Chicago White Sox (4-5) at Cleveland Indians (3-5)
Series 4, Games 11, 12 and 13
Progressive Field (2012): 0.899, Pitchers park.

Series Overview
In my opinion, the White Sox are the best team in the central division this season. I have taken some heat for declaring this as the Tigers, on paper, seem to be the behemoth of the American League. From top to bottom, the White Sox have the ingredients to make the playoffs and go deep in October. Chris Sale, who will throw Saturday, knows how to truly pitch, even when tired.  Now, if he could actually be strong enough to maintain his best stuff for a full season, he’ll be in annual Cy Young conversations. Paul Konerko continues to be as smart a power hitter as you’ll find, with an undervalued great, short swing. With a short compact swing, it is unlikely he will have a regression year. Alex Rios played hard, attentive, composed and smart last season. He also possesses all the athletic skills to continue that upward track.  Jake Peavy stayed healthy enough to earn trust as a solid number two starter. Adam Dunn rebounded last season to reach the acceptable bottom performance levels of a three true outcome hitter, and I bet he’ll stay just about there again. Much like the Indians, their bullpen is pretty stacked.  It’s a very strong part of the White Sox.  If Jesse Crain or Matt Thornton fail in a defined 8th inning role, manager Robin Ventura is not afraid to try a Matt Lindstrom, or a Donnie Veal. Nate Jones can throw as well and Hector Santiago as a long reliever is a luxury.
The White Sox are a team that is poised and built to win the world series this season. A good showing from the Indians this series will boost my confidence level in the team moving forward.
The weather looks a little better this weekend although still very cool, damp, and mushy. We should get all three games in though.

Friday, April 12, 7:05 EDT (STO)
Justin Masterson (2-0, 0.69 ERA)  vs. Jose Quintana (L) (0-0, 11.25 ERA)

Masterson looks like the ace everybody thought he would be this season through his first two starts. The only concern has been his command problems, particularly with his fastball. Considering his WHIP in 2012 was a hefty 1.45, the seven walks so far this season are something to keep an eye on. Signed as a six-year minor league free agent last winter, Quintana was very good in a nine-start, 2.77-ERA, 1.17-WHIP performance in for Double-A Birmingham. This earned him a trip to The Show last May, where he continued his dominance to the tune of a  1.25 ERA in his first eight appearances (six of which were starts) into a more permanent rotation spot once John Danks was lost for the year. Quintana relies upon command to succeed as his stats show, thrived to a 2.04 ERA behind a 3.70 strikeout-to-walk ratio before the All-Star break, but slipped to 5.01 when his K-to-walk rate was 1.38 after it. He is a pitcher who must hit his spots but with the free-swinging Indians, he could certainly give them headaches.

Saturday, April 13, 4:05EDT (STO)
Ubaldo Jimenez (0-1, 6.97 ERA) vs. Chris Sale (L) (1-0, 1.84 ERA)

Myers was supposed to start last Wednesday's game, but the Indians opted to just use him to eat innings Tuesday, sparing the bullpen which is a key element in Terry Francona's managerial philosophy. He has now surrendered 14 earned runs over 10.1 innings this season. Myers pitched the final 5.1 innings of Tuesday night's game, giving up seven earned runs on 11 hits, after starter Carlos Carrasco got pounded for seven earned runs before being ejected after throwing at Kevin Youkilis in the fourth inning. Peavy's previous start this season was awful, giving up six earned runs on nine hits and one walk while striking out seven over 5.1 innings Tuesday against the Nationals as he was facing perhaps the most dangerous lineup in baseball. This start has skewed his overall numbers slightly, as his first start of the season was excellent.  Look for him to bounce back Sunday against the Indians as no current Indians batter has had much success against him, with the exception being Jason Kipnis who has two home-runs off Peavy in only eight at-bats.

Going into the season, Jason Kipnis was expected to be one of the most important players in the Indians' offense, a table setter, integral to the success of the entire lineup. He earned the job as the number three hitter after a fantastic 2012 season that saw him bat .257/.335/.379 in his first full Major League season. In general, it was expected that with another year of seasoning and playing in an improved offense those numbers would improve as he started to hit his expected potential. Instead, over the first week of the season he has struggled with a line of .138/.161/.251. 

