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Tribe offense puts up little fight after time off; Laffey gives up 8 runs
By Sheldon Ocker
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Published on Saturday, Jul 19, 2008
SEATTLE: Maybe the Indians' four-game winning streak against the Tampa Bay Rays was only a brief respite from the team's established pattern of consistent losing.
At least it looked that way Friday night, as the Seattle Mariners, the last-place team in the Western Division, body-slammed the Tribe, the last-place team in the Central, 8-2 at Safeco Field.
Then again, maybe it was a proficient young starter, Felix Hernandez, delivering on his promise against another young starter, who has shown signs of becoming proficient.
Hernandez is the former whiz kid who still is almost a kid but more polished than Aaron Laffey, who got blown out of the water by the Mariners.
Laffey gave up all eight runs in only 32/3 innings, allowing nine hits and two walks. Officially, five of the runs were unearned because of an error by Jhonny Peralta. But under the circumstances, Peralta's blunder did not get Laffey off the hook.
The damage occurred in the second inning with two outs and nobody on base. Jamie Burke started the rally with a single to right, and Laffey hit Yuniesky Betancourt with a pitch. Ichiro Suzuki followed by slapping a ground ball to Peralta, who muffed it for an error that loaded the bases.
But keep in mind that Laffey needed to retire only one batter
to escape unscathed. Instead, he walked Willie Bloomquist to force home one run then gave up the sixth grand slam of Raul Ibanez's career.
Suddenly, the Tribe trailed 5-0 on five unearned runs. Even then, it took Laffey two more batters before he retired the side. After Ibanez's home run, Adrian Beltre singled before Jose Lopez bounced out to the second baseman.
Laffey made it through the third inning, but trouble loomed again in the fourth. This time, Suzuki led off with an infield hit but was forced at second by Bloomquist. Ibanez singled him to third, but Beltre flied out.
Again, Laffey was one out away from getting out of the jam, but Lopez slammed a 1-and-1 pitch into the left field seats for three more runs. At that point, manager Eric Wedge had seen enough and replaced Laffey with Jensen Lewis.
Hernandez began the game with only a 6-6 record but a 2.95 ERA, sixth best in the American League. He did nothing to tarnish that glowing ERA, giving up two runs, four hits and two walks in six innings, while striking out eight.
It took a while for the Indians to even strike a ball solidly. Finally in the third inning, after a one-out walk to Asdrubal Cabrera, Grady Sizemore lifted an opposite field fly ball to the left field corner, just inside the foul line.
The ball fell for a double, but Cabrera had to hold up at third because the ball bounced into the stands. Casey Blake followed with an RBI groundout to short, but Ben Francisco also grounded out to end the inning.
Hernandez never did allow anything resembling a rally, that is, multiple runners with less than two outs. Blake accounted for the second run by hitting his 10th home run of the season on an opposite field fly ball that cleared the outstretched glove of Suzuki in right field.
Maybe most discouraging for the Indians is that they did not perform better at the plate against the Seattle bullpen, which delivered three scoreless innings and allowed only two hits and one walk.
Cabrera, playing in his first game since being called up from Buffalo during the All-Star break, reached base twice, on the third-inning walk and on a seventh-inning single. But he also ended the game by bouncing into a double play.
Lewis and Juan Rincon combined to throw 41/3 scoreless innings, giving up four hits and two walks, both by Lewis.
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com.
SEATTLE: Maybe the Indians' four-game winning streak against the Tampa Bay Rays was only a brief respite from the team's established pattern of consistent losing.
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