Ugh….Another Losing Weekend for the Tribe

This is getting to be such a tired act. Another weekend, another series loss for your Cleveland Indians. Heading into Friday, the Indians, despite the second worst record in the American League, sat just 4.5 games out of first in the sad sack AL Central. Riding a two game “winning streak” and a new look – Jhonny Peralta at third, Mark DeRosa at first, Asdrubal Cabrera at short – the Wahoos looked like they could be righting the ship.

And then the bullpen popped out of the ground and reared its ugly head yet again.

Thanks to a hot start, the Tribe bats jumped out to a 7-0 lead after three innings Friday night. Starter Anthony Reyes, who really has been average at best this season, gave back three in the fourth inning and another in the sixth, before departing with the bases loaded. Tony Sipp (now back in Columbus), faced one batter, threw a wild pitch and a walk, and was replaced by Jensen Lewis. Jenny gave up one run and the Tribe lead was a precarious one at  7-5 with three innings to play.

While the Rays were beginning to tee off on the abomination that is the Red, White, and Blue bullpen, the offense was completely shut down by Lance Cormier, J.P. Howell, and Dan Wheeler. Lewis faced four batters in the seventh: Jason Bartlett doubled, Dioner Navarro sacrificed him over to third, A wild pitch scored Bartlett before B.J. Upton singled, and Carl Crawford singled. Jenny Lew was yanked after another dismal outing, and turned things over to Rafael Betancourt. Somehow, he was able to wiggle his way out of the jam with two strike outs, and The Realtor figured to nurse his way through the 7-6 lead in the eighth.

But then he remember he was a part of the 2009 Indians bullpen.  The great Ben Zobrist, took Betancourt deep to tie things up at seven. Another gigantic gag job by the bullpen. You just knew right then and there the Tribe was on its way to a loss. But the question would be, how would they do it this time?

Oh, it was in grand fashion, all right. The newly signed Luis Vizcaino, making his first appearance as an Indian, was summoned to pitch the ninth. The first batter he faced, Upton, who came into the game hitting .183 with as many homers as Elvis, 2Pac, JFK, and David Dellucci combined, crushed a pitch into the left field stands for a walk-off winner. It capped off the largest comeback in franchise history. Vizcaino, of course, showed he could fit right in with the rest of the Tribe pen.

A disgusted Indians manager Eric Wedge was dumbfounded after the game:  “It’s 7-0 tonight, and we end up losing the ballgame. At some point, these guys — they’ve got to look in the mirror. When you score seven runs, you should be up at home plate tension free. Our guys are up there and they’re not tension-free for the fact they feel like they’ve got to score more runs, and that’s ridiculous.”

Saturday’s 4-2 loss had little drama. It was just a plain old regular 4-2 loss. Sunday would be different.

David Huff, the best pitching prospect not named Hector Rondon, was promoted to make his Major League debut. Things seemed to swing Huff’s direction right off the bat, as manager Eric Wedge and bench coach Jeff Datz noticed that both Ben Zobrist and Evan Longoria were listed as the third baseman on the lineup card.

After the Indians half of the first inning, Wedge told umpire Tim McClelland of the gaff, and Longoria had to be replaced in the lineup by pitcher Andy Sonnanstine. He would have to bat third of all places as well. Bonus for the Tribe right? Replacing the AL RBI leader with a pitcher? Seemed like a huge boost for the rookie.

Not so much.

Huff couldn’t make it out of the fourth inning, chased by seven runs on seven hits – the last one an embarrassing double by Sonnanstine. Only the 2009 Indians could find a way to lose a game where the opposing team’s best player was replaced by the pitcher.

Side Note – The last time this happened in regards to our Wahoo Warriors was 10 years ago. Tribe manager Mike Hargrove listed Manny Ramirez as the DH and Alex Ramirez as the right fielder. When the game started, Manny trotted out to right field and after the first inning, Toronto manager Jim Fregosi called it out. Alex Ramirez had to be replaced in the lineup by pitcher Charles Nagy. The Indians of course lost that game too, 4-3.

Speaking of things that went wrong for the Tribe over the weekend, Ryan Garko’s would-be eighth inning double was called an out by third base umpire Andy Fletcher. Rays left fielder Carl Crawford essentially trapped the ball against the wall, fell to the ground and came down with the ball. All replays showed the play was clearly a double, yet in true Tribe 2009 fashion where nothing can go their way, none of the umpires were in position to make the correct call.

The only positives to come out of yesterday’s 7-5 loss were the mop-up duty by the newly brought up Greg Aquino (2.1 IP, 0 ER) and Matt Herges (1.2 IP, 0 ER, 4 K’s). In addition, Wedge’s crew got out their frustrations with a benches clearing incident involving Carl Crawford in the bottom of the eighth.

Wedge went to Kerry Wood to get one out. In reality, he may have been sent in to throw at B.J. Upton. Upton, who stole two bases down 9-0 on Thursday night, made himself a target. Wood fired a 96 MPH fastball behind him and followed it by coming inside at his knees.  The benches cleared and a lot of yelling and shoving ensued. “It’s obvious Wood came into the game to try and hit B.J.” said Tampa Bay manager Maddon. “It’s all based on BJ running in Thursday’s game.”

Ah, the old “unwritten baseball rules” at play. Listen to how fired up Victor Martinez was:

“I think [Maddon] was yelling at me, saying to throw the ball over the plate. He has to worry about teaching his [expletive] players to play the game the right way. Now he’s getting mad because he’s getting one of his players thrown at? He better worry about teaching them to play the game the right way first. You don’t see nobody [expletive] stealing 9-0 in the sixth or seventh inning. The game was 9-0 when B.J. Upton stole second and third. If you’re going to get respect, show respect.”

So to recap: The Indians lost three of four at Tropicana Field, including one game they led 7-0. Their bullpen again was a disaster, and made two more moves, replacing Masa Kobayashi and Tony Sipp with Greg Aquino and Vizcaino. They went from 4.5 games out Thursday night to 7.5 games out by Sunday night. Oh, and their weekend record this season is 4-14.

Does anyone really think this season is worth saving? Should the Indians really be moving top prospect Hector Rondon to the bullpen in Akron? Regardless of how bad the division is, the Indians are a bad, bad, baseball team right now. Guys are moving all over the diamond and up and down the lineup. Nobody in the bullpen can show any sort of consistency outside of Kerry Wood. As frustrated as we all are, imagine being Eric Wedge right now.

The old adage in baseball is the surest way to have a bad team is to have a bad bullpen. The door from the center-field fence has been revolving. This says it all…

More in this tomorrow.