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Do IT this week: Layering
Tribe pitcher's ERA climbs to 1.37 after he gives up six runs, first loss
By Sheldon Ocker
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Published on Monday, May 19, 2008
CINCINNATI: The good news is that the Indians didn't have to use any of their four closers on Sunday. But that's not much consolation after a 6-4 loss that gave the Cincinnati Reds a sweep of the three-game series at Great American Ball Park.
Not even Cliff Lee could save the Tribe. Lee came into the game with the lowest ERA in the big leagues (0.67). By the time he left, after 52/3 innings, his ERA had risen to 1.37, and he had suffered his first loss against six wins.
Giving up six runs (five earned) happens to all starters, at least occasionally, but because Lee allowed a total of four earned runs in his first seven starts, the outing Sunday was a shock to the system of almost anyone who has watched him pitch this year.
''I don't feel I was locating the ball as well as I had in the past few starts,'' Lee said. ''I also made a few bad pitches. We lost, so, obviously, I didn't do my job well enough.''
Lee foreshadowed his roughest start of the season by issuing a walk in the first inning. One of the keys to Lee's success has been superlative command of the strike zone. Coming into Sunday, he had walked only four in 532/3 innings.
Lee's first-inning walk was his last, but it led to an unearned run, triggered by Victor Martinez's passed ball and an RBI ground out by Brandon Phillips, who tormented his former team by driving in five runs for the series, two Sunday.
Adam Dunn continued his weekend power trip, hitting a solo homer off Lee in the fourth inning for the Reds' second run of the game. Dunn has homered in four consecutive games, including the three against the Tribe.
Four consecutive hits in the fifth, including RBI singles by Ken Griffey Jr. and Phillips, added two more runs to the Reds' total, and Lee made his exit after giving up a pinch-hit, two-run homer to Joey Votto in the sixth.
''For the most part, I was right there,'' Lee said. ''But the pitches to Dunn and Votto were balls I would like to have back. Sometimes you don't get the results you want, and today was one of those days.''
The lost weekend was compounded by the Indians' continuing inability to sustain rallies. Of nine runs scored in the series, five came on solo homers, including the first major-league hit for Michael Aubrey on Sunday.
Despite Lee's struggles, manager Eric Wedge stressed the inability of the attack to produce.
''Cliff threw the ball well early, but later he left a couple of balls up and over the plate,'' said Wedge, dismissing Lee's role in the loss.
''The separator for the whole series — in a bad way — is that we did a poor job with runners in scoring position and especially with runners on third with less than two outs. It shouldn't happen, and it happened over and over again.''
In the three games, the Tribe was 3-for-25 with runners in scoring position.
''It was a bad series,'' Wedge said. ''We didn't hit very well. When you do that, you're going to get beat. Now, we have to separate and go to Chicago with a clear head.''
Stringing together hits seems to have become a foreign concept to Tribe batsmen. Of course, they were up against the National League ERA leader, Edinson Volquez, who came into the game with a 1.12 ERA and a 6-1 record.
When Volquez was excused, after throwing 111 pitches in six innings, his ERA had crept up to 1.33 after allowing two runs on four hits and four walks.
Volquez faced the Tribe two years ago, when he was with the Texas Rangers, and gave up six runs in 12/3 innings.
''It's hard to say if I remember much about him then,'' said Grady Sizemore, who was 2-for-2 against Volquez in Texas. ''I just watched the video of him today.''
Sizemore was 0-for-2 with a walk against him Sunday.
The only inning in which the Tribe got more than one hit was the seventh, when Jeremy Affeldt relieved Volquez and gave up a hit to each of the three batters he faced. After he left, Jared Burton allowed a one-out bloop RBI single to Martinez, which drove in the second run of the inning to keep the game close.
Not close enough, of course. And the way they're hitting, the Indians can't depend on anything.
When Ryan Garko drove a ball off the left-field fence to start the eighth, what seemed to be a certain double turned into an out, as he was thrown out at second, killing the Tribe's final opportunity.
The last at-bat of the game symbolized the Indians' futility, a confrontation between Martinez and closer Francisco Cordero. It took 11 pitches, but with the count 3-and-2, Martinez struck out.
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com.
CINCINNATI: The good news is that the Indians didn't have to use any of their four closers on Sunday. But that's not much consolation after a 6-4 loss that gave the Cincinnati Reds a sweep of the three-game series at Great American Ball Park.
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