Series #8: @ Oakland

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Friday April 25 10:05
Jason Davis vs Ted Lilly

Saturday April 26 4:05
Jake Westbrook vs John Halama

Sunday April 27 4:05
C.C. Sabathia vs Tim Hudson

All-Time Match-Up: A's lead 211-181 overall and 5-2 last season.

The Tribe is fortunate to catch the back end of the A's rotation, I say we win two.

[Special_K19]

Jason Davis (2-2 6.97)
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/425186.jpg

vs

Ted Lilly (1-0 3.24)
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/150404.jpg

LET'S GO JASON!!! END THE TRIBE'S LOSING STREAK!!!!!

[Special_K19]

Indians suffer fourth straight loss
Blake, Spencer go deep for Cleveland's only runs
By Rick Eymer / Special to MLB.com

OAKLAND -- The Cleveland Indians were happy to leave Seattle and a series sweep behind. But they can't be thrilled with the way they started their series against the Oakland Athletics on Friday night, dropping a 5-2 decision.

The Indians have lost four in a row, and eight of their last 10 as they matched their worst start since the 1993 club also began 7-16.

Casey Blake and Shane Spencer contributed solo home runs, but the rest of the offense remained sluggish. Cleveland never had more than one runner on base in an inning.

Even the recently hot bats of Ellis Burks and Omar Vizquel were cooled off by Ted Lilly and two relief pitchers. Vizquel's nine-game hitting streak ended with a 0-for-4 effort.

Vizquel entered the contest with a .366 average in his previous nine games, and Burks, who also went 0-for-4, was batting .364 over his previous 14 games.

The Indians are 0-12 when trailing after seven innings and have one comeback win this season. From the seventh inning on, the Indians are batting .199 (53-for-267). On Friday, Cleveland produced one hit in the final 4 2/3 innings.
The A's took the lead four pitches into the game when Mark Ellis hit his first career leadoff home run on a 2-1 delivery from Jason Davis. They added two more runs in the second. Ramon Hernandez's homer in the eighth off David Riske provided Oakland's final margin of victory.

"I have to learn to be more aggressive early," said Davis. "I felt like I didn't do my part to keep my team in the game. When you give up three runs in the first two innings it puts the team on their heels a little bit."

Davis (2-3) may not like taking the loss, but he can't feel too bad after his effort. Over his last 20 innings, he's allowed 10 runs for a 4.50 ERA. That won't win any Cy Young Awards but it's still a far cry from giving up 10 runs in his first seven innings of the season for a 12.86 ERA. If he was worried about staying in the rotation, he can relax. The Indians can use him.

"He's a tough guy and he wants to be out there," said Cleveland outfielder Matt Lawton, who knows a little something about struggling. "When you're young you're going to take some lumps. But he'll have his good days too. We got down early, but he got himself together and pitched a heck of a game."

Davis allowed 10 hits, walked two and struck out three.

"Jason was outstanding again," said Indians manager Eric Wedge. "He struggled his first two starts, but the last three games he's been very good in terms of getting us late into the game."

Blake's homer in the third came with two outs and Spencer led off the seventh with his second homer of the year.
Lawton, who went 1-for-3, hopes his visit to Oakland will put him back on track. He is currently hitting .160 on the season, but he's a career .300 hitter at Network Associates Coliseum.

"This is one of those places I do well in," said Lawton. "It's a good place to play and I hope I can get going. You look for something like that to give yourself a chance. I'll just keep coming out and working on it. We'll see what happens."

Travis Hafner led off the fifth with a double, but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple. The ball got by center fielder Chris Singleton and went all the way to the wall, but left fielder Eric Byrnes was backing up. He tracked it down and fired the ball into the infield, where a perfect relay from Ellis nailed Hafner. John McDonald followed with an infield single, but he was erased on a double play.

"In that situation you need to run with your head up," said Wedge. "Once the ball got by the center fielder, he put his head down and ran hard thinking he could make it. You never want to make the first out at third. It was an aggressive mistake, but that's not acceptable."

Davis had his modest two-game winning streak snapped, although he pitched well enough, lasting 6 1/3 innings before giving way to Carl Sadler after giving up an RBI double to Scott Hatteberg and intentionally walking Miguel Tejada. Sadler got the final two outs and has not allowed a run in his first 10 appearances.

Lilly (2-0) got the win for the A's with 7 2/3 innings effective innings. He gave up two runs on six hits with a walk and two strikeouts.

