Royals show why they're in last place

The Indians beat the Royals last night, in part, because the Royals made two mental baserunning errors on the same play. Sure, Grady Sizemore's two home runs and sensational catch to end the game had a lot to do with it; and yes, Casey Blake's two-run shot in the top of the sixth that scored the last two runs of the game obviously contributed to the victory; and of course, Clifton Lee's gutty performance helped (though in giving up four runs in six innings, his ERA ballooned to 1.89).

But in the bottom of the sixth, the Royals really put on a clinic for how not to play the game of baseball. With two outs in the inning, Joey Gathright was on second, David DeJesus was on first, and Esteban German singled to right field. As Ben Francisco fielded the ball, Gathright rounded third at full speed, then glanced back and determined he was certain to score easily, so he started jogging toward the plate. DeJesus, apparently assuming the throw would go to the plate, rounded second -- and Francisco threw there. DeJesus was tagged out diving back into second base, and Gathright had not scored. Inning over, no runs for the Royals. There is no question whatsoever that if Gathright had been running hard, he'd have scored, and the game would have been tied. And for a million a year, or half a million, or whatever he makes, it sure seems like running hard is not too much to ask. If I were a Royals fan, I'd sure be bothered that my team lost its 12th straight game in that fashion.

Buster blogs about C.C.

If you follow this link, you can read some thoughts by ESPN's Buster Olney about what the Indians might do later this year, if the offense continues to struggle. Here's a hint: It involves trading a Cy Young winner who's not signed for the rest of this season. I'm so very cagey.

My thoughts? If the Tribe is out of the playoff hunt by late July, Mark Shapiro would be a fool not to get something for C.C. We know he's not going to sign before the offseason, and we know what happens to big-name Indians who reach free agency (see Thome, Jim; Ramirez, Manny; Belle, Albert; et al.).

But Olney seems to feel the Indians might be able to trade Sabathia for hitters who can help them reach the playoffs this year:

The Cleveland Indians have tremendous depth in their starting pitching, at a time when their offense continues to struggle, and it's within the realm of possibility that sometime in late July, they could dangle C.C. Sabathia on the trade market, leaving them with a rotation of Fausto Carmona, Cliff Lee, Jake Westbrook, Aaron Laffey and Jeremy Sowers.

That's assuming everybody stays healthy, of course, which you can never, ever assume. But I just can't see this happening. A playoff contender does not trade the defending Cy Young in the middle of the season.

Sammy, Sammy, Sammy

I see that Sammy Sosa has announced that he might retire at the end of the 2009 World Baseball Classic. That's right, folks. All those home runs he'll hit this year will be the last home runs he ever hits. If anybody picks him up. The first two paragraphs of the story:

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (Sports Network) - Sammy Sosa will reportedly retire from baseball after the World Baseball Classic in March of 2009, according to the Dominican Republic newspaper Hoy.

Sosa, currently a free agent, is planning to play for his native Dominican Republic next March before hanging up the cleats for good.

This has got to be the first time I've ever heard of someone announcing his retirement at some future date when he's not even playing in the present. And there are 30 major league teams. Sosa will turn 40 between now and then. If he can't make one of those 30 teams at age 39, why is he so sure he'll make the Dominican team at the World Baseball Classic? I'm not going to go through and count all the Dominicans in the majors right now, but it seems like every team has at least one or two. The Indians currently have three (Rafael Perez, Fausto Carmona and Jhonny Peralta).

So let's say there are 50 major-leaguers born in the Dominican Republic (and that's a conservative estimate). And Sammy's not one of them. There are 25 guys on a team. I know I don't have to do the math for you. Sure, he might steal one of those outfield spots, but to announce your retirement at the end of playing for a team you're not all that likely to make seems a bit presumptuous.

Today in sports history

On this date 90 years ago, future Hall of Famer Stan Coveleski pitched a complete game for the Cleveland Indians in a 3-2 victory over the New York Yankees. Sure, in 1918, pitchers went the distance all the time. But this game went 19 innings. Smoky Joe Wood, a former pitcher who'd become an outfielder after he hurt his arm, won the game with a home run in the 19th.

Stanislaus Coveleski was one of the best pitchers of the dead-ball era, winning 215 games with a career ERA of 2.89. He spent most of his career in Cleveland, and would have been the MVP of the 1920 World Series, had such an award existed at that time. Coveleski won three games in that series (out of the five the Indians won against the Brooklyn Robins; they played a best-of-nine in those days), and only gave up two runs in the 27 innings he pitched, for a 0.67 ERA. That's what you call pitching dominance, ladies and gentlemen. He would not fare so well in the 1925 Series, in which he lost two games as his Washington Senators fell to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Coveleski was the No. 2 man in that rotation, behind a fellow named Walter Johnson.

Wood, incidentally, is about the nearest historical approximation to Rick Ankiel, who is having a fine year as the Cardinals' center fielder, after Steve Blass disease forced him to give up pitching. Babe Ruth, of course, is the classic pitcher-turned hitter, but he became an outfielder because he was such a great hitter, not because he couldn't pitch anymore. Obviously, neither Ankiel nor Wood was as good a hitter as Ruth -- very few men have even been close. But it's also worth mentioning that neither was as good as Ruth on the mound, either. Ruth could possibly have been a Hall of Famer if he'd never hit a home run in his life.

