After blowing a save opportunity against the Red Sox on Monday night, Joe Borowski said that he hoped to pinpoint the reason for his drastic dip in velocity this season.

It appears the Indians have.

Borowski was placed on the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday afternoon with a right triceps strain. Right-hander Tom Mastny, who spent all of last season with the Tribe and was the last man ousted from the bullpen mix in Spring Training this year, has been called up from Triple-A Buffalo to assume Borowski's spot on the active roster.

I still blame for Borowski for not coming forward with this problem earlier and Wedge for not pushing the issue. That being said, I certainly hope he heals up and comes back better than ever. The role of closer will most likely be handled by Rafaels Betancourt & Perez as needed.

Full Story - MLB.com

I was going to write about this game last night, but decided I needed to take the night to sleep and calm down.  I was about as upset at last night's loss to the Red Sox as I can remember.  I've been trying to figure out why.  It was only one game early in the season.  One of my favorite players, Manny Ramirez, was the hero.  It wasn't against the evil White Sox.  So why was I so angry?

I have come to the conclusion that I predicted the outcome before Borowski threw a single pitch and I guess I just don't like to be right.

As soon as the bottom of the eighth was over, I said out loud, "Oh, no."  Now bear in mind I was watching the game on my computer with headphones on, and while I do tend to make hand gestures (e.g., safe, out, strike, etc.) and voice the occasional "yes!" or "wow!", I try not to disturb the rest of the family that are usually watching something else or playing.  So when my wife jumped a bit and asked what was the matter, I had to explain.

"Heart Attack Joe is coming on with a one run lead," I explained.  She laughed and went back to watching whatever reality thing was on TV last night.  I don't think she understood my concern.

Borowski was coming into a game against a very good hitting team with only a one run lead, so no margin for error.  What made it worse was that he was facing the 9, 1 and 2 hitters in the lineup.  That meant he would have to retire the side in order so as to not have to face David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez.  I can't remember the last time Borowski did that in a save situation with a one run lead.

Unfortunately, he performed exactly as I predicted - he blew it again.

I know all the arguments.  He saved 45 games last season.  He's a veteran closer.  He doesn't get rattled from one game to the next.

But please!  His ERA was over 5 last season.  He blew 10 saves.  He allowed 77 hits in only 65 innings - including 9 home runs.  Those are not the stats of a closer, and certainly not one that you want to bring into a game with a one run lead.

Let's compare situations for a minute.  Betancourt relieved Westbrook (who by the way pitched another gem) in the seventh inning with runners on first and second, one out, one in and a 4-2 lead.  He struck out both Ortiz and Manny.  Now that's a save!

Not convinced?  Let's try another situation.  Boston has a one run lead and the very potent top of the Indians' order of Sizemore, Cabrera and Hafner are due up.  Red Sox closer Jonathon Papelbon retires the side in order including two K's.  Now that's a save!

I understand Eric Wedge is a player's manager and he wants to give his guys every opportunity to succeed, but even Wedgie's confidence has to be shaken by this.  Early in the season or not, the team is struggling and he has to do whatever it takes to get wins now before the players (and fans) start doubting their talent.  It will be interesting to see what happens the next time the Tribe has a one run lead in a save situation.  At the very least, Wedge has to have someone else ready in the bullpen along with Borowski just in case.

In case you're wondering, yes I have calmed down some from last night.  Otherwise the title to this post would have been "Borowski Must Go!"

Go Tribe!

Cliff Lee was the man on the spot and the man of the hour, or of the day actually.  The Indians had lost three straight coming into today's game and the start of the game was in doubt due to Ohio April weather.  About 45 minutes later, Cliff Lee took the mound and the losing streak was over - again.

Reminiscent of exactly one week ago (except for the weather, of course), Lee shut down the A's and once again stopped a three game losing streak for the Tribe.

So far Lee is 2-0 with a 0.61 ERA.  Today he pitched 8 innings allowing only one run on two hits and fanned eight.  After yesterday's walk-a-thon, Lee was not about to give a base away - and he did not.

The Indians took the lead in the third on a two-out RBI base hit by Pronk.  It was the first lead the Indians had gotten in 29 innings.  Lee never relinquished it.  The bats once again came alive late as the Tribe struck for four in the bottom of the eighth on consecutive two-out hits by Sizemore and Dellucci.

