Streak ends at five

All good things must eventually come to an end. We knew the Tribe's winning streak couldn't last forever, and it ended at five as the Orioles took them down 6-1 last night at the Prog. The good news is that the Royals continued their losing ways and spared us from last place for another day. The bad news was that another ex-Indian came back to haunt us. This time it was Jeremy Guthrie, our one-time can't-miss prospect that never panned out for us. He went 7 solid innings against his former team last night to win his fourth straight game. I guess we can add Guthrie to the growing list of former Indians that couldn't figure things out here but have gone one to have solid seasons elsewhere (joining Ryan Ludwick, Russell Branyan, Brandon Phillips, Jody Gerut, etc., etc.). And yes those guys really have combined to hit 71 HR's this year...

"I just focused on what I had to do, blocked things out, and the guys got some big hits," said Guthrie, refusing to say he felt that he extracted any revenge on an Indians team that put him on waivers in January 2007.

Anthony Reyes had another decent start for the Indians, who may have just found something in that minor deal with the Cardinals. Reyes went 6 innings, giving up only two earned runs on 96 pitches. The bullpen did not fare so well (again). This time it was Brandon Donnelly's turn to help raise the ERA of the AL's worst bullpen. He entered in the top of the ninth and promptly gave up 5 hits and 4 earned runs in just two-thirds of an inning, turning a manageable 2-1 deficit into a 6-1 hole. The Tribe will look to make it 3 out of 4 from the Orioles tonight when newly-promoted Zach Jackson gets the start.

Reyes had a second straight solid start for the Tribe on Wednesday night

Other Tribe Notes: Victor Martinez and Josh Barfield are set to start rehab assignments soon. And apparently Masa Kobayashi is getting tired. I know the feeling - I'm tired of watching him get lit up on the mound. And Shin-Soo Choo just wants to watch Korea in the Olympics.

Cavs Update: Now onto the big news of the day yesterday. The more I think about it, I just love the trade for Mo Williams. I liked it when I heard about it yesterday, but I love it now. The fact that Ferry pulled this off without having to use our two biggest tradeable assets (Varejao and Szczerbiak) really shows how hard he must have had to work to get this done. Now we still have their expiring deals, along with Eric Snow's $7M, to package in another deal before the deadline in February. I still think that we will work to get another big man, especially given the loss of Joe Smith. It will really come down to how ready rookie J.J. Hickson is to step into the rotation. And it will be interesting to see where this trade leaves Delonte West in his contract negotiations...

Some trade reactions from around the web:

• Bill Livingston of the Plain Dealer
• Bud Shaw of the Plain Dealer
• Brian Windhorst of the Akron Beacon Journal (more on him in a moment)
• Cavs GM Danny Ferry
• John Hollinger of espn.com
• Marty Burns of SI.com
• Damon Jones (and yes, this finally puts my mohawk tribute site to rest)
• Mo Williams himself on WKNR yesterday evening
  

And my favorite piece from yesterday's trade comes from Henry Abbott's Truehoop blog, where he gives some background on Brian Windhorst breaking the news of the trade. It's good to have you back Windy :)

After 55 days in the hospital, dealing with all manner of health trouble that I'll let him tell you about if he's so inclined, today was the day that he got to go home for the first time.

Would you believe he actually dictated this story over the phone, from the car, on the way home from the hospital?

Most sportswriters never get to have a "Willis Reed" moment, but Brian has certainly had his.

Also, as expected this morning, Team USA exacted some revenge on Greece in game #3 of their Olympic run. The Americans won 92-63, with LeBron James chipping in 13 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 blocks.

Browns Update: Nothing big today, just some news of a rough practice yesterday. I can't wait till we can start hitting other teams, instead of each other. The real season is now only 24 days away if you can believe it...

