Pavano sparkles: Wood saves the day in Tribe victory over Tigers

The Cleveland Indians rode the arms of Carl Pavano and Kerry Wood to victory last night, as the Tribe beat the Detroit Tigers 6-5 at Detroit's Comerica Park Friday Night.

The Indians signing of Carl Pavano to an incentive-laden, $1.5 million dollar deal this past offseason didn't exactly set the corner of Ontario and Carnegie on fire.  The big right-hander hadn't been an effective starter in more than four years, and there wasn't much data suggesting that he was going to turn things around with the Indians.  This theory was supported by his bloated, spring training ERA of near 10, followed by an equally uninspiring 0-3 start to the season.

Pavano may have turned the corner.

The new Indians starter pitched 7 1/3 strong innings last night, giving up only five hits, two runs, without a walk, while striking out three.  It was his longest start since May of 2005 when he pitched a complete game shutout for the Yankees.  Pavano did a nice job working the corners, and for the first time this season, seemed able to locate his pitches, especially his slider.  He also managed to be extremely efficient, throwing only 97 pitches.

This is the Pavano that the Indians need.  What Pavano needs to provide for the Tribe's starting staff is an arm that can go past the seven inning mark to help save a bullpen that has been less than stellar so far in 2009.  Up until this point, he didn't look a think like that pitcher, regardless of what many other sources have been saying.  Other than a start against the Yankees in which he was likely pumped full of adrenaline, Pavano's been a dog in 2009, with a near 10 ERA.

Hopefully this start against the Tigers is a trend, and not the exception.
I'm sure there are many that think keeping Perez with the big club is the route to go.  Normally, I would agree with that sentiment.  Too often in the past, Shapiro's handling of young pitchers has resembled more of a yo-yo than a GM, bouncing them from the Indians to the triple A club numerous times.  Shapiro and Wedge seem to be trying something a bit different with Perez this year by keeping him with the big club to work out his problems with Indians pitching coach, Carl Willis.  Last night's start may have been a major step back.

Perez relieved Pavano with one out in the eighth after Pavano had given up a run and two doubles.  Perez only managed to throw three pitches.  The second pitch was an infield single to the speedy Curtis Granderson, moving Brandon Inge to third.  The third pitch was a Placido Polanco single that scored a run.  It was the last batter he faced, giving him another outing without recording an out.

It's not that Perez pitched poorly, the kid only threw three pitches.  It's not as though the two hits were moon shots that went out of the stadium.  No, we're talking about two singles, one of them of the infield variety.  What worries me most at this stage Perez is starting to get to that place where he thinks every bad thing that could happen to a player, will happen.  The head games are the graveyard for pitching careers.  It may be time to send the young lefty down to Columbus to get things straight.

I know having Willis standing next to him while he's throwing is helpful, but it's not like we live in 1807.  There is such a thing as video feeds and telephones.  Let Perez regain his confidence in Columbus, not Cleveland.

I like Jensen Lewis, and really want this kid to succeed.  He seems to have Tom Mastny disease though.  He struggles...a lot.  The problem is that he goes through these stretches of looking really good, that you can't quite put your finger on what kind of pitcher he'll be.  His ceiling appears to be that of a closer.  His basement seems to be Fernando Cabrera.  Right now, he's pitching like the latter.  He may need to spend some time in Columbus as well.

I wish the Indians had never signed David Dellucci.  Apparently in some retort to my lashing of the Indians bringing up the outfielder yesterday, Dellucci had perhaps his best offensive game since joining the Tribe as a free agent.  He went 4 for 5 with two doubles and a run yesterday.  The Indians are only better with Dellucci playing well, so I'm not rooting against the guy.  That said, I'll believe this offense when I see it more than once.

This is the brilliance of Kerry Wood.  He threw nine pitches in a perfect ninth inning.  He's a closer, with a closer's mentality.  He's had a brutal week in many respects, but you could never tell while Wood was on the mound last night.  He's worth every cent.

Aaron Laffey is on the hill today against Zach Miner.  Looking forward to seeing Laffey continue his brilliant 2009 campaign. 

