It may be easy to forget among the Indians recent successes, especially with how well Mark Reynolds has been playing defensively at third base, but Lonnie Chisenhall is still in AAA. His minimum limit has just passed and he was not immediately brought back up to Cleveland, so it seems like a good time to check up on his progress.

He has played eight games since his demotion and has found limited success. He does have a hit in every game but one, but has just a .235 average over that span. He has increased that in his current five game hitting streak, to an average of .300 and is hitting .312 with four RBI and two runs across his last four games. 

Columbus generally doesn't have any trouble scoring runs against their International League opponents, so Lonnie has little excuse for performing worse in AAA than he has at times in the pros. He has had to face a few former Major Leaguers in positions like his own, including Chris Young, Ross Ohlendorf, Yunesky Maya, Ryan Perry, Chris Bootcheck and Chien-Ming Wang. Interestingly enough, Chisenhall's hitless game came against Maya, who has just pitched 16 games in the Majors with an ERA of 5.80. The rest of the Clippers didn't have too much trouble with the Skychiefs that day as they won 4-2 and hit safely 11 times. In particular Chun Chen, who was just promoted to Columbus (going the opposite direction of Chisenahall), has batted .421 with a home run and three RBI in his first four games. While some of those pitchers have seen some success in the Majors (particularly Young and Wang), none are as good right now as the pitchers the actual Indians are facing in the Majors. Essentially, Chisenhall should easily be batting in the mid to high .300's.

Another cause of worry is that Lonnie has already committed four errors since his return. This is a problem that affected him in the past, but seems to have improved in the past two seasons. It seems possible that he has allowed this temporary set back to get him down, instead of looking at it as an opportunity and is not putting out the concentration and effort that is necessary at the hot corner. Since there is limited video available from Columbus it is hard to judge these errors however, as they could be questionable scoring decisions, but chances are with four in eight games that enough of them are legitimate that it could be a worry.

Obviously, this wasn't a scheduled part of his career, but if he doesn't play in AAA like he would play in Cleveland, he will have to stay there. At this moment, with Mike Aviles and Mark Reynolds playing well for the Indians, the Indians can afford to keep Chisenhall in AAA until either his attitude or ability gets back to where it needs to be for him to be a Major League third baseman.

There are still some moments of greatness for Lonnie as this monster home run shows.

Roster Update: In "oops we made a big mistake" news, the Indians sent DFA'd David Huff to make room for Scott Barnes as Huff has struggled in his last two outings and Rich Hill is not fit to be a sole left hander out of the pen. If you don't remember, normal left handed match-up man, Nick Hagadone was sent back to AAA on May 17th so that Huff wouldn't have to be exposed to waivers, something that is happening anyway. Hagadone isn't eligible to come back to Cleveland for another four days so Barnes will be his substitute for the time being. Of course if the Indians had just admitted that nobody in baseball would ever pick Huff (or Lou Marson when it comes up in a week) off waivers, this whole minor league stint could have been avoided.

Player of the Game

Drew Stubbs landed hit first POG tonight with his outstanding offensive performanace. Stubbs doubled twice and tripled. With those hits came 3 RBI and a run scored. Yan Gomes is on a current team high 9 game positive POG score streak, second only to Chris Perez's 12 game streak that ended on May 18th.

Feathers Up

Carlos Santana tried a novel approach at breaking his current slump by bunting against the shift and was safe at first. The play was important as Santana scored the first Indians run after Drew Stubbs hit a bloop double down the right field line. The third baseline is always an option for pull hitters like Santana and he has been working during batting practice to take advantage as this huge opening in the field.

Tribe bats came out swinging strong tonight. Each player in the starting line up had at least one hit, with Michael Bourn, Mark Reynolds, and Drew Stubbs leading the way with 3 each. Reynolds and  Stubbs each had 3 RBI and Carlos Santana scored 3 runs.The only starter who did not score a run was Jason Kipnis. Needless to say, everybody was involved in tonight's 12-run effort.

Despite having a 9-run lead, Scott Barnes still recorded a save. He did so by pitching 3 scoreless innings and striking out 4.