Dellucci's RBI walk yesterday was the first by a Tribe leftfielder.  They now have three.  I'm still scratching my head as to why we didn't make a more concerted effort to secure a solid leftfielder in the off-season.  But this is Cliff Lee's day, so let's not linger on that.

After pitching so poorly last season, being sent down to the minors and eventually left off the post-season roster, he deserves to be lifted up by his teammates and the fans for the way he has come back thus far this season.

In addition to Lee, Ryan Garko has certainly given us something talk about.  Garko has reached safely in every game so far this season and continues to lead the team with a .325 batting average.  Grady had another good day with two hits and three RBI's and pushed his average back up over .300.  Marte continues to disappoint.  He started his second straight Sunday and went 0-2, struck out both times and stranded four runners on base.

This should be an exciting week of baseball for Tribe fans.  We start off we two against Red Sox, then two against the Tigers and finish off against the Twins.  I know where I'll be each evening this week.

Go Tribe!

3-1/3 innings are all the Indians got out of Fausto Carmona's new contract last night.  Carmona left after walking 8 batters including 4 straight giving the A's a 3-1 lead.  That's two nights in a row Tribe starters have not made it out of the fourth inning.  With the exception of Rafael Perez's rough inning last night in which he gave up four runs, the bullpen has been near perfect the last two games.

The eight walks were a career high for Carmona who is now 1-1 with a 2.20 ERA.  After inducing a popup for the first out in the fourth inning, he just could not find the strike zone.  Fortunately he didn't just groove one in for a strike that might have led to a huge inning.  CC could learn something from this mentality.

The A's have now won five straight while helping the Indians drop their third in a row.  Oakland's streak has gotten them on top of the AL West and given them the best record in the league.  The Tribe dropped to 4-7 and remain in fourth place in the Central.

Cliff Lee will go today for Cleveland against Chad Gaudin.  Hopefully Lee can pitch the way he did last Sunday and give the Tribe a chance to salvage a game in the series.

Go Tribe!

The Indians and C.C. Sabathia put their contract talks on hold prior to the start of the season.  At the time, I was in complete agreement.  CC has a history of coming to camp out of shape and, the two seasons prior to this one, he was injured early because of it.  In addition he has yet to prove he can win in high pressure situations (e.g., playoffs and poor performances in his home town).  Perhaps GM Mark Shapiro knew something when negotiations were put on hold.  I'm all for resigning CC and giving him what he deserves - assuming he earns it.  Thus far this season he has not.

Sabathia had yet another poor outing last night against the Oakland Athletics.  The big lefty went only 3-1/3 innings and allowed 9 runs on 12 hits.  He is now 0-2 with an 11.57 ERA in three starts this season.

This start may have the Dolans' wallets breathing a sigh of relief, but the Indians want to win and they need CC to pitch much better in order to do that.

Even with the 4-6 start, things are not all bad for the Tribe.  Three of their five starters are doing very well (Carmona, Westbrook and Lee) and the bullpen looked fabulous last night.  Even bats are starting to come to life.  They almost came back from the 9-1 deficit CC had left them with.  In fact every starter reached base last night and only Blake and Martinez failed to get a hit.

Peralta continued his hot hitting going 2 for 3 with 2 RBI's and a homer.

Tonight's game features Fausto Carmona (1-0, 0.69) in his first start since receiving his new contract against left-hander Lenny DiNardo (0-0, 54.00).  Rich Harden was scheduled for the A's but was placed on the DL with a right shoulder strain.  Should be a cold one in Cleveland tonight, but hopefully Fausto can continue to play his role as the stopper and the bats will continue to warm up.

Go Tribe!

Six months after admitting to using human growth hormone and the ensuing madcap meeting with the press at Fenway Park, the right-hander is in the clear.

Byrd learned he will not be suspended by Major League Baseball, and he was understandably relieved upon hearing the news as he drove to the park early Friday.

Full story at MLB.com

The Tribe returns to Progressive Field tonight against the Oakland A's in a rematch of last weekend's series in which the A's took two of three.  Joe Blanton will get the start for the A's, while the Indians counter with ace, C.C. Sabbathia.

Blanton pitched well against the Tribe on Sunday, but was outdueled by Cliff Lee in the series finale.  C.C. faced the A's on Saturday and once again pitched poorly in his home town.

The Tribe is healthy and should have their regular lineup in place tonight.  The only question mark is in right field.  Will Gutierrez who has yet to get a hit be back in the lineup or will Wedge put Jason Michaels, hitting .167, back in.  Not that my vote counts, but I would stick with Gutierrez who is a markedly better fielder and has more homerun potential when he does start hitting.

