Series #6 @Detroit

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Where: Comerica Park, Detroit.

TV/radio: Fox Sports Net Ohio; WTAM AM/1100.

Pitching matchups: Jason Davis (0-1, 4.08 ERA) vs. Jeremy Bonderman (1-1, 7.02) tonight at 7:05; Cliff Lee (2-0, 4.02) vs. Nate Robertson (1-0, 2.55) Saturday at 1:05 p.m.; Undecided vs. Jason Johnson (1-3, 7.79) Sunday at 1:05 p.m.

Season series: Tied, 2-2; Detroit leads all-time, 986-961.

Indians update: They are hitting .355 (50-141), with six home runs as a team against the Tigers. In four games against Detroit, second baseman Ronnie Belliard is hitting .588 (10-17), with four doubles.

Tigers update: Pudge Rodriguez (.412, 5 RBI) and Rondell White (.333, 1 home run, 6 RBI) have hit well in four games against Cleveland.

Injuries: Indians Pitchers Bob Wickman (right elbow) is on the 60-day disabled list; Jason Stanford (forearm), Jose Jimenez (side strain), Brian Tallet (elbow surgery), Billy Traber (elbow surgery), outfielder Ryan Ludwick (knee) and catcher Josh Bard (lower abdominal surgery) are on the 15-day DL. Tigers DH Dmitri Young (broken leg), pitchers Fernando Rodney (elbow sprain) and Lino Urdaneta (elbow inflammation) are on the 15-day DL; pitcher Chris Spurling (elbow surgery) is on the 60-day DL.

Next for the Tribe: At Chicago White Sox for two games beginning Tuesday night.

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:cheer:Jason Davis (0-1 4.08):cheer:
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/425186.jpg

vs.

Jeremy Bonderman (1-1 7.02)
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/425827.jpg

LET'S GO JD!!!!!!!!!!!!! WINNING STREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!
:dancin: :banana: :dancin: :banana: :dancin: :banana: :dancin: :banana:

[~*TiGeRs f@N*~]

Your defense if just awesome tonight!! :thumbsup:

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Yeah, shame the pitching is godawful. Haven't posted in a couple days, but will update it tomorrow.

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04/24/2004 2:52 AM ET
Tribe on wrong end of 17-3 rout
Davis, bullpen fall apart in 11-run sixth inning
By Justice B. Hill / MLB.com


DETROIT -- The Indians had thought right-hander Jason Davis could keep the momentum alive from their come-from-behind victory Thursday at The Jake.
Davis couldn't.

Sailing along seemingly with ease at one point, he turned as erratic as unbroken colt. His inability to pitch ahead in the count would cost him and the Indians a 17-3 loss Friday night to the Tigers.

With a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning, Davis suddenly lost his feel for the strike zone. He had his fastball going every which way, except over the plate. On the rare occasion that he could get it over the plate, he seemed to do so in a hitter's count.

That's an unforgiving sin in baseball.

"They hit some good pitches," Davis said. "But I made some mistakes as well."

Those mistakes taught Davis a hard lesson, which was this: pitch ahead in the count.

A leadoff double to Rondell White began Davis' learning. One out later, it continued when Craig Monroe slapped a 3-2 fastball to left center for a single that knocked in White.

On another 3-2 pitch, Carlos Pena hit a fly ball to deep center field. Monroe, showing heads-up play, took advantage of Coco Crisp's arm. He tagged up and moved to second base. Eric Munson's single off Davis scored Monroe.

Munson moved into scoring position on Brandon Inge's single, and Munson scored the go-ahead run on Fernando Vina's single.

No other Tiger would score that inning, and Davis (0-2, 5.56 ERA) looked as if he'd recaptured his rhythm once he returned for the fifth.

He lost it again, however, in the sixth.

His walk to Pena opened the inning, and Munson followed the walk to Pena with a two-run homer on a 1-0 pitch.

"Fastball away," said Davis, describing the pitch. "I kinda got it over the plate."

Munson's home run finished Davis. But it hardly finished the inning for the Tigers. They would get plenty more opportunities to teach an Indians pitcher the folly of not throwing strikes early in the count.

Their next pupil was right-hander Dave Lee, who quickly loaded the bases for Ivan Rodriguez. His double down the left-field line cleared the bases and put the Tigers ahead, 9-3.

Lee, too, was soon dispatched. His replacement, right-hander Jason Anderson, had the same lessons to learn as his predecessors: throw strikes

Anderson, who'd been called up from Triple A Buffalo earlier in the day, was two batters into his first outing with the Tribe when he had loaded the bases on walks, although one of the walks was intentional.