Feathers Down

Chris Perez has not recorded a save in 12 games, though he did blow 2 in that time frame. Maybe he should have pitched the final 3 innings tonight.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 12 - Boston Red Sox 3

Corey Kluber (3-3, 5.19) vs. Felix Doubront (L) (3-2, 5.61)
Doubront tossed six innings of two-run baseball Tuesday, allowing five hits and two walks to go with three strikeouts, during the team's loss in Chicago. Doubront induced 10 ground-ball outs, but his only mistake was a two-run homerun to Jeff Keppinger which put the game away. He'll follows up his third quality start of 2013 today against an Indians team who he held to two runs in five innings earlier this season.

Player of the Game

Michael Brantley provided most of the offense for the Tribe tonight and for that he wins the Player of the Game. Brantley had three separate RBI singles providing almost half of the Indians scoring.

Feathers Up

The Indians two out magic struck again tonight in the first inning. After the first two Indians hitters struck out looking (on balls that were far off the plate), the Indians strung together three straight hits off a Justin Verlander who has been struggling of late. A double by Asdrubal Cabrera set up the score and Michael Brantley knocked him in.

The Indians added some thunder to their bats prior to the rain delay in the bottom of the 5th inning. Asdrubal Cabrera started the inning with a double (his 2nd of the game), then Michael Brantley singled in Mike Aviles (who ran for Cabrera). Carlos Santana topped it all off with a 2-run home run. This still left the Indians down by 4 going into the hour delay.

Lou who? Yan Gomes is proving that he should permanently be a part of the big league squad. Tonight, Gomes hit his 5th home run in just his 18th game of the season. He is currently tied for 5th on the team in home runs.

Milestone Update: Carlos Santana hit a benchmark with his 250th career walk. This is impressive as there are less than 60 Indians ever to walk 250 times and Santana did so in just 383 games, less than any player in Indians history that had more than 200 walks in their career. He ranks behind only Jim Thome with .65 walks per game so far in his career.

Feathers Down

The Ubaldo Jimenez of old (or a month ago) made a brief appearance tonight in the first inning, and again in the 3rd. He had the same issue as in the past when he went to the stretch after the first hitter and subsequently allowed another two hits before Victor Martinez hit a hard line drive that went for a sacrifice fly, scoring the second Tigers run. He was able to strike out the next hitter and settle down after, retiring the next seven hitters, until the 3rd inning, when he gave up a couple doubles and walks, resulting in 4 more runs for the Tigers.

After the 2nd rain delay, the Tigers caught a huge break when a ball deflected off the glove of Michael Bourn and bounced about 3 feet up to go over the fence for a Miguel Cabrera home run in the 8th inning.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 7 - Detroit Tigers 11

Roster Update: The Indians added a new player to the team today as Nick Swisher's wife had their first child. Relative to baseball, this means that Swisher will be on the paternity list for as long as three days while they get things situated at home. Cord Phelps has been recalled in his place for the second time this year. Phelps went 0-8 in an earlier stint while replacing the injured Jason Kipnis. He will likely be an emergency measure only.

Player of the Game

Cody Allen earned his first player of the game award of the season with a fantastic relief outing. Allen pitched 1.2 innings, striking out 4 Detroit batters in a row.

Feathers Up

Batting Michael Brantley fourth was an odd decision going into the game (instead of dropping either Brantley or Asdrubal Cabrera down in the lineup), but it worked out well in the first. Brantley knocked in the Indians first run on a line drive sacrifice fly to deep right field.

The rather large man, Prince Fielder, struck out 4 times tonight. Corey Kluber and Cody Allen combined in K-ing the big guy.

Feathers Down

Corey Kluber proved phenominal the first 5 innings, but fell apart quickly in the 6th. He gave up the lead by allowing a home run, a double, and another home run. Kluber pitched into the 7th inning, giving up 3 runs on 8 hits.

No miracle walk-off tonight. In fact, the Indians did not have a single baserunner after Carlos Santana walked in the first inning until Michael Bourn singled in the 9th. The Indians did not record their first strike out until the 5th inning, but managed to strike out a total of 7 times by the end of the game.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 1 - Motor City Kitties 5

Detroit Tigers (23-19) at Cleveland Indians (26-17)
Series 15, Games 44 and 45
Progressive Field: 95, Pitcher's Park
Weather: Looks like a chance of thunderstorms with temps in the mid 80's. 

