Player of the Game

Asdrubal Cabrera won his 9th 'Player of the Game' of the season for his 3 hit effort against the Yankees. While he was unable to score or knock anyone in, he had a double, 2 singles and 2 steals. Cabrera also made a nice jumping catch earning him a 'POG' score of 1.74.

Feathers Up

The Tribe stole 5 bases today taking advantage of Freddy Garcia's slow delivery and Russell Martin's recent injury. This shows that the Indians can still get on base and still move base-runners along, but are still having trouble scoring those runners.

Orlando Cabrera got his 2,000th hit just two games after hit 1,999. The hit was marred by the fact that it should have been called an error, but in an effort to save Derek Jeter's fielding percentage, the official scorer called it a hit.

Josh Tomlin pitched much better than he will get credit for. The first run scored off only one hit and two fly outs and at least 4 of the 5 runs that scored in the 5th should have been unearned due to terrible plays by Matt LaPorta and Austin Kearns.

The Detroit Tigers lost to the Seattle Mariners 7 -3, graciously allowing the Indians one more day in first place.

Feathers Down

Indians hitters were called out on strikes 10 times in the last two games. The Indians may not all be veterans, but most of them are reknowned for how well they know the strike zone, especially Carlos Santana, Shin-Soo Choo and Michael Brantley. Either all the Indians hitters can't tell a strike from a ball or there is something else going on when the Indians play in New York.

Austin Kearns cost the Indians 6 potential runs today. Twice Kearns got out with runners in scoring position and he made three poor defense plays during the Yankees 5 run 5th inning. First he allowed a double to Alex Rodriguez that should have been caught, allowing 2 runs, then two balls were hit to him that should have led to close plays at the plate, but with Kearns weak arm the runners easily scored. He was not alone playing poor defense as Matt LaPorta made two poor plays in that same inning that would have been called errors in any other park. Of course it doesn't matter how many runs you give up when you score 1 run over 2 games.

Final Score: The Indians cannot get out of New York fast enough,

Cleveland Indians 1

New York Yankees 9

Player of the Game

The only spark in the Indians offense today, Jack Hannahan, pulled in his first 'Player of the Game' of the year. Hannahan was the only player to get to second until the 8th inning, when he became the first player to get to third. He was one of only two Indians hitters not to strike out (with Matt LaPorta) and had almost as many hits as the rest of the team combined (2 for Hannahan, 3 for everyone else). Mitch Talbot probably should have won the award, but was unable to pitch past the 6th inning due to some unprofessional umpiring. Hannahan's final 'POG' score was 1.01, while Talbot's was 0.82. Lou Marson and Matt LaPorta were the only other players with positive scores.

Feathers Up

The Bullpen Mafia appeared together at MLB's Fan Cave before yesterday's game. They recorded a short which should be released soon on the MLB Fan Cave site. Today Jack Hannahan and Josh Tomlin are scheduled to visit.

The Tribe did a great job eliminating base runners today, which is very important when playing a hard slugging team like the Yankees. Lou Marson through out Brett Gardener on a steal attempt of second after the Indians threw two pitch outs, and later caught Jorge Posada leaning off second base. Mitch Talbot helped himself out as well, getting Jorge Posada to ground into a double play and picking Gardner off second.

Feathers Down

Mitch Talbot was ejected on a hit by pitch that was obviously not intentional. Talbot slipped on the wet surface of the mound and plunked Alex Rodriguez on the thigh with a pitch in the mid 80's. Home plate umpire, Dan Iassogna, who heavily favored the Yankees today, tossed Talbot immediately after the pitch was thrown. Mitch Talbot is a Morman and would never intentionally hit a batter. It's against his character.

When saying that the home plate umpire favored the Yankees, I'm not kidding. Yankees hitters all enjoyed a strike zone that was at least 4 inches smaller than that given to the Indians hitters. All except for Francisco Cervelli, who apparently hasn't earned his pinstripes yet.

With Shelley Duncan gone, the Indians have nobody who can pinch hit late in games or play back-up first base when Matt LaPorta is designated hitter. This severely limits late inning rallies for the Tribe. Manny Acta obviously has no trust in either Austin Kearns or Travis Buck as neither have played in the last four games.

You would think a team would have a good chance of beating the Yankees when limiting them to 4 runs on 3 home runs, but that is not the case with the Tribe. This offense is floundering and needs a major change soon whether that comes from within or without. The Indians have been shut out 6 of the last 22 games and are in danger of falling into a tie for first in the Central Division if the Tigers win tonight.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 0, New York Yankees 4

Cleveland's Bullpen Mafia in NYC. Photo from http://mlbfancave.mlb.com/fancave/

Player of the Game

Matt LaPorta won tonight's 'Player of the Game' with 2 singles, a walk, a run scored and 2 RBI. His final score for the game was 3.85. Carlos Santana finished the game with a 'POG' score of 3.65, but was kept away from the award because of his 5 steals allowed and his error leading to an unearned run. The "bullpen mafia" also played well tonight with the exception of Chad Durbin, as Frank Herrmann, Rafael Perez and Joe Smith earned a combined 3.18 'POG' points.

Feathers Up

Travis Hafner put on a show during batting practice today and said he felt ready to return to the team today. While this isn't going to happen even as soon as this week, it is a great sign that he has progressed as quickly as he has and will be back in the Indians lineup shortly. Expect him to take batting practice with the team a couple more times before his rehab assignment. Pronk could be back with the team as early as June 17th against the Pirates.

Cord Phelps had his first career hit and RBI in New York against the Yankees. The RBI was particularly special as it came as a bases loaded walk.

The Indians never gave up, pushing the Yankees all the way into the 9th inning after falling behind by a lot early. The Tribe loaded the bases in the 8th and the 9th, scoring in both innings and making the Yankees use four pitchers for the last two innings. Joe Girardi was so lacking in confidence in his bullpen that he brought Mariano Rivera in with a 6 run lead. The Indians didn't give up against Rivera either, with Matt LaPorta knocking in two runs with a single.

Feathers Down

I was going to put something negative about Fausto Carmona's lack of control tonight, but after reading some tweets about Carmona, who was trending in the US during the game, I decided not to. There were comments ranging from people who wanted Carmona traded, demoted or released to those who wanted him killed. This type of talk is ridiculous. Fausto has done far more positive for the Tribe during his career than a couple bad games could ever undo. Be patient with Carmona. He has the talent to compete at the Major League level and has shown it as recently as four games ago. As soon as he gets his head back together he should return to be the best pitcher he can be. While this may not mean he will be the staff ace, he is still one of the top 5 pitchers in the Indians system. If you want to read negative things about Fausto Carmona, go anywhere else on the internet.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 7, New York Yankees 11

Player of the Game

Justin Masterson has been unable to win a game over the last month, but he did win today's 'Player of the Game' award while avoiding a loss. Masterson earned 3.88 'POG' points while going 8 innings only allowing 2 earned runs. Masterson was not as sharp as Carrasco was yesterday, allowing 9 hits and only striking out 3, but he pitched well enough that he should have gotten a win. Jack Hannahan earned 3.38 points in today's game and it was his 2 out, 9th inning home run that saved Masterson from getting a loss. In the end it only delayed the inevitable as the Indians lost it in 10.

Feathers Up

Michael Brantley has led off the last four games by getting on base. In those at bats he walked twice, doubled and singled. In those four games Brantley has 4 walks, 5 singles, 1 double, 1 home run and has only made 6 outs. It looks like Brantley could be here to stay at the lead-off spot, leaving Grady Sizemore available to bat further down the lineup where he can make better use of his power.

Cord Phelps made his Major League debut and was immediately put into some clutch positions, coming up with runners in scoring position and two outs in each of his first two at bats. He was unable to knock in either runner, but he made up for it with this fantastic catch to save a run.

Grady Sizemore hit an opposite field home run for his first extra-base hit in his last 5 games. Grady started off very strong after coming off the disabled list this season, hitting more doubles than anyone else on the team.

Feathers Down

Run production has been down over the home stand, a far cry from when the Indians won 14 straight games at home, the Indians averaged only 1.86 runs per game over the last home stand. Hopefully the Tribe will be able to turn it around against the Yankees in New York and the left handers will be able to take advantage of the short porch in right field.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2,  Minnesota Twins 3 in 10 innings.

Player of the Game

Carlos Carrasco pitched the best game of his career and had the second best game of any Indian this season with a 'POG' score of 10.16. While he wasn't allowed to finish the game, he went 8.1 innings only giving up 3 hits. He did walk one batter, but then retired him on a double play. It is Carrasco's first 'Player of the Game' of 2011. His previous best start this season was his second start of the year when he went 6 innings only allowing one earned run.

Feathers Up

Carrasco did what he needs to do to win games tonight and that is get ground ball outs. He really made the infield work getting 14 ground ball outs and only allowing 4 fly outs in the entire game. The defense responded with some fantastic plays, especially two by Asdrubal Cabrera, a bare hand grab and a glove flip for a double play, and one by Orlando Cabrera in the 9th inning. Carrasco had a perfect game going through 5 innings and only allowed 4 base runners by the time the game was over.

Orlando Cabrera got his 1,999th career hit tonight on a double to right center. He will look to get #2,000 tomorrow afternoon in the rubber match against the Twins.

The Indians ended their losing streak tonight, stalling a fall from first place. After losing 5 games in a row to the Rangers and Twins, the Indians fell perilously close to the Tigers in the standings and are now only 2 games ahead of the Tigers, who have still yet to play tonight.

Feathers Down

Even with the great pitching tonight, the only way the Indians could win was by stealing a run. Delmon Young turned a Carlos Santana double into a triple by letting the ball go through his legs and the relay man slipped while trying to throw him out at third. Santana then scored on a ground out, but if he hadn't already been on third, he probably wouldn't have even gotten that far with the way the Indians offense played that inning.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 1, Minnesota Twins 0

Player of the Game

Asdrubal Cabrera took home another 'Player of the Game' award in another loss. It is his 8th on the season and 3rd of the last 6 games. While he has played well over that time, the reason he has won so many is more because of the rest of the team's poor play than his outstanding effort. In tonight's game Michael Brantley and Cabrera earned 10.68 total 'POG' points while the rest of the team combined earned a -5.86. Shin-Soo Choo was the only other batter to score above a 1.00 and the other batter to have any production stats (1 RBI).

Feathers Up

The Indians drafted short stop Francisco Lindor with the 8th overall pick in the MLB amatuer draft. He was only the third hitter to be drafted. Read more about this pick here.

Jack Hannahan returned from his hamstring injury to play in tonight's game against Minnesota. He went 0-3 before being removed for a pinch hitter, but it allowed the Indians to put out all 9 starters for the first time in the last 4 games.

Michael Brantley and Asdrubal Cabrera have been the spark plugs of the Indians offense all season and tonight was no different. Both players went a combined 6-8 with 2 home runs, a double, 3 RBI and 4 runs scored. Brantley was on-deck when the game ended, only a double play kept the left-fielder from his chance to win the game in the 9th inning.

Feathers Down

The old excuse for not scoring a lot of runs, because of great pitching doesn't work for tonight. The Indians have faced career 4.28 ERA pitcher Scott Baker many times in the past and he just isn't all that good. The Tribe will need a new excuse for tonight.

Josh Tomlin has put together three poor starts in a row and this may show a kind of regression to the pitcher most thought he would be going into the season. He will probably eventually level off somewhere inbetween how good he was at the beginning of the year and how poor he has played in his last three starts. He did still manage to pitch 6 innings, so his games started with 5 innings pitched or more streak is still intact.

Final Score: The Cleveland Indians lose their 5th in a row to the Twins,

Cleveland Indians 4

Minnesota Twins 6

Player of the Game

The 'Player of the Game' leaderboard was updated today and can be viewed here. There is also an explanation of the 'Player of the Game' scoring system there. For those who haven't seen it, there is a link to this page on top of the BurningRiverBaseball.com home page entitled Player of the Game.

Today's 'Player of the Game' was the Sipper, Tony Sipp. This continues a trend where 4 of the last 10 'Player of the Game' winners have been relief pitchers. This is Sipp's first 'Player of the Game' of 2011 and he won it by pitching a perfect 8th inning, striking out all three batters to keep the game a 2 run affair.

Feathers Up

Mitch Talbot dropped his ERA like it was hot today, knocking his 4.50 ERA down to 4.18. After allowing 8 runs in 3 innings in his return from the disabled list, Talbot has pitched masterfully, only allowing 3 runs in his last two games over a span of 12.2 innings.

Manny Acta looked good again today as another one of his moves worked out. Joe Smith intentionally walked Michael Young to face Adrien Beltre, who has 43 RBI on the season, with the bases loaded. Smith was able to get Beltre to ground into a double play to end the 7th inning and keep the game close at 2-0.

After a couple rocky outings, the bullpen mafia seems to be back in full force as Smith, Tony Sipp and Chris Perez pitched 3 total innings. Smith stranded two inherited runners and Sipp struck out the side in the 8th.

Feathers Down

The Indians lose four straight games for the first time this season. Luckily the Indians built up a huge lead in the AL Central race and still lead by 3 games over the Tigers. With the last place Twins coming into town next, the Indians may be able to regain some of that lost space.

In the Indians last 10 losses they have scored more than 2 runs only once. Before those ten losses, the Tribe had only been shutout once, by Angels ace Dan Haren, but since they have been shutout 4 times. A couple of these games were also against very good pitchers like today's starter C.J. Wilson and Jake Peavy, but others were against only average pitchers Jeremy Hellickson and Derek Holland.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 0, Texas Rangers 2

Player of the Game

Chad Durbin takes advantage of another low scoring game to grab his second 'Player of the Game' award of the season. Durbin earned a 'POG' score of 1.27 for pitching a perfect 9th and stepping up for an injured Vinnie Pestano. This was agreat improvement over yesterday's game where Durbin allowed 3 runs in one inning. The bullpen as a whole was much improved over a day ago scoring 3.03 'POG' points over the course of 2.2 innings.

Feathers Up

Asdrubal Cabrera found a way to help his team, even though he didn't get a hit until the 8th inning. He made two great plays at short stop, saving two hits and keeping the Rangers from scoring and he was safe on an error earlier in the game which wouldn't have been possible if he didn't put the ball in play. The error came at a crucial time and set up a bases loaded situation when the Rangers only had a two run lead.

For anyone who thinks the Indians should pitch around Josh Hamilton the way you would with Jose Bautista and Miguel Cabrera, be aware that the big problem is that the Blue Jays and Tigers don't have Michael Young, Adrien Beltre and Nelson Cruz. Hamilton has hit two giant home runs in the last two games, but the pitches he hit were not horrible, he is just an extremely talented player.

The Indians made a lot of hard outs, especially early in the game, and had a lot of scoring opportunities. Every good team loses games like this from time to time, the Tribe just didn't have the bat magic on their side tonight.

On again, off again Fausto Carmona was on again tonight, only allowing two run scoring hits after allowing 7 runs in 4 innings last start. This is especially impressive against the Texas Rangers.

Feathers Down

Shin-Soo Choo and Matt LaPorta had scheduled days off while Jack Hannahan and Travis Hafner were already out due to injury. This put the Tribe four starters down before the game began.

Set-up man extraordinaire Vinne Pestano was removed from the game without throwing a single pitch. Hopefully the injury is not severe, as Pestano is an integral part of the Tribe bullpen.

Final Score: The Indians will try to salvage a single game out of the four game series tomorrow.

Cleveland Indians 0

Texas Rangers 4

Player of the Game

Asdrubal Cabrera gratefully stepped up in the 9th inning to win a 'Player of the Game' award that apparently, no one else wanted. Cabrera had three hits on the night, two singles to go with his 9th inning home run, in just four at bats. Cabrera also made some moves defensively as he made a great diving catch to his right to rob a single and started a spectacular double play later in the game. Asdrubal won his team leading 7th 'Player of the Game' with a final score of 3.90. It is his second in the last three games.