His third and fourth walks were unintentional, because they allowed the Tigers to score two more runs.

As bad as things were going for Anderson and the Indians, their situation grew worse. He fell behind in the count to Inge, who jumped on a 2-1 pitch and cleared the bases.

School might as well have been out after Inge's grand slam -- an 11-run inning has a way of closing things early.

"Obviously that inning dominated on us," said manager Eric Wedge, his face a portrait of frustration. "We're trying, one, to keep it at a three-run ballgame after J.D. got outta there. After the point where it got out of hand, we're just trying to get through it."

A night like this might be hard for a ballclub to get through, but it can, Wedge might be hoping, do something good for his Indians. It can re-enforce the lesson of the day: pitch ahead in the count.

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

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04/24/2004 4:24 PM ET
Win slips away for Tribe
Missed opportunities loom large as bullpen falters
By Anthony Castrovince / Special to MLB.com


DETROIT -- The Indians spent all day Saturday waiting to get a big hit to break open their game against the Tigers.
They're still waiting.

The only big hit in this one belonged to Tigers left fielder Rondell White, who slapped a three-run home run off Tribe reliever Chad Durbin in the bottom of the ninth to hand the Indians a 5-2 loss in front of 20,913 fans at Comerica Park.

"It was a changeup," Durbin said of the pitch that determined the outcome. "I just hung it. It's my best pitch, and I just didn't throw it to the right spot."

This loss -- the Tribe's fourth in five games -- might sting just as bad for the Indians as the 17-3 drubbing the Tigers laid on them Friday, because this game was as winnable as they come.

The Indians loaded the bases four times in the game, but managed only two runs in those situations.

"This was one of those games where we had opportunity after opportunity to do something, and we just couldn't find a way," said Matt Lawton, who twice hit into a double play with the bases loaded.

The Indians stranded 12 runners in the game. They still managed to stay alive, thanks to left-handed starter Cliff Lee's ability to work his way out of several sticky situations.

Trouble found Lee early, as the Tigers loaded the bases with one out in the first. Lee walked home the first run of the game on four straight balls to Bobby Higginson.

The inning could have turned out worse, but Lee got the next two batters out to end the threat.

The Indians finally struck against Tigers lefty Nate Robertson with a two-run fifth. They loaded the bases, then tied the game on Omar Vizquel's RBI infield single. The Tribe took a 2-1 lead when Jody Gerut grounded out to second, scoring Coco Crisp.

That lead, however, was short-lived. The Tigers struck back with Higginson's RBI single that scored White in the bottom of the fifth to tie the score.

That's where the score remained until the ninth.

The Indians wasted a golden opportunity in the sixth. They loaded the bases with one out against reliever Al Levine, but Ronnie Belliard and Vizquel both flew out to right.

In the top of the ninth, they again loaded the bases with one out, this time against Ugueth Urbina (1-0, 2.25 ERA). Vizquel and Gerut walked, and Urbina hit pinch-hitter Travis Hafner with a pitch.

Lawton then popped out to shortstop Carlos Guillen, who had to trek backward into shallow left to make the play.

Vizquel tried to tag up and score from third, but Guillen's throw nailed him at home to end the inning.

"I tried to hesitate to make [Guillen] double-clutch, then I took off," Vizquel said. "That was probably the difference between me being safe and out. I tried to be creative. We have very few breaks. When you have a break like that, you take it."

The Tigers, though, received the biggest break of all in the bottom of the inning.

After Indians reliever Scott Stewart (0-1, 9.95) gave up a bloop single to Fernando Vina and struck out Guillen, manager Eric Wedge gave the ball to Durbin.

Before Durbin even threw a pitch, his attempt to pick off Vina went over first baseman Ben Broussard's head, allowing Vina to advance to third.

That error forced Durbin to intentionally walk Ivan Rodriguez, bringing White up for the game-winning at-bat.

The Indians could have intentionally walked White to load the bases for Higginson, but Wedge decided not to.

"In that situation, you want to have a base to play with," Wedge said. "If we load the bases, you're giving the advantage to the hitter. If you have a base to play with, you can still pitch."

Durbin's 2-2 pitch to White ended a day of frustration for the Indians, who have now dropped four of six games against the Tigers.

"We had chances to score three, four or five times over the course of this game," Wedge said. "We didn't get one of them."

