Series #5 Kansas City

[Special_K19]

Where: Jacobs Field.

TV/radio: Fox Sports Net Ohio tonight and Wednesday night; no TV Thursday afternoon; WTAM/1100.

Pitching matchups: Chad Durbin (1-1, 8.59 ERA) vs. Brian Anderson (0-0, 8.62) at 7:05 tonight; C.C. Sabathia (1-0, 1.71) vs. Jeremy Affeldt (0-1, 10.24) at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday; Jason Davis (0-1, 4.08) vs. Jimmy Gobble (0-0, 4.09) at 12:05 p.m. Thursday.


Series: Kansas City leads, 3-1, this season; leads all-time, 222-209.

Indians update: In four games against the Royals this season, third baseman Casey Blake hit .400 (6-for-15) with one home run and three RBI .

Royals update: Since taking three of four against the Tribe, Kansas City has dropped six straight.

Injuries: Indians Pitcher Bob Wickman (right elbow) is on the 60-day disabled list; outfielder Ryan Ludwick (knee), catcher Josh Bard (abdominal surgery) and pitcher Jose Jimenez (side strain) are on the 15-day DL. Royals Second baseman Desi Relaford (hamstring), shortstop Angel Berroa (migraine headaches) and pitcher Mike MacDougal (stomach virus) are on the 15-day DL.

Next for Tribe: At Detroit for three games beginning Friday night.

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Brian Anderson (0-0 8.62)
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/110230.jpg

vs,

:cheer:Chad Durbin (1-1 8.59):cheer:
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/239795.jpg

LET'S GO DURBIN!!!!!!! PROVE YOU SHOULD BE STARTING EVERY 5 DAYS!!!!!!!
:dancin: :banana: :dancin: :banana: :dancin: :banana: :dancin: :banana:

GET HEALTHY STANFORD!!!

[Trots]

Hey, Special K, is Gerut getting benched against LHPs?

[Special_K19]

No, he's day tp day with a minor knee injury. He should be back tomorrow.

[Special_K19]

04/20/2004 10:51 PM ET
Bad start gets no better for Indians
Tribe falls in early hole, loses to KC 15-5
By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com


CLEVELAND -- The Indians' latest loss began with a few well-placed hits by the Royals.

It escalated with a couple of botched throws and bad pitches from the Tribe, allowing the Royals to build up a big lead.

And it climaxed with Matt Stairs' grand slam to dead center, quieting the Jacobs Field crowd and thwarting any chance of an Indians comeback.

By the time the late innings rolled around on this wet and dreary night, and Tim Laker -- yes, backup catcher Tim Laker -- was brought on to pitch in relief, the Indians' 15-5 loss in front of 13,563 fans was in the books.

"They jumped on us early," manager Eric Wedge said of the Royals. "They put together a couple of big innings early and a couple of big innings late."

The Indians' arms were used for batting practice throughout the evening.

Tribe right-hander Chad Durbin's first start of the '04 season opened with trouble. Making a spot start in the place of an injured Jason Stanford, Durbin (1-2, 13.50 ERA) needed 44 pitches to get through the first inning. He allowed the Royals to bat around the order and put up five runs in the process.

Andres Blanco had a two-run single with the bases loaded, Mike Sweeney and Ken Harvey each had RBI singles and Stairs had an RBI double to give the Royals, who had lost six straight coming in, the early 5-0 lead.

"The bad pitches got hit hard, and the good pitches got hit soft and in the right places," Durbin said. "It just snowballs. I'm embarrassed I didn't do my job."

For the second straight night, therefore, the Tribe had a huge hole to overcome before stepping to the plate.

Also, for the second straight night, Wedge had to turn to his bullpen for help early on. This time, he went to left-hander Jeriome Robertson, fresh out of Triple-A Buffalo, to keep the Royals from building on their big lead.

But Robertson, who won 15 games for the Astros last year, could not duplicate the perfect performance of right-hander Jake Westbrook from a night earlier.

In his first 3 2/3 innings of work, Robertson looked decent, despite letting an inherited runner score in the second and an unearned run cross the plate in the fourth.

The Indians, meanwhile, slowly began to creep back into the ballgame against former teammate Brian Anderson (1-0, 7.06). Alex Escobar had a two-run double in the second to make it 6-2, and the Tribe added two unearned runs in the fourth to make it 7-4.

All the Indians needed to do was continue to chip away at the lead while Robertson took care of the Royals, right?

Well, tell that to the Royals. They gave Robertson the Durbin treatment in the top of the sixth.

They loaded the bases in that inning on three walks, one of which was intentional, before Stairs cranked Robertson's first pitch over the center-field wall to make it 11-4.

