Tribe Takes Series To Begin 2013

Despite Brett Myers getting absolutely pounded last night for a 10-8 Tribe loss, I'd say it hasn't been a bad way to begin the season overall. Not too bad at all. Winning the first two games of the year, guaranteeing us the series victory against the potential World Series contending Blue Jays, is a great way to start the season, even if we couldn't quite go all the way and get the sweep. Let's look at some of the positives over the past three days:

"The Power!" (say it in a He-Man Masters of the Universe voice)

The Tribe certainly didn't leave their bats behind when they left Spring Training. The club have gotten off to a powerful start so far, with Mark Reynolds in particular showing us what he does best: taking guys yard. He hit his first Tribe homer on Wednesday night, a magical 11th inning winner that hit Toronto's second deck and he homered again last night to keep us in the game. So far so good from Reynolds. We know the dude strikes out a tonne but that's the payoff for these home runs he can produce. Francona said on Wednesday night, "We all know he's going to miss sometimes, but when he does that, he's a game changer." Despite losing last night, Reynolds and his team-mates showed what this lineup can do, hitting eight extra-base hits out of a total 14 for eight runs. Most nights that's enough for a win, but Myers and the bullpen couldn't hold back the Jays, who let's be fair have a pretty damn powerful lineup themselves.

Carlos Santana also got off the mark last night, hitting his first home run of the year and finished up just a triple short of hitting for the cycle. Asdrubal Cabrera hit his first homer of the season in the 4-1 win Tuesday night, a two-run bomb off R.A. Dickey, the reigning NL Cy Young winner. It was a beauty, Cabrera smashing Dickey's hanging knuckler over the fence in right-centre. It reminded me of the 2011 AL Silver Slugger Cabrera. Let's hope our shortstop can keep it up and repeat that awesome 2011 season (he hit 25 HR and 92 RBI that year). Overall I'm happy with the offensive output the Tribe have displayed so far. It's important to get off to a good start and the lineup have done just that.

Masterson and Ubaldo Look Good... So Far

There's not a great deal to complain about when it comes to Justin Masterson and Ubaldo Jimenez, our two "aces" of the pitching staff. Both men took the mound and went 6 strong innings, both of them only surrendered 3 hits to that strong Jays lineup and both men only gave up 1 earned run, earning each man a 1.50 ERA so far. Looks pretty nice doesn't it? Granted, Masterson did walk 4 guys and Ubaldo did give up a HR but that's really all there is to moan about. We need to put this in perspective of course: Any guy in the bigs can have one good start. What we need to see now is both of them build on these solid outings and ride that momentum into their next starts. If all goes as planned Masterson should take the mound on Sunday in the final game against the Rays, looking to double his 1-0 record. Ubaldo should pitch on Monday in our home opener against the Yankees, searching for his first W since his start against the Jays on Wednesday only earned him a quality start.

Brett Myers on the other hand had a pretty rough go of it last night. In his Tribe debut, things didn't turn out the way Myers hoped. Over 5 innings he was shellacked for 7 hits, four of them via the long-ball, for 7 earned runs and didn't record a single strikeout. Four HRs (his career worst) in one game is rarely going to get you the win, even if our offense did try to keep Myers in the game. It's way too early to write Myers off, it's only one start, and he of all people will know this morning that he needs to pitch better. "I couldn't get the ball down tonight. Everything was up," he said. "When you pitch up in the zone against these type of hitters in the big leagues, it's not going to be good." Amen to that Brett.

But let's end this on a high note. The Tribe beat a really good team on the road to take the series victory, thanks to some solid pitching from our key guys and our lineup getting the important hits. Sure a sweep would have been great, and we were close, but you can't really ask for much more from this rejuvenated Indians squad. The big righty Zach McAllister takes on the Rays and their lefty Matt Moore tonight at the Trop. Here's hoping Zach can settle in and get the job done. A 3-1 record would look awfully nice when I wake up tomorrow morning.

Thanks for reading.