It's Tribe Time | A Cleveland Indians Franchise

[Vinsane]

Series Preview:

(21-18) @ (18-20)

Cleveland Leads The Season Series 5-1.

Division Standings:

Probable Starters:

Game 1:

A. Laffey (3-3, 4.66 ERA)|L. Hochevar (2-1, 2.53 ERA)

Game 2:

F. Carmona (5-1, 2.60 ERA) |K. Davies (1-2, 8.48 ERA)

Game 3:

C. Lee (4-1, 3.75 ERA)|Z. Greinke (1-4, 4.77 ERA)


Key Bank's "Keys to Succes"

1.) Gain Seperation - The Indians did themselves a favor by winning those games against Tampa Bay. They stayed on pace with the Tigers and White Sox. Now they need t pull away from the Royals to get a comfortable separation from the bottom of the AL Central. This series and the next are important to keep pace with the Tigers, with a Tampa Bay team looking for revenge, and a New York team to close out the month this series is important for wins.

2.) Solid Bullpen - The Rotation has changed, this is going to require the Bullpen to be solid in this series. An already fatigued Aaron Laffey is going to open the series, he'll need help coming out of the Bullpen in order to get the W, and make a move on the AL Wildcard and Division Lead.

3.) Solid Hitting - The bats were alive in Tampa Bay and fizzled out in the last game. Get them back against the Royals and the Indians are looking good coming into a series with the Reds in Cincinnati, this is an important series for the Indians if they want to make a move before June.

[mfbmike]

I dig the rotation change. Lee and Carmona are beasting out for you.

Tough loss up there though. Losing to the Royals is never fun.

[Vinsane]

I dig the rotation change. Lee and Carmona are beasting out for you.

Tough loss up there though. Losing to the Royals is never fun.

LOL! I lost to the Devil Rays, unless your talking about the one loss to the Royals earlier this season.

[mfbmike]

Rofl, meant Rays. Both teams start with R and I saw the Royals logo at the end of the update and had a brain fart.

[T.Dot]

I like the change a lot Vinsane.
Westbrook is a good innings eater for you.
Good luck vs the Royals,I play them next too.

[Vinsane]

Indians Crowns Royals.


Sizemore, who is a corner stone to this team, could be out for awhile.

AP - Kansas City, MO - The shake up worked, for a game at least. A fatigued Aaron Laffey took the mound and delivered a three hit performance. Securing his spot on the team for at least awhile, anyways. The Indians looked rejuvenated after their day off, smacking the Royals around for 12 runs on 19 hits. The Royals could of avoided the blow out but two huge errors were their demise in this ball game.

The win didn't come without a scare though, Grady Sizemore went down in the middle innings grabbing at his hamstring. There hasn't been word yet on weather or not the injury is serious, there will be an injury report due out in the early hours of tomorrow on the future of the Indians center-fielder. David Dellucci took over for Sizemore in center after the injury.

"We're hoping for the best." Said Eric Wedge. "When you lose a guy like Grady, you lose a key piece to this team, the last couple years he's been a leader on this team, a soft spoken guy but a leader none the less. He does what he can on the field and helps the other guys out, if this is a serious injury he will be missed." Travis Hafner also piped up about the injury. "We're crossing our fingers, losing a guy like Grady would be a shock to this team, we've lost Shoppach until next month at the earliest, if we lose Grady its going to be tough to replace him, both on the field and in the line-up."

The Indians will continue this series tomorrow as Fausto Carmona makes his first start as the Indians ace.

