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

The Cleveland Indians played the Boston Red Sox tough but they fell just short on Wednesday night. A Mark Kotsay rbi double in the eighth inning provided the Red Sox with the winning run as they went onto beat the Indians by the score of 5-4.

Rafael Perez was the losing pitcher as he gave up the winning run for the Red Sox in the eighth inning. Perez allowed two hits and one run in his one inning of action. Fausto Carmona was the starting pitcher but he got rocked for five hits and four runs in just one inning of action.

All four of the Indians runs came via singles as Shin-Soo Choo, Jhonny Peralta, Victor Martinez, and Josh Barfield all had rbi singles.

The Indians will have a chance to get a split in the series as they take on the Red Sox once again on Thursday.

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The Cleveland Indians and Baltimore Orioles kicked off a series on Monday night and things did not go good for the Indians. They tribe’s pitcher just had problems all night long with keeping the ball down and the Orioles batters made them pay with four home runs.

Fausto Carmona got rocked in the game as he only lasted 5 1/3 innings. He was charged with six hits and seven runs. Carmona also walked four while striking out five in the game. He got into trouble in the sixth inning when he was pulled after only getting one out. Juan Rincon was unable to get out of the jam in the sixth inning as he was also charged with two runs. Brendan Donnelly had a terrible inning in the eighth as Adam Jones took him deep for a three run shot and then Ramon Hernandez added a two run home run that extended the Orioles lead to 14-3.

Asdrubal Cabrera got the Indians on the scoreboard in the second inning when he hit a ground rule double that scored Shin-Soo Choo. Cabrera then added a rbi single in the fourth inning as he finished the game with two rbil. The other run for the tribe came in the fifth inning when Franklin Gutierrez hit a rbi sac fly that scored Ryan Garko.

Hopefully the Indians can bounce back on Tuesday night and even up the series at one game each.

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The Cleveland Indians defeated the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday night by the score of 9-7 as they finished off the Tigers in the three game series. The Indians didn’t have any problems finishing up the sweep as they scored in five different innings and outhit the Tigers 13-9.

Kelly Shoppach and Shin-Soo Choo both hit two run home runs to lead the Indians at the plate. Shoppach also added another rbi with a single that scored Choo. Grady Sizemore had another good game as he had a two run single to finish with two rbi. Jhonny Peralta and Ryan Garko finished up the scoring with an rbi each.

On the mound, Fausto Carmona tossed six innings and allowed seven hits and four runs.  Fausto threw the ball well enough to pick up the win and improve to 7-5. Rafael Perez gave up a run and then Rafael Betancourt and Jensen Lewis finished things up in the eighth and ninth innings. Lewis did have some problems however as he allowed two runs on a Magglio Ordonez home run.

Good series for the Indians! Indians Baseball

The Cleveland Indians got three runs in the eighth inning and held on to defeat the New York Yankees by the score of 5-3.

David Dellucci connected a three run home run off of Joba Chamberlain in the eighth inning to give the Indians the victory.  Talk about a huge pitch hit home run for Dellucci and especially off of Chamberlain who is usually lights out.

Delluci led the Indains with three RBI in the game.  Jhonny Peralta had the other two RBI for the Indians.  Peralta went deep for a two run shot in the fourth inning.

Rafael Perez picked up the win as he pitched in relief of Fausto Carmona.  Carmona tossed five innings and as he gave up six hits and three runs.  Rafael Betancourt earned his third save of the season for the Indians.

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Don’t let that 7-2 score fool you too much, the Cleveland Indians and the Seattle Mariners were tied heading into the ninth inning, but the Mariners came out and scored five runs in the inning to win the game 7-2.

Rafael Betancourt took the loss for the Indians.  Betancourt ended up giving up three of the five runs in the ninth inning.  He wasn’t the only player to suck it up out of the bullpen however as Craig Breslow gave up two runs.

Starting pitcher Fausto Carmona lasted 6.2 innings as he gave up eight hits and two runs.  Carmona did walk four batters however, so he does still need to work on his control.

David Dellucci and Travis Hafner both had one RBI each at the plate for the Indians.  Not very much offensive production for the Indians on Tuesday night.

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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.

The Cleveland Indians got back on the winning track as they crushed the Detroit Tigers 11-1 on Thursday night.  The Indians hammered Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander for five runs in five innings.

Ryan Garko and Travis Hafner both hit home runs for the Indians.  Both players finished with two RBI as did Jamey Carroll.  Jason Michaels led the team however with three RBI.  Victor Martinez and Casey Blake both had one RBI.

Fausto Carmona earned his second win of the season as he tossed 6.2 innings.  Carmona gave up seven hits but only one earned run.  It was a great day for Carmona and the Indians bullpen as they just manhandled the Tigers.

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Fausto Carmona and the Cleveland Indians have agreed on a four year contract that will pay Carmona $15 million per year.  The deal cold ultimately be worth $48 million dollars if Carmona hits incentives that are listed in the contract.

That’s a lot of money to throw at a young pitcher but the Indians feel he could be the “Ace” if C.C. Sabathia leaves after this season.  Hopefully Carmona will stay healthy and the move will pay off for him and the Indians.

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