Written by Brian McPeek

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It’s not easy to lose 8 out of your last 9 baseball games.  It’s especially not easy to lose 8 out of 9 when your starting pitching is outstanding. Yet here we are after the Tribe dropped two of three to the Rangers this weekend.  In The Weekend Wrap, Peeks touches on the Rangers series, some of the changes in store with the team, the Daven Holly injury, and the strangely surreal relationship that the Browns have with former St. Ignatius and Ohio State star LeCharles Bentley.

The Only Game in Town

It’s not easy to lose eight out of your last nine baseball games.

It’s especially not easy to lose eight out of nine when your starting pitching is outstanding. Yet here we are after the Tribe dropped two of three to the Rangers this weekend.

The two games the Indians lost pretty much summarize the way things are going for the Tribe right now. They lost on Friday night when Fausto Carmona was not only horrible but was also injured. The Rangers beat up Carmona on a night the Indians bats finally came alive, 14-9.

Then on Sunday the Rangers went old school on the Tribe and beat them 2-1 despite another brilliant effort from CC Sabathia.

In between the Indians got a gutsy effort from Cliff Lee and a save from Joe Borowski (He’s baaaaack!) to salvage one game and a modicum of pride out of the series.

This is the way it goes when you’re not hitting and you’re not playing well.

On Friday night, with the Rangers leading 12-6, Grady Sizemore led off with a triple off Ranger reliever Kameron Loe. The next hitter, Jamey Carroll, slapped a ground ball to third base. Sizemore inexplicably was thrown out at the plate. To go from the ridiculous to the sublime, Travis Hafner followed Carroll with a single (amazing enough at this point given Hafner’s struggles but that’s not what I meant with ‘sublime’).

The next hitter up is clearly the Indians best hitter right now. Which is sad because Jason Michaels held his job for the first 6 weeks of the season. But Ben Francisco lined a ball over the left field wall for a home run to make it a 12-9 game and to really dial up the heat on a rotten Rangers bullpen.

Except that he didn’t.

Well, he did really, but the umpire clearly blew the call, called it a double and the score was 12-7 Rangers and they had the margin they needed to limp it home from there. Mostly because there was no way the Tribe was actually getting another big hit from anyone other than Francisco when they needed one.

How bad is it going? Sunday’s 2-1 loss was the result of a 2-out single going through the legs of Francisco and all the way to the wall in the 9^th inning of a tie game. The old ‘Little League Triple’ to cost them another one.

It’s ugly and it’s getting uglier.

It’s to the point where you’re waiting to see how they lose the ballgame today and who will be responsible. You know its coming. You know how it’s going to end. And it’s not going to turn out well for the Indians.

What’s it Going to Take?

The good news is the Indians are a 15-5 streak away from grabbing control of the Central Division, or at the very least getting right back into the thick of it.

You want more good news because of insecurities developed over the years of being a Cleveland fan? I understand completely.

Well, the Indians lost Fausto Carmona for at least 15 days after Friday night’s hip injury. That is not the good news. The good news is that they’ve got a guy coming back to replace him who was pitching as well as anyone in the league when he got hurt. Jake Westbrook should be ready to go this week after rehabbing for the about the last month to get past a pulled intercostal muscle.

And (you’ll have to trust me on this one) Borowski is back.

I understand that one doesn’t necessarily give you chills of excitement and confidence, but given the performance of Rafael Betancourt and Masa Kobayashi in the last 30 days, Borowski will allow everyone to return to their comfort zone in the bullpen.

Now for the bad news: This team is an offensive cipher. It’s a black hole of production. So what do they need to do to fix it? Well, they need to get a bat. We advocated that move last week. Problem being which teams out there in this parity filled league want to signal to their paying customers that they are frauds? That they know they can’t actually compete all year so they’re giving up now?

No one’s lining up to quit just yet. The Indians are going to have to improve from within. And though options are limited, you’re likely to see more playing time to Michael Aubrey, Francisco and to the returning Shin-Soo Choo and some time off (if not in Buffalo) for Ryan Garko and Franklin Gutierrez (who is out of minor league options).

I think the biggest move is one whose time is way overdue though. It’s time to give Travis Hafner about 30 days of early summer rest and relaxation. Hafner is gripping but not ripping. I don’t know if the Indians DH is hurt or is just one of those guys who simply blazed as a star for a couple years before flaming out. But the Indians need to find out.

Hafner’s doing them no good anywhere in the middle of their lineup. Time to let him do nothing for two weeks but rest some old shoulder and elbow injuries and then turn him loose in some rehab starts to see where he is. Let him knock around some minor league fastballs and minor league breaking stuff and regain some confidence after regaining some strength. You have nothing to lose by doing it now. You’re not winning with him and Hafner has become a ‘clog’ rather than a ‘cog’ in the offense.

There are plenty of issues plaguing this team offensively right now. Hafner certainly isn’t the only one but he is the most expensive one and arguably the most important one. Better to see what you really have with him now as opposed to later.

Secondary Issue

Looks like Browns CB Daven Holly will miss the ’08 season after tearing pretty much every ligament in his knee after colliding with WR Braylon Edwards in a recent drill. That weakens an already unsteady defensive backfield.

The Browns moved to add some depth by adding veteran Terry Cousin late in the week but they’re sure to be on the lookout for more help throughout the summer.

They need to look for that help, no doubt. But I have a little better feeling about the DBs now that there is actually some talent on the defensive line. Having four Hall of Famers in the defensive backfield wouldn’t have been enough last season with the lack of any pressure from up front. No one can run with receivers all day.

The Browns defensive backs will be better this season regardless of who they put back there because they shouldn’t have to cover the best athletes in the world for nearly as long.

Lastly

There has got to be somebody out there who can shed some light on this surreal relationship that the Browns have with LeCharles Bentley.

It saddens me that the actual writers in this town paid to investigate and report on these things and the newspapers in this town that serve and accept payment from Browns fans cannot or will not tell us what the hell went down with the team and the player that has caused this frigid relationship.

It strikes no one as odd that the media hasn’t devoted tons of time and space to this story? To the story of a huge free agent signing gone bad? Normally that negative outcome alone would be enough to get the Plain Dealer involved. But throw in the fact that Bentley is a home town high school hero who played at Ohio State and then was an All-Pro before being signed here to anchor the offensive line and you’ve got compelling stuff.

Ratchet it up even further by the fact that he shreds his knee on the first play of his first training camp workout and is lost for the season. Mix in the obligatory staph infection, more surgeries and a pledge to play again by Bentley and its ‘Must Read’ stuff.

So why don’t we know exactly what caused the riff between Bentley and the Browns? Why is the relationship so frosty? What’s with the animosity? Nobody out there who makes a living as a writer has the stones to tell us what happened?

Why is that Mr. Grossi? Can you add anything Mr. Schudel?