The 2009 Major League Baseball season officially started on Monday, April 6th for the Cleveland Indians. As far as the citizens of Cleveland are concerned, the season started on Friday, April 10th.

The 16th home opener played at Jacobs…oops….Progressive Field marked the beginning of the latest “This is our year” talk around town. Everyone in attendance was ready to put the opening series the Indians played in Texas behind them. There was a sense of optimism and excitement in the air. It turns out that Mother Nature, along with the Indians’ pitching staff, had other plans in mind. Included in that was a rain delay of almost 4 hours.

With rain in the forecast and rather cool temperatures putting a chill on things, the Indians hurlers were about as miserable as the weather. Starter Scott Lewis started the game off well by getting through the Toronto order relatively easily. However, once he faced them a second time through, things changed quickly. Lewis’ final line was 4 1/3 innings, 4 runs (all earned), 3 strikeouts and one walk. Not terrible, but not too great either. Enter, the bullpen…

The combination of Rafael Betancourt, Joe Smith, Rafael Perez and Masa Kobayashi ended up allowing up 9 runs (all earned), with 4 walks and no strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings. Defensive misques by Jhonny Peralta and Shin-Soo Choo also helped throw gas on the fire.

The Tribe’s offense deserves some credit for trying to smash their way to a win, however. Travis Hafner went 2-4 with one home run, one double and 3 runs batted in. Hafner’s double just missed being a home run by a couple feet as it blasted off the wall of the visitor’s bullpen fence. Victor Martinez and Choo also added homers and Ryan Garko reached base 4 times with 3 walks and a base hit. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough offense.

Saturday’s afternoon game featured cool temperatures but an abundance of sunshine. If felt like a good day to win the first game of the season. Once again, however, it wasn’t meant to be.

Starter Cliff Lee continued the trend of the starters not getting out of the fifth inning by giving up 4 runs (all earned) and 4 walks, combined with 5 strikeouts. Lee’s record currently stands at 0-2 and his ERA actually DROPPED to 9.90. Yikes! Joe Smith and Vinnie Chulk helped keep Toronto’s hitters in check as the offense attempted a comeback.

The big offensive hit was provided by a struggling Mark DeRosa. With the bases loaded and 2 out in the 9th inning, DeRosa lined a pitch off the wall in left field that cleared the bases as he checked into second base with a double. It was his first extra-base hit and first RBI’s as an Indian. That would be as close as they would get though as Victor Martinez would eventually strike out to end the game, stranding DeRosa at second base.

Sunday’s game had a bit of a sense of urgency to it. Fans had been teased a few times in this young season already, feeling like the Indians we going to finally get a “W”. On top of that, they were already off to their worst start since 1985. Could this be the day it finally happens?

Starting pitcher Anthony Reyes, making his first start of 2009, gave the best performance of any starter to that point. He went six innings, allowing 4 runs (all earned) and 2 walks, while striking out 3 batters. Jesnen Lewis relieved Reyes and earned his first hold of the season and lowered his ERA to 4.91.

While all of this was going on, the offense was doing their part as well. Travis Hafner added his 3rd homer of the season, a 2-run shot, which was also his 150th career home run. Mark DeRosa added his first homer as an Indian, also a 2-run shot. The key hit, however, came off the bat of rookie Trevor Crowe. After striking out with the bases loaded and two out earlier in the game, he found himself in that same situation but this time, he ripped a double that short-hopped the wall in right center. By the time Crowe pulled into second base with his first major league hit, two runs had crossed the plate.

After all of this, closer Kerry Wood entered in a non-save situation since the score was 8-4. After starting with a 3-0 count to the lead-off hitter, Wood regrouped and preceeded to strike out the side in a dominating way. It was something Indians fans haven’t been able to enjoy since the days of Jose Mesa. And with that, it FINALLY happened! Kerry Wood and the Tribe wrapped up their first win of the season, now “improving” to 1-5 on the season.

And now all of North East Ohio can breathe a big sigh of relief…

Series Recap:

Overall Record: 1-5     Series Record: 0-2

The Good:

• Home Runs by Hafner (2,3), Choo (1), DeRosa (1), Martinez (2)
• Anthony Reyes gets first win by an Indians starter
• Kerry Wood stiking out the side to close out Sunday’s win
• Trevor Crowe and Mark DeRosa’s RBI doubles (2 RBI and 3 RBI, respectively)

The Bad:

• Starting pitching of Scott Lewis and Cliff Lee
• Bullpen performance on Friday’s home opener
• Scott Lewis placed on the DL with mild forearm strain
• The attendance on Saturday and Sunday

The Ugly:

• The weather on Friday, which featured a 3 hour and 47 minute rain delay

Next Up: After a brief homestand, the Indians travel to Kansas City to face the Royals (3-3) for a 3 game series. Monday and Tuesday’s games start at 8:10pm EST while Wednesday’s game will be at 2:10pm EST.

