A Little Momentum?

 

What a difference a few days make!  After the 11-0 shellacking at the hands of the White Sox on Monday, the buzzard were circling the Jake.  Kenny Roda started his "Wedge Watch", which is ridiculous because the skipper isn’t going anywhere.  Everyone was talking about the dismal state of the Cleveland Indians, two games under .500 and 10-1/2 games out of first place.

 

Three days and three wins later, the Tribe looks like they may be heading in the right direction.  The Wahoos are now a game over .500 and trimmed two games off the Tiger lead in the AL Central Division.  The reason for the wins?  Decent starting pitching.  C.C. Sabathia threw six good innings on Tuesday, Jake Westbrook went seven shutout frames on Wednesday, and even Paul Byrd bobbed and weaved his way through six last night.  Byrd wasn’t great, but he kept his team in the game and the bats did the rest. 

 

A couple of hitters in slumps also came alive.  Ronnie Belliard has been struggling as of late, but hit a huge 3-run homer to put the Tribe in front to stay, 10-8.  Ben Broussard went through a hitless streak, but has banged homers the past two nights.  Now, if only Jhonny Peralta could get it going.  If he can’t get it turned around soon, Wedge may have no choice but to move him out of the three hole in the lineup.

 

One guy who has taken a lot of crap since the beginning of the season deserves some respect:  Jason Michaels.  Since the beginning of May, the leftfielder has hit .324 and slugged .490 in 102 at bats.  Only Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner have knocked in more runs (17) than Michaels in this span.  It appears he is adjusting to the AL, and doing it very well.

 

With Jason Johnson and Cliff Lee starting against the Angels this weekend, it is important to take the series.  Johnson needs to show some consistency, and Lee needs to show he can turn it around.  I will repeat, when the Indians get good starting pitching, they are tough to beat.  That’s the biggest area of concern as we head toward the interleague play with series against the A’s, White Sox, and the Yankees.

 

KM