Offense Drops the Ball, but Victor Healthy Again

Jake Westbrook's perfect Spring finally ended in his first regular season start. Westbrook scattered 7 hits over 18 innings with 20 strikeouts and 5 walks during his stay in Winter Haven. So it wasn't that surprising to see his 0.00 Spring ERA translate into an excellent start against the Chi Sox on Thursday. Jake threw 7.1 strong innings, striking out 3 and walking one batter. The only real damage done by Chicago were solo homers in the 6th and 8th innings. Like Carmona the day before, Westbrook turned out a vintage performance by working efficiently (100 pitches) and inducing 12 ground-ball outs.

Unfortunately, the Tribe also picked up where they left off by leaving another quality Westbrook start out to dry. The offense couldn't solve John Danks, managing just two hits and a run in their first loss of the season. With Victor absent, a hit-less day by the first four batters in the lineup will do that (Pronk did have a BB and a R, but that was it).

Victor did make an appearance, pinch-hitting for Michaels in the 8th (he popped out). Obviously Victor's hammy is feeling much better if he was able to bat. Postgame, Wedge said the team was "very happy" with Martinez's recovery process. It may have looked bad when he was injured three days ago, but I think the cold weather was the primary culprit at the time. Just to be safe, it sounds like Victor will have at least one more day off when Shoppach catches for Byrd on Friday. I'm really not worried about Vic's injury anymore, as it was not a serious condition in the first place. Cleveland's physical trainers are among the best in baseball and certainly wouldn't put a player at risk this early in the season.

I'm working on a Westbrook projection article this weekend, so look for that later on.

Around the Central

It's too early to read much into it, but did anyone else notice Kansas City swept the Tigers this week? The flaunted Detroit offense was held to five runs over three games and shut out once. Brian Bannister and Zach Greinke combined for 14 innings of 1 run ball, while Joakim Soria picked up his first two saves. Again, waaaaay too early, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. It's kind of a running joke that I've predicted K.C. to be competitive the last two seasons, but I mean it this time. Watch out for K.C.'s core of youngsters this year (and yes, I genuinely like the Royals as a team. Them and the Nationals; can I pick a winning franchise or what?).

Meanwhile, Detroit showed off a potential Achilles heel in their bullpen this week. The buzz around the blogs is that Detroit's pen is pretty mediocre this season and Tribe fans are all too familiar with the dangers of a shaky bullpen. I've said it elsewhere and I'll say it again: between the bullpen, the ERA wrecking crew that is Dontrelle Willis, a lack of depth, and some serious regression on offense, Detroit is not as good as people think they are this season. We'll see if I'm still right come October.

4.5

Blogging and the first week of classes definitely don't get along very well; might have to hire a secretary or something. On to the Tribe...

Get happy Tribe fans.

Cleveland swept the Twinkies in style Wednesday by becoming the only team in the history of the universe to hand Johan Santana three losses in a season, going 3-1 in four meetings against the lefty. C.C. Sabathia was finally awarded his 15th win of the season after suffering from poor run support in his last four tries. Asdrubal Cabrera started off the Tribe's 4-run first inning with a 2-run uppercut blast over the mini-monster in left field. Victor, Gutz, and Lofton homered, doubled, and singled off Santana to score the other two runs. The Tribe's offense collected 10 hits on the night (only Hafner and Blake failed to reach base), although Santana was able to prevent any further scoring.

Cleveland dominated the Twins during the three game series, scoring 18 runs with a team ERA of 3.67. Minnesota never held a lead over the 27 innings played. Minnesota marks the Tribe's fourth straight series win, plus a two game split with Detroit.

On July 31, the team had a 60-46 record and trailed Detroit by a game, but Cleveland has quietly built a winning record in August. By going 15-11 this month (with two games remaining), the Tribe has pushed their second half record back over .500 at 23-20.

