Written by Nino Colla

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You know you've reached the point of the season when it is completely over when you have Tom Hamilton talking about M.C. Hammer in the sixth inning. And talking about him multiple times.

August 19th, 2012

Cleveland Indians - 0

Oakland Athletics - 7

W: Jarrod Parker (8-7) L: Justin Masterson (9-11)

[BOXSCORE]

And when Coco Crisp knocks in five runs and the WORST offense in baseball according to runs scored scores a grand total of 21 runs on you in a three game sweep. Well, they aren't really the worst team offensively in the AL anymore thanks to the Indians.

More jarring than watching the pitching continue to spiral out of control was watching the offense trying to catch up. Sunday's starter Jarrod Parker matched Bartolo Colon's eight inning effort on Saturday, but ultimately it was a position of futility for the Indians offense. Sure they mounted a comeback Saturday and held their early lead on Friday, but on Sunday it was another "what do we have to do" type of situation.

The Indians had the leadoff runner on base in the first and second innings and had more than their share of opportunities. Carrera singled on a bunt, stole second and was at third with less than two outs for the two best cleanup guys in Choo and Santana, only to be stranded.

Then, Brantley got to second with less than two outs only to see Hannahan and Marson squander those opportunities away.

Heck, even with two outs, Choo got to third on a two-out single by Santana and even Michael Brantley couldn't bring him home. And all this against a pitcher that Choo said was not all that special.

"I didn't see anything special," Shin-Soo Choo said of Parker. "Our hitters tried too much today. A lot of ground balls swinging early in the count. I think he was pretty good, but I think we were too aggressive."

Acta would go on to say that the offense was too tense in the situations with the runners on. They did a good job to create the opportunities, but when it came to executing to make it count, it didn't happen. And I can see it considering some of the same guys that created opportunities, squandered them.

So without the Athletics even sniffing anything, you have three opportunities to get on the board. If I'm Justin Masterson, I'm demoralized by the fact that my offense can't do anything.

Yet I still don't make that an excuse to go out and completely meltdown, which just added to the tone of the way the pitching is going, the way the series went, and the way the Indians have been playing on the road.

They've won one, count that, ONE road game this month in August. Out of 11. They've won just that one in their last 15 road contests and not since they beat the Orioles in three out of four contests in June/July have they won a road series.

So there you go, there are your Cleveland Indians. The road hasn't been kind and this west coast swing will continue on into this week with a trip to Seattle and with a upcoming battle against the guy who just threw a perfect game last week in Felix Hernandez. And he's facing the guy now named Roberto Hernandez.

So needless to say, the road losing is not over. The Indians best end this now new losing streak they've got going on or else it's going to start creeping up towards the old one and then that will not look good.

Who's going to stop the bleeding this time? Certainly it wasn't Justin Masterson this time around, which completely diverts from the string he was on but completely continues the string he's been on this season by continuing to be up and down, his good old inconsistent 2012-self. This one wasn't all that bad looking until the fifth.

"They happened to make me pay on the two pitches," Masterson said. "Two out of 101. Ninety-nine of them were the way I wanted them. That's in line with what we want. The final score may not show that, but that's part of the game of baseball."

I guess if that's the way you want to look at it. It wasn't like he gave up seven runs off two home runs that were mistake pitches. He got beat up in several spots, he gave up a three-run shot to Coco Crisp, he really just did not make all the pitches he needed to. He may have been beaten by good hitting executing on his good pitches and a few mistakes, but the fact of the matter is that he gave up seven runs. However you want to chalk it up, it was not a good performance.

So you can own it and move forward and try and go back to the good side of the inconsistency or you can just continue to wallow around.

Maybe the team should lose five straight like that. 

Random Details...

Chris Perez pitched just for the second time this past week in this finale, but it was not a save situation. Not much he can do, but it's good to keep him as sharp as possible throughout everything.

One walk in this one by Brent Lillibridge and one on Friday. None given up by Bartolo Colon on Saturday which brings the number of walks on the weekend to, two? This is definitely not the same team that was competing earlier in the season. That aspect of the game is missing and it was something that was working for them earlier on. It's what made them successful, now they're not even coming close to it.

Despite a two-run pinch hit shot on Saturday, Lillibridge is back to hitting under .200. Yup.

You're daily look at RISP numbers: 0-for-7, which just amplifies what I was saying earlier with the opportunities the Indians had.

On Saturday, Corey Kluber gave up four runs, all unearned on Saturday in his five innings of work. Here's the problem. It was one error to start the inning. A bunt got one out, the second out was a groundout. Sure the Reddick double and Cespedes homer that followed wouldn't have happened, but Kluber didn't have to walk Coco Crisp and he could have buckled down. It isn't all on him, but he and the rest of these pitchers need to get it together with these errors.

Sure they shouldn't have happened, but as we've discussed in the past with these issues, these pitchers can't continue to let thing spiral as they do. Sure Kluber shouldn't have given up a few of those runs, but he still gave up more than he should have. He gets out of that with a groundout scoring one run and that should be it. These pitchers are doing nothing but compounding the error issues.

[CONSIDERING CARRERA?]

It's time to start taking into consideration some things being done. The start of that discussion goes with Ezequiel Carrera and the job he's doing with his bat. Do you consider him for the left field opening? In an cost-saving model for a team that is probably not worth adding onto in a big way, perhaps.

The Houston Astros or San Diego Padres, teams just looking to get by and rebuild also might.

Normal circumstances call for the Indians to not even bother with Ezequiel Carrera as their starting left fielder, but these are not normal circumstances. And right now, he's taking full advantage of the opportunity given to him and will have a month and a half to continue to state his case.

"He's got the ability to do that," Acta said. "It's going to be up to him. He's going to get a chance. He's going to play a lot before the year is over."

"I felt like I've been able to make the adjustment from infield to outfield," Donald said on Saturday, a day after his first start in left field. "The biggest thing is just to react, instead of thinking so much about making sure I do this or that."

"He's our catcher right now," Acta said on Friday. "I'm not going to speculate about what he can become in the future. That's not even discussed. He's our catcher right now."

"We have two of the best throwing catchers in the league," manager Manny Acta said, "but the past two years, we are not doing a very good job of holding runners."

"It's about offsetting [the runner's] timing by sometimes holding the ball longer or by changing the look," Acta said. "There are different things you can do. It's not just speeding up."

"It's part of the game," said Kipnis, who had a day off on Sunday. "It's not an easy game. I'm learning that the hard way. The normal adjustments in the past aren't working this time. It's not like guys are throwing pitches I haven't seen before. They aren't making huge adjustments. They are still throwing the ball over the plate. I just have to find a way to make better contact. I'm trying to find any way to first base, and it's not happening right now."