Player of the Game

Scott Kazmir had his best start to date with the Indians as he won his first player of the game of 2013. Kazmir set a new team high with 10 strike outs in just six innings. He allowed only five hits, four of which were singles, and just a single run on a solo home run by Josh Donaldson. For his effort and the win, his POG score was 6.39. Mark Reynolds had the strongest offensive day with two RBI and two runs scored for a POG score of 5.91.

Feathers Up

After a day off, the Indians offense resurfaced today, behind the resurgent Jason Kipnis. The dirt ball started everything off in the first inning with a two run home run, but wasn't alone as Yan Gomes and Drew Stubbs added two more in the second. Mark Reynolds added to the scoring as well, hitting a two run home run, his league leading 11th of the season.

Drew Stubbs' speed makes a big difference in every single game, whether it means tracking down balls easily that others wouldn't get near or running the bases. Today, he went first to third on a Michael Brantley single that barely made it through the right side of the infield. By getting to third safely, he was able to score on a fly ball by Kipnis. In the 8th inning he repeated an event that has become commonplace. He was safe on a ground ball hit directly at an infielder as he outran the throw. The times Stubbs has been able to beat out an infield single or force an error due to his speed are an incalculable bonus for the Indians offense.

Scott Kazmir has progressed significantly in every single start so far in 2013. In his first start, he lucked out by pitching in the Indians biggest outburst of the season, but struggled himself, throwing less than four innings and allowing six runs. In his next start, Kazmir threw five innings and allowed two runs, a much better attempt, but still a loss. His third start saw a vast improvement as he pitched another inning and four more strike outs. Today, he tied his season best in innings pitched and set new marks for strike outs and runs allowed against Oakland. While the early injury was certainly a set back, it now a appears that the Indians made the right choice for their fifth starter.

With the sweep, the Indians improve to 18-14, their high water mark on the season. They finished 8-1 on the home stand, sweeping both Oakland and Philadelphia, losing just a single game to Minnesota. Including the two previous games, the Indians have won 10 of 11 after starting the year 8-13.

Feathers Down

Going into April 28th, the Indians were just 3.5 games behind Detroit and have since went on a 10-1 tear. However, they have only gained two games on the Tigers, who are currently 19-12, 1.5 games above the Tribe. The Indians will now go on to play the Tigers in Detroit for three games and an early chance to grab the lead in the AL Central.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 9 - Oakland Athletics 2

Player of the Game

The Indians ace showed his stuff once again tonight, pitching seven innings and striking out seven to earn his fifth win of the season. Masterson wasn't perfect, giving up three runs, all in the fourth inning, but other than that was fantastic. His final POG score was 4.70, his best start of his last five.

Feathers Up

The Indians needed some luck to finally get on the board tonight. In the fifth inning, Carlos Santana and Ryan Raburn walked to lead off the inning. Lonnie Chisenhall then hit a ball in the air to the right of the pitcher that fell, loading the bases. It still took an error to take advantage as Adam Rosales threw what should have been a double play ball into the dirt, allowing two runs to cross. While this is not the Indians preferred method of offense, they can't complain after scoring just once in the previous 15 innings.

Nick Swisher said, "enough of that small ball bull" and hit a home run to straight center to tie the game in the sixth. Carlos Santana followed an out later with a solo shot of his own to take the lead. It was the Indians tenth multi home run inning this year. The following vine (courtesy of @MattNewsHerald) is essentially how the Indians are feeling about this season:

Milestone Update: With his 104th career save as an Indian (took him long enough) Chris Perez in now ranked fourth all time in Cleveland Indians history with Jose Mesa. Second place is still 25 saves away, but is definitely attainable. By the end of this season, Perez could even be the club's all time saves leader. Perez has just had six save attempts this season out of the Indians 17 wins, but has earned saves in consecutive days.

The Indians win puts them at 9-1 on the home stand and wins the series against Oakland before the finale tomorrow afternoon.

Feathers Down

Justin Masterson didn't allow a hit until the fouth inning, but when he did he let it all go. Masterson gave up two straight singles (both just out of the reach of a diving infielder), before recording an out. Tired of seeing-eye-singles, Brandon Moss hit a solid line drive to right to score Seth Smith for the first run of the game. Fresh up from AAA, Daric Barton continued the attack with another line drive single, this one to center as he knocked in two more runs. While the first couple hits were lucky, Masterson seemed to press afterwards, throwing a wild pitch and hitting a batter along with the hits.