Indians fans have waited several months for some exciting baseball. What’s another day?

Today’s series finale against the Texas Rangers was not as good of a game as it’s 12-8 final score MIGHT indicate. The game was basically over before most fans in the Rangers’ stadium were settled in their seats.

One of the Indians’ offseason acquisitions, Carl Pavano, made his Indians debut against Texas on Thursday and it was a very brief and forgettable debut. Having given up 7 runs in the first inning and not able to record an out in the second inning, he’s going to be one of many topics burning up Cleveland’s sports talk radio shows and internet message boards. After pitching 1 inning and giving up 9 earned runs, it’s hard to imagine why. However, the Indians’ starting pitching in all three of the games was lousy and is already justifying a lot of the offseason skepticism surrounding the starting rotation and what to expect of the Indians in 2009.

In the season opener, the Indians offense was only able to score a single run, which came on a passed ball. As the series went on, the offense got progressively better. Thurdays game featured five home runs by Indians hitters, led by two two-run home runs. Victor Martinez, Kelly Shoppach and Travis Hafner (yes, Pronk!) also added solo shots.

One of the bright spots of the series was the long-relief work of youngster Zach Jackson. Jackson come on with 2 on and nobody out in the second inning in relief of Pavano. Faced with the task of sparing Eric Wedge from having to start burning through arms in the bullpen already, Jackson did not disappoint. He did allow a pair of runs, but he also struck out six batters and allowed only four hits in his four innings of work. That’s a better line than any of the starting pitchers’ performances so far.

With the opening series disaster behind us, Tribe fans and players alike can focus on baseball’s return to Cleveland for tomorrow’s home opener at 4:05pm. The gates will open at 2:00pm and the Indians suggest being in your seats by 3:15pm to take in all the pregame festivities.  

Series Recap:

Overall Record: 0-3     Series Record: 0-1

The Good

• Home runs by Francisco (1), Sizemore (1,2), Martinez (1), Hafner (1) and Shoppach (1)
• Relief work by Zach Jackson: 4 innings, 2 runs, 6 strikeouts, 4 hits
• The Series is over

The Bad

• Lack of offense in series opener
• Shoddy defense

The Ugly

• Indians starters (Cliff Lee, Fausto Carmona, Carl pavano): 0-3, 18.00 ERA, 23 hits, 22 earned runs, 4 home runs in 11 COMBINED innings
• Carl Pavano: 0-1, 1 inning pitched, 9 earned runs, 2 home runs

Next Up: The Toronto Blue Jays come to Cleveland for a 3-game series to kick off the home portion of the 2009 season

What a turnaround in the last year for starting pitcher Cliff Lee! It was announced on Thursday afternoon that Lee had been chosen as the 2008 American League Cy Young winner after receiving 24 of 28 first-place votes and 132 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Lee went a major league best 22-3 this season with a 2.54 ERA. Talk about a complete turn around after being sent down to the minor leagues the season before. Lee hopes to come back just as strong in 2009 and help the team compete for a playoff spot.

Lee received a $250,000 bonus for winning, and the price of Cleveland’s 2010 club option increased from $8 million to $9 million.

Indians Blog

Once again it was the Cleveland Indians having no problems with the visiting Kansas City Royals. The Indians jumped out to an early lead and never looked back as they beat the Royals 10-3. With the win on Thursday afternoon, the Indians finished up a three game sweep of the Royals.

Grady Sizemore had a huge day as he went 4-5 with seven rbi! Sizemore had a three run home run, three run triple, and a rbi single in the game. Talk about production with the bases loaded by Sizemore! Shin-Soo Choo added a two run home run and Jhonny Peralta added a solo home run to finish out the Indians scoring.

Cliff Lee improved to 18-2 on the season as he shut down the Royals offense for seven innings. Lee gave up six hits and three runs while striking out seven batters. Rafael Betancourt and Brendan Donnelly pitched the final two innings of the game to keep the Royals at three runs.

Indians Baseball

Talk about an up and down game for the Cleveland Indians and all of their fans.  After going ahead in the top of the 10th inning with a Casey Blake home run, Joe Borowski blew the game as he gave up a solo home run to Alexei Ramirez and then a rbi single to Orlando Cabrera and the Chicago White Sox beat the Indians 3-2.  Very frustrating way to end what was an exciting game.

Cliff Lee pitched eight innings while only giving up six hits and one run.  Ramirez had a rbi sac fly in the second inning off of Lee for the White Sox only run in the game until the 10th inning when all hell broke loose.