Lineup:

RF Choo 3-6 | 1K
C Martinez 2-5 |
CF Sizemore 1-3 |
CF Dellucci 1-2 |
DH Hafner 2-5 |
SS Peralta 3-5 |
3B DeRosa 3-5 |
LF Francisco 3-5 |
1B Garko 1-5 | 1K
2B Cabrera 0-5 | 1K

Batting:

2B: T. Hafner (10), R. Garko (7), J. Peralta (5), M. DeRosa (12) S. Choo 2 (9)
RBI: V. Martinez 3 (16), T. Hafner 2 (22), R. Garko 2 (19), M. DeRosa 3 (19), B. Francisco (11)

Pitching:

Laffey (W, 4-3) | 5.0IP | 3H | 1BB | 3SO | 4.21 ERA |
Smith (S,1) | 4.0IP | 3H | 1SO | 1.93 ERA |



Lineup:

LF DeJesus 0-4 | 1K
3B Gordon 1-4 |
1B Butler 2-4 | 1K
RF Guillen 1-4 | 1K
DH Teahen 0-3 |
CF Crisp 0-3 |
C Olivo 1-3 | 1K
2B Bloomquist 0-3 |
SS Pena Jr. 1-3 |

Batting:

2B: A. Gordon (8), B. Butler (10), T. Pena Jr. (7)
GIDP: W. Bloomquist, M. Teahen

Fielding:

E: L. Hochevar (1), T. Pena Jr (6)

Pitching:

Hochevar (L, 2-2) | 4.1IP | 8H | 6R | 4ER | 1SO | 3.06 ERA |
Bale | 1.2IP | 8H | 5R | 5ER | 4.11 ERA |
Gobble | 3.0IP | 3H | 1R | 1ER | 2SO | 3.38 ERA |

Player of the Game:


A. Laffey

5.0 Innings 3 Hits 3 Strikeouts

Next Game:
May 20th, 2009

(22-18) @ (18-21)

[Vinsane]

I like the change a lot Vinsane.
Westbrook is a good innings eater for you.
Good luck vs the Royals,I play them next too.

Good luck against them, lol. Westbrook is one of those guys I like, but never performs well IRL.

I see you grabbing 2 of 3.

Z. Greinke pitches a shutout, gets back on track.

[Vinsane]

Injury Update:


It will be awhile before we see Grady Sizemore doing this.

AP - Kansas City, MO - Confusion hit the Indians in the form of an injury, early Tuesday Morning. The Doctors who had taken Grady Sizemore in for what was thought to be a hamstring injury discovered something very unusual. After the results for tests came back negative on his leg, Sizemore complained about his arm still hurting from a diving catch he had made in the inning prior to the leg strain. The doctors took a deeper look and found that Sizemore has a broken arm.

"It's very strange." Said Sizemore. "I played with a broken arm for a whole inning not realizing it, didn't come out of the game until my hamstring felt bad. I'm surprised I didn't hurt myself any worse." The Indians Center Fielder should be lucky he didn't. The time table for Sizemore's return isn't until after The All-Star game. The Indians will have to do without him for upwards of two months. Doctors are saying he could be back in as little as a month, but Eric Wedge isn't counting on it.

"We'll have to work through injuries, it's a part of the game." When asked who will replace him in center field, Wedge took a moment before making a decision. "I'm going to go ahead and move Dellucci into the starting line-up in left, and Ben Francisco should be ready to go in center field." This injury comes at a bad time for the Indians who are looking to make a move on the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central. "At least he isn't done for the season, we should be thankful for that." Said Travis Hafner. "We'll just put our noses to the grindstone and do it without him, until he's ready to get back. When he does this team will be in a good position for the playoffs, I can promise you that!"

[mfbmike]

Holy cow.

The team name in the boxscore is rays though. Minor error. Crazy game. Must've been fun. lol.

[Vinsane]

Holy cow.

The team name in the boxscore is rays though. Minor error. Crazy game. Must've been fun. lol.

It has been fixed. I was excited to see that kind of production, hopefully it carries into the next few series and I can finish May on a high note. The remaining twelve games of May I wanted to go 8-4.

[Vinsane]

The New Ace Delivers.


Carmona struck out 10 in his nine innings of work, also recorded the shut-out.

AP - Kansas City, MO - When called upon, Fausto Carmona delivers. The game started out on a very positive note. The Indians had a man out, a man on first, and Ben Francisco came to the plate. With the first pitch he seen Francisco blasted the ball over the left field wall. Scoring the first two runs. After him, Travis Hafner was three feet from scoring another homer, then Davies went out with an injury to his arm. He was grabbing at his shoulder as he was escorted to the locker room.