Grady and Garko are still the top hitters on the team at .364 and .400 respectively, but Jhonny Peralta has been hot the last couple games.

All this may be fore not, however, as storms are predicted to hit Cleveland around game time which could put a damper on the game, not to mention tonight's fireworks display.

And isn't there something else on tonight?  Hmm.... oh yes, the Yankees and Red Sox have their first meeting of the season.  Guess we know where all the media will be this weekend.  Clinton and Obama may even have to fight (or perhaps bowl) to get in the news.

Go Tribe!

The Indians have signed Carmona to a historic long-term contract that has the potential to be seven years long. The first four years of the pact are guaranteed, with three individual club options for 2012, '13 and '14 tacked on. The deal will be announced at a press conference at Progressive Field on Thursday afternoon.

The value of the four-year guarantee was not immediately known. But it is known that if the deal goes the distance, Carmona will earn $43 million over the seven years, with escalators pushing its potential value to $48 million.

It is the highest-ever guarantee to a pre-arbitration-eligible starting pitcher and the highest-ever guarantee to a starting pitcher with only one full year of service time. It is similar to the contract the Rays recently gave to starter James Shields, albeit with a higher potential value.

A good move by the Tribe front office and also shows fans they are not afraid to spend money on quality.

Full story - MLB.com

Who knew that Angels broadcaster and former major leaguer Rex Hudler was a baseball prognosticator?

Prior to this afternoon's game between the Angels and the Indians, Rex was giving a scientific explanation for why the ball travels approximately 20 feet further in Angels Stadium during the day.  Perhaps all he needed to say was that when you throw the ball in the middle of the plate to major league hitters, they hit it a long, long way.

Napoli, Anderson and Kotchman homered off of Paul Byrd to stake the Angels to a 6-0 lead before Byrd could get the final out of the third inning.  Byrd is now 0-2 with an 11.05 ERA and has gone only 7-1/3 innings over his two starts.  After pitching 1-1/3 innings and looking very sharp, he just seemed to lose it and looked like it was getting to him.  That's not something you expect from a seasoned veteran.

After the Tribe pulled to within two runs with a four-run sixth rally of their own, Bad Vlad put the finishing touches on the rout with another blast scoring three more.

The Indians get a much needed day off Thursday before hosting the Oakland A's on Friday night with fireworks.  They need the rest as much mentally as physically.  They're pressing at the plate and making mental mistakes.  This team is better than that and they will be.

Oakland may well be the recipient of a rested, revitalized and extremely dangerous Cleveland Indians ballclub this weekend.

Go Tribe!

After Monday's nightmare, I was determined to stay awake at all costs to see the Tribe take on the first place Angels.  I was well rewarded for any lost sleep.

It was a pretty good pitcher's duel for most of the game between Jake Westbrook (1-1, 2.76) and the Angels' Ervin Santana (0-0, 3.00).  Jake made a big mistake on a 3-2 pitch to Bad Vlad who deposited the ball over the fence in the sixth.  That was Jake's only bad inning.  He gave up three runs on three hits in the sixth.  Take that away and he pitched a 4-hit shutout.

Through eight innings, the Tribe bats continued their cold spell, especially with runners on base.  Then the ninth inning came and again fans pulled out their rally caps as we were down 3-2.

Former Indian, Justin Speier had closed out the eighth, retired the first two batters in the ninth and had the Tribe down to their last strike.  But on a 3-2 pitch, he walked Asdrubal Cabrera and faced a showdown with Pronk.  The showdown didn't last long.  Hafner cranked the first pitch he saw a mile over the right field fence to put the Tribe up 4-3.

On a side note, do you know how difficult it is to see something like that when the rest of the household is sleeping and have to find a way to cheer quietly?

Then the bottom of the ninth came and it felt eerily familiar.  The same three (Matthews, Guerrero and Anderson) that inflicted suffering on Monday were back.  But instead of facing Borowski, out trotted Westbrook to go for the complete game.

Matthews singled, but Vlad, who already had two hits on the night, hit into the Angels' third double play of the night.  Anderson flied out to Grady and Westbrook had the team's first complete game of the season.

Following the final out, I simply turned off the TV, smiled and went to sleep.  The dream was complete.

I was up at 5:30 the previous morning and couldn't stay awake past Torii Hunter's homerun in the bottom of the eighth of a late night game in LA against the Angels.

But one can dream.

