Sloppy In Seattle: Tribe Lose Series

Apologies for not writing a Twins series report last week, but my All Star break was more lengthy than the MLB players was. I watched most of the Masterson game, the sole victory in that series, but I honestly didn't pay enough attention to the rest of the series enough to write a credible re-cap.

Alas, I am here now for the Seattle series that wrapped up yesterday, with an impressive 10-1 win for the Indians. Unfortunately the Indians lost the first two games, both by narrow margins. Despite a solid effort by Ubaldo Jimenez and the bullpen, the Tribe dropped the first game on Monday 2-1, the offense failing to get that important hit to nudge them into the lead. Zach McAllister made his long awaited return from the DL to start Tuesday's game but signs of rust were obvious, as he battled through 5 innings, surrendering 8 hits and 4 runs, 3 of them earned. Still, the Indians were in the game but again couldn't get those vital runs to turn things around, eventually losing 4-3, the second straight loss by a single-run deficit. Thankfully Cleveland turned it around for the final game on Wednesday, gifting Scott Kazmir plenty of run support to go along with his stellar 8 innings, coming out on top 10-1.

Let's take a look at some of the talking points in this series:

Errors, Errors, Errors

The Indians have committed 9 errors since the All Star break. That's 9 errors over the course of 6 games, 5 of those mistakes occurring in Seattle. That is embarrassing by major league standards and the Cleveland defense need to seriously sort this out before it becomes a situation. I know it's a small sample size but if they don't tighten up out there, this could become something to really worry about. Let's get this straight though: people make mistakes, even highly paid professional baseball players. No one is perfect and errors are part of the game. But 9 in 6 games? 4 by Lonnie Chisenhall alone? It's unacceptable and the players know that. But judging by some of the venomous posts I've seen on Twitter over the last few days, the Tribe faithful only have so much patience for sub-par play.

But the criticism can go too far sometimes. After Asdrubal Cabrera threw away a potential double-play in the second inning on Wednesday, the ball flying past Jason Kipnis stationed on second base, the Mariner's Jason Bay managed to round third base and score Seattle's only run of the game. The reaction from some of the fans on Twitter was amazing. You'd have thought Asdrubal had removed his Cleveland cap and took a dump in it judging by some of the intense hatred spewed his way. But no one cared to comment on the outstanding play he made earlier that inning, nor the routine play he fielded perfectly directly after his error. Nope, it was all "trade Cabrera now" and "bench that fool". He was ridiculed again later in the game for a lack of hustle as well.

I think it's time we need to start giving some of our players a bit of a break. Yes sometimes they warrant criticism and I understand fans wanting to vent their frustrations, we've all been there and done it, but the levels of abuse can reach ridiculous heights at times, often when its not at all necessary (Twitter can be the absolute worst place for this). Cabrera had a fantastic game by all accounts, going 2-for-4 at the plate, a double and a mammoth solo home run, for 3 RBI and a walk as well. Aside from his error, he made every play in the field perfectly, showing us he's still one of the premier shortstops in the American League. The Indians are having a pretty good season guys. So we need to support these players, not condemn them instantly. That's what being a fan is all about right?

All Quiet At The Trade Deadline

Since my post about potential targets the Tribe could explore before the trade deadline, there's been a bit of movement around the league, so I thought I'd update the situation where the Indians are involved. More specifically, what's happened to my trade targets since I last discussed them.

Matt Garza, possibly the player I would have like to have seen the most come to Cleveland (even if would end up being for just a couple of months), has been shipped to the Rangers recently, for a good crop of prospects the Cubs will be delighted with. Despite Garza having been a realistic option for the Indians to trade for, I don't really think we stood much of a chance at getting him in the end. He was easily the top pitcher available for trade this month and it was much more likely a contender like Texas would persuade Garza and the Cubs to join them rather than us. So it proved.

