Cliff Lee Masterful, Prevents Second Straight Sweep

Cliff Lee does it again. In his second start against the Oakland Athletics on a Sunday, he shut down the A’s to help stop an Indians’ three game slide.

Lee 2-0: In his two starts this year against the A’s, he’s pitched 14.2 innings, surrendered one walk and six hits. Only one earned run and struck out 12 batters.

Cliff Lee had his breaking ball working today. He was throwing it effectively for strikes and getting ahead in the count. He retired nine straight before two straight hits brought in the only run, then went on to retire 14 in a row.

He could have pitched the 9th, but with the game out of hand and the bottom of the 8th taking as long as it did, there was no need to throw him out there.

It was the definition of dominance. Despite the cold he had outstanding control and he located his pitches very well.

If Cliff Lee can do this all year, then the Indians will be in great shape.

Offense Gets Busy Late: A couple of early runs of Gaudin was all they could muster, until the 8th when they dropped a four spot on A’s reliever Fernando Hernandez.

Grady Sizemore ripped a single for his 2nd and 3rd RBIs of the game, Dellucci followed him up with his 2nd and 3rd of the year, while Travis Hafner had the first two runs knocked in early in the 3rd inning.

Ryan Garko continues to get on base. He’s been on every single game this year and is hitting .325.

Hafner and Sizemore now share the lead in RBIs with 8, each had two hits today.

Gutierrez looks like he’s getting over his troubles not only with his bat but with his sickness. He went 1-4 but was hitting the ball real well.

Jamey Carroll was on base all four times today, reaching on two walks, a hit by pitch and a single. He was a real spark plug today, and I think he’s earned himself a shot at hitting in the 2 hole if both Michaels and Cabrera aren’t playing. He got the Tribe going twice today while leading off innings.

The Tribe welcome the defending World Series champions, the Boston Red Sox in for a two game show. Jake Westbrook takes the hill against Jon Lester and Paul Byrd takes on Tim Wakefield on Tuesday.

[BOXSCORE]

Three Up, Three Down – Week Two

A very very bland week for the Tribe. It wasn’t pretty to watch as Torii Hunter crushed us late in Monday’s game. It set the tone for the whole week. While Travis Hafner came back the next night and delivered a win, they Indians had dropped three straight before a finale against Oakland.

There are some bright spots though, and all is not lost as Cliff Lee saved the Indians from another Oakland sweep.

First Up: Jhonny Peralta

Jhonny Peralta pretty much had to bat in the three hole last week with Victor Martinez out.

Now he is back in his comfort zone with no big time pressure on him to get the job done.

Just how he likes it, and better yet, just how I like it.

Jhonny went off this week, homering in three straight games.

After a sluggish first week without any runs batted in, Jhonny knocked in five this week.

Peralta is a silent key for the Indians if they want to be successful offensively. He was a big reason for their post-season success last year. He had a lot of clutch hits and important home runs.

Second Up: Travis Hafner

Travis Hafner isn’t having that high average, but he is making his hits count and he is making good contact. Something he didn’t do last year for awhile.

The man they call Pronk has knocked in four runs this week, two in Sunday’s game against Oakland in the third inning.

The other two on Tuesday night off Justin Speier.

After being rocked in the bottom of the ninth the previous night, the Tribe battled back and Hafner was the hero. Hitting a two run jack in the top of the ninth to save Jake Westbrook’s bacon.

There really isn’t that much of a difference between this week and last for Hafner, except for the strikeouts.

Both weeks now he’s had six hits, but compared to last week his strikeout total has significantly lowered.

Last week he struck out nine times, for five games in a row.

This week, only three.

Another big key for the Indians. As long as Travis isn’t striking out a lot, the offense should be doing fine.

Third Up: Cliff Lee

Talk about dominant, Cliff Lee was that on Sunday against Oakland.

In his second start of the year, and for the second straight Sunday facing the Athletics, Cliff Lee threw a gem of a ball game.

Both his games have stopped three game slides, and have prevented sweeps from happening.

That is a stopper.

While he is the Indians’ five starter, he hasn’t been pitching like it, he’s been pitching above it.

Last week he shut them out for 6.2 innings, while this time around he held them to one run off only two hits in eight strong innings.

He struck out eight Athletics’ hitters and retired 14 straight before being removed after a long half inning for the Indians’ offense.

If Cliff Lee can keep this team afloat until their big Ace gets back on track, he will be an important piece to this team’s success.

After an injury riddled year, filled with emotion from getting sent down, Lee has bounced back in a big way.

First Down: Franklin Gutierrez

After starting off the year 3-3, Gutierrez has gone three for his last 28.

Not to mention he missed a few games with a small bug.

The last two games have been better, as he is finding his swing again and getting hits, but since having a stellar opening day, Gutierrez has struggled.

He has also struck out ten times opposed to only two walks.

Second Down: C.C. Sabathia

For a second straight week, C.C. Sabathia is down.

Sabathia got rocked in his Friday start against the A’s, surrendering nine runs off 12 hits and two walks.

The reigning Cy Young of the American League has gotten off to a rocky start, walking nine batters after only walking 37 the entire year in 2007.

Sabathia must turn it around and start keeping his teams in games. Even when he doesn’t have his best stuff, Sabathia manages to minimize the damage, but early this year he simply does not have his control.

Third Down: Paul Byrd

If there is anyone worse than C.C. Sabathia on this young season, it has to be Paul Byrd.

Byrd was rocked in this weeks start against the Angels.

Byrd went three innings, giving up six runs off three homers, including a Mike Napoli grand slam.

He only threw 43 pitches before he had to make an early exit; his control has been just as bad as Sabathia.

Byrd will get a chance Tuesday to redeem himself, but if his control issues continue, he might not be useful.

A guy who doesn’t throw hard needs to control his pitches, and right now he just isn’t hitting his spots.