Chopping the Wood in Cleveland

I missed most of the game tonight.  I missed Cliff Lee pitch eight shutout innings, giving up only five hits, and striking out five.  I missed Tim Wakefield throw a one-hitter, while walking four and striking out five of his own in seven shutout innings.

No, I turned on the game at the start of the ninth inning, with the score set at 0-0.

What I didn't miss was Kerry Wood walk Dustin Pedroia on a 3-2 pitch.  What I didn't miss was Kerry Wood give up a single to David Ortiz, putting two runners on with nobody out.  What I didn't miss was Jason Bay, once rumored to be prized by the Indians in a deal for Cliff Lee, park a three-run homer off of Wood to give the Red Sox the lead, and ultimately the victory.

Oh, Cleveland managed to get a rally going of their own in the ninth inning, with two lead-off singles by Shin-Soo Choo and Ryan Garko.  After Jhonny Peralta struck out looking (gotta love the bat on the shoulder in the ninth), Mark DeRosa drove in Choo with a single of his own.  Yeah, the winning run actually came to the plate with only one out against Jonathan Papelbon.  That's where it ended, when Kelly Shoppach struck out, and Ben Francisco popped out to end the game.

If only my cable was out all night...

Wakefield has been awesome this year, lowering his ERA to 1.86 in the no decision.  In a normal game, I wouldn't be surprised that Wakefield has shut down the Indians early in the year, but the Indians slump didn't exactly help matters.  The fluttering knuckle ball proved to be too much for the Indians' bats.  Like I said, I'm not surprised.

Wedge ejection
Is it a coincidence that Eric Wedge was thrown out of the game the same day as he laid out his team to the media?  I still haven't seen why he was tossed, and there likely was a good reason, but I'm sure there was a statement in there somewhere.  There always is.  Wedge took his veterans to the shed for their lack of offense, and re-iterated that this is now a veteran club. I couldn't agree more.

On a personal note, it's really good to be back blogging about the Tribe.  I'm not here to take anything too seriously at this point in my life.  I love every nuance of every game, win or lose.  I was scrolling through my blogroll the other day, reading several different blogs, and there are a lot of good ones out there that are related to the Tribe.  I actually got an e-mail today from a new viewer asking why I promote other blogs, and I had to reply with the truth.  "I Love them all."  It's funny.  Over the years, I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly of Indians' blogging.  I've been part of all three, and proud of it.  That said, everyone's got something to say.  I watched Wood tonight get lit up throwing a 99 MPH fastball.  Some will say it's not a big deal.  Some will scream that it's the return of JoeBo.  Some will blame inactivity.  Some will blame back-to-back games.  Some will stop watching for a week.  Others won't be able to wait for game two.  There will be some data to support it all.  What's my point?  It's baseball, and it doesn't get better than this...

...other than a win...

...and a record over .500...

...and beating the Red Sox...

...and...    

Sipp saves the day in Indians win over Twins

Have I mentioned how big a fan of Tony Sipp I am?  For those that were doubters before today, something tells me that the Tony Sipp bandwagon is going to get a bit bigger on Monday.

Tony Sipp relieved Jensen Lewis in the top of the seventh inning with the bases loaded, and proceeded to save the day.  Aaron Laffey had started the game off with six solid innings of shutout baseball.  Up to the seventh, he had only given up three hits, and three walks, to go along with four strike outs.  It wasn't his best performance, but it certainly followed suit with his previous starts in 2009.  After getting the first out in the seventh, two singles and a walk loaded the bases and ended his day.  He was still up 4-0, but responsible for the runners. 

Jensen Lewis relieved, and continued his rubber-band act. promptly gave up a single scoring two of the three inherited runners.  He then made matters worse by walking the next batter to reload the bases, and end his day.  This seems to be typical Lewis.  One day, he's the guy who looked like a closer late last season.  The next day, he's Tom Mastny.

Enter Tony Sipp.

Sipp inherited a bases-loaded jam and was facing the daunting task of going up against arguably the Twins best hitter, Justin Morneau.  Yeah, I know, without Joe Mauer, there's really no arguing the point.  Sipp promptly struck out Morneau on four pitches, blowing a fastball by the Twins slugger on a 1-2 count. 