Tuesday, May 21 7:05 EDT (STO)
Max Scherzer (5-0, 3.98) vs. Corey Kluber (3-2, 5.40)
This series sets up well for the Tribe as they are 2.5 games ahead of the Tigers in the Central Division. This means that regardless of the results of the short series, the Indians will still be in first, but they also have the opportunity to move to 4.5 games up. Both pitching match-ups favor the Tigers, but the Indians were able to split two games in the last Tigers series with these same match-ups. Kluber will be playing for his roster spot again with Brett Myers scheduled to return within the next two times through the rotation. If he is a bad as he was last time against Detroit, this could be his last start with either Myers or Trevor Bauer returning. While a fifth place team can tolerate a replacement level pitcher allowing  three or more runs in a five inning start, a first place team can't.

One major difference between this time and the last series is that Miguel Cabrera has turned on the afterburners and went from being the hottest player in the Majors to a towering inferno. He now leads the league in AVG, hits, runs and RBI after a three home run, 5 RBI against the Rangers. He hit one out against Kluber last time they played, so giving him a few more intentional walks wouldn't be a bad idea.

Wednesday, May 22 7:05 EDT (STO)
Justin Verlander (4-4, 3.17) vs. Ubaldo Jimenez (3-2, 5.31)
In the surprise of the series, last time around, Jimenez out-dueled the former Cy Young and Triple Crown award winner. Jimenez has had four straight good starts and is either turning things around or getting ready for his biggest drop off to date. 

Facing Verlander will be a challenge of it's own for the Tribe hitters, but one they are familiar with to this point. They have already set a record by beating 7 (of 8 faced) former Cy Young Award winners before June 1st and Verlander will be a chance for another. He will be the first of these former winners to face the Indians a second time, but they shouldn't be too worried. Verlander has face the Indians more times than any other team in his career and no other team (that has faced him at least eight times) has been more successful. For some reason, Verlander loses all control against the Tribe and has hit almost twice as many Indians batters than any other team and has thrown seven more wild pitches against Cleveland than any other team. His 75 walks and 221 strike outs are also team highs. This patient and powerful Indians line-up matches up with Verlander better than just about any other team. 

The Indians should be able to hit off either Tiger starter, irrelevant of their successes against the rest of the league, but the real question of who will win the series depends on how the Indians starters throw. Each has been successful this year, but they both have struggled at times as well. This is the end of the home stand and the start of a long, difficult stretch of baseball, so they will want to start off right. 

Of course, after the improbable wins against the Mariners in the last series, it certainly seems like the baseball gods are looking down on the Tribe. If they keep getting breaks like those, they won't ever lose.

From May 11th through the 19th, the Indians played nine games and won seven (tied with the Pirates and Rangers for best in the Majors over that span). The run has brought the Indians from third into 2.5 games ahead of Detroit for first in the Central Division. The main reason for the team's success has been very impressive starting pitching through the entire rotation. 

Across those nine games every starter threw at least five innings every game, averaging 6.1 innings per start. They have not just been pitching deep into games, but they have held an ERA of 2.05 as a staff over that time (4.37 starter ERA for the season). While this run does include two amazing starts by Justin Masterson, it also includes starts by five other pitchers due to a double header. The only bad start during the 9 game stretch was by Scott Kazmir who allowed four runs in five innings. Excluding that game (the last Indians loss), brings the starting rotations ERA to 1.56.