He has played in 7 of the Indians first 8 games and was batting third until the last game against New York, when he switched places with Asdrubal Cabrera and batted second. It is hard to pinpoint exactly where his problem is stemming from. He doesn't seem to be swinging at bad pitches, but he has walked just once in the first week and struck out ten times.  When he has made contact, he has shown some power. Three of his four hits are doubles, two of which were deep to the outfield and he has flown out near the wall on multiple occasions, robbed by some good defensive plays.

It's possible his struggles have been mostly to do with bad luck like that. His BABIP (Batting average on balls in play) is a paltry .200 (compared to a career rate of .292), despite keeping a line drive rate around 20%, the same as his career before this year. He also has a perfect Ground Ball/Fly Ball ratio of 1.00, meaning he hasn't changed his batting style thinking he was a power hitter and flying out to the outfield constantly. He also has grounded out into just a single double play, so he hasn't been costing the Indians a lot of extra outs on his ground balls.

All things considered, there doesn't seem to be much to worry about with Kipnis. His defense has been stellar to this point and he is one of the few infielders to avoid the error bug to this point. His all important line drive rate is staying consistent. He has likely just been unlucky, hitting the ball right at people, something that will certainly even out in time. His three doubles (second on the team) are proof that his power is still there. Kipnis did change his swing a little in the offseason, but he is still hitting the ball at the same ratios as past seasons. He will likely turn things around shortly as long as he continues to play the same way he is now. The worst thing he could do now is to press and allow his struggles with the bat to effect his glove, or to start swinging at pitches outside the strike zone because he isn't hitting safely with what he's swinging at right now. He is a young player and slumps are magnified at the beginning of the season. An athletic, scrappy player like Jason Kipnis will always end up succeeding in the long run.

Roster Updates: With injuries to both Lou Marson (15 Day DL, cervical [neck] strain) and Carlos Santana (DTD, left thumb contusion), the Indians have decided not to bring Jason Giambi off the DL just yet, instead adding both Yan Gomes and Omir Santos to the 25 man roster. This brings the number of Indians on the active roster to 25 as Gomes will be the starting catcher for the next few days with Santos the back-up.

Player of the Game

It seems like nobody wants to win this award anymore, but it has to go to someone. Today, Asdubal Cabrera hit his second solo home run of the season in a 1-3 effort, knocking in and scoring the only run of the game. For this, he wins his first Player of the Game of 2013 with a score of 3.07.

Feathers Up

Carlos Carrasco made his first start in over a year and showed he is still the same type of pitcher. He was very successfully in inducing ground balls early on. Poor defense hurt him, but he was able to induce double plays in each of the first two innings to cover for the Indians two errors (one of which was made by Carrasco himself).

In an interesting move, Terry Francona decided to use tomorrow's scheduled starter, Brett Myers, rather than multiple relief pitchers to throw the last 6+ innings. The move made sense as the Indians had moved back the rotation to make a place for Carrasco, so this was Myers day to pitch anyway. Because of that, Zach McAllister will be able to pitch tomorrow with normal rest. It also took a game that was already lost and made the best of it, wasting just two pitchers instead of four or more. Wasting Myers in a loss isn't much of a loss in itself as he has already given up 11 extra base hits and 14 runs in his 10+ innings pitched.

Feathers Down

The Indians had a greatly reduced lineup on the field tonight from a combination of the catcher injuries and a left hander on the mound. Michael Bourn was given his first game off of the year and Lonnie Chisenhall was held out as well. Combine that with an offense that has been spotty so far this year and you have a recipe for a low scoring offense.

Going into the series if there was one hitter the Indians didn't want to beat them, it was Robinson Cano. Despite very little offense around him, the Indians were unable to pitch around him in either of the first two games. Cano hit his third home run of the series against Carrasco today.

