The Cleveland Indians snatched defeat from the jaws of a possible victory with more terrible situational hitting on Wednesday, as the Tribe had the tying and winning runs on base in the ninth inning with one out, and failed to score. This has been a recurring theme with this ballclub, as they had an opportunity to bail out the bullpen, but failed to do so, and the Indians are now 5-1/2 games behind the front running White Sox after a 6-5 loss to the White Sox.
The ballclub parlayed an error and a walk by Grady Sizemore to put runners on first and second with no one out in the bottom of the ninth. A bunt moved the runners to second and third, where Ben Francisco and Victor Martinez stranded them on harmless, infield pop ups. The former came on the first pitch. So much for the patience the team is always preaching.
Of course, the relief corps didn’t help either. After Jhonny Peralta’s two-run homer in the sixth gave Cleveland a 5-3 lead, the bullpen couldn’t hold it, and Rafael Betancourt was the culprit. An error by seldom used Andy Marte and a single set up the inning for the Sox, and a sacrifice moved the tying runs into scoring position. Unlike the Tribe in the ninth, the Pale Hose knocked in the runs with back-to-back doubles off of Betancourt, and gave Chicago a lead they would never relinquish.
Betancourt has been hot and cold this season after a tremendous season in 2007. His inconsistency is the biggest problem in the bullpen and here’s hoping Eric Wedge’s stubbornness doesn’t get in the way. After a third of the season, it is obvious that Masa Kobayashi has been more effective and consistent than Betancourt, and their roles should be flip-flopped. Yes, Kobayashi gave up a homer to Adam Dunn to cost the team a win against Cincinnati, but overall he has done the better job.
Peralta’s dinger was his 11th of the season, and raised his RBI total to 19 on the season. The shortstop is threatening to rival Brook Jacoby’s epic 1987 season of 32 homers and 69 RBI’s. It is very unusual to hit that many home runs and drive in less than 80 runs. At his current pace, Peralta will hit 33 HR’s with 60 RBI’s. He is developing into an all or nothing offensive player, on par with guys like Russell Branyan. The Tribe needs more from Peralta.
Baseball Prospectus.com noted today that the Indians’ starting rotation is on pace to be one of the top five American League rotations in the last 50 years, joining the ’61 Orioles, ’63 and ’64 White Sox, and the 1980 Oakland A’s. The bad news here is that none of these teams made the post-season. The point is this ballclub is wasting some historic starting pitching by bullpen and offensive failures. GM Mark Shapiro and Wedge need to stop hoping it will turn around and do something to make it change direction.
KM
Cleveland Sports Perspective 