Cleveland Indians at Seattle Mariners

Two more games of little to no offense squandering two good starts and a blow out win supporting an amazing start. Not exactly what I was hoping for. Concerns about a second half cliff dive are very real right now. I know it is harder to win on the road than it is at home, but a 2-4 road trip against Minnesota and Seattle isn’t going to cut it. They have to beat the teams they’re supposed to beat to have any shot at the playoffs. Ugh. This is making me angry. Let’s get to the recaps.

Overview

Mariners 2 Indians 1: Home runs by Kendrys Morales and Mike “I’m a person?” Zunino sunk an otherwise decent start by Ubaldo Jimenez. Still, he only made it 5 2/3 innings, throwing 110 pitches. He’s been doing this all season. Six innings makes a quality start, but he never makes it six innings. Even when he’s pitching well, his pitch counts jump to borderline shenanigans. Seriously. He’s going to single handedly kill the bullpen. As for the “offense”, a first inning Nick Swisher homer is all they could muster against Aaron Harang (I thought he retired five years ago). Swisher was finally moved out of the clean-up spot and moved to second in the order. That’s never a good sign. 

Mariners 4 Indians 3: Welcome back, Zach McCallister! He looked a little rusty, but it could have been worse. That bum Zunino singled home the winning run in the third and then both teams forgot how to hit and the game ended 4-3. The offense managed eleven hits, but only the three runs. No bueno. 

Indians 10 Mariners 1: The bats woke up! Michael Bourn delivered his first career grand slam, Carlos Santana had two RBI doubles, and Astrubal Cabrera scored four runs and drove in three. Scott Kazmir pitched eight innings allowing only one unearned run! He looked great for the second straight start. He sat around 95 mph on his fastball the whole day. He continues to be an amazing story and the surprise of all surprises. He looks like a pitcher who finally figured out how to pitch. When he was an All-Star in Tampa, he pretty much just threw hard. Very hard. Now many of his strike-outs come with his slider instead of his fastball. When a pitcher learns how to make outs with his other pitches, he ascends to a an entirely new level of awesome. 

Reasons for Optimism 

Scott Kazmir: Pretty much said what I had to say above. If he can continue pitching like this, the Indians will stay in the race. The big question now is: Is he for real, or is this a mirage? Looking ahead to next season, there are many question marks in the rotation. It is unlikely Ubaldo will be brought back and eventually Danny Salazaar and Trevor Bauer will be expected to take spots in the rotation. So, do they bring back Kazmir knowing his history with injuries? It is hard to say. What will likely happen is some big market team will offer him a ridiculous contract that the Indians won’t match. Hopefully that ends up being a Jaret Wright/Carl Pavano to the Yankees situation. Hopefully. 

Yan Gomes: Is he ready to be an everyday catcher? The Indians seem to think so. I think so. So, where do we go from here? Carlos Santana is the catcher right now and he’s a great player. Where does Gomes fit in? If it were me, I would rotate the two of them between catcher and DH . Get Jason Giambi’s corpse out of the line-up and split the starts between these two. Plus, both can play first base to give Swisher a day off. I think Gomes is going to be a big time player. Now we need to find him a permanent spot. Boy, this Esmil Rodgers for Gomes and Mike Aviles trade is looking like a major rip-off pulled by GM Chris Antonetti. Well played, sir. Well played.

Astrubal Cabrera: He’s finally showing some life out there. The past two seasons strong first halves made him an All-Star. This season he had far more valleys than peaks. If he can get it going and solidify the clean-up spot, than good things will happen. If he struggles, they have to move him down in the line-up and Michael Brantley takes the clean-up spot? I love Brantley, but he’s not a middle of the order hitter. God speed, Astrubal. 

Reasons for Cynicism

Struggles with runners in scoring position: The two games they won on this road trip, they hit with runners in scoring positions. The games they lost, they didn’t. Even Jim Bowden could see that pattern and he’s the worst. This is why I keep harping on the clean-up spot needing to be . . . cleaned up (Ha! That’s funny. I’m funny). They need someone to step up and drive in runs. Their line-up is so much better than last year, but they’re still missing the guy who can drive in runs when they really need them. I hoped that would be Swisher, but he just hasn’t adapted to that role. 

The ever changing line-up: Every day I go to ESPN to see what line-up Terry Francona has drawn up. It is never, literally never, the same two days in a row. I understand he has to get at-bats for everyone, but he needs to be more consistent. Guys need to know their role in the order. People who have never played baseball probably don’t understand the difference between hitting second and sixth, but they are monumentally different. A more consistent line-up should lead to more consistent results.