The same can be said for Ricky Nolasco, who was traded to the Dodgers shortly after my original post. I predicted as much and never really expected us to get Nolasco. I originally mentioned him on my list of targets but he was the lowest guy on my list, I only really had him on there because I preferred him to Yovani Gallardo from Milwaukee. Dear Indians front office, please pay attention to history and avoid trading for declining National League pitchers with inflated ERAs and decreasing velocity: i.e. do not trade for Gallardo, we don't need another Ubaldo situation.

However hope still remains in the form of Bud Norris. He's still pitching well in Houston, with a bevy of suitors sending scouts to each of his starts over the last month or so. If we couldn't get Garza, Norris was the next player I would have liked the Indians to acquire, plus he would have been under club control a lot longer than Garza. In fact over the last week or so I have actually been siding more towards Norris over Garza, pretty much because Norris would remain in Cleveland longer. So the opportunity to trade for Norris is still a possibility for the Tribe but as the days go by I get the feeling it won't be happening. It's been very quiet over the last few weeks where Cleveland is concerned in the trade deadline rush. Not many rumours of substance at all that mention the Indians. The race for Norris is heating up, but the only names I see mentioned with any consistency are the Orioles and Giants, and maybe the Red Sox occasionally. The word on the street is that Houston are looking for some premier prospects in return for their "ace" pitcher, which I expect most clubs are reluctant to part with. Norris is good, he's a very solid pitcher, but on most clubs he's a number 2/3 guy at best. So Houston's high asking price seems to be the main obstacle preventing Norris's departure for new pastures. As much as I'd like it, I don't expect Cleveland to be one of them.

The question now is, will the Indians make any move/s at all? There's just under a week left and so far it doesn't appear that they will. It looks like the club are satisfied with the current state of the starting rotation and any moves regarding the lineup only seem to involve the Indians as sellers rather than buyers (the Cabrera to St Louis trade is the only possibility even mentioned as far as lineup changes go). If the Tribe make any trades before August 1st I expect it'll be something minor, a move to bolster the bullpen probably, the glaring weakness this season that could benefit from immediate help. Watch this space...

Player Of The Series

There's really only one man who whole-heartedly deserves this award for the series and that's Scott Kazmir, who seems to be progressing nicely and couldn't have gotten off to a better start to the second half. Kazmir had his best outing of 2013 on Wednesday: he pitched 8 superb innings, a season high, giving up just 1 hit and no earned runs (Seattle's sole run they did score was off that Cabrera error I mentioned earlier). He walked 2 and struck out 7 Mariners in 103 pitches. It was a virtuoso performance from the left-handed veteran, a display to get really excited about. Kazmir wins the award for this series with ease, but an honourable mention most go to Yan Gomes, who has become Kazmir's personal catcher of late, who had a very successful trip to Seattle as well.

Cleveland can enjoy the day off at home today before welcoming the Texas Rangers to Progressive Field for a three game series beginning tomorrow. Corey Kluber (7-5, 3.69 ERA) will face off against Martin Perez (3-3, 3.40 ERA) on Friday evening to get things started but the game to watch will be Saturday's match-up of All Star pitchers Justin Masterson (11-7, 3.60 ERA) and Yu Darvish (9-4, 2.86 ERA). I start my holiday on Monday so I'll try and fit in a series re-cap before I go but if not I won't be back until we're midway through the crucial series against the Tigers in early August. Until next time...

Thanks for reading.

Seattle Swept, Tribe Continue To Roll

Four games against Seattle and three of them end in walk-off wins for the red-hot Cleveland Indians. What are the odds? I'm serious, this team just won't quit. Call it resilience, call it luck, call it whatever you damn like, but this team is winning one way or the other. When you think they've blown it and all hope is lost, they somehow turn it around and get that W. It's crazy, and at times infuriating, but it's also been a lot of fun when things break our way.

So the Tribe managed to sweep the Mariners in this four-game series and now sit at 26-17 atop the AL Central, a full 2.5 games ahead of Detroit. Here's a quick summary of how it all played out:

Quick Re-Cap

It began Friday afternoon with the Indians coming out on top after a 10 inning nail-biter, Jason Kipnis finally ending it with a clutch 3-run homer to snatch the Tribe a 6-3 victory.

