Stop me if you've heard this one before

It's beginning to sound like a broken record, but the 2008 Cleveland Indians really can't hit. They demonstrated that again over the weekend, losing two out of three in Kansas City to the lowly Royals (themselves losers of their previous 12 in a row before to Saturday and Sunday). So the Tribe now stands six games below .500 at 25-31, and five games out of first in the craptastic Central division. Oh, and just one game ahead of the Tigers.

Recapping the month of May, the team put up some shockingly bad offensive numbers on their way to a 12-15 record. Their .218 batting average and .297 on-base percentage really say all you need to know. That average was the lowest for the franchise in one month since August of 1968! It was also the lowest in the majors since September of 2003 when the Mets hit .217. Not really the type of records I was hoping for, one year removed from the ALCS. Sheldon Ocker of the ABJ probably does a better job summing up my feelings than I can this morning.

The Indians begin a 4-game series in Texas tonight with Aaron Laffey on the mound. Oh, and the Rangers are the best hitting team in the AL so you know runs will be needed in this series... looks like another week of fun for Tribe fans everywhere! Ugh.

Even the Royals have fun playing the Tribe this year

Well, at least we got one sweep...

Wow, where to begin after last night's debacle in Washington??? The Cavs officially lost by 36 points, but it felt more like 100. I've never seen a less inspired team show up for a playoff game. Honestly, I didn't watch much past about 3 minutes into the third quarter. At that point, the Cavaliers somehow managed to turn the ball over 4 times in a row without even getting off a shot. That may be a first in playoff history. Just a mess of a game and the worst-case scenario for Game 3. Now the Wizards are feeling sky-high and have new life. My only hope is that this loss embarrasses the Cavs enough to be pissed for Game 4 on Sunday. We will see.

And check out this quote from Andray Blatche of the Wizards. This might be the strangest thing I've ever heard an athlete say:

"I was ballin' in my Mohawk," Blatche explained. "We all getting ready to go to war, man. White Out. It's like milk out there; I'm like a cat. I want some milk. I'm telling you, we're ready for war, man White out. Ride together, die together. Bad boys for life. I'm telling you, I was BORN for this."

Whatever Andray. Enjoy your milk.

Nothing was fun about Game 3 for Cavalier fans or players

There was some good news from Thursday night. The Tribe actually won both games of the doubleheader and completed the sweep of the Royals. I would have preferred a sweep by the Cavs, but I'll take this. The offense looked alive again in Game 1, scoring 9 runs. Fausto was not on top of his game but he still got the win. Then in Game 2, Cliff Lee pitched another gem. He is now 4-0 with a sparking 0.28 ERA. Incredible. Last night he allowed only 3 hits in a complete game shutout, while racking up a career-high 9 strikeouts. I shudder to think about the World Series rings we'd be polishing right now if Cliff had this kind of stuff last year. Oh well.

Cliff Lee is my new hero

Other good news from last night - David Dellucci hit a huge home run in the top of the 7th after KC's young stud Bannister had retired 16 Tribe hitters in a row. It ended up being all the support that Cliff would need in the 2-0 win. I'm officially laying off of David Dellucci until further notice.

And Mr. Dellucci is no longer my enemy :)

Tribe & Royals Washed Out

Wednesday night's game in Kansas City was rained out after a two-hour delay. Even Mother Nature doesn't want the Tribe to capitalize on the momentum that started in Tuesday's 15-1 drubbing. A doubleheader has been scheduled for 6:10pm on Thursday, with Fausto Carmona starting Game 1 and Cliff Lee starting Game 2. This means a long and likely late night of sports for me and Mrs. Chief:

6:10-8:00 - Tribe vs. Royals, Game 1
8:00-10:30 - Cavs smacking around the Wizards in Game 3
10:30-12:30? - Tribe vs. Royals, Game 2

The doubleheader on Thursday also means that there will have to be another shake-up in the Indians' pitching rotation. We already know that Jeremy Sowers will take Jake Westbrook's spot on Saturday vs. the Yankees. But now Fausto Carmona won't be able to go on Monday since he is pitching on Thursday. So look for Aaron Laffey to be called up for Monday's start. I'll be back later today for a Cavaliers/Wizards Game 3 update...

It's Tribe time now

Hopes are high for our beloved Tribe this year. And I have to say, attending this year's home opener was a little more fun than last year's. See photo comparison:

2007 Opening Day @ Jacobs Field

2008 Opening Day @ Progressive Field

As you can tell from the 2008 photo, we are now playing at "The Prog" or "The Pro" or whatever-the-hell nickname you wanna give it. Also, our seats this year were outstanding. Big thanks to Razzles bar in Olmsted Township. $59 got us those great seats in Section 117, food, beer, transportation to and from the game, and another game ticket in June to top it all off. They do this Opening Day package annually and I highly recommend it. And I much preferred the 60 degree weather and Indians victory this year over the snow and cold game that was eventually postponed last year.

I'd also prefer to see the CC Sabathia that won the Cy Young last year (pre-playoffs of course). The one we saw on Monday looked pretty rough. Hopefully the warm weather out in Oakland this weekend will help him right himself.

The good news is that the Fausto Carmona we saw last night was the great sinkerballer that we saw burst onto the scene last year. The 2-0 start has been nice to see for this team, and coupled with Detroit's 0-2 start (to lowly Kansas City) means that we are on track for a wire-to-wire lead this season in the AL Central!

Speaking of the Armpit of America (a.k.a. Detroit), I was up there for the NCAA tourney games at Ford Field last Friday. I was very happy to see Davidson slap around Wisconsin and all of their arrogant fans. It's fun to root for the underdog, and they almost managed to pull off the huge upset over Kansas... here was the view from our seats at Ford Field - quite a strange place to take in a basketball game: