Player of the Game

Asdrubal Cabrera won his team leading 6th 'Player of the Game' tonight and he did so with authority. Asdrubal went 4 for 6, driving in 3 and scoring twice. Three of Cabrera's four hits were doubles, giving him 14 on the year and a 'POG' score of 7.25. The Tribe as a team hit 6 doubles, one short of the season high, for the second night in a row. Other notable players were Matt LaPorta who knocked in three and scored two of his own, but did so with only three hits (a home run and 2 singles) and Vinnie Pestano, who stranded a runner left on by Rafael Perez by striking out two of the three batters he faced. Pestano now has 6 strike outs out of his last 8 outs. LaPorta ended the game with a 'POG' score of 6.98 and Pestano had a 1.57.

Feathers Up

After losing two straight series to American League East teams (Boston and Tampa Bay), it's great to win a series. The Indians built such a lead early in the season that they don't have to sweep every series to go to the playoffs, but each series win goes a long way to making that dream a reality.

I've mentioned in the past the best way to deal with Jose Bautista and hitters like him, is to walk them and face the next batter who is hitting .250. The Indians used the second best way to eliminate the presence of a hitter like Bautista tonight. Score so many runs so that even if he hit a home run in every at bat, he couldn't win the game on his own.

Every Indians starter was on base at least twice tonight, leading to the 13 runs the Indians scored. They all did it different ways too. Adam Everett, Grady Sizemore and Michael Brantley each had two hits, Travis Buck, Matt LaPorta and Asdrubal Cabrera each had more than two hits, Carlos Santana walked three times, and Jack Hannahan combined a walk with a hit. Shin-Soo Choo was the only hitter to not really earn his times on base, but he was still on base three times, on a fielder's choice, a single and an error that looked a lot like a triple.

Feathers Down

The Blue Jays matched and beat the Indians double-doubles from yesterday with a triple-triple. Three consecutive batters, Eric Thames, Rajai Davis and former Indian Jayson Nix all tripled in the 5th inning, leading to three Blue Jay runs.

Indians pitching was unable to put the Jays away in what should have been a laugher. Rather than just the customary Chad Durbin and Frank Herrmann that are usually used in games that Indians are winning by more than 5 runs, the Tribe also needed to use Rafael Perez and Vinnie Pestano. This is mostly because Josh Tomlin was unable to make it past 6 innings. An interesting note: while the Indians needed to use 5 pitchers to get through 9 innings, the Blue Jays needed to use 7, every pitcher getting at least 2 outs, but no more than 6.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 13 runs on 18 hits, Canada Blue Jays 9 runs on 11 hits.

Player of the Game

Manny Acta gave Shelley Duncan the day off so someone else could win the 'Player of the Game' today. That someone was Mitch Talbot. Talbot threw 6.2 innings and only allowed one run that scored after he was taken out of the game. He earned a 'POG' score of 6.34, a fine improvement over his last game's score of -12.20. This is Talbot's second 'Player of the Game' of 2011 and his first since April 11th, before he went on the disabled list. It is also his first win since that game.

Feathers Up

The defense looked more like it did at the beginning of the season, when the Tribe was leading the league in fielding percentage. Jack Hannahan had the hot glove at the hot corner all night, once jumping 20 feet into the air to snag a sure home run (I may be exaggerating). Matt LaPorta also came through with some fine glove-work, saving two runs on a diving stop at first. I am intentionally ignoring Orlando Cabrera as a part of the defense in this section, because he is an old man and the Indians won.

With the NBA Finals starting tonight, it seems appropriate that a couple Indians hit double-doubles. Grady Sizemore and Carlos Santana hit two doubles each and also knocked in two runs apiece. Michael Brantley and Jack Hannahan each hit doubles as well. Overall the offense looked much better than it has in the last couple series, scoring more runs (6) than all but one of the last 7 games.

Feathers Down

During tonight's game, Indians hitters struck out 9 times with runners in scoring position. All but one of these came within the first few innings and, while it is a good thing to have a lot of at bats with runners on second or third, it is almost useless to strike out in those situations. One of the worst offenses was when Matt LaPorta, with Grady Sizemore on second, struck out in the second. During the at bat, Grady had third base stolen before the pitch got to the plate and LaPorta fouled it off, making Grady return to second. Matt then struck out leaving him there to stay, as the Indians did not score again that inning.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 6, Toronto Blue Jays 3

Player of the Game

Shelley Duncan was the only bright spot for the Tribe tonight, becoming only the 15th hitter in the history of the Roger's Centre (Sky Dome) to hit a ball into the 5th deck of seats. Congratulations to Shelley. This solo shot earned him a 'Player of the Game' score of 3.53 and his third 'Player of the Game' of the season (also his third in the last 5 games). His home run accounted for all the Indians runs tonight, falling only 10 short of the Blue Jays in a close faught battle.

Feathers Up

Tim Fedroff (@fedheems on twitter) scored a run and knocked in another to help Akron win 3-2 over the Richmond Flying Squirrels. He seems like a genuinely cool guy, so everyone should give him a follow.

Minnesota and Kansas City lost tonight, keeping them each 9+ games behind the Tribe.

Feathers Down

Jo-Jo Reyes won his first game since June of 2008. It brings back memories of Scott Elarton. Both the win and the memories are feathers down.

Fausto Carmona's last decent game was May 8th against the Angels in a loss. Since then, Carmona has pitched terribly in two games and was mediocre in his other two starts. He now has lost three consecutive starts. Mike says he is tipping his pitches, and I will let him expound on that if he feels it is necessary.

Orlando Cabrera's defense has been sub-par most of the season, mostly because of his lack of range. It is inconceivable that he could possibly have played short stop this season. His deficiencies were brought to the forefront again today with his dropped ball error on what should have been an easy out and a possible double-play. This error netted two unearned runs, which did not really matter in this game, but could mean everything in a closer game. While Cabrera's bat has still been productive, it wouldn't hurt to start looking at other options for later in the season. Right now Cord Phelps (SS for AAA Columbus) is playing very well and can play above average defense at second. He might be worth a look when Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner are back full time and the Indians won't need three extra outfielders.

When the Indians faced the Tigers and Miguel Cabrera, Manny Acta used a secret strategy to keep the slugger from harming the Tribe. He walked him. Jose Bautista is the same type of player, only hotter right now and the rest of the Blue Jays, tonight not withstanding, are not very good hitters. At this point in the season, every single pitch that goes into the strike zone against Bautista is a mistake.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 1, Toronto Blue Jays 11

Player of the Game

How about Frank Herrmann? He hasn't won one yet. Herrmann took home his first player of the game today for his extended three inning performace out of the bullpen. It is the 4th time out of the last 5 games that the 'Player of the Game' winner has won his first (the other one was Shelley Duncan who won his first two over that span). In his three innings, Herrmann only allowed 3 baserunners and struck out two, scoring 2.91 'POG' points and limiting the Rays to the runs they scored against Justin Masterson. Usually the team has to play very poorly for a middle reliever to even have a chance at winning this award and middle relievers have won two in this series against the Rays. That should tell you something about the way this team is playing right now. Herrmann lowered his ERA to 8.49 with his 3 scoreless innings.

Feathers Up

At least Grady Sizemore is playing something. He struck out 4 times today, including one to end the game with runners on first and second, but at least he's playing. I guess.

Feathers Down

With Grady DHing and Carlos Santana playing first, Matt LaPorta is bumped out of the starting lineup by Lou Marson. While Carlos Santana cannot catch everyday, it would have been nice if he could have waited until the Toronto series to take his day at first. This way, Grady could have played in center and the Indians would be able to DH Matt LaPorta and insert him in the lineup instead of Travis Buck. It may only be a slight improment, but it would be an improvement. At this point the Indians need all the runs they can get.

If there was one game this series the Indians should have won, it was this one. Just based on the pitching matchup, the Indians had their ace Justin Masterson going against rookie starter Jeremy Hellickson. Masterson ran into trouble allowing more runs than in any other start this year (6) and pitching the least amount of innings (5) while Hellickson confounded the Indians hitters with 80 MPH change-ups. I guess that's what they mean when they say, "any given Sunday."

Justin Masterson has been extremely unlucky for the entire month of May. After winning every single (5-0) start he had in April, Masterson has went 0-3 in 6 starts in May. This may seem like he was been pitching poorly, but prior to his start today, Masterson had an ERA of 2.80 in May and only allowed more than two runs in a game once (also against the Rays). Justin had his worst start of the season today by far, but even though he allowed 6 runs his ERA is still only 3.07. It would have been impossible for him to go the whole season without a bad game or two, but hopefully since he doesn't have to face the Rays again, Masterson will get back to his old self for the rest of the season. This year against Tampa Justin has allowed 11 runs in two games, while only allowing 20 earned runs to the rest of the league in 10 games.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 0, Tampa Bay Rays 7

Player of the Game

This one goes to Shelley Duncan for his great pinch hit appearance in the 8th inning (more on that later). Duncan scored 3.73 'Player of the Game' points for his 2 run single, extra-base and run scored. Duncan has really taken advantage of Travis Hafner's injury and has won two 'Player of the Game' awards in the last three games, his only two of the season. Matt LaPorta was in the running for today's award as well until he allowed an unearned run in the 9th inning on one of the weirdest plays I've ever seen to end a game.

Feathers Up

The Indians 4 run 8th inning was set up perfectly by two great at bats from Michael Brantley and Shelley Duncan. Brantley took an 0-2 count and fouled off pitches until he went the other way to left with a sharp single. After Asdrubal Cabrera was safe on an error and Shin-Soo Choo was hit by a pitch, Shelley Duncan took 3 of the first 5 pitches he saw, including one ball that looked like it could have been strike three. Following that pitch, Duncan hit a ball deep to left-field that was almost a grand slam, but ended up being a single. The Indians scored 2 on that hit and 2 more later on a single by Orlando Cabrera to cement the victory.

The bullpen mafia was at it again tonight, with Vinnie Pestano, Tony Sipp, Rafael Perez and Chris Perez all pitching well. Pestano and Sipp each earned holds (number 6 for Pestano, 11 for Sipp) for their efforts and Chris Perez took home his 14th save of the season. So far this season, Pestano (1.42 ERA), Sipp (1.19), Rafael (1.02) and Joe Smith (1.88) all have ERAs lower than two and Chris Perez is sitting at 2.66. If there is anyone out there who doesn't think the Indians have one of the best bullpens in the majors, they aren't paying attention.

Feathers Down

Baserunning continues to be a problem area for the Tribe as another three Indians were tagged out on the base paths today. Asdrubal was picked off third after hitting a triple in the first inning, following which, Shin-Soo Choo hit a single that would have scored him. Carlos Santana and Travis Buck were each doubled off first on air outs. Santana's was more forgiveable as it was a line drive to second that could have gotten over Ben Zobrist's head, but Buck was out on an easy fly to right. If Choo had been a little slower scoring on Santana's sacrifice fly, the run would have been negated by Buck getting out at first. Kenny Lofton was brought in during Spring Training to talk to the team about baserunning and the Indians started off really well in that aspect if the game. Maybe the Tribe should think about bringing him back as a permanent consultant or "base-running coach" if you will.

Jack Hannahan is currently in a monster slump after starting the season hot. In the last two games Hannahan is 0-7 with 4 strike outs, but his poor play goes back further than that. Using my 'Player of the Game' scoring system, Hannahan scored an average 1.84 'POG' points per game over his first 20 games (only Asdrubal Cabrera has averaged more than that so far this season). In his last 23 games he has averaged a 'POG' score of 0.38 which is worse than the season average of every Indian except Adam Everett. Jack isn't the only one slumping on the team. Orlando Cabrera has averaged onlt 0.02 'POG' points over his last 9 games and that includes today's score of 2.33. If these two guys continue slumping, it won't be long before Indians fans start calling for Lonnie Chisenhall and Jason Kipnis.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 7, Tampa Bay Rays 3

With the Tampa Bay Lightning playing in game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I'd like to congratulate Matt LaPorta for his silver sombrero (4 strike out) night.

Player of the Game

Joe Smith wins his first 'Player of the Game' of the year for getting three people out. It has to be a bad night when the 'Player of the Game' only pitches one inning. Smith earned a score of 1.04 for his inning pitched. Also of note, Josh Tomlin's earned his first negative score of the season, following Mitch Talbot's negative start, leaving Alex White as the only player on the Indians to not have a negative game. He will surely keep this going as he will be on the disabled list for the next couple of months.

Feathers Up

With Grady Sizemore returning from the disabled list, Manny Acta has decided to throw a new lineup onto the field. Grady has moved to the 6th place in the order and Carlos Santana has been moved down to the 7th. Many have asked for Santana to be lowered in the lineup until he starts hitting better, and Acta has reacted. One questionable move was placing Shelley Duncan and Matt LaPorta ahead of Sizemore for tonight's game, but it was probably just a one day move, since Shin-Soo Choo was kept on the bench against David Price.

Since the Indians are playing in Tampa, I got to listen to their broadcast team instead of STO, allowing me to hear one of the coolest guys in baseball, Brian Anderson. Anderson grew up in Geneva, Ohio, very close to where I grew up, and pitched for the Indians for a couple years. Its always great to hear BA talk about baseball.

Feathers Down

Since Josh Tomlin pitched tonight, here is the obligatory home run allowed feathers down. Tomlin allowed two more home runs tonight, but unlike the home runs he has allowed in the past, these were two-run home runs. Josh has now given up 10 home runs on the season for those keeping track.

There was no slowing down Rays starter David Price tonight. Even with the home plate umpire making him throw five strikes to each batter and the Indians hitting balls and shattered bats at his head, he still struck out 12 and didn't allow a run over 7 innings. There is no question that Price is among the elite of American League pitchers.

On normal days, the Indians have one of the best defensive outfields in the league. With Grady in center, Michael Brantley in left and Shin-Soo Choo in right, there is speed all around and not one of them is afraid or unable to make a full extension diving catch. However, with Shelley Duncan in left and Austin Kearns in right, it looks like the outfield is made of molasses. After seeing the way Rays left-fielder Sam Fuld played tonight, it was very easy to be jealous when comparing him to the statue that is Shelley Duncan. The Indians have said that Grady Sizemore is likely to stay at DH while playing on artificial surfaces, meaning he will probably only play one game in the outfield on this entire road trip (Tampa and Toronto). Hopefully his knee feels all better by the time they get back to Cleveland so we will have an outfield to be proud of once again.

Final Score: The Indians lose their season worst third game in a row and fall to 30-18, but remain in first place.

Cleveland Indians 0

Tampa Bay Rays 5

Player of the Game

Shelley Duncan provided the only offensive spark of the game with two singles and 2 RBI. This is Shelley Duncan's first 'Player of the Game' of the season and was his second highest 'POG' score of the season (2.97). Duncan almost hit a home run before hitting his 2 RBI single, but only succeeded in knocking a fans hat off in foul territory. Mitch Talbot had the second worst game of any Indian this year, trailing only Fausto Carmona's opening day start with his score of -12.20. Frank Herrmann also got rocked to the tune of -8.67. The two pitchers combined for 5.1 innings and all 14 Boston runs. This game was by far the worst game for the Indians this season with a team score of -14.98.

Feathers Up

Tony Sipp came in to relieve Chad Durbin in the 7th and got three pop outs on the infield. Thank you Tony Sipp for doing what no other Indians pitcher was able to do today.

Feathers Down

The game started off bad and only got worse. Mitch Talbot ruined his own return from the DL by throwing meat ball after meat ball to the dangerous Red Sox lineup. The Sox started the game with 9 hits, an error by Shin-Soo Choo, a sacrifice fly and a bad play by Jack Hannahan, giving them 7 runs in the first inning and they never looked back.

The Indians were unable to take advantage of the Red Sox injuries that they caused this series, losing the last two games. Dustin Pedroia missed a game after tripping over second base and both J.D. Drew and Kevin Youkilis were knocked out of today's game by defensive plays in last night's game. Even with three of their best players missing a game, the Sox were able to take two games in a row from the Tribe.

Along with the Red Sox starters that were out, Indians starters Orlando Cabrera, Carlos Santana and Travis Buck were held out. With Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner already missing due to injuries of their own, losing three other starters made it impossible for the Indians to come back after getting down by 7.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2 runs on 7 hits, Boston Red Sox 14 runs on 20 hits.

Player of the Game

Nobody else wanted to win the 'Player of the Game' tonight, so Travis Buck stepped up and took it with a solo home run in the 9th. It was his first 'Player of the Game' of the season, but the 5th by a designated hitter named Travis. In 46 games played, he is the 16th different player to win the award and no single player has more than 5. This really shows that this team has no superstars, but has above average players at every position. You can never tell before the game starts which player will be the hero.

Feathers Up

Josh Beckett had amazing control and good movement on all his pitches except his curve ball (which he hit Orlando Cabrera in the head with). This isn't really a good thing for the Indians, but it is an excuse for the poor hitting and the inability to get multiple hits in the same inning.

Feathers Down

The Indians had major problems on the base-paths tonight. So much so that it warrants two separate comments. First, Fausto Carmona allowed two steals against the Red Sox, and while they were both by fast players (Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford), Carlos Santana never had a chance to throw either runner out. This has been a slight problem all season and as a team the Indians have now given up 25 steals while only catching 13 runners (34%).

