A Quest Called Tribe

The good news is that Josh Tomlin gutted his way through six innings and, despite allowing a pair of two run dingers, gave the Indians a chance to win.  The icing is that Josh threw 5+ innings for the 22nd consecutive start to begin his career.  That puts him in third place since 1919, behind only Steve Rodgers (24) and Daisuke Matsuzaka (28).  This phenomenal streak seams sort of hollow coming in the midst of a three game losing streak that has seen the Tribe score a grand total of four runs.  Cough...cough...Cord Phelps.

The lineup fiasco today was a joke.  I was all for juggling it a bit to get Grady into RBI situations and take some pressure off of Carlos Santana, but WTF.  It is as if Manny Acta took a whole bottle of Mickey Rooney's crazy pills as he filled out the card.  I understand the concept of lefty/righty matchups, but for a man who had been unbelievably consistent with his lineup all season tonight was quite a departure.  I almost thought the sequence was a typo when I saw it pregame.  Matt LaPorta (.453 slugging) ahead of Sizemore (.641)?  All of this reordering and Shelly Duncan (.632 OPS) still hitting cleanup?  Orlando Cabrera (.288 OBP) in the two hole?  All this AND Austin Kearns remains?  That is a great way to put up zero runs, which is exactly what they did.  If Acta wants to shake things up, the answers are right up the road in Norfolk, Virginia where the Clippers are playing the Tides.  Cough...cough...Lonnie Chisenhall.

I suppose that I cannot lay all of the blame on the structure of the batting order.  For all of their success in 2011, the Indians have been pitiful against top tier starters.

04.12 - Danny Haren: 9 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K

05.11 - David Price: 8 IP, 5 H, 2 R/ER, 0 BB, 7 K
05.18 - Jake Peavy: 9 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K
05.24 - Josh Beckett: 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R/ER, 3 BB, 6 K
05.27 - David Price: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 12 K

All losses.  I am not counting Jered Weaver or Mark Beurhle  as a top tier starter and Beckett had injury concerns the first time out.  For a team looking to make it into October this trend has to turn around.

Although it is still May, a true losing streak would test the mettle of a very inexperienced team.  Tomorrow is as close as you can come to must win 50 games in.  Let's get it done, boys.

Cheers.