In Case You Were Expecting Better, I Remind You That We Root For a Team From Cleveland

The slide continues, this time with the Indians losing a very winnable extra-inning game to the Chicago Whine Sox, who are acting like the only team interested in winning the AL Central.

The final score was 6-3, with the final act of utter humiliation being Scott Elarton giving up a two-run double to light-hitting, seldom used outfielder Brian Anderson in the 12th to give the Whine Sox an insurmountable three-run lead. Welcome back to Cleveland, Scott. You'll fit right in with the 2008 Cleveland Indians bullpen.

Age and Treachery pitched well enough to win for a team with a major league offense, giving up 3 runs in 6.2 innings.

The Indians pretty much lost the game in the third inning when they managed to run themselves out of a big inning, with Ben Francisco breaking for home from third and getting caught in a rundown with nobody out on a weak infield grounder in front of him, followed by a strikeout and and a ground out.

The Looch looked like a major league hitter for this game, going 2/3 with a first-inning homer. So, with that anomaly out of the way, we can expect him to swing at hallucinations for the next 5 or 6 games.

So, now we're 5.5 games behind the Whine Sox, having lost 4 straight to them and 9 of our last 10 games overall. That's right - the Tribe has lost 9 of their last 10 games.

In other news, it appears someone has registered firederekshelton.com, though there's nothing but a placeholder site at that location.

Were you hoping that uber-prospect Adam Miller would come up soon to rescue us from He Who Shall Not Be Named (who tightroped through a non-save opportunity last night)? Sorry, pal, your dreams are deferred - he has been placed on the DL.

Rafael Betancourt, on the other hand, has looked pretty good since the weight of the 9th inning has been lifted from his shoulders. Senor Slow may very well be best suited to putting out brush fires and not closing out the game.



Even Indiana Jones couldn't find Andy Marte, who still has not played since May 15. My brother and sister-in-law came into town this weekend for a wedding and we saw the film yesterday morning. There was more action in 5 minutes of this movie than the Tribe bats have provided since the beginning of the season. Like the Tribe bats, however, most of the action was pretty gratuitous and with little plan and purpose.