Burning River Baseball took it out on the road tonight to catch the game at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.

Player of the Game

Asdrubal Cabrera won his second straight 'Player of the Game' a feat that he alone has accomplished for the Indians this season. Cabrera won his 12th award on the strength of his 2 hit, 2 RBI, 2 run night. He also made a couple of fantastic defensive plays including an unassisted line-out double play. Asdrubal earned a 6.08 for all his trouble, his highest score since June 1st. The second highest 'POG' score of the game was by the other Cabrera, Orlando, who won the game in the 9th with a solo home run.

Feathers Up

The game started out great with a two run bomb by Asdrubal Cabrera. It was his team leading 13th home run of the season and gave the Indians a 2 run lead to start the game. By the way for proof I was at the game, check out this video of said home run. That's me in the block "C" hat and gray Indians road jersey acting a fool.

Lonnie Chisenhall made his Major League debut, going 2-4, and most importantly, knocking in a run on a single in the 6th in a game that ended up being decided by one run. Here he is, taking a lead off of second after his first Major League hit, a double off starting pitcher Ian Kennedy. Lonnie Chisenhall is currently batting .500 on the season. 

It is such a great feeling to be able to go into the 6th inning with a one run lead and have nothing but total confidence that it will be enough to win the game. While Vinnie Pestano did have a slight hiccough, giving up a single run (raising his ERA to 1.57), Joe Smith, Tony Sipp, Rafael Perez and Chris Perez pitched admirably, going 3.2 innings while only allowing a single hit. It cannot be said enough that the greatest asset on this team is the pitching out of the bullpen.

Let the rage begin. This picture isn't blurry, Chris Perez just moves to fast to be caught on film.

The last 'Feathers Up' is that of the 25,000+ fans in attendance, at least 5,000 had to be Indians fans. In my section alone were people holding signs for Lou Marson and Grady Sizemore, and there were Indians hats everywhere around the concourse. Phoenix is definitely a very friendly road city for the Tribe.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 5 - Arizona Diamondbacks 4

Finally, Lonnie Chisenhall will make his Major League debut for the Cleveland Indians at third base. The most highly touted Indians prospect since Victor Martinez, was called up today and will be in the starting line up against the Arizona Diamondbacks. We here at Burning River Baseball are so excited that we flew our top photographer out to Phoenix to catch his Major League debut in person. Chisenhall was the top hitter in AAA over the last week and hopefully he will remain hot in the pros. Since his recent return from a concussion, Lonnie has hit .429 with two home runs, a triple and 14 RBI. Chisenhall will most likely immediately become the starting third base man for the Tribe, moving Jack Hannahan to a back-up role at both third and first. To make the move, the Indians designated Adam Everett for assignment. This improves the overall team a lot more than it would have to remove Travis Buck or Shelley Duncan, as Everett was almost useless at the plate, only bringing his exceptional defense to the team. With Hannahan now available as a bench player, the Indians are three players deep at every infield position and no longer need a player whose only specialty is defense. Come back tonight to check out a detailed report of Chisenhall's first game on the Tribe.

* Series Roster Note:

The Indians have promoted Lonnie Chisenhall from Class AAA Columbus. Chisenhall will make his big league debut tonight against the Arizona Diamondbacks, starting at third base and batting seventh.

To make room for Chisenhall, infielder Adam Everett was designated for assignment. Chisenhall, the Indians' first-round draft pick in 2008, was just named the International League Player of the Week. He went 9-for-21 with two homers and 14 RBI in five games since coming off the disabled list for a concussion at Columbus.

Series Summary:

They entered Sunday trailing the first-place Giants in the NL West by a half-game. Kennedy and Hudson give them a great 1-2 punch in the rotation. Chris Young is their leader in homers and RBI.