While this stretch was impressive and the underlying reason why the Indians are on a current five game winning streak, there has been another starting trend that has went on even longer. The Indians top three starters (Ubaldo Jimenez, Zach McAllister and Masterson) have combined for 18 consecutive starts with at least five innings thrown. The Indians as a team have went 14-4 through the last 18 starts by those three pitchers including a current 12 game winning streak. Those starters have held a 3.13 ERA over that span

To break the rotation down even further, Jimenez has seemingly turned things around. He still holds an ERA on the year of over 5.00, but in his last four starts, he has an ERA of 1.90 and is 3-0. He has also maintained his strike out totals, striking out 29 batters in 23.2 innings, while eliminating his walks allowed (just 8 after walking 11 and just striking out 15 in his first four starts). This has been one of his biggest issues since joining the Tribe and his recent success proves how important Ubaldo's control is to his ultimate success as a starting pitcher. This current run of four straight great outings (at least 5.2 innings pitched and no more than 2 runs allowed in any game) is his best run since August 28th through September 21st of 2011, just after being traded to Cleveland. The Indians went 4-2 over that span and have gone 4-0 during the one in 2013, proving that Ubaldo can still be a winning pitcher, despite considerable set-backs (not limited to the entire 2012 season).

Overall, the Indians have finally discovered the winning combination of keeping the other team from scoring runs while scoring runs of their own. Since April 28th, the Indians are 18-4, going from 8-13 in last place in the AL Central to the top of the heap at 26-17 and the starters are the base of that success. The Indians have a league high five shut outs over that time and have outscored their opponents 131 to 76.

The Indians will now go on to play 16 straight days against teams that are all over .500 and competing in their respective divisions. This will be followed by two series on the road against Detroit and Texas, two of the best offensive teams in the Majors. How the pitching staff fares against these foes will go a long way to show where this team will stand at the end of the season. While the next 21 games will not immediately decide the season, a good showing in the two series against the Tigers and going at least .500 against the other difficult teams (especially Texas and Cincinnatti) will cement the Indians as a contender in 2013 and on.

Player of the Game

The third time is the charm as they say and today, Yan Gomes wins the Player of the Game for giving the Indians their third walk off win of the four game series. It was his second home run of the game that pushed him over the edge, giving him four RBI, two runs scored and single. Gomes also played well defensively, catching two out of three attempted base stealers. He did all this despite not playing every day. His fourth home run this year gives Gomes as many as Lou Marson has had in his entire Indians career (253 games).

Feathers Up

The Indians have played very well with two outs this year, but generally that means that players get on throughout the inning and someone gets a two out RBI before the inning ends within the next two batters. Today's second inning was something else entirely. Carlos Santana doubled with one out and Mark Reynolds flew out to make it two outs. After there were already two down, Michael Brantley walked and Ryan Raburn and Yan Gomes followed with back to back home runs, giving the Indians a 4-2 lead. To finish the inning, Michael Bourn was safe on a bunt attempt and Jason Kipnis singled to center before Asdrubal Cabrera ended the inning by striking out. The Indians batted around in the inning with six batters hitting with two outs.

Yesterday the Indians scored six runs against the AL's best pitcher (according to ERA), pushing him back to fourth in the league. Today, they scored four runs in the first two innings off the new number two pitcher, Hisashi Iwakuma, pushing his ERA over 2.00 for the first time since April 18th.

In a most perplexing turn of events, the unhittable Tom Wilhelmsen dropped an easy toss from first baseman Justin Smoak with two outs, allowing Kipnis to score the tying run on a play that should have ended the game. This was his first blown save of the year although he did continue his streak of not allowing a hit to a right handed batter by striking out Mark Reynolds to end the inning.

It was a back and forth event all day, but the Indians ended up on top with the Yan Gomes three run, walk-off home run being the deciding factor. No matter how you do it, it counts as a win and the Indians have now swept the Mariners and guaranteed a winning record on the home stand. It also means that no matter what happens against Detroit, they will end that series in first place.

It was announced today the Justin Masterson has won the Player of the Week for being just filthy in his last two starts. He is the second player this season to win the AL Player of the Week (Ryan Raburn was the other).

Feathers Down

Scott Kazmir was less than stellar for the second straight start. Kazmir struggled early on, throwing pitches that had far too much of the plate in pitcher's counts. He wasn't fooling anyone and the Mariners had no problem knocking him around to the tune of 7 hits in three innings. This was the second straight start that he allowed at least four runs in five or less innings. This comes right after a three game stretch where he threw 17 innings, allowing just five runs and striking out 21.