Is it possible the Tribe bats that have been cold for nearly a week now could come alive?  With this lineup that's entirely possible.  The Indians have a very good hitting lineup from top to bottom and the middle of it can be devastating.  To wake up and find the Erie boys had come back to win it in the ninth would be a dream come true.

So I awake and watch the top of the ninth and lo and behold it happened.  The bats did come alive to score three in the ninth and take a 4-2 lead!

But then the nightmare came in the form of "Heart Attack" Joe.  Joe Borowski, who somehow led the league in saves despite an ERA over 5 last season and a penchant for allowing 2-out magic to the other side, came in for the second night in a row looking for his third save.  I guess Joe felt his ERA of 4.50 was low (at least compared to last season) and wanted to pad it a bit.  Well, he certainly did that - and he didn't even wait for two outs to do it.

After retiring the first batter on a foul out, he proceeded to walk two of the next three hitters and threw in a hit to Vlad just for good measure to load the bases.

This is the part of the nightmare where we usually are falling off the cliff and wake up before we land.  Unfortunately, this time I forgot to wake up.

In to the batter's box steps Torii Hunter who is still so elated that Fausto Carmona is no longer pitching he deposits a walk-off grand slam homerun over the left field wall.  I guess Hunter moving to the West Coast just isn't far enough way to keep him from hurting us.

To make the nightmare complete, the White Sox beat Hunter's former team, the Twins, to move into first place in the Central.  Even Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen getting ejected for arguing balls and strikes in their home opener couldn't make up for the nightmare in LA.

Oh well, tonight's another night and another chance to dream.

Go Tribe!

Although the Tribe bats remained ice cold, the pitching really stepped up in yesterday's 2-1 victory over the A's.  Cliff Lee's first start of the season looked reminiscent of his first start in Anaheim last season - sparkling.  Along with Lee, the bullpen team of Perez, Betancourt and Borowski were near perfect allowing only a walk between them.

The pitching was so good it even overcame missteps in the field.  Another passed ball by Shoppach allowed the only run allowed and Garko dropped a ball on an amazing play by A.C. and fell down three other times.  This obviously disproves the theory that weebles wobble, but they don't fall down.

Cabrera continues to sparkle in the field and even though he didn't get a hit in yesterday's game, he did pick up an RBI.

As for the rest of the team, Sizemore is still on fire both offensively and defensively, Michaels got his first hit of the season, Delluci is still 0 for the season and Marte got a hit in his first start at third.  The team left 10 men on base and were 0fer with runners in scoring position.

The good news is VMart is expected to return to the lineup behind the plate on Monday against the Angels with Carmona is on the mound.  This should be a good pitching matchup with Fausto going against lefty Joe Saunders who pitched eight innings of four-hit shut out ball against Minnesota in his last start.

Go Tribe!

The Cleveland Indians lost their third straight game today, their second straight to Oakland.  While the Tribe pitching has not been as dominant as expected, the hitting has been downright abysmal.

The Indians have scored a combined 5 runs on 15 hits over the last three ballgames.  They've had chances to score as both Chicago and Oakland have tried to help the Tribe get back into each game, but the Tribe hitters just aren't open to charity right now.

It looks alot like poor guess work in the batters box.  They're being patient when the opposing pitcher is tagging every part of the strike zone and swinging with reckless abandon when they're not.

Today's game was definitely one of those to forget quickly.  CC was wild, Betancourt got hammered and for some reason Jason Michaels and his .000 batting average was hitting third.

But it's not just the Tribe who is suffering right now.  Most of the American League is upside down.  The cream of the Central (at least on paper), Cleveland and Detroit are a combined 2 and 8.  If that's scary, look at the AL East.  Boston and New York are on the bottom with Tampa Bay on top!  This is one extended April Fools joke!

Go Tribe!

This entire blackout situation has gotten completely out of hand and there are no good reasons for keeping it in effect any longer.

How can someone be blacked out for something they are paying for?  How can a fan be blacked out from seeing their team when the team is on the road?  Where is the logic behind continuing to abuse fans who are paying more and more each year to support their teams?  How can the blackout rule be different between cable television and cable internet?  Why should any network have rights to show every game, blocking local broadcasts, and be unwilling to show every game - even based on local markets?

When I pay for a product, I expect to be able to use that product at my convenience - not at the convenience of the company I purchased it from.

The time has long passed for this blackout rule to be wiped from the books.  We are paying to view these games,   All we want is to get what we pay for.