Pitching matchups:

RHP Mitch Talbot (2-4, 4.91) vs. Ian Kennedy (8-2, 2.90) Tonight at 9:40 ET

RHP Josh Tomlin (9-4, 3.95) vs. RHP Daniel Hudson (9-5, 3.58) Tuesday at 9:40 p.m. ET

RHP Carlos Carrasco (7-4, 3.62) vs. LHP Zack Duke (1-2, 5.73) Wednesday at 3:40 p.m. ET.

Diamondbacks Injury Watch:

• 3B Melvin Mora (back) was a late scratch from the June 26 game.

• RHP Juan Gutierrez (right shoulder inflammation) went on the 15-day disabled list May 25. An MRI found rotator cuff irritation but no tears. He threw a bullpen session June 17.

• RHP Sam Demel (right shoulder tendinitis) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to May 22. He began a rehab assignment with Class AAA Reno on June 24, and he could be activated during the week of June 27-July 3.

• INF Geoff Blum (sore right knee) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to March 22. Blum underwent successful arthroscopic surgery April 26.

Diamondbacks News/Notes:

• INF/OF Willie Bloomquist stole second base in the sixth inning Sunday, his eighth stolen base of the season but his first since April 15. Bloomquist was the first in the majors to three, four, five and six stolen bases this season but shortly after stealing No. 7 missed almost a month with a hamstring injury. He made his first start of the season at second base Sunday, previously playing shortstop and left field.

• 3B Ryan Roberts, who was not scheduled to start Sunday, had a three-hit game and drove in the go-ahead run for a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning in Detroit, although the Tigers recovered to win, stunning the D-Backs with seven runs in the eighth. 3B Melvin Mora was in the original starting lineup but was a late scratch because of a bad back. Mora, a free agent signed to play third this season, has started only three of the last 16 games while Roberts has played his way into a regular role there with careers-high in homers (10), stolen bases (nine) and RBI (33).

• D-backs manager Kirk Gibson and bench coach Alan Trammell stood side-by-side in the D-backs' dugout and applauded as the No. 11 of former Detroit and Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson was unveiled on the left-center field fence in Comerica Park in a ceremony before Sunday's game. Gibson was the MVP of the Tigers' 1984 ALCS victory over Kansas City, and Trammell was the MVP of the 1984 World Series victory over San Diego.

• RHP Josh Collmenter was honored when his hometown of Homer, Mich., held Josh Collmenter Day on Friday, the day before his first major league start in his home state against Detroit. Several hundred fans from Homer attended the game, a 6-0 Tigers' victory. Family and friends wore orange T-shirts with a D-backs logo and lined the area around the bullpen as Collmenter warmed up, and he received a loud ovation when he was announced in the starting lineup.

• RHP J.J. Putz was unavailable Sunday after pitching three times in four days, recording three straight saves last Wednesday-Friday, and the D-backs were unable to hold a 2-1 lead in the eighth inning. RHP Aaron Heilman, who normally pitches earlier in the game, gave up two base runners in the Tigers' seven-run eighth inning, and setup man RHP David Hernandez gave up a walk and three singles to the four batters he faced as the Tigers took an 8-2 lead.

The Tribe recalled 3B Lonnie Chisenhall to play third base.

Can he help the offense?

Player of the Game

I guess Asdrubal Cabrera wins the 'Player of the Game' for getting two singles, an RBI and only striking out once, unlike Carlos Santana, Grady Sizemore, Shelley Duncan, Shelley Duncan, Adam Everett and Fausto Carmona who all struck out twice. Shelley Duncan being listed twice is not a typo, he struck out twice, twice. Cabrera scored a 1.70, it's his 11th of the year, sendAC2AZ and all that jazz. Hard to say someone is the player of the game when you get swept.

Feathers Up

The Indians gave up a few earned runs today instead of the unearned runs they have been giving up in the first two games of the series. The Indians still gave up two errors, but they didn't lead to runs, so that is the only good thing that happened in today's game.

