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Indians Tidbits (2008 season)

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CPD

Dominant Cliff Lee leads Cleveland Indians to doubleheader sweep of Kansas City Royals


Friday, April 25, 2008Paul Hoynes
Plain Dealer Reporter
Kansas City, Mo.- The Indians completed Thursday's doubleheader sweep behind undefeated left-hander Cliff Lee and an out-of-nowhere homer by David Dellucci.
Lee, who has not allowed a run in the past 21 innings, beat the Royals, 2-0, on a three-hitter. The Indians took the first game, 9-6, as Fausto Carmona struggled for five innings, but received plenty of support from the offense and Rafael Betancourt's first save of the season.
Dellucci ended a pitching duel between Lee (4-0, 0.28 ERA) and Brian Bannis ter (3-2, 2.48) with a leadoff homer in the seventh. Bannister retired the previous 16 batters before Dellucci hit his second homer of the series and third of the season.

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CPD

Cleveland Indians ignore the strain of playing doubleheader against Kansas City Royals


Friday, April 25, 2008Paul Hoynes
Plain Dealer Reporter
Kansas City, Mo.- The Indians didn't say boo about having to play a makeup doubleheader Thursday against Kansas City, even though it disrupted their rotation for a four-game series against the New York Yankees that starts tonight at Progressive Field.
"I haven't spent a minute worrying about it," said General Manager Mark Shapiro. "We had no control. It was the Royals' call."
With the Indians making two more trips to Kansas City this season, the possibilities for a doubleheader later in the season to replay Wednesday's rainout were plentiful. The Royals, however, said the American League likes teams to replay postponed games as quickly as possible.




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Canton

Wedge juggles starting rotation
Friday, April 25, 2008
BY Andy Call
REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER

KANSAS CITY, MO. The Indians have done some serious shuffling of their starting pitching during the last two days.

Whether all that shuffling will bring them an ace remains to be seen.

Although the Indians wouldn't officially confirm it, left-hander Aaron Laffey will be brought up Monday from Triple-A Buffalo and start against the New York Yankees at Progressive Field.

Laffey, 23, was 4-2 with a 4.56 ERA in nine starts last year and shut out Boston for 42⁄3 innings during the American League Championship Series.

He was scheduled to start Thursday night for Buffalo, but was to be on a limited pitch count. The Indians had encountered the need for a Monday pitcher when Fausto Carmona's scheduled start Wednesday was rained out. Carmona pitched the first game of Thursday night's doubleheader in Kansas City.

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Canton

Indians sweep doubleheader
Friday, April 25, 2008
BY Andy Call
REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER

KANSAS CITY, Mo. The Indians sputtered, coughed, wheezed and backfired for three weeks before finally getting the engine revved up Thursday night.

Grady Sizemore's four hits included a home run and eight different players scored runs as Cleveland overpowered Kansas City, 9-6, in the first game of a doubleheader at Kauffman Stadium. In the nightcap, Cliff Lee pitched his first career complete-game shutout as the Indians won, 2-0.

The victories gave the Indians their first series win since ? can you remember back this far? ? the first series of the year. The Indians opened the season by taking 2 of 3 from Chicago, but hadn't won a series since.

"That just tells you we haven't been playing very well and we're playing better," third baseman Casey Blake said.

INDIANS 9, ROYALS 6

The Indians followed up a 17-hit attack Tuesday with 15 hits in Thursday's opener.


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I think old Cliff it is our #4 starter and with Westbrook being out he is currently our #3 but as long as he pitches the way he did last night I don't care what number you give him. Amazing!

Wedge pulled another wedgie in the first game last night. Or I the hell did he start Michaels in left when there was a right-handed pitcher on the mound. Michaels is having a hard enough time hitting anything. What was wrong with Delucci last night or is he only allowed to play one game of a doubleheader. I think he is starting to come around but Michaels is a lost cause IMO. If they ship Francisco back to the minors and keep Michaels in Cleveland, I will be extremely upset. I say give Francisco a chance. Michaels had his chance last year and this year and has not proven anything. They can get rid of Marte while they are at it. Is he a clubhouse leader or something:sad:
 
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Cliff Lee

I was all over this guy last year. Ripped on him for his performance and his attitude.
Because I was so hard on him on this forum I thought it would be good to heap some praise on the kid as well.
What a turn around he has made! From the interviews I've heard, I think he has had a change of attitude and/or is finally maturing. And this really shows on the mound. He's been the best pitcher in baseball for the month of April and even though he won 17 games a couple of years ago I never thought he had come close to his potential. He may be finally reaching it.
Congrats to Cliff Lee and to the Indians for not trying to dump him last year after he was sent down and proceeded to be terrible even in the minors.
 
