3 Out of 4 Ain't Bad (Neither is 3 out of 3)

Hey crimestoppers,

Coming at you from New Jersey, where I'll be on business for a couple days.

The Tribe has scratched and clawed its way to .500 (well, briefly over .500) since my last post, carrying 3 of 4 from Toronto.

Good things:

• Unassisted Triple Play by The Beaded One!
• Knocking out Roy Halladay with a 6-spot in his shortest outing of the season.
• Going into the 10th inning of the nightcap of last night's doubleheader, the Indians had held Toronto scoreless for 31 straight innings.
• Complete game shutout for Fausto Carmona.
• Aaron Laffey went 7 scoreless to get a victory
• Cliff Lee went another 9 scoreless innings
• Craig Breslow sighting! Craig Breslow sighting! (2 scoreless)
• Grady Sizemore goes berserk on Grady Sizemore Fleece Night, knocking two out of the park, along with a double for 5 RBI. It may be time for a Travis Hafner fleece night.
• The starting pitching has been so good that Tom Mastny has not been seeing enough innings to stay sharp, so they sent him down to put some work in and stay ready.
• First homer of the year from the Beaded One.
• Shin Soo Choo has started his rehab assignment in Buffalo.
• Andy Marte sighting!

Not-so-good-things

• Tribe's bats silenced by Shaun Marcum in doubleheader nightcap and Senor Slow came on in the 10th to blow the game after Cliff Lee gave the Tribe 9 shutout innings. Rafael Betancourt's appearances are looking less and less like sure things. I can't believe this, but if He Who Shall Not Be Named really gets back what little velocity he had, he may actually be a better closer for this team. (Ack - I can't believe I just typed that, but there it is.) Betancourt does not look like the same guy in the 9th and 10th with the game tied now that he's The Closer.
• Jason Tyner called up to replace Mastny - and he started the second game of the doubleheader. Apparently our outfield logjam isn't so severe that we can find at-bats for a slap hitter like Jason Tyner in one of our corner outfield spots (career OPS - .637). I suspect he's just roster filler until He Who Shall Not Be Named or Shin-Soo-Choo or Westbrook is ready, but geez - do we have to start him? Late-inning defensive replacement for the Looch? Sure. Pinch-runner? Sure. Starting a game in place of someone who can actually hit? Please, no thanks.
• For those just looking at the box score, who see Andy Marte batting .091 on the season, with 3 LOB in the doubleheader nightcap, it's easy to wonder why he's still on the team. Those of us who are Andy Marte apologists will say that it's hard to get in a groove when you play only once a week. Those who are not will insist that any faith in him is not justified - look at his batting average. I keep waiting and hoping for Andy's Big Bustout, because I think it's coming, but for now, I'll have to be content with him playing better defense than Casey Blake and seeing a lot of pitches.

The beat goes on - Age and Treachery goes tonight against Duchsherer with the A's in town for 3.

Luckiness

There's an old maxim that says, "It's better to be lucky than good." That's okay as far as it goes, but it hardly goes far enough. It is best, of course, to be good AND lucky. It is worst to be bad and unluky. The FEDBU, as they pretty much have been throughout their storied history, were lucky last night and the Indians were mostly bad and thoroughly unlucky.

The Tribe dropped a 5-2 decision to the FEDBU, despite a fine pitching performance from Aaron Laffey, because of one bad inning where the FEDBU scored 4 runs while hitting one ball out of the infield. It's particularly annoying to have opponents score runs on crappy, lucky, seeing-eye infield hits, primarily because it means that your pitcher is doing his job - he's pitching so well that opponents can't get good wood on the ball. That being said, the Tribe really only have themselves to blame for not teeing off on the husk of Mike Mussina. They had the chance to have a big inning to blow the game wide open and only got two runs. It wasn't enough.

Oh yeah - Laffey had a no-hitter going before surrendering the first two garbage infield hits.

This represents the second straight game where the offense failed to do anything. The previous day they wasted a gem of a game by CC Sabathia and ended up totally shut down by Chien-Ming Wang and losing 1-0 on a home run by Melky Cabrera. Yeah, that's right, Melky Cabrera. Let that rattle around your innards for awhile and then go get some Zantac.

So much for that 5-game winning streak. The total offensive collapse of the last two games leaves the Tribe at 12-14, with Seattle coming to town. The good news is that it might give Shapiro some face time with his favorite trade patsy, Bill Bavasi.

Mojo Watch:
Indians Pitching:

Indians Hitting:

Andy Marte Watch:

I'm beginning to wonder if Andy Marte is really some sort of advanced three-dimensional hologram that the Indians are testing for scientific purposes. This might explain their reluctance to put him in games.

Vacation

Pronk, it seems, may be forced into a couple vacation days while his knee heals up. Apparently, he jammed it sliding into second base on his gift double Tuesday night. More will be known after an MRI administered by team doctor (I am not making this up) Mark Schickendantz. Hey, you gotta have both knees in fine working order to do the Schickendantz, especially after you've had a few.

Meanwhile, here at Pronk Needs You, we're also going on vacation to northern Michigan, near Harbor Springs. We will have minimal Internet access - just enough to set my pitching rotation in fantasy baseball a couple times, but not enough to craft the snarky drivel you've come to expect from Pronk Needs You.

Mark Buehrle is bipolar when he faces the Tribe - either we mash him like a potato or he's dominant. Last night, he was a spud. The Tribe put up a 5-spot in the 4th inning, and then held on to get a 7-5 victory. Kelly Shoppach and Josh Barfield both ended oh-fer streaks of 17 at bats in that 4th inning, with Shoppach mashing a 3-run tater.

Aaron Laffey went 5-2/3 for his first major league win, giving up 4 runs. Lewis, Perez held the White Sox down for the next 2-1/3 before yielding to JoeBo, who gave up another dinger (this time to Uribe) in notching his 32nd save.

Tonight - battle of the rookie phenoms - Carmona vs. Hughes - to lead off the big showdown vs. the Evil Empire.

Pronk Needs Us all now that he's on the bench. He's counting on all of us to rock the Jake this weekend with the Evil Empire in town.

And, oh yeah, Tampa Bay beat the Motor City Kitties in Motown last night. AL Central lead - 1.5 games.

Fleeing Lee?

Last night's game was ugly. 14 to 9 Boston ugly.

Cliff Lee was awful, even by recent Cliff Lee standards. And compounding the awfulness, as the boos rained down upon him from an extremely upset home crowd, Lee tipped his cap as he entered the dugout. Bad move, Cliffie. Not the kind of move that will endear you to the crowd or the current management team. Especially for a guy who has been sucking lately, and, in his previous performance hit Sammy Sosa in the head and got into a heated argument with Victor Martinez. Especially for a guy who still has an option left.

So, what can we do with Cliff Lee? It's no secret that Mark Shapiro has been in Buffalo the last couple days scouting Aaron Laffey and Jeremy Sowers. Is a trade in the works? Does the Sleepy Kitten ride the Buffalo shuttle? Has he worn out his act in Cleveland, especially combined with a continued erosion of his onfield performance? It's not a coincidence that Laffey is pitching on the same day as Lee. Sowers has looked better in his last couple starts. Given Lee's track record, one would think that we could find a taker for him, maybe flip him and Francisco for a bullpen arm and a left-handed outfielder to take the pressure off the Trotmeister. Rumors are flying that St. Louis is willing to move Isringhausen and Duncan to Cleveland for the right price. Izzy is expensive, and an injury waiting to happen, but when healthy he would certainly improve the back end of the bullpen.

After seeing the ransom in prospects that Milwaukee paid for a suddenly-hittable Scott Linebrink, it may be that deadline deals this year will be even harder to do, as every selling GM will look at San Diego's haul and raise the price, assuming this deal sets the standard. I sense an epidemic of cases of Jim Bowden Disease coming on.

The rest of the bullpen was not that much better than Lee. In fact, the only reliever who did not surrender a home run last night was Good Fernando Cabrera, who made an extremely low leverage appearance in what, by, then, was a 14-9 game. Even Good Fernando surrendered a double to Wily Mo Pena.

The good news is that the bats finally woke up. Pronk got a cheap RBI with a bases loaded HBP and then earned one with a single on the next at bat. So, now he's off the schneid after an 0 for 20 slide. So, he's got that going for him. Gutierrez and Garko both homered.

The Twins are up next tonight on Trucker Cap Giveaway and Fireworks night at Jacobs Field. Seriously. After watching last night's game, I hope Cliff Lee has his real estate agent on speed dial, because he's probably going to need to find a place in Buffalo or another city within the next few days.