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Archive for the category “dominant pitching”

08 May 2011

Tribe bullpen is human after all

After rocking it since the start of the season, the Indians bullpen finally proved to be human on Sunday.

Rafael Perez and Joe Smith couldn’t hold an eighth-inning lead and the Tribe fell to the Angels, 6-5, to finish their six-game road trip at 3-3.

While it would have been great to see the Indians go 4-2 on the trip, there are still several positives to take from the past week.

The Indians hit the road to Oakland last week with a 4.5-game lead over second-place Kansas City. They come home with that lead still intact.

The Indians faced some top-notch pitching on the trip, but the offense kept battling. They scored three runs in the ninth to beat Oakland 4-1, scored two in the 12th to beat Oakland 4-3, put up four against the Angels after falling behind 2-0 in their 4-3 win, and scored two in the eighth on Sunday to take the lead, and put up another run in the ninth and had Asdrubal Cabrera in scoring position when the game ended.

The starting pitching was once again lights out. The Tribe went through the starting rotation one complete turn, with Fausto Carmona going twice, and the starters went 41 innings and gave up only eight earned runs, a 1.76 ERA.

The Tribe’s starters went pitch-for-pitch with the two best staffs in the American League and more than held their own. We’re now five weeks into the season and the starting pitching shows no sign of slowing down.

The Indians come home this week to Progressive Field to take on Tampa Bay, who are 2-17 at Progressive Field since 2006. The Tribe is also riding a 13-game home winning streak.

Don’t worry, Tribe time is rolling along just fine right now.

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16 Apr 2011

Masterson the Man for the Indians

Justin Masterson started what will hopefully be another winning streak as the Tribe beat Baltimore on Friday night.

Masterson gave up one run on four hits in seven innings as the Indians beat the Orioles 8-2 for their fifth consecutive win at Progressive Field. Masterson is now 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA on the season.

”He was tremendous,” manager Manny Acta told The Beacon Journal. ”He threw 20 first-pitch strikes to the 26 guys he faced. He had good velocity and good sink on his fastball. All they could do was beat the ball into the ground.”

”A lot of it is throwing strikes, pitching ahead in the count rather than behind,” Masterson said. ”It’s very simple, subtle stuff [altering his mechanics], but I’ve done it enough that I don’t have to think about it.”

The Indians are now 9-2 in their last 11 games, fueled by starting pitching that has been off the charts.

During that stretch, the starters have thrown 74 innings and given up just 15 earned runs – a 1.82 ERA. They’ve also gone an average of 6.2 innings in their starts.

Compare that, for example, to the much-hyped Phillies rotation of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels and Joe Blanton.

In their last 11 starts, the Phillies starters have a 4.19 ERA, giving up 31 earned runs in 66.1 innings of work.

Oh, and the Tribe is paying its starting rotation just a shade over $8 million this year. The Phillies? They have $67 million invested this year in their starting five.

Impressed yet?

And as good as the starters have been, the main guys in the bullpen have been even better. Tony Sipp, Chris Perez, Rafael Perez and Vinnie Pestano have yet to give up a run in 22 combined innings of work.

Josh Tomlin gets his turn today (weather permitting) to build on the streak of solid outings from the starters.

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