Series #10: Texas

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Friday May 2 7:05
Jason Davis vs Joaquin Benoit

Saturday May 3 1:05
Jake Westbrook vs undecided

Sunday May 4 1:05
C.C. Sabathia vs John Thompson

All-Time Match-Up: Rangers lead 186-160 all-time and went 5-4 last season.

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Joaquin Benoit (0-0 0.00)
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/276542.jpg

vs

Jake Westbrook (1-2 2.28)
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/150414.jpg

WE NEED A WIN BADLY WESTIE!!!!!!!! GET US ONE!!!!!!

[PissedPrincess]

Go Westie!!!!!!!!!!!

:lust:

Hiya K. I'm soooooooooooo hungover. :coffee:

Need a massage from Trav.:lust:

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:wavey:

Congrats on the C's victory last night. :D

[PissedPrincess]

It's time for the C's. Celtics...Cleveland.........:clap2: :clap2:

Thanx lover.:clap2:

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WE WIN!!!!!!!!!!!


Indians end losing streak
By Justice B. Hill / MLB.com

CLEVELAND -- The Indians hadn't lost nine games since June 1979. But the 19,823 fans at Jacobs Field didn't want to see that sorry footnote in Tribe history repeat itself Friday night against Texas.

And they didn't. What they did see was the Indians snap their losing streak at eight games as they beat the hard-hitting Rangers, 6-5.

Playing comeback baseball for a change, the Indians chipped away at a 4-1 deficit -- and a 5-2 lead after the sixth inning. They also got something that had been equally rare this season: good relief pitching.

Much of that good relief came from rookie Billy Traber, who'd come on in the fifth to replace Jason Davis. At the time, the Indians needed Traber to hold the Rangers scoreless, which is hardly an easy task.

Traber proved up to the challenge. He worked 3 2/3 innings, gave up one hit and struck out five. His most important statistic was allowing zero runs.

"Billy came in and was able to shut them down and keep them down there for a couple of innings," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "We eased our way back in it."

That's exactly what the Indians did; they eased back into it. They had plenty of ground to make up along the way, however. All of their deficit came in Davis' tour of duty.

Not all of what happened could be blamed on Davis, also a rookie. A little better defense might have spared him from a three-run third in which the only Texas hit came after the runs had scored.

"They scored three runs on no hits," said Ellis Burks, who had two doubles and four RBIs. "That's hard to do."

Wedge described that inning another way: "That was a funky inning there."

Two innings after that "funky" third, the Rangers would make the score 5-1 before the Indians pieced together some late-inning offense.

"We didn't panic," Burks said.

In the fifth inning, Travis Hafner chipped into the Texas lead with his solo homer, and the Tribe scored twice more in the sixth.

But their most meaningful rally came in the eighth. Against Francisco Cordero (1-3, 3.12 ERA). Matt Lawton got it started. With one out, he singled. Omar Vizquel's walk moved Lawton to second, and both scored when Burks doubled off the left-field wall.

Two more Indians walked in the eighth to load the bases, but Rangers reliever Ugueth Urbina got Hafner to fly out to deep left.

Now with a rare one-run lead late, the Indians put victory in closer Danys Baez's hands. That decision might have seemed a risky move, considering Baez's troubles in recent outings.

But it turned out to be the right call as Baez set down the Rangers with relative ease to notch his first save since April 9 along with the Tribe's first win since April 21.

"Look at the team we were playing today -- a pretty good team," Wedge said. "To be able to come back and a snatch one late like this and have multiple people -- on the offensive side and pitching-wise step -- up for you, that makes it all the more sweeter."

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A little late and no pics, but it was Todd Van Poppel vs Jake Westbrook, Jason Davis pitched on Friday.

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Tribe's pen loses Texas hold 'em
By Justice B. Hill / MLB.com

CLEVELAND -- The Indians were hoping Saturday afternoon that their superior pitching would trump the Rangers and their superior offense.

The Tribe was asking a bit too much.

At game's end, the big bats of the Rangers would prove more than the Indians and their relief corps could handle. Those bats came alive in the late innings to hand the Indians a 6-5 loss, the ninth in their last 10 games.

But as has been the case most of the '03 season, the Indians had their chances.

Thanks to veteran Todd Van Poppel's wildness, the Indians had taken an early lead, much to the delight of their 23,030 chilled fans. Van Poppel, who was making his first start of the season, threw eighth straight balls to put two runners on to open the bottom of the first inning.