Fresh off a suspension he earned two years ago, Carrasco hit Kevin Youkilis with a pitch immediately after Cano's home run. The hit was obviously intentional, so he was ejected without warning. Of course Carrasco had already given up seven runs, so maybe the home plate umpire was just trying to help Terry Francona out. Brett Myers (tomorrow's projected starter) was needed to come in for relief, throwing the Indians rotation into flux and possibly shortening the roster if he gets suspended again.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 1 - New York Yankees 14

Player of the Game

With one at bat, Mike Aviles took the Player of the Game award from this miserable baseball game. As a late game defensive replacement, Aviles got one chance and hit a two run home run for a score of 4.50. Ubaldo Jimenez had the second worst game of any Indian this year with a final score of -7.63 for his 6 runs allowed in 4.1 innings.

Feathers Up

The Indians took advantage of some lucky bounces and good base running to come back and tie the game in the first inning after falling behind by three. Asdrubal Cabrera was safe on a ball that hit second base, sending Michael Bourne to third (he walked to lead off the inning), then Bourne scored on a Jason Kipnis sacrifice fly. Nick Swisher had a solid single to left, followed by a Michael Brantley infield single that got lost between first and second. Swisher scored the final run of the inning on a Mark Reynolds sacrifice fly.

Carlos Santana walked twice and singled in his first three at bats today, leading him to reach safely in eight straight at bats going back to yesterday afternoon. In that span he hit three singles, two doubles, a home run, walked twice, knocked in three and scored three times. His streak was ended with a strike out in the eigth inning.

Feathers Down

Travis Hafner came back to Cleveland today, making his first appearance at Progressive field as a member of the visiting team. He made he presence felt during the game as well, hitting a three run home run to give the Yankees the lead in the first inning (his 100th career home run in Cleveland). He later hit a single to knock in the Yankees fourth run as well.

This may become a theme all season with Ubaldo Jimenez, but as always when he can't throw strikes early in the count, he always gets beaten with his fastball. The fact is that 90 MPH isn't blowing anyone away, so when a batter knows it is coming, they hit it far. This was the case with Hafner's home run and will continue to be the case until Jimenez starts throwing more strikes to lead off the at bat.

Jimenez continued another trend as well and was terrible at controlling the run game. Vernon Wells stole a base in the first and Carlos Santana had no chance of throwing him out, although he was ultimately stranded at the end of the inning. The steal that hurt was the catcher, Chris Stewart, taking second with two outs in the fourth inning. Jimenez never attempted to keep Stewart on first and he was safe at second before Santana had a chance to even throw the ball. He then scored on a bloop single to center by Brett Gardner.

Carlos Santana was removed from the game in the ninth inning after being hit on the wrist by a pitch while catching. The Indians were already a man short as they are waiting for Jason Giambi to return from the disabled list tomorrow. Lou Marson came into the game, despite having a neck injury that occured during the Rays series.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 6 - New York Yankees 11

Joe and Mike recorded another episode of Burning River Radio for your listening pleasure:

On this episode they discuss the Indians first week of baseball, including Ubaldo Jimenez's first start, Mark Reynolds power streak and Trevor Bauer's Indians debut. There is also an in depth discussion on the difference a manager can make in the game and how to quantify it. The show finishes up with a thorough trashing of the New York Yankees, just in time for the Indians home opener.

New York Yankees (2-4) at Cleveland Indians (3-3) 

Series 3, Games 7, 8, 9 and 10
Progressive Field (2012): 0.899*, Pitchers park.
*Park Factor compares the rate of stats at home vs. the rate of stats on the road. A rate higher than 1.000 favors the hitter. Below 1.000 favors the pitcher.

Roster Update: Prior to today's game, last night's starter, Trevor Bauer was sent back down to AAA Columbus. He was not going to pitch another game this time around for the Indians, so sending him down now limits his days on the active roster to one, keeping him under Indians control for a longer time. In related news, Carlos Carrasco's suspension ended last night after it was reduced to five games from six. He is eligible to play at any point, but isn't scheduled to start until Tuesday. The Indians roster currently stands at 24 and with Lou Marson day-to-day, it is essentially 23. It is strange that the Indians didn't recall either Yan Gomes or Chun Chen as a reserve catcher for the next few days until Jason Giambi is added to the roster on Tuesday.

