Tribe Swept Away.... Blargghhh

I'm not really sure who to blame this one on.

Truth is.. It was a rather ho-hum effort.

Anthony Reyes wasn't his best. He got through five innings, barely.

The one issue I have really didn't matter much in the grand scheme of things, but it is very frustrating to see the game being played this way.

I'm talking about Ben Francisco in the second inning completely ignoring the cut-off man and then making a horrible throw to home plate.

There was bases loaded, one out, and a fly ball was hit a little off to where he was originally standing. Ordonez was on third and he was obviously tagging.

Francisco's throw ended up hitting Shoppach way in front of home plate, not even close. Him throwing home past the cut-off men allowed the runners on first and second to both move up. Normally you hit the cutoff man, none of them move, especially the one on second.

Now the difference was only one run because of the hit given up by Reyes, but still, it just is bad fundamental baseball by Francisco and that is yet another instance in which an Indians corner outfielder as missed the cut-off.

Choo has done it several times.

That being said.. I guess I don't have much more to gripe about. Reyes was less-than mediocre today, the offense didn't do crud against a young pitcher other than get him out after five innings. They got the tying run on in the ninth with two outs when all was said and done, but it seems like everything that was hit, aside from Cabrera's double, was hit hard but to outfielders or to infielders, and they just couldn't find a hole.

That's the frustrating part.

I mean nine hits, four walks.. That is a lot of activity, but it just didn't seem like they were ever threatening to score aside from that ninth. And that's too late.. I know this team has a lot of fight, I won't doubt them about that.. But "having fight" isn't good enough when it only shows late in the game. Have fight a little earlier so you don't have to make up a four run deficit in one inning.

I do think it's time to seriously start considering firing Derek Shelton in the next week here. They need to do something. Firing Wedge is the last resort, but they aren't at the last resort given how well we know this team can play as the season bores on. But you need to kick-start that fire and maybe getting in a new voice as far as hitting could do the trick.

Positives.. If I can find any.

Jensen Lewis turned in, not just two scoreless, but two innings that looked good. Tony Sipp pitched a scoreless inning as well, and so did Herges. But the pressure wasn't on so what can you really say?

Baby steps, that's for sure, it's good to see progress at least for the pen. So I'll take it, especially Lewis' two innings. Sipp walked a few guys, but he put up one hell of an effort against Cabrera, who was battling and battling. Much rather have him swing at his pitch than give in and throw him something that he can mash, that shows some knowledge.

Maybe, I'll just blame it on the pink pats.

Oh and one more negative aspect that I just thought of.. Rick Manning just said Adam Everett has seven RBI against the Tribe this year.. That's in, five games if I remember correctly. He's more of a lousy hitter than he is a good one. He's there for defense, not offense and he hits in the bottom of the order. THAT is unacceptable.

We've got Chicago coming in for our first series of the year. That's strange, we've usually seen the White Sox in the first series if not the first week or so of the year. It's already mid-May and we only have our first series against em. Tomorrow it's Carl Pavano and Gavin Floyd. Clayton Richard and Jeremy Sowers on Tuesday and the White Sox pushed back Mark Buerhle to Wednesday so he can face Cliff Lee in a battle of aces.

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