"Lilly worked both sides of the plate and used his changeup," said Lawton. "He did it by throwing strikes. The defense played well behind him."

Keith Foulke pitched the ninth for his fifth save of the season.
The game lasted two hours and four minutes, matching Thursday night's game time in Seattle. It was the A's fastest home game since Sept. 29, 1996.

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Jake Westbrook (1-2 1.50)
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/150414.jpg

vs

John Halama (1-1 3.60)
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/134280.jpg

LET'S GO WESTIE, STOP THE SKID!!!!!

[Special_K19]

A tough day for Tribe's offense
By Damin Esper / Special to MLB.com

OAKLAND -- It's been a tough enough April for the Cleveland Indians. The last thing they needed was a no-hitter thrown against them. But on Saturday, Oakland A's left-hander John Halama had the Indians stymied for 6 1/3 innings until Brandon Phillips lined Halama's 100th pitch into right field for a single.
The Indians followed with a rally to tie the game. But they ended up leaving the bases loaded and the A's scored a run in the bottom of the inning and two more in the eighth to claim a 6-3 victory.

"Obviously, everybody's aware of a no-hitter late in a game," Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. "There's a lot of talk and chatter on the bench about breaking it up."

Apparently there was one person in the Network Associates Coliseum who was oblivious to the no-hitter: John McDonald.

"It didn't even dawn on me that he had a no-hitter," the third baseman said. "He kept getting cheers and I couldn't figure out why."

Halama became the first pitcher in baseball this season to get through six innings without allowing a hit. He did it by keeping the Indians off balance and forcing them to hit his changeup.

"He was just pounding the zone, getting a lot of first-pitch strikes" said rookie center fielder Jody Gerut, who made his Major League debut on Saturday by going 0-for-4, including 0-for-3 with a strikeout against Halama. "When you do that, it doesn't matter how high the radar gun is."

After Phillips broke up the no-hitter, McDonald followed with another single. That was all for Halama, who left to a standing ovation from the crowd of 36,346 fans. Ricardo Rincon surrendered a walk to Omar Vizquel and was pulled in favor of Chad Bradford. Pinch-hitter Bill Selby hit a groundball to first baseman Scott Hatteberg, who fed Bradford covering, rather than trying to throw Phillips out at the plate. Bradford dropped the throw, which allowed McDonald to come in with the tying run.

But the momentum stopped there as the A's rallied for the winning run in the bottom of the inning. Hatteberg led off with a single and Miguel Tejada followed with a tapper near the plate. Cleveland catcher Tim Laker played the ball near the foul line and threw wide to second base, sending Hatteberg to third.

Tejada had stood at the plate after hitting the ball,thinking it was foul. Laker said he was trying to pull off the double play and jump-start the struggling Indians.

"By the time it went fair, (Hatteberg) was getting pretty close to second," Laker said. "I rushed the throw. Thinking back on it, I probably should have thrown to first. I was trying to make the great play because we've been snake bit."

Said Wedge, "It was just a poor decision on his part. He got overly aggressive there trying to get the guy at second base."

Jose Santiago relieved Carl Sadler and struck out Eric Chavez. But Erubiel Durazo lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Hatteberg with the go-ahead run.

The Indians offensive struggles continued on Saturday. They entered the game with a team average of .250, 12th in the American League.

But Cleveland did take a one-run lead in the early going, thanks to some wildness by Halama and an error by Hatteberg. Halama hit McDonald to lead off the inning. Vizquel followed with a nice sacrifice bunt, fielded by Halama. Casey Blake then hit a nubber in front of the mound which Halama fielded as well with McDonald taking third as Halama threw Blake out. Ellis Burks followed with a walk and Karim Garcia then grounded to first. Hatteberg misplayed the ball for the error and McDonald came home with the game's first run.

Cleveland starter Jake Westbrook made it stand up through the fourth. But things fell apart in the fifth. A Chris Singleton double and a Mark Ellis single tied the score, 1-1. Westbrook couldn't make it out of the sixth, despite getting a timely double play. He hit Tejada to start the inning, but then got Chavez to ground into a second-to-short double play. Westbrook then walked Durazo.

"That two-out walk in the sixth wasn't really good," Westbrook said. "It sort of snowballed on me there."

Terrence Long followed with a single. Eric Byrnes then lined a single to left to score Durazo and that was all for Westbrook. Terry Mulholland came in and allowed a run-scoring double to Singleton before getting out of the inning.

