(05/31) Royals 4, Indians 2 (box)
(06/01) Royals 6, Indians 1 (box)
One weekend. Two games. Three runs. That about sums up the last 48 hours for the Cleveland Indians.
Saturday night saw the Tribe strand 12 men on base. C.C. Sabathia had one poor inning, the line-up had nine. They had the chance on several occasions, only to allow KC to get out of the jam. At least they’re doing something consistently.
Unlike Sabathia, Paul Byrd wasn’t exactly helping the team’s cause on Sunday. Though once again, the Tribe bats were held under three runs (for the 21st time this season), all six allowed runs were earned. Byrd allowed nine hits in four and a third innings – three of which were for extra bases.
This team simply didn’t have an answer for Royals outfielder Jose Guillen, who went 5-for-12 with a home run, two RBI and nine total bases. Don’t forget that the game-saving catchby Grady Sizemore on Friday was off of the bat of Guillen as well, so these numbers could have been a lot higher.
Aside from Sizemore, the offense did next to nothing all weekend long. Grady went 4-for-13 with a double, three home runs, four RBI and nine total bases over the three-game stint. Just for comparison purposes, the rest of the team went 18-for-93 (.194) with four RBI for the entire series.
We now stand five games out of first place, six games under .500 and have a mere three wins in the last 10 games. At what point do you stop “making calls,” and start making moves? Whether it’s within the roster, the coaching staff, or the front office – someone obviously isn’t doing their job.
“At some point, it will turn around,” catcher Victor Martinez said. “You will see. It will happen.”
I just hope that “some point” isn’t in July when we’re 10 games out.
If there’s any saving grace, it’s the fact that we’re heading to Texas where the ball tends to travel a bit. We also have two of our ground ball pitchers on the hill in Aaron Laffey (3-3, 1.59 ERA) tonight and Jake Westbrook (1-2, 3.12 ERA) tomorrow.
If only these two could hit…
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Author: Scott
Scott is a co-founder/editor of Waiting For Next Year who resides in Cleveland, Ohio. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or email him at scott@waitingfornextyear.com.Scott has written 1701 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
