Tribe Cruises – Time for a Meaningless Second Half Surge?

I stayed up to watch the Tribe out on the west coast last night and it was an impressive display of baseball.  The Tribe bats were raking and Eric Wedge received a strong performance from starter Aaron Laffey and a steady 2 innings of relief from the bullpen.  If you watched last night’s game in a vacuum, you might actually think the Tribe is a talented club in the middle of a successful year.  The dugout was loose and everyone was enjoying themselves during this blowout which came on the heels of a series win in Toronto.  The Tribe is actually out of the AL Central cellar due to a KC 10 game losing streak.  Unfortunately, it was 1 of 162 and even clubs like the Indians and Nationals have games like this every now and then.

I would never root for the Indians to do poorly and it is always enjoyable watching the team do well (last night’s game was actually fun to watch).  It is completely naive and foolish, however, to think that any kind of success in the second half of the season would be an indicator of this team’s talent and ability going forward.  Tribe fans have already witnessed that routine last year when a successful second half enabled the Tribe to finish at 81-81.  Eric Wedge’s boys seem to perform best when the pressure is off and there is nothing on the line.  Last night’s game showed glimpses of a talented team but it was nothing more than everyone coming together on the right night against some mediocre pitching from Seattle.  With the potential trades of Victor and/or Cliff who are signed through next season, the brass is admitting that the second half of this lost season is not analogous to the situation last year when the Tribe thought they were legitimately building towards a contending season this summer.  Any kind of surge to finish anywhere near .500 is highly unlikely and would not have the effect on the future season that it did last year.  With Larry Dolan looking to shed “luxuries” (which I guess include Jamey Carroll, Ryan Garko, & Kelly Shoppach), it is looking more and more like the organization thinks that we are in for a long term rebuild.

Back to last night.  It was encouraging to see Aaron Laffey dealing.  He struck out 7 in 7 innings pitched and used his sinker to induce 3 double plays to start off the first 3 innings and get him out of some early trouble.  It was his first win in three starts this month coming off the DL.  He looked very impressive against a middling Mariners lineup and has proven, if nothing else, to be a major league pitcher.  Where he fits in the major leagues, however, still remains unclear which is the case with so many of the pieces in the Tribe organization.  The bullpen actually performed to it’s job description and for one night impressed as well.  Joe Smith and Tony Sipp combined to pitch a scoreless 8th inning.  Chris Perez came into the game in the ninth and struck out 2 of the 3 hitters he faced to end the game.  Of course, they had a cushion of 4 and 9 run leads at this point but who wants to be negative.

The Indian bats were awake on the west coast last night as well.  They hit four home runs and drove in nine against Ryan Rowland-Smith and reliever Miguel Batista.  Rowland-Smith was making his first start since April after a recent call up from the minors.  Travis Hafner hit a two run homer to the first row of the right field bleachers off of the Mariners’ starter.  Ben Francisco, stepping up here in the stretch run, hit a sac fly and a solo homer for the other two runs off of Rowland-Smith.  With a four run lead in the middle of a lost season and the pressure really off in the ninth, the Tribe bats decided to add five more runs.  Ryan Garko, who would be helpful to get hot in this last week before the deadline, hit a three run homer to left field.  Fellow “luxury” item Jamey Carroll followed with a back to back jack for his first home run of the season and it was clear everything was working for the Indians.  They scored their final run on a Victor single to right which led to an exciting play at home – a nifty slide by Grady Sizemore around the catcher’s tag after a rope from Ichiro.  All sarcasm aside, it was an exciting and well-played game.  It would be easier on the eyes for the Tribe to play more of those this second half, but let’s not read anything into it like last year if they do.