The next batter was Jason Kubel, who had two home runs yesterday for the Twins in their 7-1 victory over the Tribe.  Sipp used six pitches on Kubel before striking him out with a pitch that he had obviously taken something off of.  As Tony Lastoria, head honcho at Indians Prospect Insider and scribe to theclevelandfan.com, has said in the past,

"He is still developing a changeup and has a good feel for it, and even
though he just started throwing it when he came into the organization
the Indians feel it may end up being his best pitch."

If that last pitch was a changeup, it appears as though Tony's comments are something straight from Kreskin.

I know it's early, and only Sipp's second appearance, but boy was it electrifying.  I would have to imagine that it's going to be the talk of the rags tomorrow.  If it's not, it should be.

Rafael Betancourt had his best outing of the young year, throwing an extremely efficient perfect eighth inning.    He needed 10 pitches, nine of which were strikes, to get through the inning.  Two of the outs were fly balls, but he still did the job he struggled mightily with last season.  Hopefully it's a pattern, and not the exception.

Kerry Wood got save #4 today.  I can't say that it was a calm ninth inning though.  He allowed the first two runners on, before a double play and strike out ended the inning, and the game.  It's funny how a 97 MPH fastball can calm your nerves with two men on and the winning run at the plate, in the ninth inning.  Let's just say that it's better than an 85 MPH fastball, like we've seen in the past.

Here's a quick thought:  If none of our starters can ever get through the seventh inning, how many relievers are we going to burn through before the end of the season?  Just something to think about, because we are closing in on May with what, two starts through the seventh, and one that took 120-ish pitches by Cliff Lee?  I read somewhere that Carl Pavano is doing just what he's supposed to be doing.  Well, if we needed a guy to go five-six inning a game, why didn't we just re-sign Paul Byrd?  It's beyond me why we don't just give in and give the ball to guys like David Huff.  He's ready...

The Indians avoid a sweep, and lose another series.  When is May anyways...

Back to the Cavaliers, who are handling the Pistons 51-42 at the half.  Let's just get this game over with.  Lebron has 17, and Mo Williams has 16.  The Cavs D have held Gollum (Tayshaun Prince) , the Whiner (Rasheed Wallace) and the Phanton of the Opera (Rip Hamilton) to four points total.  That's playing some D.  Here's to the potential of a sweep, and on their court to boot.  Nothing would be sweeter.

Tomorrow, the Indians will become important again.  There are only two teams that put the Indians in the category of worthy to mention on any major sports network, and tomorrow they face off against one of them.  The Red Sox roll into town, with the Indians facing Tim Wakefield, Brad Penny and Tim Lester.  We roll out Cliff Lee, Anthony Reyes and Fausto Carmona.

Yeah, I'll be closing my eyes and holding on as well. 

Tribe woes continue with 7-1 loss to Twins

The Minnesota Twins dominated every part of the game against the Indians on Saturday night, as they beat the Tribe 7-1 in another offensive letdown.

So much for Carl Pavano turning some sort of post-Yankees corner.  He gave up 11 hits in five innings, and left the game having given up five runs.  It wasn't a horrid start.  Nine of the 11 hits were singles, and a few of them were of the light-variety that the 90's Tribe infield likely either would have made a play on, or would have made it more interesting.  Still, there was really nothing to the start.  He's a guy that's obviously supposed to swallow up innings.  Gee thanks Carl for those five innings you pitched.  Thanks a lot.

I'd like to say I have faith in the Tribe front office to bring up David Huff sometime soon, and cut their ties with this guy, but they won't.  I'm sure they'll do something even more idiotic, like bring back Scott Lewis, and send Aaron Laffey back down.  Hey, didn't Zach Jackson start at some point?  Oh yeah, he can't start or relieve anymore.  Maybe they can use him for batting practice, or perhaps he can play short.

