Tigers 6, Indians 0: Armando Galarraga Strikes Again

Armando Galarraga delivered seven scoreless innings Friday night as the Detroit Tigers defeated the Indians 6-0 at Comerica Park. Galarraga, who nearly threw a perfect game against the Tribe on June 2nd at the same stadium before another stint in the minor leagues, allowed just three hits total in earning the victory.

It was not a pretty game yet again for the Indians as starter Justin Masterson allowed five runs on 11 hits in six frames and the offense struggled to produce anything. A fifth inning double from Jayson Nix was the lone offensive highlight and you won’t win many games when finishing with just one at bat with runners in scoring position.

Cleveland has now lost nine of their last 12 games to fall to 50-72 with exactly 40 games remaining on the year. Keeping up this exact pace, the team should be expected to finish with 66 wins on the year, exactly one more than 2009 and the second-fewest since 1992.

— Mostly due to a pair of spectacular performances from Galarraga, the Indians are now hitting just .219/.299/.346 in 13 games against Detroit in 2010. Somehow they have managed to collect a 6-7 record thus far, but it hasn’t helped that different players keep stepping in to face the Tigers. In total, Manny Acta has had 37 different players (including nine no longer in the organization) participate in a game against Detroit on the year.

— Check out this quote from ESPN Fantasy Sports on Galarraga’s player page: “Anyone rolling him against the Tribe after the near Perfect Game earlier this season was rewarded handsomely on Friday. Still, his numbers in between his two starts against Cleveland leave plenty to be desired and he’s simply too hittable to be counted on regularly in most formats.”

And that is exactly true. Against all other teams besides the Tribe this year, the 28-year-old Venezuelan is 2-5 with a 5.50 ERA. That might even resemble a trend compared to his career norms as last season in 29 games (25 starts), he finished 6-10 with a 5.64 ERA. But now for some reason he has completely baffled Cleveland with 16 scoreless frames with 11 strikeouts while scattering four meaningless hits.

— Digging around for some positives, you have to like the overall recent development of the top batters in the Indians lineup. Michael Brantley has finally adjusted to his back-and-forth movement with a positive August, batting .327 with six walks and 12 runs scored in just 12 games. After Brantley, Asdrubal Cabrera also has a .328 batting average and 11 RBI during his 17 August contests. Continue that production, and you should see better results in the coming days and weeks for this offense.

— Miscellaneous Stats: Yesterday was the 10th shutout against Cleveland this season, tied with Seattle for the most in the American League…. Justin Masterson now leads the AL with 97 runs allowed, is tied for second with 12 losses and ranks third with his 67 walks…. The Indians are now batting just .249 as a team with exactly 4.0 runs per game on the road this year. The AL averages are a .261 batting average and 4.47 runs scored per game.

(Picture above via AP Photo/Duane Burleson)