After this start, perhaps the Rivalry has reached a boiling point? Fausto Carmona started the fireworks when he accidentally plunked Alex Gordon. "The slider got away from me, it wasn't intentional. I was working on a no hitter, then I plunked him." Kyle Farnsworth answered with not one, or two, but three hit Indians batters, Eric Wedge came out of the dugout to protest, and was ejected for his efforts.

"That's terrible officiating. A guy plunks a guy for retaliation. I told our guys to be prepared for that. However, when you hit three guys? That's asking for someone to get injured, that's intent to hurt. I shouldn't of been ejected, he should have. Now I went to the locker room and watched the rest of the game. If I was one of the guys out there I would've rushed the mound after batter number two, that was ridiculous."

The MLB officials have stated they will look at the tapes of Farnsworth and decide if he'll be penalized by Major League Baseball for his actions. The story of the game though was the outstanding performance by the Indians new ace Fausto Carmona, who fanned ten in nine innings of work, only giving up seven hits. "Seven is a little too much" said Carmona. "We got the win, I got double-digit strikes. Tomorrow hopefully Cliff can secure the sweep for us and we can head back to Ohio to play the Reds."

Lineup:

RF Choo 1-5 |
C Martinez 3-5 |
CF Francisco 2-5 | 1K
DH Hafner 0-5 |
SS Peralta 0-3 | 1K
3B DeRosa 2-3 |
LF Dellucci 2-3 |
1B Garko 1-4 |
2B Cabrera 0-4 |

Batting:

2B: M. DeRosa 2 (14), D. Dellucci (4)
3B: S. Choo (1)
HR: B. Francisco (3)
RBI: V. Martinez (17), M. DeRosa (20), B. Francisco 2 (13), D. Dellucci 2 (8)
HBP: J. Peralta, M. DeRosa, D. Dellucci
GIDP: T. Hafner

Pitching:

Carmona (W, 6-1) | 9.0IP | 7H | 10SO | 2.24 ERA |



Lineup:

LF DeJesus 0-4 | 2K
3B Gordon 1-3 | 1K
DH Guillen 2-4 |
1B Jacobs 1-4 | 2K
RF Teahen 1-4 | 2K
CF Crisp 0-4 | 1K
C Olivo 1-4 |
2B Bloomquist 0-3 | 1K
SS Pena Jr. 1-3 | 1K

Batting:

2B: J. Guillen (10)
3B: A. Gordon (2), M. Teahen (4)
HBP: A. Gordon
GIDP: D. DeJesus

Fielding:

E: W. Bloomquist (6), T. Pena Jr (7)

Pitching:

Davies (L, 1-3) | 0.2IP | 2H | 2R | 2ER | 8.90 ERA |
Farnsworth | 4.1IP | 2H | 1R | 2SO | 1.48 ERA |
Tejeda | 2.0IP | 7H | 3R | 2ER | 4.24 ERA |
Waechter | 2.0IP | 3.18 ERA |

Player of the Game:


F. Carmona

9.0 Innings 7 Hits 10 Strikeouts

Next Game:
May 21st, 2009

(23-18) @ (18-22)

[mfbmike]

this isn't even fair lol.

[Vinsane]

this isn't even fair lol.

I think a lot of it has to do with the day off. That and they are the Royals.

[Vinsane]

Kansas City Survives!


Well, in slide off fashion is more like it.

AP - Kansas City, MO - Cliff Lee got rocked, The defense didn't respond. The Indians took it into extra innings, and on the first pitch from a new pitcher, a triple was the result. The Indians battled it out with the Royals and couldn't settle it in nine. In extra Innings it was Alex Gordon who got the triple, and a base hit brought him home as the Kansas City Royals avoided the second sweep of the season by the Tribe.

