Wahoo Wakeup: Tribe Welcomes in Toronto for Home Opener

Written by: Michael Taylor on 10th April 2009

Wahoo Wakeup: Tribe Welcomes in Toronto for Home Opener | read this item

Game #4 – Friday, 4:05 ET
Toronto Blue Jays (3-1) at Cleveland Indians (0-3)
Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio
Radio: WTAM
TV: WKYC-TV3

It has been a long time coming. Since the end of last season, numerous Indians players have been on the road around the world preparing for the 2009 season. Guys like Jhonny Peralta and Fausto Carmona spent time in the Dominican Winter League, and more recently Mark DeRosa, Shin-Soo Cho and Rafael Perez were a part of the World Baseball Classic. Plus there was an extended Spring Training in a new home in Arizona, and a stressful first series at the Ballpark in Arlington where the Texas Rangers battered the Indians pitching staff en route to a 3-game sweep.

But now the Indians are back home at Progressive Field – where they won 45 games a year ago, and 51 during their division championship run of 2007. The Indians have taken advantage of their home field. Just last season the pitching staff enjoyed a 4.02 ERA at home, as opposed to a 4.92 ERA on the road.

Hopefully the amount of comfort that being in a familiar place brings will be enough to allow Tribe pitchers to just go out and throw their game, because it has been beyond awful thus far. Through three games, Indians starting pitchers have an ERA of 18.00 in 11 innings! Not even the bullpen could hold the powerful Rangers lineup – allowing four home runs in their 13 innings of work (who would have thought that the bullpen would have worked more innings than starters? NOT GOOD!).

It may have only been three games, and certainly nothing to project a season on (the Indians had six 3-game losing streaks in 2007, and 11 last year), but the way they lost these three games by getting pounded really scares you.

Nobody was sure what to expect from Carl Pavano, but not even the biggest pessimist would have thought Pavano would get obliterated for nine runs in a single inning. Then you add in two poor performances from what are supposed to be the rocks to the starting rotation, Cliff Lee and Fausto Carmona, and thoughts begin dancing in your head about the future of this team.

What if everybody is not what we expected them to be? How much will a bad pitching staff effect this teams chances to compete for the Central Division crown?

That is the question because this team will score. No doubt about it. The Indians slammed five home runs in yesterday’s defeat, and if not for an unfortunate day with runners in scoring position Wednesday night (1-16 RISP), they would have exploded for an even larger number that night. The offense will be just fine – especially now that Hafner looks to be swinging the bat as well as we’ve seen since 2007. He is getting better cuts at the ball, and hit his first homer of the season Thursday.

Because of positives like that, there is still a lot to look forward to with this team. It is just time for the Indians to put that first series behind them, and move on to the Blue Jays. Look ahead, because not everybody will have as stacked of a lineup as the Rangers. They were impressive! It wasn’t only the Indians bad pitching.

Toronto is coming to town and they just might be the perfect remedy. In seven games against the Blue Jays last season, the Indians held them to ONLY 8 runs scored total. Not surprisingly enough, the Indians won six of the seven games. And if you remember, the four games played between these two at Progressive Field last May was right in the middle of the Indians streak of 44.1 consecutive scoreless innings by starting pitchers. That was something we will likely never see again, but at the least, the Indians need to get a few quality starts this weekend…please.

Team Notes:
The Blue Jays come into Cleveland having won three of the four games against the Tigers, outscoring Detroit 24-16. The Indians come in having suffered a 3-game sweep by the Rangers. Texas outscored the Indians 29-14.

The Indians are 58-50 all-time in home openers, with this being only the second time against the Blue Jays in 1980. The Indians won that game 8-1…This is the first time the Indians have started a season 0-3 since 1996. They went on to win 99 games that year…The Blue Jays 4-game series victory against the Tigers was the first such occurrence in team history.

Player Notes:
C Kelly Shoppach caught for the second time in three games on Thursday, this time with Carl Pavano, but manager Eric Wedge says don’t expect this to happen all of the time. ”Kelly caught Carl the last couple of times in spring training, and this is a day game after a night game”…OF Trevor Crowe made his major league debut in Right Field on Thursday, he went 0-5 at the plate…IF Jamey Carroll does not need surgery, but will still miss 4-6 weeks with a broken bone in his hand…Toronto manager Cito Gaston still believe in his 1B/DH Lyle Overbay, who is struggling at the plate. He left him in to bat in a crucial situation against the Tigers on Wednesday night when he could have brought in Kevin Millar, Overbay ended up striking out to end a rally…Toronto closer B.J. Ryan continues to exhibit decreased velocity (now just 87-90mph), and blew his first save opportunity Wednesday when giving up a game-tying home run to Detroit 3B Brandon Inge.