The Indians needed one final bit of luck to win the game after Adam Rosalas hit a questionable double over the left field wall. After a challenge from Bob Melvin, the umpires reviewed the play and the play stayed as called, despite incriminating video evidence. Melvin was then ejected for further arguing the call that he was probably right about in the first place.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 4  - Oakland Athletics3

Player of the Game

Zach McAllister won his first Player of the Game in 2013 with a fantastic outing. He threw 7.2 innings and allowed just five hits, all singles. He shut out the Athletics with absolutely no margin for error as the Indians scored just a single run. As a team, the Indians have had eight straight positive games by their starting pitchers. This is especially impressive considering the fact that 9 of the Indians first 21 games resulted in negative scores for the starting pitcher. McAllister's POG score of 8.76 was the highest of any pitcher not named Justin Masterson.

Feathers Up

Zach McAllister pitched what was, by far, the greatest game in his career so far tonight against Oakland. For the first time in his career, he allowed no runs in a start (he had two starts with no earned runs) and for the first time in 2013 he pitched into the 8th inning. A's starter Tommy Milone almost matched him, but was much less efficient, allowing five hits (in addition to the A's two errors) forcing him to throw more pitches and come out of the game earlier than McAllister.

The Indians did well in some categories tonight that are usually ignored statistically. Drew Stubbs and Jason Kipnis had above average games defensively, while Mike Aviles and Carlos Santana used good base running in the fifth inning to score in the Indians only run.

Jason Kipnis had two more hits tonight, giving him eight in his last five games. This mini hot streak has raised his season batting average from .189 on May 2nd to .229 today. It may not seem like much, but it seems his confidence at the plate has returned and it shouldn't be too much longer before he gets back up near his career average of .255.

Chris Perez finally earned a save as the Indians offense was kept in check by the Tommy Milone and the A's. His fourth save of the year was almost in jeopardy after a single, but Yan Gomes threw out Yoenis Cespedes trying to steal before Perez struck out Brandon Moss to end the game.

Feathers Down

It's beginning to look like manager Terry Francona may prefer playing games with less than a 25 man roster. Lonnie Chisenhall has been intentionally benched for the past two games (don't worry, he's not hurt) so he can work out his swing with hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo. With the Indians offense playing hot, the team can afford to go without their starting third baseman for a couple games.

The Indians got runners to second to lead off the third through fifth innings, but were unable to score in the first two. Ryan Raburn doubled and was eventually stranded at third and Jason Kipnis doubled and was thrown out trying to steal third. The Indians finally got a single run across after Carlos Santana was safe on a two base error, was moved up on a Mike Aviles single and scored on a Yan Gomes sacrifice fly.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 1 - Oakland Athletics 0

Here is another glorious episode of Burning River Radio, presented by BurningRiverBaseball.com.

On this episode we talk about the Tribe's recent success, Nick Swisher's injury and sabrmetrics as a whole. Part of today's discussion was inspired by this video of Hawk Harrelson speaking on the MLB Network from our sister site, Awful Announcing. During this discussion you will learn about a great new stat (TWTW), how to calculate BABIP and how to compare apples to oranges (it's easier than you think). Overall, this is a must hear for all humans.

Roster Update: Nick Hagadone found a way back to the Indians far before his ten days in AAA were up. Vinnie Pestano was placed on the 15 day DL today just prior to the game starting with right elbow tendonitis. He has been fighting the injury for years according to Pestano and has been kept out of action since April 29th because of it. Because Hagadone had only spent four days in the minors, Pestano's DL stint can only be retroactive to May 1st instead of the 29th.

Player of the Game

Asdrubal Cabrera went deep twice for the Tribe and scored later on Jason Giambi's two run single, scoring enough runs by himself to tie the entire A's team. Cabrera now has four home runs on the season and is starting to look more like 2011 and less like 2012. His final POG score was 7.13, vastly ahead of everyone else on the team. His third Player of the Game ties him for team lead with five other players.

Feathers Up

Award Time! Ryan Raburn took home the AL Player of the Week award for his work this past week. The award was well deserved for the Indians utility outfielder who went .591 with four home runs and 9 RBI, most of which came in a two game span from April 29th to the 30th. It is the 32 year olds first such award.