Well, the offense has now been shut down by Brian Bannister, Nick Blackburn and Kevin Slowey in three out of four nights.  Do I really need to say any more about that?  Sure, Bannister and Blackburn have a history of beating up the Indians, but should they?  Then you top it off with Kevin Slowey, and you really have to scratch your head.  Cleveland had nine hits, and struck out eight times.  Four of those nine hits came in the ninth inning, after the Indians were already down 7-0.  Seven of the total hits came from three players, Victor Martinez (3), Shin-Soo Choo (2) and Travis Hafner (2).  Slowey ended up going eight innings, giving up eight hits and only one run, while he struck out seven.  So, just to make sure we have it straight:  Yankees Stadium makes the Indians look like murderer's row.  Young, quality right-handed starters, who are struggling or have just been called up from triple A make the Indians look like they swing a feather.  Nice...

Rafael Perez made an appearance tonight after his disastrous start, and only gave up a hit in an inning of shutout ball.  Sure, he was down 5-0 when he came into the game, but it's also much better than giving up four or five more runs.  Joe Smith threw two innings of shutout ball after Perez.  It's something...not much...but something.

That said, Masa Kobayashi gave up two gopher balls.  Two words...No Masa.  Hey, what happened to Zach Jackson...oh yeah...he's suspended in no-man's land.

The Indians best starter is on the hill tomorrow night, when Aaron Laffey makes his third start (yeah, I said that with a straight face).  He's facing off against Glen Perkins.  Perkins is only a career 1-0 against the Indians, with a 4.76 ERA.  So, am I the only one that figures he's going to pitch like Roger Clemens on Ste...er. 

At least he's a lefty.

Indians "Weaver" the Royals to take series

Earl Weaver believed the best way to win a baseball game was the three-run homer.  The Cleveland Indians and Grady Sizemore took that strategy to heart in beating the Kansas City Royals 5-2 on Thursday night.  It was the Indians first series win of 2009.

Sizemore came to bat in the eighth inning after the Indians had struggled all night against Kansas City Starter Gil Meche.  The Indians started hitting Meche in the eighth, but it took an error by second baseman Alberto Callaspo to allow a run to score to finally chase Meche.  Enter Ron Mahay, who faced off against Sizemore in his first at bat.

Grady made him pay, and surely made Earl Weaver smile in the great baseball beyond.

Sizemore launched a slider into the right field stands, scoring Travis Hafner and Asdrubal Cabrera, to give the Indians the 5-3 victory.



Jensen Lewis and Kerry Wood rolled in and actually kept Royals from scoring. No, it's certainly not time to jump up and down and proclaim the Tribe bullpen fixed, but it's certainly a good sign.  With Tony Sipp ready to claim an important role, and Lewis starting to find his zone, and the Indians may have their set-up men for the foreseeable future.  Lewis got the win tonight, and  Wood was sizzling, striking out two in a perfect inning to claim his third save of the season.  If he stays healthy, there is no doubt that Wood is the guy this club has been looking for over the past several years.  If Betancourt can somehow manage to regain form, and Perez can be fixed, and the Indians have a solid five relievers.  Toss in Joe Smith and perhaps John Meloan at some point, and there could be a downright scary bullpen down the road.  Of course, part of me wonders if the term "scary" pertains to good...or bad.

I've read some articles proclaiming Reyes' start as a good one.  He went six innings, giving up four hits, two runs, four walks and five strikeouts.  While watching the game, I can't help to feel a bit frustrated.  It does appear that Reyes could be even better than those stats.  I still cringe watching him throw pitches.  He needs to learn to throw, and not try to overpower everyone.  If he could locate instead of trying to Nolan Ryan everyone, he could become a solid #3.  Until then, the Reyes Arm Implosion watch continues at the Diatribe.

The Indians welcome the Minnesota Twins into Cleveland for the weekend series.  Two struggling pitchers take the hill in game one, with Fausto Carmona facing off against Nick Blackburn.  I have to wonder to myself how long it's going to be for Carmona's 2007 sparkle to wear off.  Hopefully, he will regain it soon, but right now, he seems to be a liability on this staff.  This team could become dominant if Lee continues to roll out games like last night, and Carmona can regain form.  If he doesn't, this staff just isn't good enough to go deep in the playoffs.