After he got Ellis Burks on an easy fly to right field, Van Poppel gave up an infield single to Shane Spencer. With the bases loaded, Jody Gerut's slow grounder to second base scored a run, but Van Poppel ended that first inning when he got Casey Blake on strikes.

Unfortunately for Tribe fans, starter Jake Westbrook needed more from this inning. His life would have been a lot easier and the Tribe's chance to win a lot better had the Indians gotten more, because Westbrook would let the Rangers tie the score and forge ahead in the top of the second.

He gave up four runs on a double, a wind-blown triple that eluded Matt Lawton in left field, a walk and two singles.

In the bottom of the inning, Lawton got two of those runs back when, after Hank Blalock's fielding error, he homered off Van Poppel. The Tribe would go ahead in the fourth with two runs.

Westbrook and Carl Sadler held the Rangers scoreless before turning a 5-4 lead over to reliever Jose Santiago in the seventh. Santiago, whose performances this season have been uneven, wasn't the right person to invest a lead in.

A two-out walk and a single to center put the veteran right-hander eye-to-eye with Alex Rodriguez. Nobody can give Santiago the edge in that situation.

On a 2-2 pitch, Rodriguez turned a 5-4 deficit into a 6-5 lead. His two-run double ended Santiago's day, and it put the Indians in position where they'd need another late rally if they expected to win.

They had their opportunities late, too. They put two on with nobody out in the seventh, but got nothing from it.

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John Thompson (2-2 4.91)
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/123307.jpg

vs

Ricardo Rodriguez (2-2 3.32)
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/400156.jpg

I thought C.C. was pitching :umm ?? Oh well, Ricardo will win anyway. :dance2:

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C.C. was pitching and.....................WE WIN!!!!!!!! :dance2:

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Sabathia sparkles in first win
By Justice B. Hill / MLB.com


CLEVELAND -- To win his first game of the season, C.C. Sabathia probably figured he needed to pitch his best game of the season.

So Sabathia did.

In front of 20,866 fans at Jacobs Field, he gave the Indians the kind of quality start Sunday afternoon that they'd been looking for from him. His teammates also gave him enough runs to turn his best outing of the season into his first win of the season -- 3-1 over the Rangers.

"I wasn't going out there giving up eight or nine runs a game," he said of his winless streak. "I was doing pretty much what I had to do, besides making one mistake to give up a run late in the game or give up the lead."

He made no mistakes late this day -- and only a few early.

From the start, Sabathia (1-2, 3.13 ERA) controlled the game's tempo. He kept the Rangers and their big bangers in the ballpark, and he gave the Indians a chance to win.

It wasn't as easy as it looked for Sabathia, though. For as well as he was pitching early, Rangers starter John Thomson was pitching as well, if not better. Thomson held the Indians hitless through three innings, but when Thomson allowed that first hit, he allowed a couple of more, too.

That first hit came in the fourth, and it came off Omar Vizquel's bat. It also came after Thomson (2-3, 4.61) had walked Matt Lawton to open the inning. Following Vizquel's single, Ellis Burks singled to knock in Lawton, and Karim Garcia singled to knock in Vizquel.

Thomson got Shane Spencer on a fly to center for out No. 1, but he then walked Josh Bard to load the bases. The walk to Bard brought Bill Selby to the plate, and Selby lofted a fly to center, which easily scored Burks from third.

"We did a better job of taking advantage of some RBI situations," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "We didn't have a lot of hits (five) today, but the hits that we did have were key."

Those hits were absolutely "key," because the Indians would get no more chances like this one against Thomson, who pitched a complete game. But they had done something significant in the fourth just the same; they had given Sabathia a 3-0 lead to hold.

Against a powerful lineup like the Rangers, a pitcher's got no room to let up, not even for a pitcher like Sabathia who was in top form.

He soon learned that fact, too. He gave up a run in the sixth, although Vizquel's throwing error tainted it. Still, that run cut into Sabathia's 3-0 lead, which was now smaller than a pitcher would be comfortable with.

Not the way Sabathia was pitching. He looked every bit the part of a staff ace, seeming to get stronger as he went along.

Proof of that came in the seventh. Sabathia gave up a walk and a single with one out. Instead of panicking, he made the kind of quality pitch he needed to Einar Diaz, who bounced into a double play.

Sabathia wouldn't allow the Rangers another chance like that one. He worked a one-two-three eighth, putting his good work and his first victory in closer Danys Baez's hands to protect.

Baez did just that, helping Sabathia earn his first win since Sept. 27, 2002, against the Royals.

"I really wasn't worried about getting a win," he said. "I was just worried about our team; I wasn't worried about individual stats and things like that."

[PissedPrincess]

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