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C.C. Sabathia (0-2 4.06)
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/282332.jpg

vs

Tim Hudson (2-1 3.63)
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/218596.jpg

LET'S GO C.C.!!!!!! DON'T LET US GET SWEPT TWO SERIES IN A ROW!!

[Special_K19]

Indians remain winless out West
By Damin Esper / Special to MLB.com

OAKLAND -- The Cleveland Indians completed a 10-game road trip on Sunday with a 4-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics at the Network Associates Coliseum. Cleveland went 2-8 on the trip, dropping the final six games in Seattle and Oakland.
This one was probably the most painful of all. Terrence Long's double to the right-center-field gap, just out of the reach of center fielder Jody Gerut, scored Erubiel Durazo for the game-winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning.

"I knew I couldn't get it on a dive," Gerut said. "I was hoping the wind would bring it back to me. It just didn't come back to me. We were playing him on the other side and I had a long way to run."

It was, as it has been all season for the Indians, another good-enough-to-win performance from a starting pitcher that ended up a loss. Cleveland is now 7-18.

"Again, a good ballgame, but their man stepped up and hit one in the gap," Indians manager Eric Wedge said.

Indians starter C.C. Sabathia was making the second "hometown" start of his career and this one went a lot better than the first. Sabathia, a native of nearby Vallejo Calif., didn't get out of the third inning in his first start here in 2001. This time, he went seven innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits. He was perfect his first time through the A's order and struck out five batters in a row across the first through third innings.

"C.C. had command from pitch one," Wedge said. "He still had command in the sixth and seventh innings. It was probably his best start of the year."

Oakland starter Tim Hudson wasn't quite as sharp, but he was effective enough. The Indians got two runs in the third when Brandon Phillips led off with a double. Omar Vizquel sacrificed Phillips to third and Gerut, who played college ball at nearby Stanford, lined a single to right for his first Major League hit and RBI. Gerut ended the day 3-for-5. Shane Spencer followed with a single to left and Karim Garcia then singled to left to score Gerut.

Oakland finally got to Sabathia in the fourth, when Scott Hatteberg singled with one out to become the A's first base runner. Durazo's two-out single brought Hatteberg home.

The Indians made it 3-1 in the fifth, but wasted an opportunity to blow the game open. Vizquel and Gerut led off the inning with back-to-back singles. A wild pitch moved the runners to second and third. Spencer popped out and Garcia was then intentionally walked to load the bases.

Bill Selby tapped back to Hudson, who looked to first before coming home to get Vizquel with Selby beating catcher Ramon Hernandez's throw to first. Hudson then walked Matt Lawton to force in a run. But Josh Bard grounded to second to leave the bases loaded.

The A's tied the score in the bottom of the sixth, helped out by a Sabathia error. Mark Ellis and Hatteberg had back-to-back one-out singles. Miguel Tejada walked to load the bases. Durazo hit a tapper to the right of the mound. Sabathia fielded the ball, but threw wide of third base. The play went as a hit and an error and two runs scored to tie the game 3-3.

"I got the ball and I looked up and I hadn't seen the runner," Sabathia said. "By the time I heard (third baseman) Billy (Selby) say, 'Eat it,' I was already throwing."

Wedge chalked it up to Sabathia pressing to make the big play.

"I don't care who's on the mound, you're going to have a tough play on that," Wedge said. "He was just trying to be aggressive there and probably should have ate it."

Sabathia entered the game 0-2 with a 4.06 ERA. Sabathia agreed with his manager's sentiments that it was his best start of the season.

"Yeah, it's definitely my best start," Sabathia said. "It's just the one mistake I made with my fielding error pretty much cost us the game."

That probably isn't true, but it is a good metaphor for the Indians' season thus far. They've been in most of their 18 losses and if they could get a break or two, they could start winning games.

"We've been in every game that we've lost," Sabathia said. "It's just gonna take us some time. It's just been that one thing every game. Hopefully we can turn it around."

Wedge has maintained a positive demeanor through the early going. Not that it isn't trying.

"Anytime you lose a couple of games in a row, it's something you've got to deal with," he said. "I think these guys do a good job of separating each game from the next. I think it shows because they keep battling every day."

[PissedPrincess]

:cry: WHERE THE EFF IS SOME RUN SUPPORT GUYS?!?!?!

:Puter: