Written by Steve Buffum

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Although the world (and, apparently, Cleveland attendance) was focused on Sunday’s tilt with Jesus Strasburg, the best pitching of the weekend was done by Fausto Carmona.  Along with fellow sinkerballer Jake Westbrook, the Indians took two of three from the Nationals, and along the way learned that Austin Kearns likes facing his former teammates, that losing J.D. Martin was not really a big deal, and that Tony Sipp’s pitching acumen fits snugly in a paramecium’s bowel.  Bring on the Mets! 

FINAL	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Nationals  (30-32)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	7	1
Indians (24-36)	3	0	0	1	0	3	0	0	X	7	9	1

W: Westbrook (4-3)        L: Atilano (5-3)   S: C. Perez (6)

FINAL	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Nationals (30-33)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	3	1
Indians (25-36)	1	4	0	0	1	0	0	1	X	7	9	0

W: Carmona (5-5)          L: J. Martin (0-2)

FINAL	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Nationals (31-33)	0	1	0	1	0	4	0	3	0	9	16	0
Indians (25-37)	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	4	7	0

W: Strasburg (2-0)         L: Huff (2-8)

A couple years ago, nationally televising a mid-season Cleveland-Washington game would not have occurred to me.

1) Craft

Washington is not a top offensive team, but they’re not totally abysmal like a Pittsburgh or Baltimore.  And, in fact, the first three hitters in the lineup managed a pair of hits each against Jake Westbrook Friday night, going a collective 6-for-11 with two doubles, hitting 2-for-3 with runners in scoring position, drawing a walk, and driving in two runs.

The entire rest of the lineup got one single in 20 AB.

Westbrook was helped right off the bat (so to speak) when Jim Riggleman decided to test rookie Carlos Santana’s arm after a leadoff single by Nyjer Morgan.  Santana erased Morgan, which became a bigger deal when the next two hitters doubled.  But Westbrook was able to settle down and retire the next five in a row before walking a thing labelled “Roger Bernadina,” who was soon doubled off first on a line shot to third.  Again, since the next two batters singled, this likely saved another run.

Really, except for the enormous Adam Dunn and the apparently-ageless Ivan Rodriguez (hitting an unfathomable .336/.364/.455 as a National), Westbrook was in control of the game.  He struck out 5 (walking 2) in 7 1/3 innings and got 11 groundouts to only 4 in the air.  He got in trouble in the 8^th after a pair of singles and an error produced a run, but the bullpen bailed him out and Westbrook won the game comfortably.

 

In fact, since Westbrook gave up only 7 hits during the game, you can infer a certain “none shall pass” nature to the middle innings: Westbrook allowed 3 hits in the 1^st and 2 hits in the 8^th, so the middle innings were pretty brisk indeed.

It will be interesting to see how Westbrook fares against the Mets, because that’s a team I could very well see trading for Jake in the coming months.

2) Art

Where Westbrook was “brisk,” Fausto Carmona was simply “mean.”

Here’s the thing about Saturday night’s start: forget the complete game, the 3-hitter, the 14:6 GO:FO ratio.  Instead note that:

a) Fausto threw 73 of his 106 pitches for strikes, which led to
b) Fausto walking 0 batters and
c) Fausto striking out 7

Frankly, I am not demanding that Carmona strike out 7 batters every game.  I don’t think he’s really capable of that, not sustainably over a whole season.  He should have better strikeout numbers than he does, but probably not 1-an-inning sort of better.  However, when Fausto walks zero batter, that is a very, very good sign.

Consider this: Carmona has 4 starts with 1 or 0 walks.  In those games he has pitched a total of 30 2/3 innings, giving up 6 earned runs (7 total).  This may be a bit of a chicken-and-egg argument, where a certain amount of good performance leads him to be more aggressive in the strike zone which leads to better performance which allows for more strikes, etc.  It is not entirely clear which comes first.  And Carmona does have a 6-run clunker in a 2-walk game, so it’s not like limiting walks is a panacea for him or the team.

Still, Carmona’s 1.24 is quite good, and even more remarkable when you realize he has a relatively-poor 3.33 BB/9 rate.  He’s already proven to be hard to HIT (75 in 86 1/3 IP): if he can keep the free passes down, he becomes close to dominant.  (He walked 6 Red Sox in his last performance.)

It’s been a bit of a “re-breakout” campaign for Carmona: his 4.05 ERA in April was his HIGHEST (3.30 in May, 1.96 thus far in June).  Once he got his ERA under 4.00 after the May 5^th, it has stayed under, and now sits at 3.23.  With respect to this game specifically, Carmona simply sawed through the Washington lineup like butter, facing the minimum through 7 innings because the two men who singled were immediately doubled up with double-play grounders.  In fact, for the ENTIRE GAME, Fausto faced one over the minimum because he allowed a solo shot to a man with 13 homers.

Yeah, he was good.

3) Rank Amateurism

I am grasping for something constructive to say about David Huff.

The announcers seemed to think that Huff was throwing with a little extra velocity.  Eh, that might be true.

The announcers seemed to think that Huff was being more aggressive in going after hitters.  Maybe in the early innings, I guess.

The announcers seemed to have their own version of “Dorian Gray” going on, in that Dennis Eckersley looks exactly the same as he did in 1988, while Buck Martinez now looks eighty-seven years old.

But if he was more aggressive, he still walked three hitters.  He still gave up four extra-base hits, including another homer (now 11 in 65 IP), twice as many extra-base hits as singles, and 2 runs in 5 innings.  And this is being generous, because he gave up two very honest runs in the 6^th and two more rather unfortunate ones (he was one strike away from getting out of the inning … but let the ball call get to him, walked the hitter, and gave way to a reliever who allowed his inherited runners to score).