Cliff Lee out-dueled by Indians-killer, Brian Bannister

Brian Bannister continued to own the Cleveland Indians as he led the Kansas City Royals to a 2-0 shutout victory over Cliff Lee and the Cleveland Indians.

Cliff Lee continued to look more like the Cy Young award winner from 2008, and did everything he could to win the game.  Lee leapfrogged Aaron Laffey's seven-inning performance last night by going eight innings of his own.  Lee's workhorse outing saw him throw 122 pitches, 85 of which were strikes.  He gave up nine hits, two runs, walked one, and struck out five in his best performance of 2009. 

Unfortunately for Lee, he faced off against Cy You...er...Brian Bannister, who seems to have made a career out of pitching well against the Indians.  As mentioned yesterday, Bannister was 3-1 career against the Indians, with a paltry 1.91 ERA, including an even better 2-0 with a 1.89 ERA in Cleveland.  Make that 3-0.  He actually improved upon that today in going six innings, giving up only four hits, two walks, and striking out one.  He really seems to have the Indians' number, and to think this kid was just called up the other day from AAA Omaha.  My guess is he's earned at least one more start.

Sons of Geronimo officially endorses Tony Sipp as its favorite player, and wasted opportunities, after the jump...


Tony Sipp made a sterling major league debut tonight, perhaps
mirroring what his future may hold by pitching a perfect ninth inning. 
His first batter was Mike Jacobs, who he promptly struck out. 
It was a positive outing for the young future star, and if I'm a
betting man, I'd say that it's the first step in his line to closer. 
Tony Sipp is the real deal.  You may have not heard it here first,
since I first started clamoring for this kid when I wrote over at Tribe
Report, but I'll certainly be the loudest.  This kid is going to be a
good one...count on it.



The Indians had a chance to win this game in the ninth.  A
walk by Jhonny Peralta, and a single by Shin-Soo Choo put runners on
first and second with one out.  Kelly Shoppach ripped a first-pitch to
left field in which David Dejesus caught while stumbling around like a
drunk.  Both runners would advance on a wild pitch, but Trevor Crowe
struck out looking to end the game.  Too bad for Lee, Sipp and the
Indians, who could have used this win as a stepping stone.

Gil Meche goes up against Anthony Reyes tomorrow.  The "Will Reyes blow out his arm" watch will continue.  

Laffey, the longball and the double play leads Tribe over Royals

Aaron Laffey provided the Indians with their best start of the season, as the Cleveland Indians held on to beat the Kansas City Royals 8-7 at Progressive Field.  The Indians moved to 5-9 on the season with the win.

Laffey's start wasn't all peaches and cream, although he did pitch well in only allowing one run through seven innings.  He did get some fielding help with five straight innings with a double play, including a seventh-inning dp with the bases loaded that allowed the Indians to keep their 6-1 lead.  Laffey was really in command of his sinker and slider, and trusted his pitches enough to induce nine ground ball outs, to go along with three K's.

Laffey was called up on April 15th after Scott Lewis was sent to the DL with a strained forearm, and has arguably become the most effective Tribe starter.  Laffey's ERA has dropped to 2.19, and opponants are only hitting a paltry .238 off the young lefty.  His start was the first by a Tribe starter to last until the end of the seventh inning.  Unfortunately, the bullpen did everything it could to blow the lead.  More on that in a minute...

Cleveland's bullpen nearly blows it, and the offense flexes, after the jump...


Rafael Perez didn't get sent down to the minors, since Eric Wedge and Mark Shapiro insist that he's earned the right to figure things out in the majors.  Huh?  What?  When did they start this policy?  Isn't this the team that sends it's pitchers on a nightly bunji-jump, from AAA to the bigs?  Management has decided that Perez will be taken out of key eight-inning, lefty situations that he has excelled at since making the club two-years ago. 

Joe Smith faced three batters, and managed to give up two hits and a walk, and ended up giving up three runs, although only one scored with him on the mound.  Masa Kobayashi would relieve him, would face two batters, giving up two hits and a run.  Neither retired a batter.  Jensen Lewis would save the day.  He gave up a sac fly, which made the score 6-5 Cleveland, before forcing Miguel Olivo to, you guessed it, ground into another double play.  The six double plays tied a record for the Indians.