Indians baserunners looked lost tonight and there was a runner tagged out every inning from the 2nd to the 5th. Travis Buck was caught stealing on a missed hit and run, while Shin-Soo Choo was just straight up caught stealing. Orlando Cabrera was also tagged out going to third on an Ezequiel Carrero single, but the most egregious error was when Matt LaPorta forgot how many outs there were and was doubled off first base on a pop fly. Base-running has been good for the most part this season and most of these outs could have easily went the other way, so hopefully this won't be a trend.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2, Boston Red Sox 4

Player of the Game

Asdrubal Cabrera almost single handedly won the last two games so he takes home the 'Player of the Game' in both. Today he only scored a 5.70 after pulling in a 'POG' score of 11.19 yesterday. Cabrera knocked in the first run of the game with a solo home run and the last run of the game with a double to left field. No other hitters stepped up today (the only other player with a score over 1.00 was Michael Brantley) so it was extremely important that Cabrera take over the game and win it on his own.

Feathers Up

Every win counts, no matter how ugly it is. The sooner this team gets to 100 wins, the sooner they can relax and start worrying about the playoffs. At this pace it will take until game 150 to get 100 wins. The Tribe doubled up their win total today going 30-15 so far this season.

Asdrubal Cabrera would like to apologize for getting out tonight. He was trying for the double he hit in the 8th, but got under it a bit. He says it will never happen again.

We got to see all time Tribe favorite Drew Sutton in action today. This was a double feathers up, because the he came in when Dustin Pedroia was injured. There is a good chance that Pedroia would have got to the ball that Jack Hannahan singled on in the 8th inning, which would have kept the Tribe from scoring the tying and winning runs. All Tribe fans will forever remember Drew Sutton as that guy who played short stop in 11 games for the Indians in 2010.

Feathers Down

Rain forced the game to start an hour late and possibly contributed to how low scoring the game was.

The Indians had major problems getting runners on base tonight as only four hitters safely touched first during the game. This can probably be attributed to the fact that Clay Buchholz was pitching, but it won't get much easier with Josh Beckett going tomorrow. You can't face Kyle Davies and Edinson Volquez every day, so the Tribe will have to start swinging against some of these high quality pitchers.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 runs on 6 hits, Boston Red Sox 2 runs on 7 hits.

Player of the Game

Asdrubal Cabrera beat the Reds today all by himself and is rewarded with his 4th 'Player of the Game' award of the season. Cabrera set a new high for 2011 with a score of 11.19. While that number was brought down by two errors, the 2 home runs and 5 RBI more than made up for it. When it was all said and done, Asdrubal went 5 for 5 with 5 RBI, 2 runs scored and a steal.

Feathers Up

The top three hitters in the Indians lineup destroyed the Reds, going 10 for 12 with 6 runs scored and 9 RBI. Most of that was produced by Asdrubal Cabrera in his career high day, but Michael Brantley and Shin-Soo Choo were just as important in the effort. This is extremely important with Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore out of action and the top of the lineup has not failed.

The biggest part of those three hitters was Asdrubal Cabrera. Cabrera set a career high in hits and RBI with 5 each and had one of the greatest games in the past couple of years. Asdrubal now leads the team in games played, at bats, hits, total bases, runs scored, RBI, triples and home runs. There is no question that right now, Asdrubal is the teams MVP and one of the best short stops in the Major Leagues.

In the first inning, Manny Acta called for Travis Buck to steal second with Carlos Santana on third. The play was a delayed steal of home and through a missed tag and a terrible throw, the Indians were able to score both Buck and Santana on the play. Manny Acta has been aggressive all season and especially after having trouble scoring the last few games, he is taking every chance he can to score runs early in the game.

In his Major League debut, Josh Judy looked ok, pitching a scoreless 9th to put the game away. Judy allowed 2 hits, but was saved by an outstanding catch by Ezequiel Carrera. Carrera has had a very limited amount of playing time and has already made an amazing catch and had a game winning RBI single. He is already well on his way to burning his image into management's heads so they will not forget about him when he is sent back to AAA Columbus when Grady gets back.

Feathers Down

Carlos Carrasco was unable to put the game away after the Indians gave him a 7-1 lead. Carrasco gave up one run in the 4th, 2 more in the 6th and allowed a double before being removed in the 7th. Carrasco allowed two solo home runs, which were not a very big deal, but the 4 doubles he allowed later in the game were a problem.

Final Score: The Indians swept the Reds for their 6th home sweep of the season. There is no better way to stay in first place than winning every single game you play.

Cleveland Indians 12

Cincinnati Reds 4