Feathers Up

This series is great for those who love to watch great short stops play the game. Two of the best in the league, Asdrubal Cabrera and Elvis Andrus are playing for the Rangers and Indians, and they haven't disappointed through this part of the series. Not only can they both play spectacular defense, but they can hit as well.

Justin Masterson had good movement on his pitches, as evidenced by his 7 strikeouts in 6.1 innings. The problem tonight was the 10 hits Masterson gave up in that same span of time. He limited the damage as much as he good, by only allowing 2 runs to score while he was pitching, but you can only allow so many hits before the runs start scoring.

Feathers Down

The Rangers score runs. That is how they have won games over my entire lifetime and they continue to do it today, only the faces have changed. If you play the Rangers and don't score at least 6 runs, you will probably lose and the Indians scored less than 6 runs in both games so far this series. It is irrelevant how many runs Indians pitching gives up if the hitting can't get more than 4 runs a game.

Elvis Andrus stole a base tonight on a pitch out. This would have been embarrassing for Carlos Santana, except that no one has caught Andrus all year. He is now 19 for 19 in stolen bases and leads the AL.

Chad Durbin is the Indians long reliever and Jeanmar Gomez is in AAA. Gomez has already pitched this year for the Indians and did well, both in a starting and long relief role and is now pitching for Columbus with a record of 4-1, an ERA of 2.53 and 36 strikeouts to only 16 walks.

Tony Sipp had his worst game of the season, giving up two home runs and allowing 5 runs to score (2 were attributed to Masterson). Sipp allowed 2 home runs and was not aided when a ball, that should have been caught, fell between Shin-Soo Choo and Michael Brantley and went for a double. The bullpen in general was terrible tonight and kept the Indians from having any chance of coming back.

The Indians have now lost 14 of their last 17 games against the Rangers. It probably has something to do with the fact that the Rangers base their team on hitting home runs and striking out batters, two things the Indians are very susceptible against, but the Tribe will have to find some way to turn this around. The Rangers are one of the elite teams in the Majors now and must be contended with.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2, Texas Rangers 11

Player of the Game

Matt LaPorta won tonight's 'Player of the Game' award, with a score of 2.82, more than 4 points less than he had in yesterday's game in which he did not win. LaPorta was 1-4 with a solo home run and even with that low score, no one was really close to him. Travis Buck was the second best player of the night, he also scored a run and knocked in another, but he was taken out of the game in a clutch situation for Shelley Duncan. Carlos Carrasco's score of -4.00 means that Indians starters have now had negative scores in the last two, four of the last five and six of the last eight games. 

Feathers Up

When the Indians scored 3 runs in the 2nd inning, it all started out with Carlos Santana walking and Grady Sizemore hitting a double. Both players then scored on singles by Travis Buck and Orlando Cabrera. Santana and Sizemore have been nothing but consistant with Santana constantly drawing walks and Sizemore doubling all over the park. Carlos leads the team in walks and Grady now has twice as many doubles as singles.

Feathers Down

As Michael Brantley and Asdrubal Cabrera go, so do the Indians. This is true about most baseball teams 1 and 2 hitters and it is usually a good thing for the Tribe as both players have played remarkably this season. Tonight was another matter though, as they combined to go 0-10 with 3 strike outs and 3 runners in scoring position left on base. The most notable man left on was Jack Hannahan, who got to second with one out in the 9th and was stranded there.

While the athletic part of the defense played admirably tonight (Jack Hannahan and Joe Smith each made nice plays) the brains of the defenders didn't seem to be working quite as well. Matt LaPorta allowed a run to score by not getting an out he should have at first and Carlos Santana did the same when he threw a ball he didn't have to. Both of these costly mistakes could have been avoided had the other infielders informed these two of the situation. In both cases the fielder had his back turned to the action for just a second and it cost the Indians 2 runs in a game decided by only 3. Another run was scored when Rafael Perez looked at the base while trying to catch a throw from Matt LaPorta. As they say, "that's the ballgame."

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 4, Texas Rangers 7