Cleveland's Friends of the Feather despite having seen a 7-game AL Central lead cut to 1 game by the Detroit Tigers are still staking the top spot in their tepee. We can all agree that they have not been living up to manager Manny Acta's "Wahoo Baseball" mantra as of late. Acta dismissed his hitting coach, Jon Nunnally over the past weekend against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Indians put up 5 runs in an 11-inning win over the Pirates, and scored 7 against the Colorado Rockies in a high-scoring loss befit more for Coors Field than the friendly confines on the corner of Ontario and Carnegie Avenues. Maybe that was a quick shot in the arm to the Cleveland hitters.
In order for the Tribe to remain in contention they need the following to happen:
Offensive Production from those who are supposed to produce
Immediate candidates for this category are Shin-Soo Choo and Carlos Santana. Over the past three games, they have started hitting the ball where the defense is not, especially Santana who now has 10 homers on the season. Choo has been hitting the ball hard lately, which should lead to hits and eventually homers. Choo batted .300 the past two seasons, and to me it is only a matter of time before that Choo shows up. Grady Sizemore also needs to produce. More than half of his hits go for extra-bases, but he has been striking out more than a pre-pubescent boy at the middle school dance. Here's hoping new hitting coach Bruce Fields can get through to these guys a little more.
Defense needs to revert back to early form:
Pitchers know that their defense can bail them out of some tough situations. Justin Masterson experienced it in his first start against the White Sox this year when Carlos Santana, who was at first that game, started a triple play. Asdrubal Cabrera has been Omaresque at short, and Jack Hannahan has proven to bring an extra-sized glove to compensate his light bat. Recently though, errors have been doing in the Indians. We're not talking about fielding errors exclusively either. Players have been throwing the ball around and allowing runners to get that extra base. It cost them dearly in the 8th inning last night against the Rockies when catcher Lou Marson attempted to pick-off the runner at first base only to see his throw whiz over the head of Carlos Santana and into right field. This gave Colorado an 8th run, which proved to be the difference in the 8-7 result. Turning double plays when you get the chance is critical. We don't possess a starter who can get 8 or 9 strikeouts a game, and that puts the onus on the defense to simple catch and throw.
Pitching wins championships
As Manny Acta said in his press conference after sweeping the Pirates, I don't know what you can say about the bullpen other than it's been spectacular. Vinnie Pestano has separated himself from the pack to become the setup man before Pure Rage Chris Perez comes in and slams the door shut. The bullpen had not given up a run in over 22 innings before giving up a run last night. They are not just getting batters out. Strikeouts are common place for Pestano and Perez. Both have electric stuff that can straight up blow a batter out of the water. All they need to do is maintain their current pace.
The starters are coming back to Earth from their outworldly start to the season when all it seemed they were doing was putting together quality starts. After the dust has settled, we have three quality starters in Josh Tomlin, Justin Masterson, and Carlos Carrasco. Carrasco has been on fire lately, throwing over 20 innings of shutout ball in wins over the Twins, Yankees, and Pirates. Masterson's record has been a product of no run support. Before his start against the Pirates, he had gotten 6 runs of support in his last 9 starts. It's virtually impossible to win with that offensive futility. Tomlin keeps plugging along at 8-4. The big issue is Fausto Carmona, as he completely imploded in the 5th inning of Cleveland's 8-7 loss last night to Colorado. Carmona was cruising right along until that big inning crushed him. Fausto has given up at least 4 earned runs in each of his last 8 starts. Completely horrendous, but he is out of options and cannot go to the minors without being released and clearing waivers (where he will be claimed by someone). Acta's dilemma is keeping him in the rotation instead of bringing up a Jeanmar Gomez or Zach McAllister from AAA Columbus, or sending him to the bullpen and hoping that shorter innings will improve his mental state. Either way, Cleveland cannot contend without sorting Carmona out.
Pitching is always most important, but scoring runs and catching the baseball are the big things the Tribe needs to do. It sounds very elementary and basic, but it's the little things that teams do well which breeds success. We caught a whiff of that in the first two months of the season. Wahoo Baseball needs a resurgence and sustainability.