The Tribe's offense has been running on all cylinders since their 11-8 win over Detroit, averaging 5.87 runs per game. Add that to an already white hot pitching staff (3.31 ERA in August) and you're looking at a serious momentum shift in Cleveland.

I think the combination of getting demolished by the Yanks and having to go into Detroit a half game down really woke this team up. It's almost like lighting struck, but that Detroit series in the middle of the month seems to be the where the Tribe started to play with the fire and focus that had the rest of the league sweating the first two months of the season.

It might just be a coincidence, but AstroCab did make his major league debut a week before the team really took off again. Hmmm... More on #13 in my next post.

Meanwhile, Detroit has continued to free-fall and now sits 4.5 games back with only three head-to-head games remaining with Cleveland. The Tigers pitching continued to get battered this week as they lost their latest series to the dangerous Kansas City Royals. K.C. actually has a better second half record (20-22) than Detroit (19-27) and has posted a winning record the past two months.

Finally...

It's the end of an era in Cleveland. Once Kansas City finishes its overhaul of Kauffman Stadium in 2009, Cleveland will lose the title of Largest Freestanding Scoreboard in the United States. KC's trademark crest scoreboard will be remodeled as a video screen, beating out the Jake's 149 by 36 foot A/V monolith. Losing the Jake's claim to fame to a division rival just doesn't seem right. I think Dolan should take some of that free agent money Shapiro is selfishly hoarding away and blow it all on an even bigger scoreboard. That'll show KC who runs the Central. What else do Cleveland fans have to brag about? Wait, we're still in first place? Oh. Well, nevermind then.

Royals Unimpressed by Fausto

Fausto Carmona proved human after all in Game 43 against the Kansas City Royals. The Royals brought a consistent offensive attack, scoring 3 runs on 9 hits off of Carmona. Despite having to deal with baserunners in nearly every inning, Carmona didn't panic and induced 4 double plays to get out of jams. Carmona pitched fairly well, but the Royals came up with some quality hitting to match. A 6th inning homer by Mike Sweeney off of an elevated pitch over the plate was Carmona's only glaring mistake over 6 innings.

The Indians had plenty of opportunities to score, but left five on base. Odalis Perez brought some good stuff to the park today, holding the Tribe to only 3 runs over 6 innings. Perez utilized an effective changeup and kept the Indians off-balance, striking out six. The Royals' bullpen came up big, giving up one hit over the final three innings to seal a 4-3 win at Kauffman Stadium.

I normally don't give any Dap to the opposing fans, but the Kansas City fans have to be among the most underappreciated in baseball. To be able to root for a team that's been as bad as the Royals for that long and still be as enthusiastic and supportive of your team is the ultimate display of dedication. The crowd at Kauffman always seems so spirited and into the game, even if their team isn't playing well that night (or that month). The fans have reason to be excited though, they have a dangerous, young team on the rise in K.C. The Royals have a dangerous, albeit inexperienced team this year, but give them three more years and they should be turning some heads.

Last Word on The Brick

After taking some time to ponder LeBron's decision to pass for the win, rather than finish his drive for the tie, I keep finding myself in agreement with his decision. "We told LeBron to go ahead and attack and make a play," Coach Brown said to the Plain Dealer. "If you get to the rim, go ahead and finish. If you feel like the defense is collapsing, go ahead and kick it. So it was his read." Marshall was wide open as Rasheed Wallace collapsed to cover a driving LeBron, so he did exactly what Coach Brown wanted.

This is exactly the style of play that LeBron has brought all season. James distributes the ball because he trusts his teammates and they've delivered all season. This is nothing new. I doubt the odds would have been much better to win the game in overtime against the surging Pistons than it would have been for Marshall to hit the open three-pointer. Tony and Wilbon summed it up nicely on PTI today (unfortunately I can't hunt down a video), making essentially the same point above and agreeing with LeBron's decision to pass. They went on to say that you can't fault LeBron for maintaining his style of play during the final possession (as a facilitator), but that you can absolutely fault him for not scoring more points over the course of the entire game.