Kerry Wood would add to the bullpen issues, but I'll get to that in a second...in the meantime...

The Indians offense continued it's onslaught tonight, led by the fifth home-runs by both Grady Sizemore and Victor Martinez.  Sizemore's homer broke a 2-1 game wide open in the fourth inning.  Ben Francisco and Asdrubal Cabrera hit a couple of one-out singles, before Sizemore launched his Earl Weaver special over the wall in right field to give the Indians their 6-1 lead.

After the bullpen imploded, VMart came through in the eighth, blasting a two-run shot that gave the Indians an 8-5 cushion, that it would turn out to need.

This Indians' offense is potent, and patient, which can be deadly to opposing teams' pitching staff.  They have the penchant for big innings, and can really hit teams with a knockout quickly.  This should keep them in most games, even with a poor pitching staff.  The Indians will likely ride this offense, until the arms work themselves out.  If they don't, it could be a long season.

Kerry Wood did his best to impersonate Joe Borowski.  There's a major flaw with this line of thinking:  Wood throws a bit harder.  Wood's fastball's averaged 96 MPH, and his last pitch, a strike, was 97.  This isn't JoeBlo, even though Wood allowed a Dave DeJesus two-run jack, that left the Indians with only a one-lead.  Wood would settle down, and get a strike-out, his second, to end the inning.  Sure, it would have been nice to see him retire three guys on nine pitches, but he still looked essentially in command, and there really wasn't a time when I didn't think he was going to get that last guy out.  Wood recorded his second save.

Cleveland got another good start from a starting pitcher.  Perhaps this is a trend...I'll leave it at that.  The Indians are now 5-9 and 1-0 in this nine-game homestand.  Brian Bannister was recalled from AAA to face off against the Indians and Cliff Lee.  Hopefully Lee can return to full form against Bannister, who has been nothing but spectacular against the Indians.  Bannister has rolled out a 3-1 lifetime record against Cleveland, with a stellar 1.91 ERA against the team.  He's 2-0 against the Indians in Cleveland.  He's pitched well in AAA, having gone nine scoreless innings preceding his call-up.  It could be an interesting game.

The Cavaliers played like garbage in the second half of their game tonight, but still managed to beat the Pistons by eight points.  I suppose it has to be tough to get up against an opponent like the Pistons, who are, quite honestly, as done a team as you can be in the playoffs.  Watching the Pistons is almost painful.  I can't wait to brush this former great team aside, so we can have games worth watching.

Tribe "streak" ends with hanging fastball

The job of 'Cleveland Indians pitcher' has been a solitary experience so far in 2009. This point was emphasized today when Johnny Damon, Mark Teixeira, Melky Cabrera, Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter all hit solo home runs to give the New York Yankees a 6-5 victory over the Cleveland Indians.

Anthony Reyes proved to be the model of inefficiency. Reyes only gave up three runs on five hits, but three of those five hits were solo home runs to Teixera, Damon, Cabrera. Reyes also managed to walk three, while striking out only one. Reyes faced 23 batters yesterday, 18 of which he started with a ball. Reyes had to be pulled after the fifth inning after throwing 91 pitches, only 47 of which were strikes. An already overused bullpen again had to suffer a seemingly over matched group of starting pitchers.

Zach Jackson was brought in to start the sixth, and promptly gave up another solo shot, this time to Robinson Cano. Vinnie Chaulk was brought in in the seventh inning. He promptly walked Johnny Damon, who then scored when Chaulk threw a Mark Teixeira grounder wide of first base. Jensen Lewis ended up the goat, giving up the solo home run to Derek Jeter in the eighth inning, on a hanging fastball.

In the meantime, Cleveland's offense was more than giving to the Tribe starting pitchers what they needed to win. Mark DeRosa hit a solo shot of his own in the top of the first, to give the Tribe an early 1-0 lead. After the Yanks took a 2-1 lead on the back-to-back homers by Damon and Teixeira, Cleveland rebounded in the fourth after walks by Travis Hafner and Shin-Soo Choo, and a single by Ben Francisco that tied the score at 2. Cleveland rebounded again in the fifth inning after the Cabrera homer, scoring three runs on three hits and a walk. A DeRosa singled scored Asdrubal Cabrera. VMart then hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Grady Sizemore. After Hafner lined out, Ryan Garko doubled, scoring DeRosa, and giving the Indians a 5-3 lead.