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

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:cheer:Jake Westbrook (0-1 1.46):cheer:
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/150414.jpg

vs.

Jason Johnson (1-3 7.79)
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/116595.jpg

LET'S GO JAKEY JAKE!!!!!!!! GET THE TRIBE BACK ON THE WINNING TRACK!!!
:dancin: :banana: :dancin: :banana: :dancin: :banana: :dancin: :banana:

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04/25/2004 3:41 PM ET
Westbrook two-hits the Tigers
Converted reliever allows two earned runs, fans three
By Justice B. Hill / MLB.com


DETROIT -- All Jody Gerut could do was shake his head in amazement.
He'd seen right-hander Jake Westbrook at his best here Sunday afternoon, and Gerut marveled at what he'd seen.

"If he would just trust his stuff ...," said Gerut, his voice trailing off. "His stuff is electric."

Yes, Westbrook's sinker is "electric" -- or so it has been in his last two appearances. His latest outing came in front of 17,253 fans at Comerica Park, where they saw Westbrook dazzle their Tigers and win his first game of the season, 3-2.

His was a dominant outing. Westbrook allowed two runs and two hits, and one of those two should have been scored an error.

"Obviously, we needed someone to step up, and he was the one," said manager Eric Wedge, whose Indians had lost two in a row to the Tigers. "He commanded the ball throughout, and he was able to make adjustments. He threw the ball with extreme confidence and authority."

It was a performance similar to the outing Westbrook had last Monday night against the Tigers. In that appearance, he took over for right-hander Jeff D'Amico with nobody out and the bases loaded in the first inning, and Westbrook ran through 21 Tigers in a row before giving way to a reliever.

He continued to mow down Tigers hitters here, and he pushed his streak of hitless ball against the Tigers to 26 batters. Westbrook then made a mistake: It was a 3-1 breaking ball to Carlos Pena, who was waiting for that pitch.

"Sometimes you throw a good sinker, he swings at it and hits it in the ground," Westbrook said. "Other times, he definitely knows what's coming."

Big league hitters do bad things to pitches they are looking for, and when that pitch catches too much of the plate, as Westbrook's breaking ball did, the fans in the outfield seats can start scrabbling for a souvenir.

That's exactly what Tigers fans did after Pena's at-bat, which cut the Indians' lead to 2-1.

The home run, however, did nothing to unsettle Westbrook. He remained in control of the game and his stuff. With an economy of pitches, he kept the Tigers at bay, getting them to pound his sinker to middle infielders Omar Vizquel and Ronnie Belliard.

In all, Westbrook got 16 ground ball outs. He also struck out three batters and walked two in recording the Tribe's first complete game of the '04 season. His two-hitter was easily the team's best-pitched game, too.

And as Wedge had rightly deduced, the performance was needed. The Indians were, after all, reeling under the frustrations of a ninth-inning loss here Saturday and a 17-3 battering Friday night.

Their bullpen had been in disarray, so the last thing Wedge needed was for a starter to come out and get banged around early. His bullpen needed a day off, and Westbrook ended up providing that relief.

He went into the ninth with a 3-2 lead, as Gerut's solo homer in the third had provided the extra run.

With closer David Riske warmed up in the Indians bullpen, Wedge had an option other than Westbrook, but decided to stay with his starter.

"His pitch count was down to where it needed to be," Wedge said. "Obviously, he was commanding the game."

As much in command as Westbrook was, he had no margin of error. He knew as well as anybody here how many late leads the Indians had let turn into losses.

An even more pressing concern for Westbrook at the time was the heart of the Tigers order. Carlos Guillen, Ivan Rodriguez and Rondell White -- the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 batters -- stood between him and victory.

Westbrook got Guillen to fly out to Matt Lawton in left. Pitching cautiously, Westbrook walked I-Rod to bring the go-ahead run to the plate. Wedge had another opportunity to call on Riske, but he stayed with Westbrook.

He didn't disappoint.

White grounded into a force play at second base, and Westbrook got Bobby Higginson on a deep fly to what seems like the Grand Canyon, which is center field at Comerica.

The Tigers threat in the ninth had been halted, and Westbrook (1-1, 1.69 ERA) had his complete game -- and his first win.

None of that surprised Gerut. He has seen Westbrook's stuff and wondered why it hasn't led to better things. Not that Gerut was critical of his teammate. He just thought Westbrook's stuff should make him into a dominant pitcher.

"His stuff moves -- a lot," Gerut said. "He needs to trust it."

For this start at least, Westbrook did.

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