Four days ago, the Indians were mired in a ten game slump and were two losses away from tying the longest losing streak in Indians history.  Now they head into the All Star break on a four game winning streak after sweeping the Tampa Bay Rays.  A 5-2 win was a nice closeout to an otherwise disappointing first half of the season.

Jeremy Sowers was erratic through four, walking seven, but held Tampa to two runs on three hits.  He also struck out eight, bailing himself out of a multitude of trouble.  He ended up with a no-decision, leaving with the score tied 2-2.

The Rays scored one in the second and the third.  The Rays second inning typified Sowers outing.  He struck out the side, but issued the free pass four times, giving up a run. 

In the third, the Rays scored again after another walk put Pena on second after he’d singled.  A Riggans single scored Pena.

In the bottom of the third, the Indians strung together three straight singles for their first run.  Franklin Gutierrez started the hit parade.  Jamey Carroll was the second single, and Ben Francisco’s single scored Gutierrez and moving Carroll over to third.  Jhonny Peralta sac-flied Carroll in and it was 2-2.

Sowers almost handed the lead right back issuing a pair of walks with one out in the fourth, but buckled down and struck out two, helping himself out of a jam.  That was it for Sowers, but he was good enough keeping things tight.

Tom Mastny came in for the fifth, going two full innings without giving up a hit, and ended up picking up the win in the process.

Edwardo Mutica, Rafael Perez, and Masa Kobayashi duplicated Mastny’s lock-down pitching.  Mutica and Perez registered holds, and Kobayashi nailed down the save.

The Indians scored two in the fifth on a Peralta homerun with Sizemore on.

In the sixth they got the last run of the game via the long-ball as well, this time Andy Marte going yard.

The Indians put up five runs on nine hits.  Marte paced the Indians with two hits and a RBI, with Peralta putting up one hit and accounting for three RBI’s.

This was an extremely strong effort from the bullpen and the offense.   

29,700 were on hand to witness the sweep.  The Indians season resumes on Friday, July 18^th in Seattle for three and moves to Anaheim after that. 

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 11:50 pm and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.