The Indians walked off again the next day, winning 5-4 on Saturday, thanks to Mark Reynolds getting good contact on an infield single and Kipnis being fast enough to make it to home-plate and beating the throw home, Seattle catcher Jesus Montero's foot being dragged away from the plate in the process. That came after Chris Perez blew the save opportunity by giving up back-to-back home runs in the top of the 9th, causing the home fans to boo the controversial closer mercilessly. More on that later.

Justin Masterson pitched an absolute gem in game 3, earning the series win and his 7th victory in 2013, helping the Tribe cruise to an easy 6-0 win, as the Indians had a great day against Mariners ace Felix Hernandez.

And then came the series finale, as wild a game as you're likely to see, the Tribe prevailing 10-8 in the bottom of the 10th inning, Yan Gomes smashing his second home run on the day, a 3-run bomb to cement the sweep. The Mariners tied it in the 8th inning, Kyle Seager hitting a homer off Vinnie Pestano, then took the lead in the 9th when Endy Chavez hit a home run off Chris Perez. Seattle took the lead once again in the 10th inning, Justin Smoak going deep off of Joe Smith and each time the Indians responded and showed incredible resolve to tie the game, Gomes finally ending Seattle's hopes with his walk-off homer. Just another day at the office for Yan Gomes, who is quickly attaining serious hero status in Cleveland after another fine performance. That Esmil Rogers trade to Toronto looks better and better every day.

I'm Loving Our Starting Pitching

We all knew the success of this 2013 Indians team depended on the quality of our starting pitching. The offense can only carry you so far. So it's been a cause for celebration that our starters have pitched so well and are not the unsightly blemish we thought they'd be (not yet anyway...). The jewel in our rotation-crown has been Justin Masterson, who Marty McFly'ed it back to 2011 and carried that form and confidence back with him to the present day. He's been filthy on the mound giving opposing batters absolutely nothing (batters are hitting .210 off him). So far he's got a 7-2 record (only Tampa Bay's Matt Moore has more wins, with 8) with a 2.83 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP. He's struck out 71 batters in 70 innings, not bad for a groundball specialist like Justin, and he's only walked 26, plus he's only given up 3 home runs. He had another amazing start on Sunday, pitching 7 shutout innings whilst giving up just 3 hits and striking out 11 Mariners. He'd have probably gone on to pitch all 9 innings for the complete-game but his pitch count was already over 100 at the end of the 7th. He hasn't given up a run in his last 2 starts and earned the AL Player of the Week award for his recent efforts as well. It's fair to say Masterson has been superb and his resurrection from the player he was last year has been a revelation for this team.

We got two more good performances this series as well. Ubaldo Jimenez kicked things off on Friday: he only managed to last 5 innings, which isn't bad, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits, walking 2 but striking out an amazing 9. It was another solid start on Ubaldo's road back to recovery and he looked pretty good out there, despite the 7 hits. Zach McAllister pitched really well Saturday afternoon, looking more and more like our legitimate number two guy in the rotation. Zach went 7 1/3 innings, giving up 6 hits whilst walking only 1 and striking out 1 as well. He kept Seattle scoreless until Mariners shortstop Brendan Ryan hit a two-run homer off him in the 8th inning, and would have been good for his 4th win of the year if Perez hadn't blown the save later on. Until that point McAllister looked untouchable, pitching to contact and getting the Mariners to fly out regularly with ease. He currently leads the team with an amazing 2.65 ERA. Unfortunately Scott Kazmir could not add the cherry on top of what's been a great effort from our rotation during this series. Kazmir just didn't have it yesterday, getting hit 7 times for 5 runs in just 3 innings, with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts. Hopefully it's just a blip and he can come back next time and pitch well. It doesn't diminish the fact that this Cleveland Indians rotation is surpassing expectations so far in 2013, and the success of the ball-club will depend on them maintaining this level of performance.

