Boy do our Indians know how to kill momentum. It always seems as if they get us sucked back in to a peak, and then do something to let us down. Sometimes it’s a bad start, other times it would be the bats completely falling asleep.
In last night’s 14-12 loss to visiting Milwaukee, it was an April-like bullpen implosion.
Tribe starter Carl Pavano was up with everything from the first batter. Ryan Braun, one of the two Brewer stars of the game, touched him up for a two-run shot in the first. From that point on, the slug-fest was on. Shin-S00 Choo answered Braun’s shot with one of his own to tie things at two.
In the third, Milwaukee took back the lead on a Prince Fielder RBI ground out. The Tribe answered again during the home half. After Jamey Carroll was drilled by a Dave Bush pitch, Victor Martinez hit his 11th homer of the year, giving the Tribe their first lead of the night.The Wahoo bats didn’t stop there.
With one out in the fourth, Bush was all but finished. He walked the .185 hitting Luis Valbuena and hit the .210 hitting Kelly Shoppach. The vastly underrated Jamey Carroll singled home Valbuena. Mark DeRosa followed with an RBI single of his own and the Tribe led 6-3. The great Chris Narveson (who) relieved Bush and Vic the Stik greeted him with a single scoring both Carroll and DeRosa. It was an 8-3 laugher at this point.
Or so we thought.
Pavano, who struggled during his five innings of work, gave three right back on a triple from Braun (scoring two) and a sac fly from Fielder. He managed to wiggle out of more trouble and was in line for a win at 8-6 after five. Greg Aquino started the sixth for the Tribe and the Brew Crew inched closer with one more run thanks to two singles, a wild pitch, and a sac fly.
At this point, I thought it was only a matter of time before the Indians stopped hitting and the Brewers got to their bullpen. Well, I was only half right.
The Red, White, and Blue exploded in the bottom of the sixth. DeRosa, hitting .330 with six homers and 21 RBI over the last month, led off with a solo blast. Martinez and Choo walked, bringing Milwaukee manager Ken Macha out of the dugout for right-hander Mark Difelice. After Jhonny Peralta K’d (he looked TERRIBLE at the plate last night. He still cannot lay off of low and away sliders), Travis Hafner stepped to the plate.
My buddy and I sat and ripped Pronk after he swung and missed twice on fastballs, saying he can’t get around on them anymore. On the next pitch, he went and got a pitch away and golfed it into the right field stands for a three-run homer. I’ve got to give credit where credit is due. I have no idea how he got this pitch and took it out. The Tribe led comfortably at 12-7 at this point.
This is where the bullpen turned back the calendar to April and “Walk The Line” should have been the theme song the rest of the way.
Aquino walked Braun to start the seventh and wild pitched him to second. One pitch into that second at-bat, Eric Wedge went to Luis Vizcaino. He promptly walked Fielder and allowed Braun to steal third. Another in the long line of Brewer sac flies from the Corey Hart brought in what was thought to be a meaningless run. That was before the fateful bottom of the eight occurred.
With one out, The Viz walked Mike Rivera and Craig Counsell – its one thing to walk Braun and Fielder, but Rivera and Counsell? That is what gets you into trouble. Out went Vizcaino and in came Matt Herges, who has been so good since his call-up in early May. He walked noted slugger Casey McGehee to lead the bases. Again, you cannot walk these guys. “It’s a situation where you come in and throw strikes,” Herges said. “I didn’t do that. Period. That was on me. I’m better than coming in in the eighth inning with the lead and walking the first guy. That’s why I’ll have trouble sleeping tonight.”
Braun hit an infield single to score Rivera, which brought the lead run to the plate in the form of Fielder. “The reason Rafael Perez is down there is to come in and face hitters like Prince Fielder,” said Wedge.
Wedge had no choice but to go to his one lefty, Perez, to face the Prince. Raffy left has been shaky at best all season, but the hope was that he may have been turning the corner. Any sense that this was occurring, was killed, along with Perez’s confidence, with one swing of the bat. Fielder took Raffy’s first pitch out of the stadium so fast “it left a vapor trail,” to quote the great Harry Doyle on Rick Vaughn Bobblehead night. “The pitch to Fielder was supposed to be down and away,” said Perez. “It was up an in.”
“Overall, we had a very bad night on the mound, Wedge said in full master of the obvious mode. “We continually put ourselves in tough situations. They kept coming and we kept making it all the tougher on ourselves. Eventually, they got us.”