The Indians version of the bash brothers took it to the A's and Jarrod Parker in the first inning with both Jason Kipnis and Asdrubal Cabrera hitting solo home runs, back-to-back (and belly-to-belly, whatever that means).

Coming into the game, both starting pitchers had ERAs above 7.00, but only one left with one. Ubaldo Jimenez was strong again, for the second start in a row. He lowered his ERA to 6.37 on the season. He threw 5.2 innings and allowed just two runs. It is the first time he has had two consecutive good starts since last June when he beat the Tigers and Cardinals in straight starts.

Mark Reynolds is working his way up the left field bleachers. His last home run went about half way up and tonight's went even further, just about 5 rows from the scoreboard. The estimated distance on the blast was 466 feet. The official word isn't in, but it was likely one of the top ten longest home runs in the history of Progressive (Jacob's) Field. You have to see this.

Nick Hagadone came in tonight in his first game back with the team and immediately struck out Josh Reddick with the bases loaded to end the sixth inning. In the process he saved a possible three runs from being added to Jimenez's line and proved that he has what it takes to be a Major League reliever. He has proven this over and over again during the last two seasons, so hopefully this time he will stick with the Tribe.

Feathers Down

The Indians hit four home runs tonight, but they were all solo shots, limiting the scoring to just four runs. Outside of the long balls, the Indians had some issues getting on base and never had any real threats offensively against A's starting pitcher, Jarrod Parker.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 7 - Oakland Athletics 3

Monday , May 6 7:05 EDT (STO)

Prediction: A's win series 3-1.

Roster Update: The Indians released Ezequiel Carrera today, two days after signing him in the first place. Carrera went two for four with an RBI, a run scored and a sacrifice bunt. His .500 average while with the Tribe brings his season average up from .077 with the Phillies to .176 overall. Because of his two day success in Cleveland, he is that much more likely to be grabbed off waivers this time. By making this move it seems that Michael Bourn must be just about to come back to the team (he starts his rehab assignment in Columbus tomorrow) and that Nick Swisher may be available to play the outfield again. Today, Ryan Raburn is back in the lineup in right field.

In Carrera's place, the Indians have recalled left handed reliever, Scott Barnes. The Indians preferred lefty, Nick Hagadone, is still stuck in AAA as he was sent down just three days ago and needs to wait 10 days (or until another player is placed on the DL) to return. Don't be surprised if Barnes is sent back down in three days when Bourn returns from the DL.

Player of the Game

With a solo home run in the ninth inning to bring the Indians within two runs, Carlos Santana wins today's Player of the Game. Santana also singled and threw out a runner trying to steal/hit-and-run. Santana scored 3.81 POG points with Scott Barnes right behind with 2.90 for his two innings pitched.

Feathers Up

With the Indians offense failing early, Asdrubal Cabrera created his own. After a double, Cabrera stole third with one out and Mark Reynolds up to bat. This put Reynolds in a situation he couldn't help but succeed in and he hit a sacrifice fly to extremely deep centerfield. With Reynolds up the steal was questionable and would have been a failure without a great head first slide, but without it, the Indians would not have scored in that inning.

Scott Barnes second appearance with the Tribe was much better than his first, when he gave up a home run in one inning of relief. Today, Barnes threw the final two innings for the Tribe and struck out 4 while keeping the Twins off the board.

This Twins team is far better than they look on paper, so winning the series in itself should be considered a positive note. The young Minnesota team plays solid defense and has a lot of scrappy hitters, brining around a new era of Twins small ball. They also still have their big names in Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau (both healthy at the same time for the first time in a long time), making them a formidable opponent.

Feathers Down

Matt Albers was tasked with keeping the game within two runs in the seventh inning, but was unable to do so. Albers has been the Indians most inconsistentt reliever to this point in the year and in this case, walked a batter before giving up a two out double to Joe Mauer. The double scored a run and gave the Twins a 4-1 lead. On a positive note, Mauer was only safe on three hits during the series. An impressive feat against the three time batting champion.

