Starting Staff Silences Jays

The Indians were able to win their second series in a row by defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in three of their four games played. Toronto was only able to string together 4 runs over the four game stretch, and three of them were in the last game of the series in the 10th inning. To say that batting is down in baseball would be an understatement, but this will be discussed at in a later entry. With these wins, the Tribe has finally reached the .500 mark, a minor miracle by the way they have played inconsistently all year. The starting staff has been amazing, but the bats have been wildly inconsistent. As the weather warms, (which it has not yet), we should see increased offensive numbers, but you can never be sure. This next series versus Oakland should be an interesting one since the Tribe's best two starting pitchers so far this year will not be on the mound (Lee, Carmona). Being only 1 1/2 game out of first place is also an encouraging sign that they should be in this for the long haul.

Here were some of the Highlights:

Grady Sizemore: 6-18, 2 HR, 5RBI. Grady continues to rake. Too bad the team does not have a better leadoff alternative because he would look great in the 3 hole.

Casey Blake: 4-10, 3 RBI. Mr. Clutch 2008 continues to rake with runners on, and not hit with the bases empty. He is truly an enigma.

Asdrubal Cabrera: Unassisted Triple Play: He is not been so great with the bat, but his defense at short and second has been tremendous. Shows much more range and arm strength at shortstop than Peralta. Also, though it was cool to see an unassisted triple play, my friend Szoke made the correct point that it really wasn't that exciting. He kind of dove, caught the ball, stepped on second, and tagged out the runner. Interesting yes, but exciting, not so much.

Starting Staff: (CC, Laffey, Carmona, Lee) combined to pitch 32 innings, 24 hits, 9 walks, 19 K's, 1 Earned Run, for a 0.28 ERA. That stat is just ridiculous. If the staff continues to put lines up like this, you can add another division championship flag to Progressive field. They have collectively saved this team from a total meltdown.

Areas of Concern:

Ryan Garko: 2-10. Looks lost and awkward at the plate. I have no idea what his problem is.

Jhonny Peralta: 0-7, 3 K's. Looks lost and awkward at the plate. I have no idea what his problem is.

Rafael Betancourt: 1 IP, 3 earned runs. I cannot understand why Eric Wedge trots him out when the score is tied or they are losing. He has pitched well in CLOSING situations, so why not leave him to that. I know he hadn't pitched in awhile, but Wedge could have went lefty/lefty matchup baseball since his bullpen had not pitched since Saturday.

Matt Underwood: As the season goes on, the more I am annoyed by the Indians TV play by play guy. He laughs at all of his own jokes and I think Rick Manning really does hate him.

The Oakland A's roll into town to square off for a 3 game series. Paul Byrd faces Justin Duchscherer. Let's hope they forget about the offense meltdown from yesterday and keep up the momentum of winning each series.