Kelly Shoppach got the Indians on the scoreboard with a solo home run in the sixth inning.  The only other run for the Indians came in the top of the 10th inning when Casey Blake hit a home run off of White Sox relief pitcher Matt Thornton.

The Indians will now have to win on Wednesday to avoid the three game sweep to their rivals in the central division.

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Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Cliff Lee really stepped up on Thursday night when the Indians really needed him to.  Lee tossed eighth inning and struck out 11 Giants batters while only give up four runs to get the victory.  With the win, the Indians were able to avoid the three game sweep by the Giants.

Lee is now 11-1 on the season with a 2.34 era!  Lee was dominating on Thursday night as he rarely made a mistake.  The only one to score off of him came in the fourth inning when Rich Auruilia had a rbi single.  Other then that, Lee was on top of his game!

Joe Borowski pitched the ninth inning to pick up his sixth save of the season.

It was the Jamey Carroll and Jhonny Peralta show at the plate for the Indians.  Carroll went 2-3 with two rbi while Peralta went 1-4 with two rbi.  One thing that was bad as far as the Indians offense was that they never scored another run after the fourth inning.  It was like the Giants were always hanging around and with one rally cold have tied or taken the lead.  The Indians didn’t take advantage of all the runners on base as they stranded 16 of them in the game.

The Indians will now play a big weekend series with the Cincinnati Reds.  The Reds are struggling right now so hopefully the Tribe can take two of three or even sweep the Reds!

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The game between the Cleveland Indians and the Detroit Tigers was over after the first two innings when the Indians were already up 8-0.  The Indians ended up going on to beat the Tigers by the score of 8-2.  The teams had to wait things out with a 57 minute rain delay in the game but then, the game was more less over on the scoreboard.

Cliff Lee won his 10th game of the season to improve his record to 10-1.  Lee came back out in the fifth inning after the rain delay to finish his five innings so he could record the win.  He allowed six hits and two runs in his five innings of action.

Rafael Perez pitched two scoreless innings of relief while Rafael Betancourt and Masa Kobayashi pitched one scoreless inning each.  Good job by the three relief pitchers.

Ryan Garko hit a three run home run in the first inning and then was hit by a pitch in the second inning with the bases loaded as he led the Indians at the plate with four rbi.  Kelly Shoppach also hit a home run in the game as he hit a two run shot in the second inning to finish with two rbi.  Jhonny Peralta and Shin-Soo Choo chipped in with one rbi each as well.

The Indians will now start a three game series against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night.

Indians Blog

The Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays played in two pitchers duels on Monday afternoon and night as the both teams picked up one win and one loss.  The Indians picked up a win in the first game as Fausto Carmona tossed a complete game shutout and the Indians won 3-0.

David Delluci got the Indians on the board in the first game with a rbi single in the sixth inning and then Asdrubal Cabrera had a two run home run in the seventh inning.  It was a good thing as well because the Indians only had five hits in the game.

Onto the second game, it was the Indians on the losing end of a 3-0 game once again.  The Indians only came up with three hits in the game.  No wonder why they were shutout lol.

Cliff Lee had tossed nine full inning and gave up seven hits but no runs in the game.  No runs support for him however as he took home the no decision.  Asdrubal Cabrera pitched the tenth inning and allowed all three runs as he took the loss to drop his record to 1-2.

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Cliff Lee improved to 6-0 on the season as he faced off against Chien-Ming Wang in a battle of the un-beatens on Wednesday night.   The Cleveland Indians beat the New York Yankees and Wang by the score of 3-0.

Lee threw seven innings and only allowed six hits and no runs in the game as he stayed undefeated.  Lee struckout seven batters without walking a batter.  A great preformance for Lee as he went up against a very good offense in the Yankees.

Rafael Perez and Rafael Betancourt pitched the last two innings of the game and only allowed one run.  Betancourt closed the door on the Yankees in the ninth inning as he picked up his fourth save of the season.

The Indians scored in three different innings as they got RBI from three different players.  David Dellucci, Victor Martinez, and Casey Blake all had a RBI in the game. 

Now that was a great win for the Indians!  Indians Blog

The Clevelend Indians swept the Kansas City Royals in a double header on Thursday.  The Indians beat the Royals by the scores of 9-6 in game one and then 2-0 in the game two.  With the two wins, the Indians are now 10-12 on the season as they try to get back to the .500 mark.

Fausto Carmona improved to 3-1 on the season as he picked up the win in the first game.  Cliff Lee improved to 4-0 on the season as he won the second game for the Indians.

In game one, Grady Sizemore connected for his second home run of the season and in game two, David Dellucci hit his third home run of the season.

The Indians will now start a series against the New York Yankees.