Feathers Down

Fausto Carmona has been having major trouble pitching with runners on base lately and this may be partially due to his attitude. Every time Carmona gives up a hit, he reacts as emotionally as if he had just given up a no hitter. This has to take his concentration off the next hitter, and it has showed up in the box score with his batting average against being much worse when he pitches from the stretch than it is with no one on.

Giants pitching must have been cheating by throwing hologram balls that project an image of a strike, even though they are more than a foot out of the strike zone. How else can you explain the fact that Madison Bumgarner, a man who is such a bum he had his name changed to reflect the fact, struck out 11 Indians hitters, a career record. In his last game "the bum" pitched a total of 0.1 innings and allowed 8 runs on 9 hits. If it was just him I might believe that he is just really deceptive, but Jeremey Affeldt, a pitcher so bad the Royals gave up on him, struck out 5 of the 6 batters he faced.

Either the top brass (Chris Antonetti and Mark Shapiro) in the Indians organization have some incredible secrets or they are intentionally not putting the best team on the field that they can. The best explanation I can think of is they are forfeiting the chance of going to the playoffs this year in order to keep Lonnie Chisenhall, Jason Kipnis, Zach McAllister and others around for an extra year. Of course this doesn't make the move to bring up Travis Buck instead of Ezequiel Carrera or to not bring up David Huff make any sense, so the best I can guess is that they are trying to lose. There is no reason for Adam Everett, Buck or some other unnamed players to be on this team with the versatility shown by Orlando Cabrera, Jack Hannahan and Cord Phelps.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 1 - San Francisco Giants 3

Player of the Game

Justin Masterson's inability to earn a win has not kept him from winning the 'Player of the Game'. He won for his 6th time today after pitching 6.2 innings and not allowing an earned run. Masterson struck out 5 and only allowed 4 hits, earning him a 'POG' score of 5.40, his best start of his last 7. Only one Indians hitter (Michael Brantley 1.35) and one other Indians pitcher (Vinnie Pestano 1.27) had a score of over one today.

Feathers Up

Matt LaPorta is progressing well in his rehab and will be reevaluated shortly. Hopefully he will return to the lineup as soon as his 15 days are up. Until he comes back you can expect a lot more low scoring games from the Tribe as they are playing without their top three power hitters in LaPorta, Travis Hafner and Shin-Soo Choo.

The starters have done a good job giving the bullpen some time to rest as Carlos Carrasco and Justin Masterson combined to pitch 14.2 innings of the 16 innings pitched in the two games. The Bullpen Mafia needed this time off so they could spend their energy on more important things like stealing flags and fighting protesters.

Indians pitching has only given up one earned run over the past two games against the Giants...

Feathers Down

...But the Indians defense has given up 4 unearned runs which cost the Tribe both games. Today it was Cord Phelps with 2 errors leading to one unearned run.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 0 - San Francisco Giants 1

For the second time in less than a week, Travis Buck spent just one day in AAA due to an injury. This time it was Shin-Soo Choo breaking his left thumb on a pitch thrown by Jonathan Sanchez. This couldn't have come at a much worse time as Choo had been hitting much better of late with a .370 batting average over his last eight games. This will decimate the batting order again, removing the number four or five hitter and making everyone else move up. Since Matt LaPorta is still on the DL with his injury it makes it even worse as the bottom of the lineup will now have at least two backup players in it every day. This will also cripple the outfield defense as there is no right fielder with the range or arm of Choo. Choo has saved at least 10 runs this year either by actually throwing them out on the bases or by scaring them into not scoring. There is no one else on the entire team that has that kind of arm strength. There is no estimate on his return time at this moment, but I would expect him to miss at least a month. 

Player of the Game

Carlos Carrasco pitched a complete game and only allowed 1 earned run against the World Series champion Giants. He earned the loss anyway due to Carlos Santana's errors, but he still won the 'Player of the Game.' His 8 inning, 6 hit performance garnered him a 'POG' score of 4.57. Carrasco's score was slightly lower than it normally would have been due to his 0-3 effort at the plate. It is his 4th consecutive start that he has won 'Player of the Game'.

