The Indians dropped two of three to Tampa Bay this weekend, and in today’s B-List, Buff talks about Ubaldo’s actual pitching, his theoretical pitching, and his acceptable pitching.  Mostly, there’s not a lot to talk about in the positive except for Ubaldo’s pitching.  He does mention, off-handedly, that the left-handed relief pitching is Compleat Nonsense, that Jason Giambi can still stroke a home run now and again, and that Yan Gomes is human after all.  But mostly the Compleat Nonsense.  It’s bad.

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It’s Memorial Day already. That means the 4^th of July is just about six weeks away when it feels like Christmas was just three or four days ago. But as time passes things come into focus and are more clearly defined. Not just with our sports teams, but with our world view and within our own lives.

So let’s get to some of that in The Weekend Wrap.

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So the Reds starting pitching has been really good. They had gone pretty much the entire month of May without being saddled with a loss, just short of a few days at the beginning and now thanks to the Indians, at the end.

Despite the fact that he was coming off a shaky outing from last week, the Indians ACE did what ACES do. He busted a slump. 

REDS - 2 | INDIANS - 5

W: Justin Masterson (8-3)

L: Bronson Arroyo (5-5)

[BOXSCORE]

Terry Francona said before the game that his team has passed through the losing streak with flying colors, and that he actually felt better about his team, despite current struggles.

"I feel every bit as good about our ballclub right now as I did 10 days ago -- maybe if not better -- because I've seen the fight they have in them and we're pulling together," Francona said. "There's some things that haven't gone right for us at the end of games and things like that. But I think we're going to be OK."

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It’s not often that I go to an Indians game and go the duration of the game without hearing somebody say something stupid or completely wrong about baseball. Wednesday was not the exception. The Indians trailed 2-1 in the second inning against Justin Verlander and the Tigers. Mark Reynolds singled to left and Ryan Raburn drove Torii Hunter to the wall in right field to single on a ball that Hunter should have caught. The Indians had two on and nobody out with Yan Gomes coming to the plate.

Let’s evaluate the entire scenario. Ubaldo Jimenez was on the mound for the Indians and he didn’t look sharp. The Tigers were going to score more runs. Yan Gomes unsuccessfully tried to bunt last Monday in the 10th inning before hitting a walk-off three-run homer. Gomes entered this at bat hitting .302 with a .642 slugging percentage. Verlander, for once, was not sharp and had just given up a 385-foot fly ball to a guy who has had below average power throughout his career, averaging one home run every 28.2 at bats. Oh, yeah, and IT’S THE SECOND INNING.

Gomes fouled off the first pitch. “WHY ISN’T HE BUNTING?!” a voice roared to my left. Rather than confuse this guy with the long list of reasons why Gomes shouldn’t be asked to bunt in this situation, I watched eagerly, hoping Gomes would crush a three-run shot to prove this guy wrong. Gomes worked the count to 3-1 before hitting a laser beam to left center that Andy Dirks ran down for the first out. Michael Bourn would follow with a single that plated Reynolds easily and sent Ryan Raburn to third with one out. Jason Kipnis struck out, Asdrubal Cabrera walked, and Michael Brantley grounded out to end the inning.

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