Tribe Too Much For Toronto

Are we beginning to turn things around against the AL East? Possibly, or maybe we're just pretty good against the Blue Jays, the cellar-dwellers of that monstrous division (hey, they're still pretty good). Either way, the Indians faithful can celebrate another series victory today, closing the gap on the Tigers a little bit more. Detroit fell to the White Sox this afternoon so the distance has been narrowed down to just 2.5 games.

The Tribe kicked the series off on Tuesday with a 3-0 win, thanks to a solid effort from Ubaldo Jimenez, who managed to keep the Jays scoreless through his 6 innings of work. He wasn't flawless and ran into trouble more than a few times, but he remained calm and escaped danger to earn his 7th win of the season. I managed to watch the entire game and kept fearing the worst, that Toronto would finally make us pay for Ubaldo's awful location, but the big hit never came for the Jays and the Indians emerged victorious. Ubaldo only walked 2 Jays during his outing, but he really struggled to get ahead in the count and constantly went deep into at-bats. He has to be more efficient and effective with his pitches in the future because when he pitches like this, he'll never make it past 6 innings. We're often lucky to get 5 from him. But I'm not going to be too negative, he worked hard and earned the Tribe the win and that's all you can ask for at the end of the day.

Cleveland dropped game two of the series 5-4 to even things up. Justin Masterson was decent through 6 2/3 innings but had location trouble again, walking 5 batters. He did enough to keep the Tribe in the game though but it all came crashing down in the top of the 9th inning, the Jays striking for 3 runs off Rich Hill and Joe Smith to put the game beyond the Indians. The home side did try to rally back into the game, scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th, but it wasn't to be.

The Indians quickly put Wednesday's loss behind them and wrapped up the series in style today, winning 4-2 to take the series win. On a beautiful summer's day in Cleveland, rookie right-hander Danny Salazar made his first major league start for the Indians and pitched an absolute beauty, carrying a no-hitter into the 6th inning. He out-duelled Jays ace and reigning NL Cy Young winner R.A Dickey for the first big league win of his young career. It was quite a debut for the 23 year-old and he'll be the happiest man in town tonight. Salazar lasted 6 innings (he was on a pitch count) and gave up just 2 hits for 1 run, with 1 walk and 7 strikeouts. It's unlikely Salazar will stay with the big club though, today was just supposed to be a spot-start, but his superb performance might earn him an extended stay past the All Star break.

Player Of The Series

Is there any question? I have to go with the rookie from the Dominican Republic. To step up the way he did was amazing, to pitch with such confidence on your big league debut. Danny Salazar fully deserves the award for this series. He may have elevated himself above Trevor Bauer and Carlos Carrasco in the Tribe rotation pecking order as well. He showed no nerves on the mound and left the game to an enthusiastic ovation from the home fans. Well done Mr Salazar. I'm looking forward to his next start already.

The Tribe welcome the Royals to Progressive Field tomorrow for the final series before the All Star break. Friday's game will see Corey Kluber (6-5, 4.23 ERA) take the mound against KC's Bruce Chen (3-0, 2.41 ERA). The Indians can hopefully take this winning momentum into the series against the Royals tomorrow and close the gap on the Tigers even more before we send Kipnis and Masterson off to NYC for the Midsummer Classic.

Thanks for reading.

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.