Feathers Up

The Indians took advantage of Jonathan Sanchez's wildness early on, walking 6 times and pushing him out of the game in the 5th inning. All three runs scored against Sanchez got on base initially with either walks or were batters that were hit by pitches.

Feathers Down

I'm so glad that we finally get watch Carlos Carrasco strike out and hit weak ground balls. Isn't it great the National League is doing its best to live in the past and keep the glory of pitcher hitting alive?

Tonight's loss can be almost solely placed on Carlos Santana's shoulders as he knocked in two runs early in the game, then committed two errors that allowed 3 unearned runs to score.

If you are wondering why Michael Brantley was given both days off around an already scheduled off day, don't look here for the answer, because I'm wondering the exact same thing.

Final Score: Indians 3 - Giants 4

Summary:

The Giants previously played Indians in 2008, losing two of three at Progressive Field. Of course, the Giants surprised the baseball world (but not me) by winning the world series last season. How did they do it? Primarily by a much improved defense from 2009, allowing the pitching staff, primarily made up of pitch-to-contact players, to enjoy nice years. They did not win the division until the last game of the season.

Pitching Matchups:

RHP Carlos Carrasco (7-3, 3.87 ERA) vs. LHP Jonathan Sanchez (4-5, 3.71) Tonight at 10:15

RHP Justin Masterson (5-5, 3.18) vs. RHP Matt Cain (6-4, 3.44) Tomorrow  at 4:11 p.m.

RHP Fausto Carmona (4-9, 6.17) vs. LHP Madison Bumgarner (3-8, 3.21), Sunday at 8:09 p.m

Giant News/Notes:

• RHP Brian Wilson surrendered a run for the first time in 16 games but collected his 21st save. He entered the ninth inning with a 2-0 cushion but walked Minnesota's Alexi Casilla and surrendered a run-scoring double to Michael Cuddyer. The game ended curiously when 3B Pablo Sandoval gloved a grounder and ran down Cuddyer, who tried unsuccessfully to return to second. Sandoval made a diving lunge at Cuddyer to apply the tag.

• C Buster Posey was seen in the Giants' dugout during the Twins series, and Minnesota All-Star C Joe Mauer was hoping for more. According to ESPN.com, Mauer said: "I was kind of excited when I saw San Francisco on the schedule—it was a chance for me to see Buster up close," Mauer said. But Posey is done for the season following his home-plate collision that left him with a blown-out ankle and busted leg. "He had a great start to his career and will be a good player in this league for a long time. You hate to see plays like that happen," Mauer said.

• OF Gary Brown, 22, will represent the Giants in the Futures Game, played two days before the All-Star Game in Phoenix. Brown, the Giants' first-round pick in the 2010 draft, is hitting .328 with a .398 on-base percentage and 32 steals for Class A San Jose.

• OF Aaron Rowand was hit on his left hand by a pitch in consecutive days. The latest came Thursday, when he was plunked by Twins RHP Alex Burnett, but he said he felt fine afterward. After he was struck Wednesday by a pitch from Twins RHP Nick Blackburn, Rowand was sore enough that he went for X-rays, which proved negative. He had two of the Giants' eight hits Thursday.

• LHP Madison Bumgarner will make his next start Sunday against the Indians, manager Bruce Bochy said. It's no surprise. Bochy intimated as much after Bumgarner's meltdown (one-third of an inning, eight runs) on Tuesday, but it had been speculated that LHP Barry Zito would come off the disabled list and start Sunday. Not so, Bochy said. Zito will be needed during a doubleheader at Wrigley Field on Tuesday.

Giant Injury Watch:

• RHP Sergio Romo (hyperextended left knee) left the June 22 game, and he didn't pitch June 23. He is day-to-day.

