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After three-run first, Tribe bats fall silent and reliever rocked
By Sheldon Ocker
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Published on Sunday, Jun 15, 2008
CLEVELAND: Where is Jensen Lewis when you need him? Sadly for the Indians, he is relearning a few lessons at Triple-A Buffalo.
They could have used him Saturday night, when the San Diego Padres rallied for five runs in the 10th inning to capture an 8-3 win at Progressive Field.
Instead of having Lewis available to keep the game in order, manager Eric Wedge relied on Rafael Betancourt, Rafael Perez, Joe Borowski and — last and least — Edward Mujica, who gave it up at the end.
Betancourt did his job in the seventh and Perez fell a little short in the eighth, giving up the tying run. But at least he did not precipitate an avalanche of scoring.
That was left to Mujica, who entered the fray because Masa Kobayashi had thrown too many pitches the previous two nights, and Lewis was hundreds of miles away wearing a Triple-A uniform. Not that he doesn't need to endure retraining.
''Masa needed a day off,'' Wedge said. ''He was unavailable tonight.''
Mujica retired the first batter but loaded the bases and walked Tony Clark to force in the lead run.
Three pitches later, Kevin Kouzmanoff sealed the Tribe defeat by hitting the Padres' first grand slam of the season.
''From where I was sitting in the dugout, it looked like everything was on the same plane and at the top of the strike zone,'' Wedge said. ''You can't survive that way in the big leagues.''
Mujica did not think he was throwing pitches high in the zone.
Asked if his fastball was up, he said, ''No.''
Mujica blamed plate umpire Rob Drake for the walk to Clark that forced in a run.
''Ball three was a pretty good pitch,'' Mujica said. ''I think the umpire missed that pitch.''
He admitted, however, that the pitch Kouzmanoff drove into the bleachers ''was a little bit high.''
Maybe the Tribe loss was poetic justice. After all, does a team that accumulates four hits deserve to win?
If style points counted, Cliff Lee would have suffered by comparison to Padres starter Cha Seung Baek. Lee gave up eight hits and no walks in 61/3 innings, Baek two hits and three walks in seven innings. But even though Lee allowed a home run and two doubles, Baek yielded three runs to only two for Lee.
''I thought Cliff pitched a pretty good game,'' Wedge said.
The difference was timing and spacing. In the first inning, the Indians took advantage of both their hits and two walks to produce three runs.
Grady Sizemore led off with a walk, stole second, and Ben Francisco drew a one-out walk just before Ryan Garko singled home Sizemore with the first run. Shin-Soo Choo doubled to score Francisco, and Jhonny Peralta's routine bouncer to short brought home run No. 3.
After that Baek became ''No-hit Baek,'' giving up his only other walk with two outs in the second before retiring 16 consecutive batters to take him through the seventh. During this stretch, the Tribe hit a few balls hard — Jamey Carroll lined to the shortstop, Choo lined to the second baseman, Peralta hit a rocket to center and to left — but that was of little consolation as the zeroes continued to accumulate.
''Baek made an adjustment after that first inning, and he was able to run through the seventh,'' Wedge said. ''We didn't make adjustments.''
Meanwhile, Lee had to pitch himself out of a couple of small scrapes after the third inning, when Justin Huber homered for only the second time this season to give the Padres their first run.
Kouzmanoff foreshadowed the Padres' abbreviated rally in the fifth by leading off with a long out to the track in right. Khalil Greene followed with a dribbler down the first-base line for a single, and Huber's second hit put runners on first and second.
One out later, Lee was unable to put away Gerut, and his RBI single scored Greene. But Lee stopped the rally by retiring Edgar Gonzalez on a bouncer to short.
Trouble loomed in the seventh, when Kouzmanoff led off with a double, but Lee struck out Greene. Not surprisingly, Wedge did not want Lee to face the dreaded Huber again, so he summoned a right-hander, Betancourt, to face the right-handed batter, and Padres manager Buddy Black summoned Paul McAnulty to pinch hit. Betancourt struck him out and induced Luke Carlin to ground out to defuse the situation.
Perez retired the side in order in the eighth, but only after Gerut hit the second pitch of the inning over the wall in right to tie the score.
In the first two games of the series, most of the Padres' offense has been produced by Tribe alums: Kouzmanoff is 5-for-9 with two homers, three doubles and six RBI; Gerut is 4-for-8 with a homer and two RBI, and Brian Giles is 3-for-10 with a double.
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com.
CLEVELAND: Where is Jensen Lewis when you need him? Sadly for the Indians, he is relearning a few lessons at Triple-A Buffalo.
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