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The weekend series with the Minnesota Twins looked like a complete loss going into Sunday’s afternoon tilt. The offense, which spent last weekend doing their best imitation of the 95 Tribe in Yankee Stadium, fell completely asleep at the wheel, scoring a whopping two runs in 18 innings against Nick Blackburn and Kevin Slowey. Not exactly Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling circa 2001. All of the good feelings from the five out of eight wins in the last week went right out the window.

But when the Tribe needed it the most, the new “stopper” of the rotation came to play. That man is none other than Aaron Laffey.

The Lefty who couldn’t make the team out of Spring pitched another gem, going 6 1/3 strong innings to lead the Indians to a 4-2 win in the series finale. Laffey again used his sinker to perfection and using two double play balls to get out of jams in the second and third innings. He was cruising into the seventh before he seemingly ran out of gas. He gave up back to back one out singles to Delmon Young and Jose Morales and walked light-hitting Nick Punto to load the bases. It was time for that vaunted Indians bullpen. Jensen Lewis was summoned to face the top of the order. He was greeted with a single up the middle by pinch-hitter Denard Span scoring Young and Morales. Jenny then walked Brendan Harris after having him down 0-2 to re-load the bases for the best hitter the Twins have by a mile, former AL MVP Justin Morneau.

As you know, Morneau is left-handed. With Rafael Perez still clearly not himself, Manager Eric Wedge pulled Jenny Lew for rookie left-hander Tony Sipp, he of the one career appearance. The Grinder really had no other option and the way Sipp looked the other night against Kansas City, it was worth the shot. What Wedge got could be the start of something big, and a major find for the beleaguered bullpen. Sipp went right at Morneau and mixed things up between a pounding fastball and a wicked slider, striking out the All Star swinging. That was only half the battle. Minnesota’s hottest hitter, Jason Kubel – another lefty – was next. At .328 and amongst the tops in the AL in RBI with 15, this would be another tough task for the kid from Clemson. As if he had been there many times before, Sipp calmly struck out Kubel to end the inning and walked off the mound as if it were no big deal.

“That was definitely a pressure situation,” Sipp said. “I just wanted to throw strikes, because that’s one thing I know how to do. I had a job to do and I did it. I like being in pressure situations, but this was unchartered ground. I can’t say I went out there expecting [two strikeouts] to happen.”

Rafael Betancourt and Kerry Wood closed out the final two innings to preserve the much needed 4-2 win and salvage the last game of the series. As good as “The Realtor” was, the talk after the game centered around the rookie left-handed who saved the Wahoo bacon. “It was great to have that moment and be able to tell him ‘Welcome to the big leagues,’” said Laffey, who moved to 2-0 with help from the man who was his roommate in Columbus to start the season.

Said Grindmaster Flash: “Tony really, really picked us up. You can’t be in much tougher of a situation late in a game, with those two hitters coming up.” Don’t forget, Tribe fans, Sipp was once the best pitching prospect in the organization behind Adam Miller before he was shut down with Tommy John surgery in 2007. ESPN’s Peter Gammons once hailed the 25 year old Sipp as the Tribe closer of the future.

The Indian bats, quiet in the clutch most of the weekend, scored all four of their runs in the first three innings. Shin-Soo Choo hot a two-out double scoring Grady Sizemore in the first. Asdrubal Cabrera, the hottest Tribe bat not named Victor Martinez, singled home Trevor Crowe, who himself singled and stole second to start the third. Ryan Garko added a key two run single bringing in AC and Victor. That was the end of the Red, White, and Blue scoring for the day. It turned out to be all they needed thanks to Laffey, Sipp, Betancourt, and Wood.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating – thank goodness for the AL Central. The 7-12 record only puts the Wahoo Warriors 3.5 ga,es back of first place Detroit (10-8) who clearly scare nobody at this point. This was a big win for the Tribe with the Red hot Red Sox coming to town riding a 10 game winning streak after finishing a three game sweep of the Yankees. Knuckle-baller Tim Wakefield goes for the Sox. He is opposed by Indian ace Cliff Lee.