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Do IT this week: Layering
Tribe left-hander is 5-0 after dominant outing in victory over Mariners
By Sheldon Ocker
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Published on Thursday, May 01, 2008
CLEVELAND: With one month of the season in the books, Cliff Lee, (technically) the No. 5 starter in the Indians' rotation, is 5-0 with a 0.96 ERA, and where is Al Michaels when you need him?
''Do you believe in miracles?''
Or maybe Lee's sudden rise to superstardom is merely the result of learning a hard lesson from his disastrous season of 2007.
Lee had no trouble keeping the Seattle Mariners in check Wednesday night at Progressive Field until the seventh inning, when he gave up three runs. The operative phrase here is, ''So what?'' because the Tribe won the 8-3.
''This is nothing you could have expected at this level,'' Indians manager Eric Wedge said. ''This is the highest level of baseball. But Cliff has learned a lot about himself.''
Lee missed the first month of last season because of an
injury in spring training and never did recover his edge. He ended up starting in the minors, and when he did return, Wedge pointed toward the bullpen, where Lee remained for the final month of the season.
''Sometimes when you go through hard times, you learn a lot about yourself, and it makes you better,'' Wedge said.
It is a little odd that the only earned runs Lee has allowed this year (four in 14 innings) have been at home. Regardless of that piece of trivia, Lee dominated the Mariners lineup, extending his scoreless innings streak to 27, longest since John Denny threw 342/3 innings without allowing a run in 1981.
''It had to come to an end sometime,'' Lee said. ''I'm happy. I'm doing my job. I'm giving my team a chance to win. So far, I've accomplished what I set out to do.''
Maybe Lee lost his concentration after the Indians piled up a big lead.
It is one way to explain the three-run homer in the seventh by Wladimir Balentien, who was called up from Triple-A Tacoma on Wednesday.
Balentien, whose name is evocative of an orchestra concertmaster more than a minor- league outfielder, had six homers in 17 games at Tacoma, so he is hardly devoid of muscles.
''I got behind him 0-and-2, but I made what I thought was a good pitch, and he hit it out of the park,'' Lee said. ''I have to tip my hat to him. But I didn't want to walk him and load the bases.''
That's the difference between pitching with a big lead and a small one, or none at all.
''Honestly, there's not much difference between a 0-0 game and when you have a (large) lead,'' Lee said, denying that his concentration waned because of the large cushion. ''With a lead like I had, you don't want to walk anybody. That's pretty much the difference. You use a little more of the plate.''
Until the seventh, Lee allowed five hits, permitting one runner to reach third and another to reach second. He is becoming extremely stingy with his walks, having given up just two for the season (372/3 innings) and none Wednesday night.
Just when you're virtually certain the Indians will never score more than two runs in a game, they explode for big numbers. Naturally, they did it on a night when their slumping No. 3 and No. 5 hitters, Travis Hafner and Jhonny Peralta, were given the night off to clear their heads.
But that mattered little, because Grady Sizemore was in the lineup. After missing two games with an ankle sprain, Sizemore has returned with a flourish. Wednesday night, he led off the first inning with a home run, walked and scored in the fifth and doubled to lead off the sixth.
In the two games he has played since his enforced absence, Sizemore is 4-for-7 with the home run, three doubles, two walks, four runs and one RBI.
He had plenty of help, particularly from Franklin Gutierrez, who singled twice and drove in three runs. Victor Martinez, the only member of the team who has not gotten submerged in the quicksand of slumpsville, doubled, singled and drove in a run.
''It was a good day,'' Wedge said. ''Some things are happening behind the scenes; some guys are starting to figure it out, but there still are a couple of guys we have to get going.''
Putting the offensive outburst in perspective, the Tribe scored as many runs against the Mariners as in its previous four games combined.
But one thing the hitters haven't learned is to pace themselves. For the first month of the season, the Indians scored 58 percent of their runs in only eight games, 28.5 percent of the total schedule. In 13 other games, they scored 22 runs. That's 17 percent of the club's runs in 46 percent of its games.
This kind of imbalance does no good for the bottom line: winning. In that respect, the Tribe stopped a three-game losing streak that followed a five-game win streak. Maybe they can petition the commissioner's office to let them carry over some of those runs to the next game.
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com.
CLEVELAND: With one month of the season in the books, Cliff Lee, (technically) the No. 5 starter in the Indians' rotation, is 5-0 with a 0.96 ERA, and where is Al Michaels when you need him?
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