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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Oakland 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 1 CLEVELAND 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 X 2 5 0 W: C.C. Sabathia (3-5), L: Joe Blanton (2-6)
HR: CLE: Grady Sizemore (7), Ryan Garko (4)

C.C. Sabathia struck out 11 during a five-hit shutout, as the Cleveland Indians defeated the Oakland A’s 2-0 at Cleveland’s Progressive Field.

The question you have to ask yourself now is if an Indians’ starter will ever give up another run…ever.

Sabathia continued a return to his Cy Young form with his season tying 11-strikeout performance. It was Sabathia’s first shutout of the season, and his first since last June. Sabathia only walked two in his command performance. Sabathia was never really in trouble, allowing only two runners to get to second base. Both times, there were two outs, and both times the inning ended in the next at bat.

Sabathia ‘lowered’ his ERA to 5.49 for the season, but has had a sub-1.50 ERA over his last starts. His ERA was at a high of 13.5 before he finally reverted back to his 2007 form.

For those counting at home, the Cleveland Indians’ starters have not allowed a run in 43 1/3 innings. The last run given up by Tribe starters was by Sabathia himself, last Friday. He gave up a whole run in a 6-1 victory over the Blue Jays. Tonight’s shutout was the Tribes fourth shutout in five games, and their fifth in their past eight.

The streak continues…

Grady Sizemore led off with another lead-off homer. It was Sizemore’s third of the season, and 14th in his career. Believe or not, the 25-year-old is only four behind Kenny Lofton’s Indians’ record of 18. He may just get it this season.

Cleveland’s other run came on another homer by Ryan Garko in the fourth inning. It was all the Indians would score. Of course, it was all they had to score. A’s ace Joe Blanton only gave up four hits and the two home runs. Unfortunately, his offense looked worse than the Indians.

Cleveland had the bases loaded in the fifth inning, and were ready to blow the game wide open. Jhonny Peralta grounded right back to Blanton, who got out of the inning with a 1-2-3 double play. Peralta gets a bye though. He had two of the Indians’ five hits tonight, and they were both doubles. Would have been nice to have one with the bases juiced though.

What’s my take on all this starting pitching? Well, it’s been since before my time that we’ve had a starting stretch quite like this. I just hope that they are pitching this well in September. It would be nice if I could stop finding the pessimistic view about it all. Sabathia’s pitch count had just gone over 100, and I’m swearing to myself that his arm is going to fall off come August. So, I’m just going to ride the wave.

Good news Tribe fans! Joe Borowski is throwing a simulated game on Friday! He should be back soon!

Aaron Laffey looks to continue the streak tomorrow afternoon against the A’s rookie Greg Smith. Laffey will continue his bid to figure out a way to stay at the big league level. He’s only 1-2, but has a very impressive 1.83 ERA. With Jake Westbrook starting his rehab assignment on Saturday, Laffey’s time with the Indians may be short-lived. It’s not like his starts are standing out as compared to the rest of the Indians rotation.

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For the fifth game in a row, the Indians did not allow a run in the first nine innings of the game. C.C. Sabathia shutout the Oakland Athletics 2-0. He allowed five hits and two walks while striking out eleven....

If you missed tonight's show, you can hear the recorded version here. It's also available on demand at TPSRadio....

via www.fangraphs.com

Highest WPA Lowest WPA CC Sabathia .582 David Dellucci -.107 Grady Sizemore .114 Victor Martinez -.073 Ryan Garko .082 Travis Hafner -.058

CC Sabathia obviously was embarrassed by actually giving up a run in his last start. So tonight he pitched the best outing of an Indians starter in the past four days (which is saying something), shutting out the Athletics on five hits and striking out 11. And with that shutout, all five starters in the Cleveland rotation have pitched at least seven shutout innings in their last starts, an amazing feat. The Indians as a team now have seven (!) shutouts. Cleveland starters have now gone 43 innings without allowing a run. The run prevention has been such that despite an offense last in the league in batting average and slugging, they could wake up tomorrow the leaders of the AL Central.

The offense tonight didn't need to do much, but could have done a whole lot more. Grady Sizemore lead off the game with a home run, and Ryan Garko added a homer in the fourth. They could have ended all doubt in the fifth, when Joe Blanton loaded the bases with nobody out with two walks after a Ben Francisco double, but Jhonny Peralta swung weakly at a pitch on the outside corner and topped a grounder right back to Blanton, who started a 1-2-3 double play, That turnabout seemed to rejuvenate Blanton, who was probably one hit from hitting the showers. Blanton went on to pitch through the seventh.

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Robbie hits the .200 barrier first. For the last week, it looked like Giambi would get there first (heading into tonight at .194) but tonight's 0-for-3 (with a walk) drops him back to .188 while Robbie has gone 3-for-3 (so far) to put him at .200 ...