Cleveland won the series 2-1 and Improved their record against Kansas City on the season to 7-2. There are nine more games left between these two teams to be played out later in the season, for now the Royals escaped the second sweep of the season. The Indians who needed this win to move a game in on the Tigers now find themselves 3.5 games back on the AL Central leaders, and 2.0 games behind the White Sox for the Wild Card.

Cleveland has made moves on both of these teams closing the gaps. Now they travel back "home" to take on Cincinnati in their first inter league match up this season. The in-state rivals have no love loss for one another and it will be interesting to see how chapter one of the "Battle For Ohio" plays out in the 2009 season. Cincinnati will host Cleveland for three games before the Tribe return home to face Tampa Bay and the New York Yankees to close out the month of May.

Lineup:

RF Choo 2-5 |
C Martinez 2-5 |
CF Francisco 1-5 | 2K
DH Hafner 2-5 |
SS Peralta 2-4 |
3B DeRosa 1-5 | 3K
LF Dellucci 0-5 |
1B Garko 2-5 | 1K
2B Cabrera 0-4 |

Batting:

2B: T. Hafner (11), S. Choo 2 (11)
HR: J. Peralta (6)
RBI: A. Cabrera (13), T. Hafner (23), R. Garko (20), J. Peralta 3 (27)
SF: A. Cabrera
SAC: J. Peralta

Pitching:

Lee | 6.0IP | 13H | 6R | 6ER | 6SO | 4.31 ERA |
Betancourt | 4.0IP | 2H | 1BB | 2SO | 3.92 ERA |
Meloan (L, 2-1) | 0.0IP | 2H | 1R | 1ER | 2.18 ERA |



Lineup:

LF DeJesus 2-6 | 1K
3B Gordon 2-5 |
1B Butler 3-6 | 2K
RF Guillen 3-5 |
DH Teahen 1-5 | 2K
CF Crisp 2-5 | 1K
C Olivo 2-5 | 2K
2B Callaspo 1-5 |
SS Pena Jr. 1-2 |
PH Jacobs 0-1 |
SS Bloomquist 0-1 |

Batting:

2B: D. DeJesus 2 (14), M. Olivo (2)
3B: A. Gordon (3)
HR: C. Crisp (2), B. Butler (4)
RBI: C. Crisp (13), B. Butler 2 (18), M. Olivo (10), A. Callaspo (14), T. Pena Jr. (10), M. Teahen (7)
SF: T. Pena Jr.

Fielding:

E: T. Pena Jr (8)

Pitching:

Greinke | 7.0IP | 10H | 5R | 3ER | 3SO | 4.67 ERA |
Cruz (W, 1-1) | 4.0IP | 2H | 1R | 1ER | 3SO | 3.00 ERA |

Player of the Game:


B. Butler

3 For 6 - HR, 2 RBI

Next Game:
May 22nd, 2009

(23-19) @ (21-20)

[Vinsane]

Series Preview:

"The Battle of Ohio"

(23-19) @ (21-20)

The Season Series Is Tied 0-0.

Probable Starters:

Game 1:

C. Pavano (2-1, 4.66 ERA)|A. Harang (3-5, 3.97 ERA)

Game 2:

J. Westbrook (0-0, 0.00 ERA)| B. Arroyo (3-2, 2.44 ERA)

Game 3:

A. Laffey (4-3, 4.21 ERA)|J. Cueto (3-2, 5.15 ERA)


Key Bank's "Keys to Succes"

1.) Get Back On Track - Don't worry about the loss to Kansas City, focus and get the rivalry off on the right foot. There is no love loss between these two teams and every year they meet for Ohio bragging rights. Everyone in the state will be watching this match-up closely, the Reds are playing just under .500 baseball, the Indians want to bury them.

2.) Getting Closer - The Indians are making a move on the AL Central lead and the Wild Card lead. They need a series win here to improve on both those standings, with Tampa Bay and New York closing out the month getting two or three wins here is crucial for the month of May.

3.) Don't Take It Easy - The Reds are going to want to use this series to bounce back into contention themselves. They too are out for blood against the Tribe. This will boil down to which team can provide the offense backed by solid pitching, or vise-versa. Should be a good one.