What should I say?  He made it to the sixth inning?  Huzzah!  That makes … eight times in 12 starts.  That’s great!  How many times has he made it THROUGH the sixth inning?  Five.  How many times has he made it PAST the sixth inning?

Once.

He’s developing and getting experience and craftily crafting his craft, but it’s boring and dull and self-flagellating to talk about it.

4) And now for your listening pleasure, the sound of Tony Sipp being demoted to Akron

(insert sound here)

(please)

(no, really, somebody get me that sound)

(I’ll wait)

Last outing in which Sipp recorded more outs than hits: May 23^rd.

Number of outings since then: 7
Number of these seven outings without recording ANY outs: 3
Increase in ERA since May 23^rd: 6.08
ERA for June: 40.50
Batters faced during 7-game stretch: 27
Number of outs recorded: 7

Seven.  Of twenty-seven.  Seven.

Perspective: Raffy Perez is BY FAR our most effective left-handed relief pitcher.

5) Caveat

This is only because they do not let Shin-Soo Choo pitch.

6) Caveat II

Or Nicholas Swerbinsky.

7) Chicks dig the long ball!

The Indians smashed a total of 6 home runs in the three-game set, including two each from Austin Kearns and Travis Hafner.  Kearns hit both of his shots off Luis Atilano, who has been having a pretty good season, but got the run Westbrook had given up in the first back with a vengeance (plus two) after Russ Branyan was able to reach on a two-out error.

Hafner hit one of his off Steve Strasburg, a lovely “major-leaguers can pull inside fastballs largely independent of velocity” shot to right that got out in about 1.5 seconds.

The other two homers came from Carlos Santana and Russ Branyan.

8) Welcome to the bigs!

Speaking of Santana, he announced his Not Tofu Lou-ness by smacking two extra-base hits in the SAME GAME on Saturday.  After being held hitless (but scoring a run as a result of his first major-league plate appearance), Santana went 2-for-4 Satruday and 1-for-4 Sunday and is now hitting .273/.385/.636 as a major-leaguer.

Did I mention he is different from Tofu Lou Marson?

By the way, his batting stance is EXACTLY like Victor Martinez.  I mean, it’s like “Batting Stance Guy” or something.  At least from the left: I haven’t seen him from the right yet.  But … he’s Victor Martinez, man.  Except that he threw out the basestealer.

9) Mea Culpa Dept.

Remember when I said that Trevor Crowe is the best defensive center fielder we’ve fielded this season?

Yeah, that was wrong.  Wrong, wrongity, wrong.  Super wrong.

That ball that clanged off the OUTSIDE of his glove was a Thing of Ugly.  The route he took on that ball could not have been planned worse by lead-poisoned explorers looking for the Northwest Passage.  Guh.

10) Asset check

I’m gonna make this explicit: we should trade Austin Kearns.

Austin Kearns was arguably the best NRI signing by ANY team this off-season.  Kearns is hitting .297/.385/.492 this season and provides what little right-handed punch the Indians have on the entire roster.  And he is hitting a torrid .310/.442/.667 in June with 4 homers, more than half his 13 hits for extra-bases, and a 11:10 K:BB ratio.  He even has two steals in June and is 4:0 SB:CS overall this season.  This is a valuable player.

But here is why Kearns should be traded:

a) He is 30 years old and not likely to be this good the next time the Indians are truly competetive

This is looking more like 2012 than 2011.  Kearns is healthy for the first time, which hides any potential “decline phase” because his Washington years were so injury-plagued and awful.  But do you think this man is likely to age gracefully?  He was hurt pretty much every year from 2002 to 2009 in one way or another, and he’s a big, heavy power hitter (6’4”, 234 listed).

b) We don’t know what we actually have behind Kearns

Is Matt LaPorta an everyday major-league player?  He sure hasn’t done much with his opportunities.  On the other hand, he hit 4 homers in his first 3 games back in AAA, and can we really say LaPorta had real everyday playing time in Cleveland this season?  As long as Kearns is here, Manny Acta will play him over LaPorta because he is, right now, the superior player.  That’s the right thing for Acta to do, but not necessarily the right thing for the INDIANS to do.  Substitute Nick Weglarz or Mike Brantley or Whomever Else you want here, combined with part (a).

c) We are not going to sign Austin Kearns for 2011 and beyond

Kearns is cheap now at $750K, but don’t you find it likely that someone will throw $6M at this guy next season if he keeps up something near this?  (And, objectively, he would be worth that.)  San Francisco?  The Mets?  I don’t really want to spend that kind of coin on this kind of player.  Heck, we’d even save a few bucks THIS season.  Like it or not, bucks are important to this team.

d) It would be nice to Austin Kearns

Good for him.  He’s resurrected his career and it would be positive karma to let him play in a playoff run.

By the way, we should also trade Jake Westbrook, Russ Branyan, Kerry Wood, and Jhonny Peralta.  I don’t think they can trade Peralta, though, although … have you seen the third basemen for Minnesota?  ASTOUNDINGLY bad.  Wowzers. 

11) Frank Herrmann’s fifteenth minute

 And … it’s over.

12) Minutiae

The Indians went 3-for-5 with RISP and scored 4 of their 7 runs with two outs Saturday.

Drew Storen pitches like Eric Plunk.

Anderson Hernandez has the highest OPS of any middle infielder who has played middle infield for the Cleveland Indians in 2010, including Asdrubal Cabrera.  It is .697, which is “merely poor.”