An unlikely sweep... and other thoughts

Well maybe the Indians are finally rounding back into form? Maybe the Rays really are just a fluke and are now crashing back to earth? Or maybe that team meeting before Thursday's game actually woke the Tribe up? We won't really know the answers until the second half of the season starts. But for now, the four-game sweep of Tampa Bay sure was a nice way to cap off an otherwise miserable first half of the 2008 season. And it was definitely unexpected coming on the heels of a horrendous 10-game losing streak.

Friday night's game featured more solid pitching from Cliff Lee, who notched his 12th win on the year with a 5-0 victory. With a 12-2 record and a tidy 2.31 ERA, today Lee did get the nod as the All-Star Game starter on Tuesday night in New York City. Quite a turnaround from his dismal performance in 2007. On Saturday the Indians won 8-4, behind Ryan Garko's career-high 5 RBI night. And yesterday's game featured a very bizarre stat line, one I thought I'd never see again to be perfectly honest. And Jhonny Peralta seems to be finally reaping the benefits of his laser vision correction surgery (7 hits and 2 home runs this weekend). We even had an Andy Marte sighting! And Ben Francisco is playing well again, raising his average by 14 points with a 12-for-19 series. The only bad news I could find after the Tribe's weekend was the fact that they allowed the Red Sox back into first place in the AL East...

A truly backwards weekend: Tribe sweep & a Mastny win!

More Tribe: American League home run leader Grady Sizemore takes his swing up against the short porch in right tonight in New York for the Home Run Derby. And we got a glimpse of the future with new prospect Matt LaPorta on Sunday in the Futures Game. And of course, I will miss seeing this in a Tribe uniform during interleague games. That is a hell of a swing for a pitcher.

Gladiators Update: The fun ride ended on Saturday afternoon as the Philadelphia Soul beat our Gladtiators 70-35 in the National Conference championship game. Early offensive mistakes and a turnover really put them in trouble in the first half and they just were never able to recover. But 2-14 to 9-7 and two playoff wins is nothing to take lightly. Good job by Bernie Kosar, the entire coaching staff, and the players. I'm now a fan and will be looking forward to more indoor football next spring.

Cavs Update: No news yet on the neverending James Posey saga. But Terry Pluto has some thoughts on what is happening behind the scenes in Cavalier-land.

Finally, one for the good guys

The Tribe was finally able to end their horrific 10-game losing streak last night in a 13-2 beatdown of the Tampa Bay Rays. The Indians needed a game like this, especially after the meltdowns in Detroit. For a while it did look like more of the same as the Rays took a 2-0 lead into the 5th inning. But then the Tribe exploded for 13 runs to give the home crowd something to cheer about at last. My favorite stat line from last night was turned in by Rays reliever Gary Glover in the bottom of the 8th inning. It took him 46 pitches to record two outs and give up 7 runs on six hits and two walks. Ouch. Unfortunately, he probably won't make an appearance out of the Rays 'pen tonight:


My fear after a game like last night's is that the Tribe used up all their runs and I'll be stuck with nothing to see tonight at the Prog. But the good news - Cliff Lee will be on the mound in his final tune-up before the All-Star Game. So that's something to actually look forward to...

Finally something to smile about for the Tribe

More Tribe: The Indians did apparently hold a team meeting before yesterday's game. We can only hope it produces similar results to last night's for rest of this season. I'm coming to terms with the rebuilding or re-tooling or whatever you want to call it this year... sometimes these things happen and 2006 may have just prepared the team for a great year last year. Or maybe I'm just forcing myself to be optimistic. Speaking of optimism, Travis Hafner thinks he might be able to play again this year. Remember him?

One final note about the Indians today... well, maybe more of a rant. I've been defending the Dolans for years now. I haven't necessarily agreed with the way a lot of casual fans refer to them as "cheap" and non-caring towards this city. I've occasionally tried to stick up for them here and on message boards that I frequent. I think I have a decent grasp of how MLB is currently set up and I can see that mid-market teams just don't have the cash to compete on a level playing field. I like what the Dolans have done creating STO - basically their own sports network (which is much better than I originally expected), and even selling the naming rights to Jacobs Field (as much as it pains me that it's not 'the Jake' anymore, the name change did generate a lot of cash).

Having said that, there are a couple things have bothered me lately under current ownership:

a) When going to games this year I have noticed a lot of people at the Prog in florescent greenish-yellow shirts. These people spend much of the game going up to fans and asking if they can take their picture. I didn't think much of it at first until I saw how obtrusive they were, even during the games (sometimes in the middle of at-bats). And then I learned that once your picture is taken you can purchase the digital image from the team.
b) I got an e-mail yesterday, supposedly sent out to all season ticket holders. It pointed me in the direction of this page, which allows you an opportunity to get tickets to sit in the visitors' dugout for the post-game fireworks show tonight and tomorrow night. The only catch? You have to pay $50 (on top of the price of your regular game ticket) per person. And only 24 people are allowed for each game. So ownership is now reduced to gimmicky ways to generate an extra $2400 this weekend? It just seems a little bit like panhandling to me, and I'm beginning to understand now why some fans get the impression that the Dolans are "cheap."

Cavs Update: The Cavaliers inked first-round pick J.J. Hickson to a two-year deal yesterday. And we still await word on free-agent forward James Posey's destination of choice.

Gladiators Update: Terry Pluto gives a little insight on the Gladiators as they prepare for the conference championship game on Saturday at 1:00pm in Philadelphia.

Detroit Disaster, Walk-Off Style

I thought it couldn't get much worse, but I guess I was wrong. Lucky for me I wasn't a witness to the carnage in Detroit. I knew better than to watch a game featuring Paul Byrd on the mound, against a hot Tigers lineup, all while trying to halt a 9-game losing streak. Too many factors going against us in this one. I did sneak a peak around 8:30 and to my surprise I saw the Tribe was up 6-0. But still, I flipped to a different channel because I knew it could only get worse. But even in this disastrous season for the Tribe, I honestly didn't think it would end as badly as it did. I saw the score flash across the bottom of the screen on ESPN late last night but didn't bother to check out the gory details until this morning.

So if you took my advice yesterday and decided not to watch as well, here's what you missed: The Indians managed to blow that 6-0 lead in a shockingly quick and pathetic fashion. It started in the bottom of the 7th when the wheels started to come off for Paul Byrd (as they usually do in his starts). Then it continued with Rafael Betancourt (what the hell happened to this guy???) letting the Tigers all the way back into the game, with the score tied 6-6 by the time the dust had settled. Then new closer project Jensen Lewis finished things off by allowing a line-drive home run to Miguel Cabrera to extend the losing streak to 10. Hey, only 13 more days till Browns training camp opens!

More dancing at home plate at the expense of a Tribe reliever

Unfortunately for all of us, the season continues tonight when the Tribe returns home to face the once-laughingstock, now first place Tampa Bay Rays (no more 'Devil' in the name now I guess). Aaron Laffey will try to halt the embarrassing losing streak. I'm more interested to see how many people will actually show up at the Prog.

Cavs Update: James Posey is expected to sign a contract soon. Hopefully it's with the wine and gold. I know we will likely have to overpay for him with our full mid-level exception for at least four years, but I think it's worth it to bring him in. And it would hurt the Celtics, while improving our roster. We'll see how this plays out...