Unfortunately, solo homers and errors cost the Indians the win.

Cleveland's offense again rebounded in the ninth, only to have a ridiculous strike call end the game. Tony Graffanino and Asdrubal Cabrera had back-to-back singles, and with two outs, Mark DeRosa stepped to the plate against Mariano Rivera. DeRosa worked the count to 3-2 on five cutters that were all inside. The sixth pitch was up and away, and out of the strike zone. That didn't stop a called third strike on a check swing. It wasn't a strike, but that's part of baseball I suppose.

Joba Chamberlain was merely average today. It seems as though his off the field troubles, as well as the rest of the league, has caught up with the former future star. Chamberlain gave up five runs, thanks to five walks and six hits. He lasted only 4 2/3 of an inning. Perhaps Chamberlain is best used as a reliever.

The starting pitching needs to get better, and fast. Fausto Carmona is on the hill today against Chien-Ming Wang. The good news for the Indians is that Wang is pitching like a Tribe starter, having gone 0-2 with a near 30 ERA. Carmona's ERA is sitting a a paltry 9. This game could get quite offensive.

Cleveland slams Yankees in first game at new Yankee Stadium

Somehow, 3-7 doesn't seem so bad after today's game against the Evil Empire.

The Cleveland Indians faced off against the New York Yankees in a game much bigger than any game in April should be. The brand-spankin' new, $1.5 billion dollar Yankee Stadium opened up for business today, and the Tribe promptly handed the Yankees their first loss there, by rolling the Yankees with a 10-2 victory.

The pregame was full of the pomp and circumstance that you would expect at the opening of the house that Steinbrenner built. Kelly Clarkson, John Fogerty and Bernie Williams (what?) rang in the game with the Spar Spangled Banner, Centerfield and some acoustic garbage. Carl Pavano was greeted with boos that were previously saved for the Boston Red Sox and A-Rod. Yogi Berra threw out the first pitch. Babe Ruth's bat that hit the first home run in the original Yankee Stadium in 1923 was laid across home plate before the Yanks took their first at bats. Jerry Seinfeld made an appearance, as did Jay-Z, Paul Simon and Donald Trump, and I half expected the Yankees to roll out Ruth's casket at some point during the game. Of course, David Wells was there in the stands, so maybe that counts.

The last two AL Cy Young award winners managed to keep the game interesting through the first six innings, although it was hardly a stellar performance by either. Sabathia left with the game tied at 1-1 after 5 2/3 innings and 120+ pitches. Lee left after six full innings having stranded 10 runners, but received a nine-run seventh to give him his first win of the year.

The nine run seventh was anchored by Grady Sizemore's grand slam, a Victor Martinez double and homerun, and a Jhonny Peralta two-run double. Peralta, by the way, was batting clean-up for the first time this season, with Travis Hafner taking a day off.

As I flipped on ESPN after the game, I was pleased to see that they showed several clips from the post-game presser of current and former players, coaches, and anyone else they could get their hands on, to talk about how great the stadium is. Sabathia was even up there talking about how electric it was after his team lost. Make no mistakes, I can't wait to see a game there. By all accounts, it truly is something to behold. Funny though, how lost in all the shuffle was the fact that the Yankees actually lost the game.

As for the Tribe-side to the game, you could talk a lot about how it was a bunch of Indians taking their first cuts at CC Sabathia, and how sentimental it was for all the old friends to be facing off against each other for the first time. Sure, you could point to Martinez tipping his helmet to the hefty lefty before his first at bat against his best friend. Sure, you could make a big deal about the Cy Young sumo match between Lee and CC. At the end of the day, does any of that really matter?

The Indians beat the Yankees in game one of their freakin' $1.5 billion dollar stadium, and it doesn't get any better than that.