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

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 got two rbi’s each from Jhonny Peralta and Shin-Soo Choo as they beat the Minnesota Twins by the score of 6-4. The Indians are playing spoilers right now against the Twins as they just can’t get over the hump and catch the Chicago White Sox.

Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner each had one rbi each as well for the Indians.

On the mound it was Cliff Lee starting the game and throwing 6 1/3 innings. Lee was charged with ten hits and four runs as he wasn’t his usual self on Wednesday night. Lee walked three batters while striking out five and giving up one home run.

Edward Mujica ended up picking up the inning as he recorded the final two outs in the seventh inning. Jensen Lewis picked up his 10th save of the season in the ninth inning.

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Things looked very good for the Cleveland Indians after they scored four runs in the top of the first inning but after that everything went down hill for them as they lost to the Texas Rangers 9-4.  Pretty dissapointing game as you come out of the gates and score four quick runs, but then have trouble the next eight inning and don’t score one run.  Something is wrong there if you ask me.

C.C. Sabathia took the loss and is now 3-8 on the season.  Sabathia gave up nine hits, five runs (four earned, three walks, and struckout eight batters.  Rafael Betancourt allowed three runs while only lasting 2/3 of an inning.  Edward Mujica then came in and gave up another run in 1 1/3 innings of action.  All three pitchers had trouble as you can tell.

The first inning is really all there is to blog about for the offense.  David Dellucci had a two run double while Victor Martinez had a rbi single and Jhonny Peralta had a rbi double. I really thought the Indians would get some more runs as the game went on, but Kevin Millwood figured things out and shut them down the rest of the game.

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The Cleveland Indians came up just short against the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday as they lost 6-5.  The Indians had runners on third and second with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning but they were unable to score a run to force extra rinnings.

Rafael Betancourt (1-3) ended up with the loss as he pitched the seventh and eighth innings for the Indians.  Indians starting pitcher Jake Westbrook only lasted five innings as he gave up five hits and three runs in the game.  No the usual performance that Indians fans are used to seeing out of Westbrook.

Jhonny Peralta led the Indians at the plate as he hit his 11th home run and had two rbi in the game.  Victor Martinez and David Dellucci also had one rbi each in the game for the Indians.

The Indians will now be off on Thursday before starting up a weekend series with the Kansas City Royals.  The Indians need to have a very good road trip if they want to get back towards the top of the pack in the American League Central Division.

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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 Cleveland Indians and Seattle Mariners battled for 11 innings on Thursday night and it was the Indians coming out on top with the 3-2 victory.  The Indians gave up the lead in the ninth inning, and then had to score runs in the tenth and eleventh innings to finally beat the Mariners.

Rafael Betancourt blew the save in the ninth inning and then Masa Kobayashi pitched the final two innings of the game to pick up the win.  Starting pitcher Paul Byrd tossed 7.2 innings of four hit baseball as he got the no decision.

Asdrubal Cabrera only had one hit in the game as he went 1-4, but that one hit was the game winning hit in the eleventh inning.  Cabrera singled to right and scored Jason Michaels for the winning run.  The Indians tied the game in the tenth inning when Grady Sizemore walked with the bases loaded.  The other run for the Indians came in the fourth inning when Travis Hafner doubled to score Victor Martinez.

It was a good win for the Indians who are now 14-15 in the season and only one game away from the .500 mark.

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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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The Cleveland Indians played the Boston Red Sox neck and neck for eight innings, but in the ninth inning, Jensen Lewis gave up a solo home run to Jason Varitek and then a RBI single to Kevin Youkilis as the Red Sox defeated the Indians by the score of 5-3.

Lewis took the loss for the Indians as he gave up the two runs in the ninth inning.  Paul Byrd was the starter for the Indians and pitched six innings and only allowed one run which was un-earned.  Jorge Julio gave up two earned runs without even recording an out.

Victor Martinez led the Indians with two RBI while Ryan Garko helped out with one RBI.  The Indians just werne’t able to get much offense going off Tim Wakefield and the Red Sox relievers.

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