Written by Steve Buffum

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The Indians drop two of three to the Royals, continuing their pattern from the home stand, and now hit the road to face two likely playoff teams without looking like much of one themselves.  In today’s B-List, Buff does not talk about Ubaldo Jimenez, although that would have been preferable to watching Carlos Carrasco pitch or Frank Herrmann pitch or Lou Marson hit or Mike Brantley and Asdrubal Cabrera lead off first or the Indians bat with runners in scoring position.

 

FINAL	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Royals (45-61)	2	1	0	4	1	0	2	2	0	12	16	0
Indians (52-51)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0

W: Francis (4-11)           L: Carrasco (8-9)

 

FINAL	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Royals (45-62)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	10	0
Indians (53-51)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	5	7	0

W: Sipp (6-2)                 L: Soria (5-4)

 

FINAL	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Royals (46-62)	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	1	1	5	9	0
Indians (53-52)	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	0	3	10	1

W: Duffy (3-4)                L: Carmona (5-11)          S: Soria (20)

 

That was not a good home stand.  More of a “home sit.”  Or a “home wallow.”

 

1) Idiot Boy

 

Listen: I don’t want to make anyone think that I advocate sending Carlos Carrasco down instead of David Huff because he acted churlishly on Friday night.  Which, I should point out, he certainly did.  Yes, Melky Cabrera showed you up.  Yes, you gave up a grand friggin’ slam to Melky Friggin’ Cabrera.  Stop sucking.

 

No, here is why I was Carlos Carrasco send down instead of David Huff:

 

7/5: 4 IP, 10 H, 2 HR, 6 ER
7/10: 3 IP, 7 H, 1 HR, 5 ER
7/16: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 HR, 3 ER
7/22: 6/13 IP, 6 H, 1 HR, 3 ER
7/29: 3 1/3 IP, 6 H, 3 HR, 7 ER

 

Yeah, the third and fourth starts aren’t bad.  Heck, they’re Quality Starts.  But do you know what Carrasco’s ERA over that stretch works out to be?  9.13.  With a .340 AVG against.  With a 20:14 K:BB ratio.  With 8 homers allowed in 23 2/3 innings.  That’s more than 3 per 9 innings!  With 35 hits and 14 walks his WHIP is 2.07.  Two point oh seven!  Argelly bargelly plotz!

 

Is he out of gas?  Is his arm bothering him?  Is he simply an immature lout?  Wouldn’t it be nice to find out in games that don’t decide the A.L. Central?

 

Frankly, I’m more worried about the taterosity than the lack of composure.  Carrasco showed me enough composure earlier in the season for me to think this can be contained long-term.  He acted out Friday, and what a jerk.  I’m not discounting or downplaying it.  But his pitching … his pitching has been BAD.

 

2) Ho Hum Dept.

 

Justin Masterson blah blah blah.  Only one extra-base hit blah blah blah.  2 runs in 8 innings blah blah blah.  5:1 K:BB ratio, no homers, 105 pitches to get through 8 innings, blah blah blah.  Still didn’t win the ballgame, blah blah plotz.

 

In 22 starts, Masterson has allowed 6 earned runs once, 5 earned runs once, and 4 earned runs twice.  He has a 2.56 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP.  In 22 starts, Cliff Lee has allowed 6 earned runs three times, 5 earned runs once, and 4 earned runs three times.  He sports a 3.14 ERA with a 1.12 WHIP.  Am I comparing Justin Masterson to Cliff Lee?  No, that isn’t really fair.  Cliff Lee’s career is better, his track record is better, his command is better.

 

Justin Masterson’s 2011 season is better.

 

3) Lessons in Mediocrity

 

There are many paths to mediocrity: as Joseph Heller wrote of Major Major, “Some are born to mediocrity, some achieve mediocirty, and others have it thrust upon them.”  (He was paraphasing someone else.)  Sometimes, mediocrity looks like a pitcher who gives up the same 3 or 4 runs in 6 innings every time out to not quite achieve a league-average ERA, a boring consistency that makes you go, “Eh.”  And others ride the yo-yo between brilliant outings and blowouts, biting the wax tadpole toward a year-end ERA of about 5.

 

Fausto Carmona, I am sorry to conclude, is mediocre.

 

His game Sunday wasn’t BAD, exactly: sure, he gave up a couple of solo shots, he never gave up more than a run in an inning, he pitched into the 8^th inning and didn’t even reach 100 pitches … there were good things to be taken from the outing.  And yet he gave up 4 runs, he lost the game, he walked three more guys, and his K:BB ratio over his last 10 starts is a cringeworthy 21:19.  That’s only 2 walks a game!  Huzzah!  That’s only 2 strikeouts a game!  (insert aneurysm here)

 

Fausto Carmona’s ERA after a bad outing in Toronto on May 30^th was 5.31.  After his loss to Kansas City on Sunday, his ERA is … 5.31.  There’s a 6-inning shutout in there.  There’s a 4 2/3 inning 7-run hairball in there.  Bite the wax tadpole.

 

4) The Inning

 

Down 2-1 in the 9^th inning against closer Joakim Soria, the Indians put together a rally consisting of a HBP, a fielder’s choice, a double, a sac fly, a walk, and a 357-foot homer.  The only out of the inning was made by arguably our best hitter (Travis Hafner).  Matt LaPorta hit the home run after being thrown out at the plate in an earlier inning by so many feet that he felt obligated to Tie Domi the catcher rather than slide.  Kosuke Fukudome hit the sacrifice fly representing the sum total of his offensive contributions to the Cleveland Indians.

 

5) The Other Twenty-Six Innings

 

Involved almost nothing of offensive value.

 

6) But wait, there’s less!

 

The Indians collected 10 hits on Sunday … walked 6 times … watched a wild pitch skip past the backup backup catcher … hit a homer, an RBI triple, and 3 doubles (including the first for each of Zeq Carrera and Kosuke Fukudome in a Cleveland uniform) … and scored 3 runs.  They left 10 men on base.

 

Wait, you say!  How can you have 16 baserunners, leave 10 on base, and score 3 runs?!

 

Mike Brantley: pitcked off first by rookie Danny Duffy
Asdrubal Cabrera: picked off first by rookie Danny Duffy
Carlos Santana: GIDP

 

That’s how.

 

7) So what you’re saying is, Topic Five is a Big Fat Lie

 

Sure, it’s a lie.  Did it FEEL to YOU like the Indians were breaking out offensively on Sunday?  It didn’t to me.

 

8) Harbingers of the Obvious

 

You probably won’t believe this, but in the games in which the Indians hit 1-for-6 and 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, they didn’t score many runs and lost the games.  Yeah, I was pretty taken aback, too.

 

9) Bullpen Roundup

 

Chad Durbin: effective at bailing out a horrifying starter.

 

Frank Herrmann: still not really very good.

 

Tony Sipp: apparently much more popular than Raffy Perez.

 

Joe Smiff: still throwing strikes and zeroes.

 

10) Managerial Head-Scratchers

 

So explain this to me: Carmona had given up 3 runs in 7 innings.  His pitch count was still pretty low, but the 8^th inning set up as:

 

LHB Alex Gordon

SHB Melky Cabrera, not much split, but far less power from right side
RHB Billy Butler
LHB Eric Hosmer

 

Three of the four guys hit worse against left-handed pitching.  The Royals lead 3-2.  Isn’t THIS the place to bring in Tony Sipp?  And then start the 9^th with someone fresh, maybe Smiff, maybe Perez?  We prolly lose this game anyway, but Fausto?  In a one-run game?  Really?