Despite the series win, this has been a generally bad series for the bullpen. The Indians have blown saves in three of four games with three different pitchers at fault. Today it was Vinnie Pestano in just his second game back from the DL. Chris Perez, who gave up the last blown save, gave up the go ahead run in today's game as well. Not to be outdone, Joe Smith gave up another solo home run in the tenth inning, giving Seattle home runs off of each of the Indians best three relievers.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 10 - Seattle Mariners 8

The Indians are in sole possession of first place! So, as promised, the strike out counter will be converted to a home run counter. Originally, the purpose of the strike out counter was because it looked like the Indians had a chance at breaking the all-time Major League (or at least the American League) record for strike outs. The Houston Astros have completely made all those discussions pointless as they are on pace to completely shatter both records themselves. Through 44 games, the Astros have struck out 432 times and are on pace to break the Major League record in just 155 games. The Indians are far behind this and, in fact, rank just seventh in the majors in k's. They are still on pace to break the team record of 1,269, but that was only set two years ago and they aren't set to break it until at least 155 games into the year.

Instead of focusing on the negative of tallying strike outs, Burning River Baseball will now put the emphasis on the long ball, something the Indians have been doing a lot this year. They have went back and forth with a few other teams for the AL lead, but are currently tied with the Rangers for first in the AL with 57. This puts them on pace to hit two less home runs than the team record of 221 set in 2000. Of course, with Jason Kipnis, Drew Stubbs and the weather heating up, chances are the home runs will keep coming at an even faster pace. Keep an eye on the right side of the burningriverbaseball.com home page to see how the Indians are faring throughout the rest of the season.

Player of the Game

Justin Masterson was dominant again today against the Mariners, striking out 11 in seven shut out innings. Masterson was never really in trouble and allowed just six base runners while recording the win. It is his third straight start that he has won the Player of the Game and his team leading sixth overall. His POG score of 9.79 is the best score since his last start (11.14) and the fifth best score of the year.

Feathers Up

In what has become a recurring theme with the Indians this year (as expected), speed kills. Michael Bourn lead off the bottom of the first with a line drive to the outfield and took advantage of a lazy play by right fielder Michael Morse to take second on what should have been a single. Michael Brantley then singled and scored Bourn from second easily and getting to second himself in the process. Brantley then used his above average speed to score from second on an error by first baseman Justin Smoak.

Another example of Bourn's speed came an inning later when he beat out an infield single hit straight to second. This play allowed the inning to continue, which was a very good thing for the Tribe. After Jason Kipnis singled, Michael Brantley hit a three run home run that rocked King Felix's world.

If you need another example of speed/very aggressive base running, just look to the fourth inning. After a Mike Aviles double, Drew Stubbs grounded out to the catcher. When Aviles saw the catcher leave the plate to field the ball, he ran home and scored from second on a ball that didn't travel more than 20 feet from the plate. The Indians knew they were facing one of the best pitchers in the league and a former Cy Young winner in Hernandez, so they were working hard to score every run they could. They were much more successful than they would have expected, scoring six runs in four innings playing small ball against a pitcher who came into the game with an ERA below 2.00. Most impressively, Felix Hernandez is the seventh (of eight) former Cy Young award winner that the Indians have beaten in 2013.

For the first time in years, Indians starting pitchers have started striking batters out with regularity. The two most adept at doing so, Justin Masterson and Ubaldo Jimenez, have now struck out 52 batters in their past six starts (8.67 K/G).

Feathers Down

The Indians kept David Huff on the roster instead of Nick Hagadone when Vinnie Pestano was recalled, but he has been completely unutilized out of the pen. Today would have been a perfect game to get him some innings, but instead, Rich Hill was used for the third time in the series. In the first two games against Seattle, Hill pitched two innings, blowing a save and allowing a home run and a double. In addition to Huff, who hasn't been used since May 13th, Joe Smith (who pitched today) and Matt Albers had been kept out of this series.

Carlos Santana may be working on a little bit of a slump. No one expected Santana to maintain an average near .400 as he did during the first month of the season, but as the rest of the team has heated up, he has cooled down. He is hitless in the past two games (going 0-8). This comes after a streak where he reached base at least once in 18 of his previous 19 games.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 6 - Seattle Mariners 0