The night, by the numbers:
12 – runs scored by the Tribe in the loss
11 – combined RBI’s by Braun and Fielder
8 – runs allowed by Aquino, Vizcaino, Herges, and Perez over two and 2/3rds innings pitched
6- walks by those same pitchers
4 – home runs hit by the Indians in the loss
This is the kind of loss that eats at you. Its a real shame because they had this one on the bag, but as good as Herges, Aquino, and Vizcaino have been holding down the fort, the Indians still miss Rafael Betancourt. Without him, they still struggle to get the ball to Kerry Wood, who has just three saves over the last month.
Tonight, they try to regroup with Jeremy Sowers on the hill. He faces Brewers ace Yovani Gallardo.
Author: TD
TD is a born and bred Clevelander who agrees with ESPN's Scott Van Pelt when he says ""Ranch Dressing makes everything better except for cereal and ice cream."TD has written 253 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
EXACTLY. This one conjured up shades of April…
0-6 in games I’ve gone to this year (though they were leading 12-8 when we left). Why isn’t Tony Sipp up here to be the lefty specialist? Time for Raffy to join Fausto in Arizona.
Why, OH WHY, are we sticking with Ben Francisco when we had an opportunity to pinch hit Garko? This confuses me. Any enlightenment?
“This is the kind of loss that eats at you. ”
Lets Go Tribe says that this one evens out the win against Greinke… I’d prefer to not have to have that even out. Sigh.
What a miserable loss that just epitomizes the way this season has gone. Obviously this loss is on the bullpen, who putrid performance emitted such stank that it carried all the way to the East Coast where I could smell it.
That said, Eric Wedge’s managing in this game after the Brewers started to rally, did not help matters.
As an initial matter, he should have started the 7th with the Viz and not Aquino, who was clearly having control problems from the outset. Then he should have started the 8th with Herges instead of the Viz. Wedge kept gambling that he could conserve the bullpen instead of trying to lock it down. Bringing in a reliever with men on base in the middle of an inning is a lot tougher task than bringing him in to start the inning.
I understand why Wedge went to Perez to face Fielder, but given Raffy’s shaky confidence and control problems, I think it was asking a lot for him to come in for that situation. Now, his confidence is crap, and the organization is going to have to make a decision about what to do with him, which may mean sending him to join Fausto in AZ to get his head back on straight.
The way Wedge managed the bottom of the 9th was inexplicable. Hafner gets a nice leadoff single to the opposite field and Wedge… lets him run. He’s got Barfield and Crowe sitting on the bench, and he’s letting our slow DH with a bad shoulder run. Of course, Francisco grounded out slowly to second, a play that J-Barf or Crowe possibly beat out (or at least make close). At the very least, a pinch runner forces the issue there and possibly causes the second baseman to hurry the throw.
But Wedge wasn’t done there. One on, one out, down two and he let Valbuena hit. That’s right, our rookie backup second baseman with a batting average below the Mendoza line got the AB, instead of Garko who could have possibly tied the game with one swing (especially the way Hoffman was pitching last night – he got away with about 5 absolute meatballs during the 9th). Even Steve Phillips questioned this decision on-the-air. Just awful.
Now, I’m not blaming Wedge for this loss. But it’s a manager’s job to put his players in the best position to win a game, and last night, Eric Wedge unquestionably failed to do that.
Regardless of how this season turns out, I’m on record that this team will never consistently win as long as Eric Wedge is the manager.
A new low.
Bring back the gulls.
Gulls just wanna have fun.
At least I get to laugh at that picture…
Fatty-cake, fatty-cake, baker’s man…
Just when I didn’t think they could find new ways to lose, they go and find a new way to lose.
In that pic, Braun looks like he’s about to say, “Don’t eat me! NOOOOO!!!”
It’s more reasonable to praise Wedge for getting 12 runs out of our mediocre line-up than to blast him for decisions in that game. How many runs should you have to score to win? Our entire pitching staff consists of Cliff Lee, a competent closer, and a bunch of guys whose careers are teetering on the brink, who could just as easily be sent down or released. Mr. Shapiro, this is on you, your ability to evaluate pitching talent, create roster depth and spread your available finances efficiently. I couldn’t believe in February he would stand pat with the pitching we had then, was sure a trade was in the works. Oh well.
How soon can we get Alex White signed?
The other problem is that they’re basically out of options in Columbus. The Clippers bullpen (check back at 2 for the full skinny, hehehe) consists of Sipp (at whom they don’t seem to be willing to give an extended look), Masa Kobayashi (been there, done that), and Vinnie Chulk (again, tried that already). I’ve written extensively about the struggles of John Meloan, and Frank Herrmann is lights out one night, gets lit up the next (sounds like he’d fit perfectly, actually). There just isn’t anybody down there.
[...] with Cliff Lee’s dominating performance over the Cardinals, but then came the Brewers and three, straight, [...]