Player of the Game

What a difference a day makes. Last night, Nick Swisher took the Player of the Game with a score of 0.41. Today, everyone who played, except Swisher, beat that score. There were really only three players competing for today's award when all was said and done and Mark Reynolds beat out all comers. In five at bats, walked, hit a double and mashed two home runs. His 4 RBI and 3 runs scored helped him to a POG score of 10.26. Justin Masterson threw 7 innings (the most by any Indians starter this year) of shut out baseball, striking out eight and earning the win, but finished with a POG score of just 9.44. His score was the second best of any Indians player this year, but wasn't good enough for the award today. Carlos Santana came in third with the third highest score of the year, 9.33 with his personal record five hit game.

Feathers Up

It took six games, but Michael Bourn stole his first base as an Indian, taking third in the first inning after doubling off David Price. Bourn got a great jump and stole the base without a throw. Bourn also hit his first home run as an Indian late in the game, although he is not expected to that as often.

Mark Reynolds has done exactly what the Indians signed him to do as he hit his third home run of the season today against Cy Young pitcher, David Price. The three run shot went out to straight center, 404 feet from home plate. Later, in the top of the seventh, Reynolds hit his fourth home run of the year off Kyle Farnsworth, the first hit and run given up by Farnsworth this year. His four home runs would be more impressive had Will Middlebrooks not hit three today alone.

The offense as a whole was on fire today, making the last two shut outs look like a mockery. Carlos Santana was in the thick of everything today as he went 5-5 with two doubles and a home run, raising his batting average to .500 on the year. In addition to his and Reynolds' great games, Lonnie Chisenhall hit his first home run of the year, a three run shot in the fifth inning. Overall, four different batters scored twice including both reserve players who started today, Mike Aviles and Ryan Raburn. Every batter (except Nick Swisher) reached base at least once and six batters had multi-hit days.

Justin Masterson had great results in his Opening Day start, recording a win in six innings against Toronto, but he looked much more dominant today against the Rays. He did a much better job throwing his fastball for strikes and he was getting a huge break on his slider. In this game he threw one more inning, struck out three more batters and most importantly, walked one less. He also had less hitters counts, leading to fewer hits and one less run scored.

Almost as impressive as scoring 8 runs off Price, the Indians scored their final two runs against last year's top closer, Fernando Rodney. Reynolds hit a double in his last at bat and Santana followed with his fifth hit and second home run of the year. Chisenhall ended Rodney's day with another extra base hit into the left field gap.

The Indians were not just the only team to face both of the previous years Cy Young Award winners in the first week of the season, they were the first team to beat both of those pitchers.

Feathers Down

I brought it up many times last year and will say it again. If a player is not good enough to be in the starting lineup, he can't be good enough to bat third when he does play. Today, Ryan Raburn started in left field in an effort to get an extra right handed bat in the lineup and batted in Jason Kipnis' normal three hole. Raburn probably shouldn't have made the team at all, and definitely shouldn't be batting in the top half of the lineup.

Even though it was not necessary for the win, it would have been nice to see Justin Masterson get a chance to pitch a complete game. Complete game shut outs are almost non-existent for the Tribe now, despite a long history full of them. Even chances are rare, so when a starter gets through the 7th inning without allowing a run, he needs to take advantage of it.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 13 - Tampa Bay Rays 0

Trevor Bauer's first career major league start with the Indians will forever be remembered as him being the first pitcher to walk the first four batters of a game since John Danks of the White Sox in 2009 and the first Indian since Bartolo Colon. However, Bauer's start was confirmation of everything we have heard about him: has a high ceiling, unpolished, raw, yet fun to watch.

Player of the Game

Nick Swisher won his first Player of the Game as an Indian, but not in the way he would have liked. A walk and a single lead to a score of 0.41 for Swish, giving him one of the lowest POG winning scores ever. Each pitcher finished with a negative score as well as five batters. Second place went to Ryan Raburn in his first game of the year with a score of 0.30 (less than going 1-1 with a single). The overall team score was -3.22, the second straight shut out against the Indians and the second straight negative team POG score.