• 2B Freddy Sanchez (dislocated right shoulder) went on the 15-day disabled list June 11. He will try to rehab the injury without undergoing surgery.

• 1B Brandon Belt (hairline fracture in left wrist) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to June 1. He began throwing and hitting off a tee June 21, and he was getting close to hitting off soft tosses. He might be able to begin a rehab assignment in early July.

• LHP Barry Zito (strained right foot) went on the 15-day disabled list April 17. He did some flat-ground throwing May 7-8, and he threw a bullpen session May 11. He threw to hitters May 24. He began a rehab assignment with Class A San Jose on June 6, and he started for Class AAA Fresno on June 16 and June 21. He will be activated to start one game of a doubleheader June 28.

• INF Mike Fontenot (left groin strain) went on the 15-day disabled list May 26. He began a rehab assignment with Class AAA Fresno on June 9 but had to leave the June 10 game because of tightness in his groin. He might resume his rehab assignment during the week of June 20-26.

• OF Darren Ford (sprained left ankle) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to May 23. He began a rehab assignment with Class AAA Fresno on June 16.

• INF/OF Mark DeRosa (strained left wrist) went on the 15-day disabled list May 19. It's the same wrist he has had surgically repaired. He was hitting off a tee in mid-June.

• C Buster Posey (broken left leg, strained ligaments in left ankle) went on the 15-day disabled list May 26. He underwent season-ending surgery May 29.

Giants Ace Tim Lincecum.

Phew, we will miss this freak in this series. Hail Mary, full of grace...

Travis Buck was demoted to AAA Columbus earlier this afternoon to make room for the return of Shelley Duncan. This move is most certainly being made to allow Carlos Santana to move back behind the plate and to keep Orlando Cabrera from having to play third. The only surprise here is that this didn't happen a few days ago when Matt LaPorta was sent to the disabled list with his injured "right lower leg." This will also add an extra pinch hitter since currently the Indians are only carrying three extra batters (Lou Marson, Adam Everett and Orlando Cabrera) and will be playing the next 10 games in National League parks. Shelley Duncan has been the Indians best pinch-hitter over the past two seasons and will most likely be used as the second option behind Travis Hafner during the road trip. The news is sad for Buck who recently broke an 0-23 spell with an RBI single and has played well in his last two games. So goes the life of a man with minor league options.

This year's utter dominance by the bullpen makes you think one thing. Where does this one rank against the best Indians relievers of all time? So far this year the "Bullpen Mafia" has an league leading ERA of 2.99, 8 points better than the second place Yankees. This is in spite of having multiple relievers with ERAs of over 5. Since all relief corps have these mop up pitchers and call ups, I will be only comparing the best of the best on each team, the closers and set up men, to find where the 2011 bullpen ranks among the best Indians pens ever.

There are a couple parameters I am using to see which pitchers are the best. First, I'm only comparing bullpens since 1943 as this is the first time the Indians used a relief pitcher as their top closer (Joe Heving). Before this time starting pitchers did the majority of the bullpen work with the rest of the bullpen being made of the 5th-8th best pitchers rather than highly talented specialized short inning pitchers. Also, I will not be using saves, which weren't really considered relevant until the late 1980's and holds, which weren't even recorded until the 1990's. Instead I will compare pitchers using rate stats, so I don't have to extrapolate what this years bullpen will do for the rest of the season. The main stats I'm using are ERA [(ER*9)/IP], WHIP [(BB+H)/IP], batting average against [H/(IP*3+H)] and strike outs per 9 innings [(K*9)/IP].

