
Pitching saved the Cleveland Indians from being swept this past weekend, and this is how Casey Blake celebrated today's 2-1 win. The Tribe batted a crisp .204 for the series, played spotty defense, and really only pitched well in one game. Teams go through hitting slumps from time to time as the Indians did in 2007, but it is extremely annoying to watch. The Lineup has a
fever, but I don't believe the prescription was batting
Dellucci, Michaels, Marte and Shoppach in a row. Manager Eric Wedge does believe in his veterans, so we may be stuck with
Michaelucci for the month of April. Taking two out of three from the Angels will salvage a .500 road trip, which wouldn't be terrible, since the Detroit Tigers have been
struggling mightily. Victor Martinez is expected to be back behind the dish tomorrow, so hopefully he will give the team a much needed
boost.
Here were some of the highlights:
Ryan Garko: Went 4-10, slugged a
homerun and had the game winning walk today. Looking very solid in the field as well.
Grady
Sizemore: 4-11 2 walks, one of the few Indians hitters who look
comfortable at bat.
Cliff Lee: 6 2/3 innings, 4 K's, pitched a great game when the Tribe needed it, spotted his fastball and mixed in some
off speed stuff as well. Looked
confident as bailed his team out.
Craig Breslow: 2 innings, no runs. Solid debut for second lefty out of the pen.
Areas of Concern
The Collective Lineup:
Struggled together, strung 2 hits together only once the whole series in the 7
th inning today, need to find some
slump busters in Anaheim.
Michaels/
Dellucci: 1-11 look terrible at the plate, can't wait to look back in September and laugh that they were our starting left fielders. My friend Jon refers to
Michaels as the
Rock of Love.
CC Sabathia: 5 1/3 innings 4 earned runs, only 2 K's. Needs get back to finishing off batters on 2 strike counts. Seems to be overthrowing a bit.
Franklin Gutierrez: 0-9, 3 K's, hit the ball hard a few times, needs to be consistent on the road. Played a tremendous right field on Friday night.
Jhonny Peralta: 3-12, got 2 hits today, showed questionable range and made a few errors. Was cold but not an excuse, needs to keep his head in the game.
Fausto Carmona takes on Joe Saunders tomorrow night in Anaheim.