4-1 Giants : Welcome to the Basement.
Posted June 26th, 2008 by Dave Wiley
The weather wasn’t the only thing gloomy in Cleveland on Wednesday. The Indians will have to rely on Cliff Lee Thursday evening to keep them from being swept in their own ballpark after a second straight loss to the San Francisco Giants.
Down 4-1 in the bottom of the ninth, watching the Indians try to mount a comeback was similar to tuning into NASCAR and not witnessing a wreck. Unlike NASCAR, where the possibility of a crash is always exists, you just knew the Tribe was not going to come back from a three run deficit. Sadly, it would have been the same feeling if they were down by one.
With the loss, the Indians slip to last place in the AL Central. Even worse? The Kansas City Royals passed up the Tribe by sweeping the Colorado Rockies, the very same Colorado Rockies that beat Cleveland three straight just a week ago. Even worse than that? The Indians made a 6.72 2 win11 loss Barry Zito look like a Cy Young candidate.
One can only hope this is really rock-bottom.
Jeremy Sowers started rocky for the Tribe, giving up two runs in the first inning. He gave up three total, the other coming in the top of the third, going seven inning, giving up nine hits and three runs, and dropping to 0-3 on the season with the loss. All in all, it wasn’t that bad of a start.
Rafael Betancourt continued his run of hard luck pitching, allowing the fourth and final San Francisco score in the eighth on a John Bowker home-run.
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Joe Borowski didn’t look much better, coming on in the top of the ninth and allowing a pair of singles and an almost fifth run, except for a great home-plate blocking effort and tag by Kelly Shoppach that prevented Ray Durham from scoring and accounted for the third out.
Unfortunately, a Giant player was the only one that came close to the plate in the ninth; the Indians going quietly in the bottom half of the inning.
The Giant’s first two runs came after three of the first four batters loaded the bases on a pair of singles and a walk. Aaron Rowand delivered a two RBI single to center, scoring Jose Castillo and Randy Winn. Sowers then got Rick Aurilla to ground into a double play, getting out of the inning.
In the top of the third, Castillo homered, making it 3-0 Giants.
The Indians got on the board in the bottom of the seventh. Zito was pulled after Shoppach drilled a double to deep center field. Shin-Soo Choo came on as a pinch hitter and singled Shoppach home, accounting for the Indians only run of the night.
All told, the Indians scattered six hits, plating just one. The Giants tagged the Tribe for twelve hits.
These two wrap up their series at Progressive Field in Cleveland Ohio on Thursday. The good news for Cleveland fans is the forecast is a high probability of thunderstorms. The better news is Cleveland ace Cliff Lee will be on the mound seeking his eleventh win. He takes his 10-1 win-loss record and 2.45 ERA up against San Francisco’s Matt Cain. Cain is 4-5 on the year with a 4.31 ERA. After watching Zito break out of his season-long funk against the Indians, Cain is probably thinking Thursday is Christmas. Game time is 7:05.