The offense was generally anemic today as the Tribe was kept under six runs for the first time since the Indians six game winning streak started. Cleveland averaged almost 9 runs a game across that span, but was unable to score more than two today against Mike Pelfrey and the rest of the Twins pitching staff.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2 - Minnesota Twins 4

Player of the Game

Jason Kipnis took his second in award in a row, this time with a 3-4 effort with a home run and a triple. Kipnis also knocked in two and scored twice, leading the Indians to victory yet again.

Feathers Up

Prior to today's game the Indians had scored 46 runs in their past 5 games after scoring just 12 in the five games before that. The biggest change over that time has been the success of the hitters at the very top and the very bottom of the order with Jason Kipnis, Asdrubal Cabrera, Ryan Raburn and Drew Stubbs especially amping up production. The Tribe kept it going today with six more runs to add on to the tally.

The Indians hit two home runs on 3-1 counts in the first inning with both Jason Kipnis and Nick Swisher going deep. The last was the Indians 39 home run of the season (in 27 games) moving the Tribe into first place in the AL in team home runs. The second place Yankees have played 29 games.

In the fourth inning, Scott Kazmir struck out the side with just 11 pitches, only two more than the minimum. While he wasn't quite as efficient in his other innings, he did strike out 7 in the game, giving up just five hits and a walk. Kazmir ended up earning the win as well, his first since 2010.

Feathers Down

Vinnie Pestano is day to day with a sore elbow, offering an explanation for the use of the bullpen in last night's game. It also bumped back the bullpen today, pushing Bryan Shaw into the 7th inning role and Joe Smith into the 8th.

Chris Perez had another save opportunity stolen from him today. This time, Ezequiel Carrera knocked in Drew Stubbs in the 8th inning to give the Indians a four run lead, keeping Perez at three saves on the year.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 7 - Minnesota Twins 3

Roster Update: Trevor Bauer was sent down immediately after his start on Wednesday, just like he was the first time as the Indians are trying to limit his number of days on the Major League roster so they will have him under team control longer. In his place, Ezequiel Carrera was claimed off waivers from the Phillies who were just in town. He will give the Indians more outfield depth with Michael Bourn on the DL and Nick Swisher day-to-day.

Player of the Game

Jason Kipnis won his second Player of the Game of the season with his highest score of the year (6.06). Kipnis singled and tripled to knock in four runs. His single was a suicide squeeze that scored a run, while his fielder's choice in the eighth tied the game. Mark Reynolds (2 run HR) and Drew Stubbs (4-5 with game winning single) also had games of note.

Feathers Up

The bottom of the Tribe line-up set the table for the Indians first two runs as Yan Gomes and Drew Stubbs each singled. Jason Kipnis followed with his first triple of the season on a strong hit to deep center field. Kipnis' sixth RBI on the season tied the game at two for the Indians. Gomes, Mike Aviles and Stubbs combined to score five runs with both Stubbs and Aviles reaching base four times each.

The Indians showed some comeback ability again tonight, coming back to tie the game in the third, take the lead in the fifth and tie it again in the eighth. The Indians won the game in the 10th with a walk off single (would be double) by Stubbs.

Hit Streak Updates: Santana: 7, Brantley: 5, Santana: 5. Two streaks of note ended tonight including Asdrubal Cabrera's 10 game streak and Ryan Raburn's 5 gamer.

With the win, the Indians move a half game ahead of the Twins in the central division standings and get back to .500 for the first time April 13th.

Feathers Down

Usually when a pitcher has control problems, it means he can't throw strikes, but today Justin Masterson had issues throwing strikes in the wrong places. In the first Masterson gave up four hits (two for extra bases) all of which came off bad fast balls that had too much of the plate. Luckily for Masterson, the hits only added up to two Twins runs thanks to a first inning double play.

With a left-hander up to bat in the 7th inning, Terry Francona brought in Cody Allen instead of the left handed match-up man (Rich Hill) or the 7th inning set up man (Joe Smith). Allen gave up a two run home run to give up the lead. The move was strange considering the other available pitchers (especially with an off day yesterday). Allen is a great reliever for his age, but he shouldn't have been placed in that position.

The severity of Nick Swisher's injury may have been understated as, rather than put Swisher at first for an inning, the Indians decided to forgo the use of the DH for the second time this year. This time, Francona pulled Yan Gomes for Jason Giambi and needed to take Mary Reynolds out of the DH spot to play first.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 7 - Minnesota Twins 6