Feathers Up

There was some good in all the strangeness of Trevor Bauer's first start as an Indian. He didn't give up his first hit until the fourth inning when the Rays scored two runs on their only two hits. He was also able to come back and pitch through the fifth inning despite the plethora of pitches he was forced to throw in the first inning. While his start wasn't a total loss, Bauer did prove that he could use a little more time in the minors and this showing should help Indians fans stomach Carlos Carrasco taking his place in the rotation after this turn.

Lou Marson deserves some credit for standing in there and tagging out Desmond Jennings to save a run. He stood beside the plate down the line on his first tag out of the game, but blocked the plate as well as you can the second time.

Feathers Down

Trevor Bauer's Indians debut was a less than stellar to say the least. He walked the first four batters he faced, ending with Evan Longoria who walked with the bases loaded. There were a few close pitches of those called balls, but overall he struggled with his command in the first inning. He was saved at the end of the first inning when a great throw from Ryan Rayburn, who was playing right field, caught out Matt Joyce who was trying to tag up from third.

Bauer settled down for the most part for the rest of his time on the field, but did walk a few more. His 1.4 walks/inning currently ranks him second to last all time among Indians pitchers with at least 3 innings pitched. Only Cal Vasbinder, who walked eight in 5 relief innings across two games has him beat. His four consecutive walks to start a game also tied a team record (Bartolo Colon, 2000)

Lou Marson did a great job blocking the plate (for possibly the first time in his career) to tag out Desmond Jennings who had stole his way to third after walking. The rough collision was too much for Marson, however, and he was removed in the fourth inning. This meant that Carlos Santana had to be taken out of the DH role to catch, forcing starting pitcher Trevor Bauer to bat his own place in the lineup. Marson is listed as day-to-day with a neck strain.

A terrible call in the sixth inning cost the Indians a run after Yunel Escobar was called safe at second, despite being tagged out on the foot by Jason Kipnis far in front of the base. He then scored on a Shelley Duncan single to right field. Matt Albers (who was pitching when this happened) was ejected after the inning ended for arguing the call. Overall a strong case was made for robot umpires as the boys in blue were inconsistant all night. High strikes, check swings and tags at second were the most glaring mistakes.

The Indians were shut out by Tampa's fourth and fifth starters. It certainly won't get any easier tomorrow as they face, not just the Rays ace, but possible the best pitcher in the American League, David Price.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 0 - Tampa Bay Rays 6

Roster Moves: In what looks to be the last pitching rotation announcement for awhile, the Indians have stated that Carlos Carrasco will be entered into the rotation between Ubaldo Jimenez and Brett Myers next time around as expected. This means Trevor Bauer will make just a single start before being sent back down, possibly for Jason Giambi who is due to join the team next week.

Player of the Game

With two innings of almost perfect baseball, Bryan Shaw takes home the first Player of the Game for a relief pitcher in 2013. As often happens in scoreless games, there were no outstanding hitters and starting pitcher Zach McAllister wasn't quite up to par. Shaw's final score was 2.50.

Feathers Up

Michael Bourne has quickly become one of the Indians hottest hitters and he continued his streak tonight. He has a hit in every game and tonight went 2-4 with a double and a single. The two hits were the only ones by an Indians hitter all night.

Bryan Shaw pitched his second solid outing of relief tonight, but was aided by a great throw for an outfield assist by Michael Brantley after the catcher, Jose Lobaton had singled. It was the Indians first assist of the season and came on a strong throw. Playing in left field will likely aid Brantley in this ability as the distances thrown are often shorter than in center. So far, Shaw, Vinnie Pestano, Joe Smith and Rich Hill have combined for 7.2 innings of shut-out baseball.

Feathers Down

Zach McAllister pitched well tonight, but unlike the Indians other starters this year, had no problems with his command. McAllister's biggest issue was giving up hits on pitcher's counts, especially in the fourth inning when a combination of Rays singles and doubles lead to the first two runs of the game.

A Mike Aviles error lead to two unearned runs, giving the Rays, and Matt Moore, a four run lead. That was far more than he actually needed however as Moore was lights out, striking out eight batters while allowing just four base runners in six innings.

With the shut out and the loss, the Indians lose the ground they gained to start the season and are now back at .500, 2-2.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 0 - Tampa Bay Rays 4