Pitchers have been split between closers and other relievers as the closer should be the best pitcher in the bullpen. For a frame of reference, the best relief ERA for a closer in a single season was Jose Mesa in 1995 with a 1.13. In that season he gave up 8 runs, which is the same amount that Chris Perez has given up in about half a season in 2011. The top batting average against for a reliever is held by Vinnie Pestano so far this season with a .138. The top relief WHIP is held by Rafael Betancourt with his .759 in 2007. This means that during the entire season of 2007, Betancourt allowed 3 base runners every 4 innings. The top K/9 relief pitcher was George Zuverink in 1951, when he struck out 40 in 25.1 innings for a K/9 of 14.3. To make things a little more simple, I've taken the top 6 bullpens by ranking all time in these stats and will compare them to find which is the best all time. These six are 1995, 2007, 2011, 1976, 2005 and 1954.

There is no surprise that the years that had the best bullpens were some of the greatest years in Indians history. Two of these six years (1954 and 1995) ended in World Series for the Tribe, while 2007 ended one game short of the World Series. The worst season listed was 1976 when the Indians went 81-78. Every other season saw the Indians win at least 93 games and includes the top two teams in terms of winning percentage in Indians history. This goes well to illustrate the importance of a good bullpen in the modern age of baseball.

Each bullpen seems to be based around one or two fantastic pitchers, with a few other above average pitchers filling out the rest. Every pitcher listed below has a WHIP of under 1.30, a batting average against below .240, an ERA below 2.81 with the exception of Joe Borowski, who was probably the worst pitcher on the 2007 team outside of Edward Mujica and Roberto Hernandez. Of these pitchers, there were two among the top ten all time in every rate stat measured. These two pitchers are Dave LaRoche in 1976 and Vinnie Pestano in 2011. Pestano is exceptionally impressive as he ranks 3rd in ERA (1.33), 1st in BAA (.138), and 2nd in WHIP (.852) and K/9 (12.3) of all Indians non closing relievers since 1943. His numbers are so outrageous that if he maintains this pace, he will have the greatest single season of any Indians relief pitcher ever. What is most interesting about the 2011 team, is that while most of the teams in Indians history had only 2 to 4 stand out pitchers, this bullpen has 5.

The 2007 team can be thrown out of the discussion for best bullpen ever, simply because of the inclusion of Joe Borowski. While Raffy left and Raffy right may have had the best season by 2 set up men ever, Borowski ruined their nights on more than one occasion, blowing 8 saves and taking 5 losses along with an ERA of over 5. The 1954 team can also be removed because they simply did not use their pitchers enough. The 1954 team had 77 complete games, making relief pitching almost unneccessary. Their relief pitchers that are listed pitched almost the same amount of games in an entire (be it short) season as the 2011 pitchers have in less than half a season.

Unquestionably, the best closer listed and in Indians history was Jose Mesa in 1995. While both Mesa and Eric Plunk have come under scrutiny for their downfalls in the playoffs, you can't deny their performances during the regular season in 1995. Two other stand out pitchers on these teams are Bob Howry, who set the Indians record for appearances in 2005 with 79 and Rafael Perez, who is one of only two pitchers to appear on two separate great bullpens. While his 2007 effort has already been removed from contention, his numbers in 2011 are even better to this point then they were in that year. Another impressive stat about the 2011 bullpen is they have the number 1, 2 and 3 relief pitchers all time in earned run average. On this stat alone, they could be considered the best ever, as long as they can maintain for the rest of the season.

In my opinion, the 1995 team had the best bullpen of those listed. They are the only team that had a closer who was by far the best pitcher in the pen and they still had plenty of strong pitchers to fill around him. Along with Julian Tavarez and Eric Plunk, the 1995 team also had Jim Poole and lefty specialist Paul Assemacher. The pen was so deep, that Assemacher was able to be used so rarely that he averaged only 2 outs per appearance over his career, the least amount of IP/G of all Indians pitchers ever. The only other true competitor for the title is the 2011 team, but since they have only played half a season, it is unfair to really compare ERA and WHIP type stats. If they can keep it up, and Chris Perez can get himself into a few more save opportunities, this may become known as the best back-end of a bullpen in Indians history.

(The results of this discussion can be found here.)