Reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee was pounded by the host Texas Rangers today en route to a 9-1 loss for the Tribe. Lee cruised through the 1st inning on 10 pitches and retired everyone’s favorite fantasy sleeper Nelson Cruz to lead off the 2nd. The next batter was Hank Blalock, and he hit a chopper back at Lee that ricocheted off of Lee’s pitching arm for a single. Eric Wedge and Lonnie Solhoff immediately rushed out to the mound to ensure that their ace was ok, and Lee assured them that he was. Lee promptly gave up 4 runs the rest of the inning, all of which scored with 2 outs. Lets hope it was the hit off the arm and he is better the next time he toes the rubber.
The Indians had a couple of chances to get back in the game, most notably in the 4th with the score still 4-0. Grady Sizemore led off the inning with a hit, moved to 2nd when he was stealing on a Mark DeRosa groundout, and then advance to 3rd on a 1-out Vic Martinez single to left. But with runners on 1st and 3rd, Travis Hafner grounded into an inning-ending double play, and that was pretty much that. Blalock hit a 3-run HR in the Texas half of the 5th, and from then on out it was all over but the shouting.
Not much good for the friends of the feather in the inagural “Three Up, Three Down” of the season, but here we go…
Three up:
1. Kevin Millwood. Millwood kept Indians hitters off balance all day long, mixing his offspeed pitches in when necessary, and commanding the inside half of the plate. He only gave up 4 hits in his 7 innings of work, and looked every bit of the veteran starter the Rangers will need if they hope to contend for the playoffs this year.
2. Jarrod Saltalamacchia. “Salty” looked good at the dish for Texas today with a HR, 2B and 3 RBI. He also does something I have never in my life seen a catcher do…he wears his protective batting helmet forwards under his catchers mask. I am going to have to try this in my game this weekend, as I didn’t even know that was possible until today. Also, his name is longer than mine and looks funny going all the way from one side of his body to the other on his jersey.
3. The weather. Red Sox-Rays got rained out, so at least I could watch the opener in HD on ESPN2 rather than being stuck with the low-def feed on the cable version of MLB Extra Innings I am stuck with. Seriously, its 2009 and I still have to watch baseball games in low-definition? Absurd.
Three down:
1. Cliff Lee. Tough to get on the guy after his 1st start, but he was wild inside the strike zone and the Texas hitters made him pay. Way too many pitches up and out over the plate. This was 2007 Cliff Lee, not 2008 Cliff Lee.
2. Indians hitters. Millwood kept the entire Indians lineup off balance today, and they never made the necessary adjustments to put the fat part of the bat on the ball. In a hitters park like Texas, against an offense like the Rangers, one run will not win you very many ballgames.
3. Jensen Lewis. Masa Kobayashi and Raffy Perez both pitched scoreless innings in relief of Lee, but Lewis could not replicate the feat, as he gave up two runs including the HR to Saltalamacchia. It was only mop-up duty, but still not good to see Lewis struggling as he is expected to be the primary setup man for the Tribe this year.
Topics: Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore, Jensen Lewis, Mark DeRosa, Masa Kobayashi, Raffy Perez, Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez
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