"We're still in the ballgame at 7-4," Wedge said. "Obviously, that grand slam separated it."

And it only got worse from there.

Robertson remained in the game to start the seventh, and he promptly gave up a solo home run to Ken Harvey. Three batters later, Dave Lee came on and allowed three unearned runs that went on Robertson's line.

If the Indians had a positive on the mound, it was Laker, who got through the ninth without allowing any more runs.

"It lightened up the mood a little bit," Laker said.

Now Wedge and his team hope to put this massacre of a loss behind them.

"We have to stop this bleeding," Wedge said. "We have to work to win these next two games and take this series."

Anthony Castrovince is an intern for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

[Special_K19]

Jeremy Affeldt (0-1 10.24)
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/346793.jpg

vs.

:cheer:C.C. Sabathia (1-0 1.71):cheer:
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/282332.jpg

LET'S GO C.C.!!!!! WE CAN'T HAVE THRE HORRID STARTS IN A ROW!!!!!!!!!
:dancin: :banana: :dancin: :banana: :dancin: :banana: :dancin: :banana:

[Special_K19]

04/22/2004 6:34 PM ET
Tribe takes advantage of KC pen
Three-run eighth inning lifts Indians to win over Royals
By Justice B. Hill / MLB.com


CLEVELAND -- His spot start on Thursday afternoon went better than his scheduled start earlier in the week did, because this time veteran Jeff D'Amico was able to sail through the first inning and four more after that.
D'Amico's performance was much needed, too.

Rushed into service as a last minute substitute for C.C. Sabathia, D'Amico contributed as much as anybody else did to the Tribe's 5-4 win over the Royals in front of 15,720 at The Jake.

"I didn't have time to think about it," D'Amico said. "It was get out there, step straight on the mound and start heaving."

For five innings, D'Amico heaved darn well. He'd kept the potent Royals offense in check, which was in sharp contrast to his nightmarish outing earlier in the week. He was banged around Monday night in a 10-4 loss to the Tigers. D'Amico failed to retire even one batter in the game.

But he retired plenty on Thursday. He held the Royals to four hits and no runs until the sixth, which is when he faltered.

Clinging to a 2-0 lead, D'Amico gave up a bunt single to Carlos Beltran and then a double to Joe Randa. Juan Gonzalez's grounder to short scored Beltran, and it also brought in left-hander Scott Stewart.

He allowed a two-out single to Ken Harvey that tied the game.

In the seventh, the Royals jumped ahead. Jack Cressend, now in for Stewart, gave up a solo homer to Kelly Stinnett that put the Royals ahead, 3-2. Rafael Betancourt (1-2, 5.59 ERA) then allowed Kansas City to score what looked like an insurance run in the eighth.

It was a day when unexpected things happened. Yet to experience a late comeback this season, the Tribe mounted one on Thursday.

Now facing right-hander Jason Grimsley (1-1, 5.14) instead of KC starter Jeremy Affeldt, and trailing, 4-2, the Indians turned a leadoff walk to Ronnie Belliard, a single to Omar Vizquel, which gave him 2,000 career hits, and a walk to Jody Gerut into a serious threat.

Grimsley's walk to Gerut brought in right-hander D.J. Carrasco to face Casey Blake, who promptly singled to knock in one run. Matt Lawton hit into a double-play, but that scored the tying run, and Victor Martinez's double scored the go-ahead run.

"We didn't have a whole lot of hitting going on," manager Eric Wedge said. "Affeldt was outstanding against us. But when we did have an opportunity, we took advantage of it -- multiple big hits, multiple big at-bats."

Perhaps no at-bat was any bigger than Vizquel's. In the grand scheme, it just kept the inning alive, but in a bigger sense, his slap single might have served as the lightning rod for a ballclub that needed something to prod it.

His single was a slice of baseball history, and his teammates seemed bent on not wasting the moment and leaving Vizquel with a loss on the day he recorded 2,000th hit.

"I know he wanted to do that here at home but also for our squad," Wedge said. "For him to get a hit in a late-inning situation at home and for it to be part of a late-inning comeback, I don't think you could ask for a better case scenario in terms of how something plays out."

Nor could he ask for better late moment performance from D'Amico.

"What a great step-up performance by Jeff," he said.

D'Amico, who got a no-decision, was more matter of fact. He understood he had a big challenge in front of him. He also had to remember his earlier outing this week -- a performance where if something could go wrong, it did.

"You just go out there and try to give as many innings as you can and keep us in it," he said. "I feel like I did my job today."

Justice B. Hill is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.