conversations with a lot of general managers, in which there is still very little life to making larger moves right now,” Shapiro said. “And it’s also intense internal conversations, in, do we have the guy internally here who we think can make us a better team?”

Don’t expect a trade to happen anytime soon. Until it gets closer to the trading deadline it will not be clear for several teams whether they are buyers or sellers. Things will start to heat up on the trade market in about a month but in the meantime, Shapiro is on the phone and having as many conversations as possible with other general managers.

Bullpen woes have been an issue for the Tribe all season and one step was taken last week to try to shake things up in that area. Scott Sauerbeck was having a rough year on and off the field and the Indians recently designated him for assigment and recalled Rafael Perez from Akron. This clearly was not Sauerbeck’s year. Something had to be done and Shapiro made the right call by cutting the cord with him. Perez really can’t do much worse, can he? The Indians still have a mess to deal with in Mota, however.
The Indians unfortunately have more concerns than just relief pitching and Shapiro is doing all he can to keep talks open with several teams.

“I think you need to be constantly active in reaching out to the clubs that you feel that you could have a fit with, just to get a feel for what kind of deal they’re looking to do,” Shapiro said. “Are they a team that would consider right now trading a Major League player for prospects? Are they a team that would have to be big league for big league deal?

At this point in time, the only moves the Indians can make to improve themselves are from inside the organization. I’ve said it for awhile now and several other Indians fans agree with the notion of bringing up Jeremy Sowers and dumping Jason Johnson. Sowers is wasting his time in AAA and needs to be pitching at the major league level right now.