Cavs Win Game 1, Tribe a Series

 

Yesterday was a pretty good day if you were a sports fan in Cleveland, Ohio.  The heavily favored Cavs won the first game of their first round series with the Washington Wizards, 97-82, and the Tribe snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat by getting four runs in the ninth to beat Tampa Bay, 6-4. 

 

Cavaliers.  As expected by a team that qualified for the playoffs and is missing two starters, the Wizards kept the game close for the first three quarters before the wine and gold took control down the stretch.  Washington rode its best player, Antawn Jamison, but when he got tired in the second half, the Wizards could no longer stay close.  Since the Wiz are short handed, the series should get easier as it goes on.  Eddie Jordan had his team fired up and believing it could win without Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler, but since their best shot didn’t succeed yesterday, Game 2 might be a Cavs’ blowout.

 

However, that depend on the ankle of LeBron James.  The King went down in the third quarter after landing on the foot of Eton Thomas following a short runner.  He remained in the game, but will likely be very sore today.  If the Cavs can get a easy win on Wednesday night, it would allow LeBron to get some more rest.  Since the first round of the playoffs goes on seemingly forever, it does allow James more healing time.  And if the Cavs can make short work of the Wizards, say five games, he would get more time off if the Nets and Raptors would cooperate by going the full seven.

 

Notice that Mike Brown went to Ira Newble before Donyell Marshall yesterday.  Newble’s defensive abilities should garner himself more minutes in the post season.  Don’t look for a sighting of rookies Daniel Gibson or Shannon Brown unless there is a blowout.

 

Indians.  It wasn’t pretty, but the Tribe did bounce back from the debacle in the Bronx to take two of three from the Devil Rays.  Ryan Garko bailed the good guys out with a three run homer in the top of the ninth to turn a 4-3 loss into a 6-4 win.  The team continues to have problems on offense, where only Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore, and Victor Martinez have been consistent.  The bottom of the order is contributing nothing, and the most exciting thing to watch in the last week or so is figuring out how Eric Wedge will get Casey Blake into a game he did not start.

 

Seriously, the old problems with the Tribe, the ones that have existed since Wedge became manager:  Defensive lapses and poor baserunning.  The Devil Rays tried to run on the Tribe catchers and Martinez and Shoppach actually had a decent success rate.  Of course, they also had a throwing error in each game, Friday’s resulting in Tampa tying the game.  Josh Barfield made a bad throw trying to convert a double play in the series opener, costing C.C. Sabathia an out and a run.  Barfield and Trot Nixon botched a short fly ball on Saturday leading to two more D-Ray runs. 

 

Travis Hafner made two outs on the bases Friday night.  These guys aren’t kids anymore.  Most of them have several years of big league experience, yet they are playing like Class A prospects.  These areas have to be tightened up or these mistakes will cost the Tribe as they go down the stretch. 

 

Two more in the Twin Cities for the Indians before coming home for an eight game home stand.  At least no one in the Central was got off to huge starts like the White Sox in 2005 or the Tigers in 2006.  The bottom of the order has to start contributing so the offense can function better.  Let’s see if that starts tonight.

 

MW