If you are one who believes that Cleveland, the Rock and Roll Capitol of the World and Detroit, headquarters of Motown, are more natural rivals than say Cincinnati and Cleveland, it was a good Memorial Day weekend for you. Not only did the Indians move into first place by sweeping the Tigers at Comerica Park, the Cavs won Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals by knocking off the Pistons at the Q, Sunday night. It might alleviate some of the angst fans of North Coast sports normally go through.
The Tribe used power and good starting pitching to take three in the Motor City. All three starting pitchers (Paul Byrd, C.C. Sabathia, and Fausto Carmona) worked into the seventh, allowing Eric Wedge to minimize the use of his bullpen. The skipper showed he has confidence in only Rafael Betancourt and Tom Mastny is tight situations, and he treated all three games like they were playoff contests. He used Betancourt for 1-2/3 frames in the series opener.
With Travis Hafner struggling during the month of May, Victor Martinez has quietly putting together a tremendous season. Martinez had big HR’s in each of the first two games in Detroit, and is hitting around .320 with 8 dingers and 40 RBI. The catcher is also much improved in terms of throwing out would be base stealers. He’s getting more time off from his catching duties, playing 1B when Kelly Shoppach goes behind the dish. Martinez sometimes gets overlooked because of Grady Sizemore and Hafner, but he’s definitely having an All Star campaign.
The two teams go after each other against in a four game set at Jacobs Field this weekend. This time, the Indians will not be able to pitch their three best starters, as Cliff Lee and Jeremy Sowers will go on Saturday and Sunday. The Indians have done very well against their division foes in 2007, with a record thus far of 13-4 against Detroit, Minnesota, Chicago, and Kansas City.
Meanwhile in Cleveland, LeBron James’ poster dunk over Rasheed Wallace highlighted the Cavaliers’ game three victory to put them back in the series. LBJ was aggressive, satisfying his critics, but also dished out nine assists in the win. The wine and gold still need to win the fourth game tonight to even the series and give themselves a realistic chance to get to The Finals. They will have to accomplish that without guard Larry Hughes, out with a torn muscle in his foot.
It is likely that Daniel Gibson will make his first start in the post season tonight, and Eric Snow will also get off the bench as well, after getting a DNP in Game 3. I would like to make another personnel suggestion to Mike Brown. That would be to anchor Donyell Marshall firmly to the bench and give Ira Newble some playing time. In a series where the defense is king, Newble would provide better "D" than Marshall, and outside of his heroics in the clinching game in New Jersey, the former UConn star’s offense has been missing in action as well. There really isn’t anything to lose in giving Newble some minutes.
Much has been made of the subpar performance turned in by Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton the other night. However, the Cavs didn’t get good games from Anderson Varajao and Hughes missed much of the game as well. It seems a lot of "experts" like to point out what Pistons are not playing well, but fail to observe the Cavs who are not playing up to par.
Regardless, this is a must win game for the Cavaliers. If they lose, the series and the season will most likely end Thursday night at The Palace. If they win, the team should have confidence since they could have won either of the first two games. LeBron was not correct about Sunday’s game being the biggest of his career. Tonight’s contest will supercede that one.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 