Game 6 Anticipation

As I sit here and think about Game 6 tonight, there are a lot of thoughts swimming in my head:

• Can we hold serve at home, or will the pressure of 20-1 in the second round for the home teams destroy us?
• Can we survive the loss of Boobie tonight, and possibly the rest of the playoffs?
• Will Mike Brown peel Damon Jones off the bench tonight? And if so, will it play out like I envision (where he is on fire from downtown and torches the Celts)?
• Will the Celtics fold under the immense pressure of winning a road game in a hostile environment?
• How will the Cavs respond to their first elimination game since Game 4 of last year's Finals?
• Will linking to this oldie-but-goodie inspire the Cavaliers to beat the Celtics, a la the '92 playoffs?
  

I guess we will know the answers to all of these questions soon enough. But for what it's worth, I had a dream last night that I was talking to LBJ about Game 6. He reassured me that they Cavs are bringing it tonight and wouldn't let us down at home. It's pathetic that I did actually have that dream, I know, but it actually made me feel better when I woke up. My wife sort of rolled her eyes when I told her about it this morning, as I would expect any female to do when their husband tells them such a thing. TMI coming out in the blog today so let's move onto something else...

Can DJ be more than a cheerleader tonight in Game 6?

Tribe Update:
Aaron Laffey gave the Tribe another superb start yesterday, even if the scoreless streak from the starters was ended. I can't complain about the one unearned run he did allow in the Tribe's 4-2 win. It was concerning to see Rafael Betancourt have to be yanked in favor of Masa Kobayashi to get out of the ninth, but a win's a win's a win as they say. The Tribe is now a full 1.5 games in first and 3 games over .500 for the first time all year. And the Tigers keep sinking deeper into the abyss. As Borat would say: "Niiiiiiiiice!"

Small Browns Update:
With OTA's currently going on for the Browns, we got this small bit of information about Josh Cribbs' more expanded role in the 2008 Browns offense. Any time you can get the ball in this guy's hands, good things are bound to happen. Can't wait for September!

Two Season Finales?

So we know for sure that last night was the Cavaliers' regular season finale. They lost at home to the Detroit Pistons in a purely meaningless game. LeBron and Z didn't even suit up for the wine and gold. I can think of three good things to happen last night: 1) no further injuries going into the postseason, 2) LeBron locked up the first-ever league scoring title by a Cavalier to add to his ever-expanding list of amazing achievements, and 3) Wally Szczerbiak netted 18 points in 43 minutes to hopefully give him some confidence for the playoffs. One particularly bad thing to note from last night: Damon Jones finally got off the bench and started the game - but went just 1-12 from the field in 37 minutes. Yikes.

The other possible season finale from last night happened just next door on the baseball diamond, where the Tribe fell to the Tigers, 13-2. This is not your typical gloom and doom, reverse psychology attempt on my part (well maybe it is), but this team is in serious trouble. CC Sabathia was shelled again last night, further proving team ownership is justified in not giving him a 7-year $120M deal that he will inevitably get in free agency. As my buddy Nicko said, it's time for a players'-only meeting. It's time to shake things up. It's time to rattle some cages. Something needs to be done before this season is lost already. This one dropped the Tribe to 5-10 and a last-place tie in the Central. Wow, and I thought my wisdom teeth extraction would be the lowlight of my Wednesday.

The big man can't even watch Renteria's grand slam in the 5th
... and the feeling is mutual for most Tribe fans when he pitches now

*Update* The Cavs have released their Round 1 schedule vs. the Wizards. Here's the rundown:

Game 1 - vs WAS, Sat. April 19, 12:30 pm, ESPN
Game 2 - vs WAS, Mon. April 21, 7:00 pm, TNT
Game 3 - @ WAS, Thu. April 24, 8:00 pm, TNT
Game 4 - @ WAS, Sun. April 27, 1:00 pm, ABC
*Game 5 - vs WAS, Wed. April 29, TBD
*Game 6 - @ WAS, Fri. May 2, TBD
*Game 7 - vs WAS, Tue. May 4, TBD
(* if necessary)

My prediction: Cavs in 6