I Hate To Bring Negativity To This Party, But...

Closers blow saves. It's a baseball fact. Not everybody can be Mariano Rivera. Still, the questions surrounding Chris Perez and his role as closer are being asked. A blown save is painful, it hurts and you want to be angry and the closer will be responsible and thus always be the target of that anger. We all know that, and Perez knows that too. It comes with the job. He gets to fist pump and slap high-fives when he gets the job done, but I'm afraid he'll have to put up with some booing when he doesn't.

Now I need to make this clear. I'm not really Chris Perez's biggest fan and never have been. I'll always remember his 2009 Indians debut, coming out of the bullpen with so much hope and then getting absolutely destroyed. I was deflated to say the least. Maybe I've never recovered from that, despite the 2 All Star appearances and the fact he's grown into one of the premier closers in the league.

My trust issues with Perez run deep but I'm not going to join the parade and say he needs to be pulled from being the closer. Not yet anyway. I think over the last few years he's earned himself some breathing room in regards to his position as closer. Last year he earned an astounding 39 saves on a bad team, an impressive feat and one of the few bright spots in a dismal 2012.

But I can't say the home runs he gave up this series didn't hurt. The back-to-back solo homers he surrendered to Raul Ibanez and Justin Smoak on Saturday, with 2 outs in the 9th and the victory practically in the bag, were unbelievable. I had to rub my eyes when Smoak hit that ball deep over the centre field fence. Frickin' Justin Smoak, who hit only his 2nd HR of the year and is well known as being absolute dog-shit most days?! The game looked safe, McAllister was cruising all day and Perez had a 2-run cushion. The fact he got the first 2 outs with ease made the painful events that followed even worse. The team picked him up and won anyway in the bottom half of the 9th but the Tribe faithful still let Perez hear it, raining boos down on our closer. And then he did it again yesterday, albeit not in a save situation, the Mariners taking the lead in the 9th inning when Endy Chavez went yard on only Perez's second pitch thrown. Yes, Pestano had blown the save in the 8th but Perez allowed Seattle the lead. Yet again the offense carried the rest of the team on their back and won regardless, thankfully.

If I'm Francona, Perez is obviously still the number one guy out of the pen with the game on the line. He's the closer and will remain so until he becomes the next Carlos Marmol and can't do it anymore. In which case we have Pestano ready and waiting. Most fans would agree that Pestano is already the better pitcher in terms of talent but Perez earned his role as closer and won't give it up without a fight (as you'd expect from the fiery right-hander). However, if the opportunity to trade Perez for another arm to add to the rotation comes up around deadline time, I won't be shedding any tears. I feel our bullpen is well stocked that we'd cope without Perez and his trade value is unlikely to grow, so selling high this year might be the best option. It may not to come to that if Perez can put this series behind him and get back to closing games without incident. I hope for his sake as a member of this Indians team he can.

Player Of The Series

This is really tough. There were quite a few standout performers during this series. Honourable mentions must go to Jason Kipnis, Michael Brantley, Mark Reynolds, Mike Aviles (for that sterling job he did in left field on Saturday), Zach McAllister, and finally Yan Gomes. All of these guys could stake a claim for the award this week. But I can't look any further than Justin Masterson, whose dominating performance in his matchup against Mariners ace Felix Hernandez was sublime. It was the most anticipated pitching duel of the series and Masterson came out and completely shut down the Seattle offense, whereas his opponent King Felix, usually so amazing, wasn't up to his immeasurably high standards. Justin came out on top, dethroning the King for the day and earning my Player of the Series award. Congrats to Justin.

Cleveland welcome our division rivals Detroit into town today for a short two game series. With us ahead in the standings, I'd really appreciate it if the Tribe could get another sweep and put even more distance between them and the Tigers. That'd be pretty much perfect I reckon.

Thanks for reading.