Who’s Hot:
CLE…CF Grady Sizemore belted two home runs in the Rangers series finale in an effort to bring the Tribe back into the game…C/1B Victor Martinez is riding a 3-game hitting streak, hitting .385(5-13) with a HR. He also has yet to strikeout….RP Masa Kobayashi has pitched two straight scoreless appearance after a poor spring…TOR…OF Adam Lind hit .438(7-16) with two homers and seven RBI in four games against the Tigers…2B Aaron Hill, who missed most of 2008 with a concussion, is also off to a fast start hitting two home runs with 11 total bases…Blue Jays bullpen has allowed just one run in 10 IP, with K/BB ratio of 9:1.

Who’s Not:
CLE…New 3B Mark DeRosa has been looking rusty at the plate. He has yet to notch his first hit of the season (0-12, 5K)…OF Shin-Soo Choo sat in favor of rookie OF Trevor Crowe Thursday after tallying a lonely single in seven plate appearances…Indians bullpen has allowed 4 HR in 13 IP…TOR…C Rod Barajas started three games behind the plate for the Jays, but had just one hit in 10 at-bats (.100)…1B/DH Lyle Overbay hit .200(3-15) against the Tigers, but did hit 2 doubles.

Pitching Matchup
A couple of fresh talents face off in game one of this series. Both Scott Lewis (25 years old) and Richmond (29) have five career starts or less, and are still considered rookies.

Scott Lewis (L) 0-0, 0.00 ERA
Lewis beat out the competition this spring to claim the last spot in the rotation before allowing 15 runs and 21 hits over his last 6.2 innings. He will be looking to stop the bleeding that the powerful Rangers lineup caused to the rotation. This is Lewis’ first start against Toronto. If he wins today’s start, Lewis will become the league’s first pitcher to win their first five major league starts since the Angels Jered Weaver did it in 2006.

Career vs. TOR – 1st Appearance Against the Blue Jays
Career @ Progressive Field – (2-0) 2.45 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 11.0IP, 11H, 1HR, 5BB, 11K, .262AVG

VS.
NONE

vs. Scott Richmond (R) 0-0, 0.00 ERA
Richmond, who is just the third Canadian-born starting pitcher in Blue Jays history, also comes in after a sub-par spring (6.63 ERA in 19.2 innings), but did throw 27 respectable innings in 2008 with Toronto. Richmond had an ERA of 4.00 with an impressive 20:2 K/BB ratio. The worst of his five career starts came against the Indians in Toronto, allowing three runs in five innings.

Career vs. CLE – (0-1) 5.40 ERA, 1.80 WHIP, 5.0 IP, 9H, 0HR, 0BB, 5K, .391AVG
Career @ Progressive Field – 1st Appearance at Progressive Field

VS.
• Shin-Soo Choo – 1.000(3-3) 3 2B
• Ryan Garko – .333(1-3), RBI, K
• Jhonny Peralta – .333(1-3), RBI
• Kelly Shoppach – .000(0-3), 3K
• Grady Sizemore – .333(1-3), K, GIDP

Mash Units:
CLE
LF David Dellucci – Left Calf (15-day DL), IF Jamey Carroll – Left Hand (15-day DL), SP Jake Westbrook – Right Elbow (60-day DL)
TOR
SP Casey Janssen – Right Shoulder (15-day DL), SP Dustin McGowan – Right Shoulder (15-day DL), SP Shaun Marcum – Right Elbow (15-day DL)

On Deck:
Saturday: Indians (Cliff Lee, 0-1 12.60 ERA) vs. Blue Jays (Roy Halladay, 1-0 6.43 ERA), 1:05 ET
Sunday: Indians (Anthony Reyes, 0-0 0.00) vs. Blue Jays (David Purcey, 0-0 0.00), 1:05 ET
Monday: Indians (Fausto Carmona, 0-1 10.80) @ Royals (Zack Greinke 1-0 0.00), 8:10 ET

Topics: Home Opener, Scott Lewis, Scott Richmond

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