Stop this losing streak at 1!

Yawn.

I know I say this somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but there are days when it really rings true: I would rather lose a game 9-8 than to lose 1 or 2 to 0. Not scoring runs is frustrating; the game really does lose a lot of its fun when you watch the A’s get mowed down for the second straight night.

It’s hard to separate the horrible offense from the quite stellar pitching by C.C. Sabathia (who recorded 11 K’s on the night), but when Suzuki is running up a 0-22 streak, and the rest of the A’s hitters don’t look much better, it’s probably really easy to pitch to them. All it takes is throwing strikes, and only walking players (ahem, Frank Thomas) who will be promptly doubled off. In nine innings today, I never got the feeling that the A’s were close to scoring. Not once.

Despite a couple of rocky moments, Joe Blanton pitched a gem of a game; two solo homeruns the only blemishes in his seven innings. He was helped by a come-backer double-play right back to him with the bases loaded, but it was all for naught; he picked up yet another undeserved loss.
 
It took him until two outs in the eighth inning, but Rajai Davis finally became the leadoff hitter that I was looking for (I loved him in the first slot when lineups were announced), as he dropped a bunt down the third base line for a hit, something that he probably should have tried in every single of his previous at-bats.

Mike Sweeney put another couple of hits on the board, and Crosby and Murphy added their solo hits to Davis’ single, but that was the entirety of the A’s offense tonight. C.C. went the distance without breaking a sweat.

Incidentally, the three innings that I had to listen to the Cleveland announcers was quite enough, thank you. Yes, I recognize that the last two games have been downright embarrassing for the A’s offense, and how we look like anything but a contending team, but before you make us out to be the Royals, try remembering two early-season series wins against your team, both of which you barely escaped a sweep. I’m just sayin’.

The A’s look to stave off a sweep of their own early tomorrow morning (9AM Pacific time). Smith against Laffey.

 

Dunn just padded his stats.  It's 3-0.  Go Reds!

Ryan Doumit will be out at least a month, the Post-Gazette reports. That doesn't surprise me -- yesterday, some were reporting ten days, which seemed overly optimistic for a fracture, even a minor one.

The Bucs also swung a deal with the Rays to keep Rule 5 pick Evan Meek, who'd cleared waivers after the Pirates dropped him from their 25-man roster. The deal is for cash. It probably says a good deal about Meek's prospect status that a smart organization like the Rays is willing to trade him for cash.

Lots of scoring so far in this one.

Mischion Impossible.

When you Misch upon a star...

Misch Congeniality...

Misch heads, Misch heads, roly-poly Misch heads....

Misch of the North Star....

I think I'm done for a while. Now, under no circumstances are you to keep the puns going until the game starts. That would be awful.

Misch.

San Diego Padres right-hander Mark Prior has had a setback in his rehabilitation.

The woman accused of murder over a Red Sox-Yankees dispute said she felt threatened.

Joe Posnanski makes a formidable case for buying The Soul of Baseball.

Pedro Martinez threw 55 pitches Wednesday during a simulated game in Florida, the latest step in his recuperation from a hamstring injury.

I like thinking of it a lot better in those terms. Andrew Gifford has it right, Jorge de la Rosa is quite possibly the greatest pitcher of his time. There needs to be more pride, more of our blood tonight. The time's basically up for tinkering and if the Rockies can't beat the D-backs now, they might as well plan a summer trip to Glimmerglass for the opera or Tanglewood to go hear the Boston Pops, or maybe just take an art tour in Europe because their baseball games really won't mean anything.  If they want to go local, I'm sure Aspen's Summer music festival could use some volunteers. Might as well get some culture and mingle with others afraid of making noise or getting their uniforms dirty and don't really care about beating the  Diamondbacks.

Next Game

Colorado Rockies
@ Arizona Diamondbacks

Wednesday, May 14, 2008, 7:40 PM MDT
Chase Field

Jorge De La Rosa vs Micah Owings

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Mostly clear. Winds blowing out to right field at 5-10 m.p.h. Game Time temperature: Around 85.

 

Complete Coverage >

Lineup

Colorado Rockies @ Arizona Diamondbacks

05/14/08 7:40 PM MDT

Colorado Rockies Arizona Diamondbacks Ryan Spilborghs - CF Chris Young - CF Omar Quintanilla - SS Stephen Drew - SS Matt Holliday - LF Orlando Hudson - 2B Todd Helton - 1B Conor Jackson - 1B Garrett Atkins - 3B Justin Upton - RF Brad Hawpe - RF Eric Byrnes - LF Chris Iannetta - C Mark Reynolds - 3B Jonathan Herrera - 2B Chris Snyder - C Jorge De La Rosa - P Micah Owings - P

 

Cubs' Pie perhaps bound for Triple-A