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Do IT this week: Layering
Carmona's control missing, along with offense in third loss in a row
By Sheldon Ocker
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Published on Sunday, Apr 13, 2008
CLEVELAND: Fausto Carmona was able to obscure the Indians' continuing problem by walking the world Saturday night at Progressive Field.
That was enough to distract most everyone's attention from the club's failure to generate a respectable offense, a predicament that has plagued the team for most of the past nine games.
This time, it was the Athletics' pitching staff exposing the Tribe's weakness and gaining a 7-3 win.
Carmona sustained his first loss of the season and no doubt feels that he let down his teammates. But on a night when he needed a compass to find the plate, he received little support.
For whatever reason, Carmona walked eight batters in only 31/3 innings, but astonishingly, he gave up only three runs. One reason: The A's were able to muster just two hits, one of which was Daric Barton's two-run single in the third inning.
Carmona also had the good fortune to be removed from the game just in time, else he almost surely would have watched his earned-run average take a bigger hit.
Jack Cust led off the fourth inning with his second walk of the game, and Carmona retired Bobby Crosby on an infield fly. But in quick succession, Carmona walked Jack Hannahan, Kurt Suzuki and pinch-hitter Chris Denorfia, who forced home a run.
That's when Jensen Lewis took over and stopped the A's cold. But three innings later, Rafael Perez was shelled for four runs.
''Jensen did a great job in controlling the damage,'' manager Eric Wedge said.
It's not as if Carmona was facing the middle of the Boston Red Sox order and was trying to be extra careful not to give Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz or Mike Lowell anything too good to hit. He was locking horns with the bottom three batters in the A's lineup.
Pitchers do endure games in which their bodies, legs and arms have a fitful time acting in concert. So it was that Carmona went to extremes in his inability to control the location of his pitches, but his display of wildness Saturday night differed only in degree, not kind, from his two previous starts.
''He just had trouble finding his release point,'' Wedge said.
Carmona's explanation was a little different.
''I felt like my arm was away from my body, and I couldn't control my arm,'' Carmona said through his translator, first-base coach Luis Rivera. ''My pitches were moving a lot, but my arm wasn't staying behind my body.''
Going into the game, Carmona had allowed nine walks in 13 innings, an average of 6.2 walks per nine innings. Including his misspent evening against the Athletics, he is averaging 9.4 walks per nine innings, but his ERA is a rather nifty 2.20.
Remarkably, only two of the 17 batters Carmona has walked actually scored, though it's unlikely that Wedge is rooting for him to walk even more hitters. At the very least, walks are taking Carmona out of games sooner than is desirable.
Carmona promised to make amends.
''This is the first time it happened,'' he said. ''I will work on it in the bullpen and make sure it doesn't happen again.''
Saturday night, Carmona used 82 pitches to retire 10 batters. For the season, it is taking Carmona an average of 5.8 pitches to get an out, and this is a guy who often retires batters early in the count by pitching to contact and inducing hitters to bounce the ball to an infielder.
So how do you put 5.8 pitches per out into perspective? If Carmona were to throw a complete game, he would need 157 pitches.
Carmona's command problems were hardly the entire sad story for the Tribe. His struggles weren't even the reason the club lost. After all, when he hit the showers, the Indians were trailing only 3-1. But two runs seems like a mountainous deficit for the Tribe these days.
The foremost example of the club's pathetic relationship with its bats came in the sixth inning with the Athletics in front 3-1.
Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez started the inning with singles, but Jhonny Peralta struck out as Joey Devine replaced starter Lenny DiNardo. Ryan Garko followed with a walk that loaded the bases, but Franklin Gutierrez flied out.
David Dellucci was summoned to bat for Jason Michaels and drew a power walk that closed the gap to 3-2. But with the bases still full, Casey Blake ended the inning by forcing Dellucci at second.
This is how things are going for the Indians: They managed to eke out seven hits and drew two walks, but they were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
''The offense was hit and miss,'' Wedge said. ''We created some opportunities, but we couldn't take advantage of them. Some guys are moving in the right direction; some guys are spinning their wheels and other guys are just starting to go in the right direction.''
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com.
CLEVELAND: Fausto Carmona was able to obscure the Indians' continuing problem by walking the world Saturday night at Progressive Field.
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