Indians Victorious In Houston

This re-cap will have be a short one since I don't have a lot of time this morning. The Tribe managed to hold on last night to beat the Astros 5-4, winning the series overall. It went right down to the wire though, thanks to Chris Perez treating us to one of his customary nail-biting saves (his second of the year). Let's look at what I liked in this series:

Reynolds The Destroyer 

The acquisition of Mark Reynolds in the winter was rather overshadowed by the other key free agent signings the Tribe made, but it has been Reynolds who has made the most impact so far in 2013. Reynolds was crucial to the Tribe taking the series victory in Houston, hitting a home run for 5 total RBIs in the 19-6 rout Saturday night, then crushing another homer last night that proved to be the difference in the 5-4 win. Not only is Reynolds destroying nearly every ball he sees, he's also been one of the only Indians to get those "clutch" hits, the timely knocks that decide the result. So far Reynolds has a .298 batting average with 7 home runs and 18 RBI, leading the team by a wide margin in the previous two. We all knew when the Indians picked up Reynolds that he was a strikeout machine but so far he's been relatively disciplined at the plate (for him), striking out 15 times. There are at least three other Indians with more strikeouts than Reynolds, Drew Stubbs leading the team with 20. If Reynolds can maintain this level of performance then we could be seeing a guy reach 30+ HRs at the very least, maybe even 40+ if we're very lucky. Take Mark out of the lineup and the Tribe's offense would look very sad indeed. The power he brings to the middle of the lineup is keeping the Indians competitive right now, picking up the slack whilst his teammates are still feeling their way into the campaign. Reynolds has surprised us all with his defense as well, last night making a gorgeous play at third base, with the bases loaded, to save Perez's ass and the victory. It's nice to have a power guy who can be versatile, slotting him at first or third base, and be dependable at the same time. Overall Reynolds is really endearing himself to the Tribe faithful so far and I hope he can keep contributing like this deep into September. If he keeps this up past May and into June, the Indians front office will seriously need to start thinking about signing him up to a longer deal, if they're not already thinking about doing that right now.

Starting Pitching Still Needs Work

This series against the Astros saw Brett Myers, Scott Kazmir and Ubaldo Jimenez all take the mound for the Tribe. Not one of them went deep enough to earn a win. Against the Astros! None of these guys pitched horribly in this series but you cannot say they pitched well.

Myers went 5 innings on Friday night, surrendering 3 earned runs but again fell victim to the long ball, giving up 2 home runs, taking his season total to an astounding 10. He earned his third loss of the season and has now gone on the DL because of pain in his right elbow, which he's apparently been feeling since Spring Training. Could this be to blame for Myer's poor start in Cleveland? Probably, but I expect he'd have been this bad without the pain in his elbow. Corey Kluber, who pitched very well in relief in this Houston series, will take his spot in the rotation for now.

Scott Kazmir made his long awaited debut for the Indians on Saturday night but he was far from sharp. Kazmir only lasted 3 1/3 innings, giving up 7 hits for 6 earned runs. Luckily the offense picked him up, giving him an 8-0 lead when he took the mound, but Francona had him on a pitch count and had seen enough in the 4th inning. Some rust was to be expected so there's no cause to worry yet.

Ubaldo pitched last night, striking fear into every Indians fan and their hopes for a series win. He got knocked around in the 1st inning, quickly giving up 2 runs, but his defense bailed him out with Stubbs making   a great double play from the outfield. Every ball the Astros hit in that first inning was a rocket, and Ubaldo can count himself very lucky to have escaped from that 1st inning relatively unscathed. After that he settled down a bit and we got to see a glimpse of the good Ubaldo. Overall he lasted 5 innings, giving up 4 hits and 4 earned runs, his last one erasing his chance at the victory. For Jimenez this performance was definitely an upgrade on what we've seen from him his preview two outings. It was a positive display from him at least. Unfortunately it still wasn't really good enough and he needs to show us a bit more. Come on, this is the Astros, and they were treating him like batting practice in that first inning. It'll be interesting (and probably horrifying) to see how he gets on in his next start. That'll be a truer test of where we really stand with Ubaldo right now.

I'll leave it there for now (told you it'd be quick... sort of). The Indians travel to Chicago today to take on the White Sox and we have Masterson on the mound in search of his fourth victory. He'll faceoff against Dylan Axelrod, who has a 0-1 record and a 4.70 ERA. Let's keep this mini winning-streak alive and build on it.

Thanks for reading.