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LitlBuck;1148729; said:
If they ship Francisco back to the minors and keep Michaels in Cleveland, I will be extremely upset. I say give Francisco a chance. Michaels had his chance last year and this year and has not proven anything. They can get rid of Marte while they are at it. Is he a clubhouse leader or something:sad:
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I'm with you. Francisco has a nice upside and is already a more productive bat than Michaels after a couple of games. The thing with Michaels is that he has at no time been anything more than an average outfielder...a platoon player at best. Why they are so intent on keeping him on the roster is beyond me. It's not like he's suddenly going to become a productive player. He never was.

OSUBasketballJunkie;1148732; said:
I absolutely want Fransico to stay.....he will be an above average OF at this level.....I like his game......but.....Wedge is loyal to a fault.....he will probably stick to platooning those two.....
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Agreed.....agreed.....agreed.....agreed.....agreed. I think if Ben were to see 400-450 AB's he'd be a .280-20-75 guy right now, but sadly, I think he'll be lucky to crack 200-250 AB's.

I'm also more than happy to be wrong about Dellucci. If he can be a productive left hand platooning bat, that's at least a step forward.
 
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If he keeps this up he'll be the comeback player of the year. If the rest of the team can come around they will be very scary this season. Imagine a playoff series where you only have to use 3 starters. It will be interesting to see how Sowers and Lafey do this weekend.
 
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exhawg;1148942; said:
If he keeps this up he'll be the comeback player of the year. If the rest of the team can come around they will be very scary this season. Imagine a playoff series where you only have to use 3 starters. It will be interesting to see how Sowers and Lafey do this weekend.
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I agree. If C.C. and Carmona get on track their staff would have to be considered the best in baseball.... And very scary for a team facing 3 or 4 of them in the Playoffs.
I'm really excited about Laffey's future. You have to pull for a kid that was drafted in the 16th round!! He's been pitching really well in Buffalo. He's 3-1 with a 2.77 era and 20 K's vs. 6 walks. Nice numbers.
Laffey, Lee and Sabathia...Three lefties!
 
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Don't look now, but a 6-4 win over the Yanks extends the win streak to 4 games. Hopefully 2006 Jeremy Sowers shows up tomorrow and not the 2007 version.

Everytime I write something disparaging about these guys or the team, they start doing better. :lol:
 
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Dispatch

Indians 6 | Yankees 4
Coming together
Indians showing same hard-nosed attitude they had on way to postseason last year
Saturday, April 26, 2008 3:20 AM
By Jim Massie


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
0426_tribe_sp_04-26-08_C1_92A1NBI.jpg
Ed Suba Jr. | Akron Beacon Journal photos
Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano tags out the Indians' Kelly Shoppach, who was trying to stretch a single in the second inning.

0426_tribe_peralta_sp_04-26-08_C1_A3A1NE4.jpg

Victor Martinez congratulates Indians teammate Jhonny Peralta on the shortstop's three-run home run in the fifth inning.

0426_abreu_04-26-08_C5_A4A1NU7.jpg
Tony Dejak | Associated Press
The Yankees' Bobby Abreu tosses his bat after striking out against Indians reliever Rafael Perez to end the eighth inning.



CLEVELAND - The Night the Bugs Got In apparently isn't a favorite bedtime story for Indians manager Eric Wedge.
He scarcely rose to a question yesterday about the last time the New York Yankees played in then-Jacobs Field and several million uninvited Lake Erie midges enveloped the stadium for 45 minutes of Game 2 of the American League division series.
The swarming insects, now the stuff of baseball lore, caused enough consternation for New York relief pitcher Joba Chamberlain to help the Tribe pull out a 2-1, 11-inning victory. Cleveland went on to capture the series and get one win from the team's first World Series since 1997.

Continued.......
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