Speaking of Babe Ruth, in 1918, he was still playing for the Red Sox, and still pitching, though he started playing a lot of outfield that year. No one had any idea he'd ever play his home games in New York. And the Yankees team that Coveleski and Wood's boys beat had never won a World Series. How I yearn for those days.

The Indians would win their first championship in 1920, and the Yankees would follow them to the winner's circle in 1921. Since then, the Indians have won one more World Series (1948) and lost three (1954, 1995 and 1997). The Yankees? Let's not talk about that.

Doesn't it just figure?

The Indians finally show some offense, and the pitching falls apart. Ladies and gentlemen, after last night's 13-9 loss, your defending AL Central champion Cleveland Indians have lost seven in a row, and one of your best pitchers is hurt. I can't seem to find any information about what's wrong with Fausto Carmona or how long he'll be out, but he obviously didn't have his good stuff last night, as he gave up six runs in 2+ innings of work. That's not the Fausto we know. In the photo at right, it looks like the trainer is checking out his hip, which would explain why Fausto didn't beat the hitter to first base on the previous play.

And Ben Francisco got cheated out of a home run because the umpires aren't allowed to look at the same footage the rest of us can see. Instant replay has been a hot topic in baseball this year, and word is they'll experiment with it in the Arizona Fall League. It's about freaking time.

The arguments I've heard against it are ridiculously stupid. People say it'll slow down the game. Are you telling me it'll take longer for an umpire to take a look at a replay than it takes right now for a manager to argue about the call?

Tim Kurkjian, speaking on SportsCenter the other day, parroted a mantra that I've heard so many times I think my head might explode: "The human element has always been a part of baseball." Tim, I can accept that the players will make mistakes that affect the outcome of the game, BUT NOT THE UMPIRES.

The game should be decided by the players, period. Instant replay simply gives the umpires the ability to give the game back to the players to decide. It's absurd that the millions of people who are watching a particular game on TV can know exactly what the correct call is, but the umpires aren't allowed to watch what those TV viewers saw.

Anyone who saw that game on TV was able to see quite clearly that Francisco's shot bounced off the railing above the fence, then bounced back onto the field. The umpires are all stationed near bases, and they did their best, but they just couldn't see precisely what happened to the ball a couple of hundred feet away. A camera could. An umpire watching the ball from short left field cannot see a ball as well as an umpire watching the ball on a TV screen. It's really pretty simple.

I think I've made my point. I didn't start writing this post intending for it to turn into a rant, but I just want the calls to be right. This game probably wasn't decided by that call (it cost the Tribe two runs, so maybe we would have lost 13-11), but it could have been. And games have unquestionably been decided by bad calls. That's not good for the losing team, it's not good for the umpires, and it's not good for baseball.

One other thing: On an unrelated matter, I dearly wish someone at ESPN would send out a directive to all its on-air personalities that Xavier Nady's first name only has three syllables, and does not start with the word "egg."

Where's the offense?!?

The Indians' 7-2 loss to the White Sox last night seems like it was almost inevitable, which is not the kind of thing you want to feel about an alleged playoff contender.

The surging Sox have now won seven in a row, and the tumbling Tribe has lost five straight. The Sox are in first place, 3 1/2 ahead of the Indians. The 23-23 Twins are ahead of us also. The starting pitching has generally been great (even last night, Paul Byrd was cruising until the sixth), but they've had bupkis for offense. Since beating Toronto 12-0 on May 10, the Indians have scored 2.5 runs a game (25 runs in 10 games). That, my friends, is pathetic. Miraculously, they've won four of those 10 games, thanks to the pitching staff.

I don't know what the answer is, but something's got to happen. They can't expect to win like this.

But hey, on the bright side, Michael Aubrey hit his second career home run last night. Too bad nobody was on base.

Yawn

The New Orleans Hornets were the last hope for us fans of the underdog in this year's NBA playoffs. The day after the title-less Cavaliers were eliminated, the zero-championship Hornets failed to close out their series against the Spurs.

So now we're left with:

• The Celtics, who have won 16 titles -- though none since 1986. It's amazing to me that there are people who are old enough to drink and have never seen the Celtics win a championship. But they're still the Celtics, and I still generally want them to lose.
  
• The Lakers, who have won 15 championships, counting their days in Minneapolis. Their most recent title was in 2002, when the Shaq-n-Kobes swept the Nets to win their third straight title. They have won nine since moving to LA.
  
• The Spurs, who have won four in the last decade, including last year's sweep of the Cavs.
• The Pistons, who have five rings, including their time as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons. They have won three in Detroit, most recently in 2004. They lost the 2005 Finals to the Spurs.
  

I want them all to lose. That's impossible, of course. So I have no idea what to root for. Is it too late for a player strike? Can we cancel the rest of the playoffs, just because, you know, what's the point?

The only possible Finals matchup that's never happened before would be the Celtics and Spurs, simply because they've dominated different eras. Going for the less-recent winners would give us another stupid Celtics-Lakers series, all these years after Bird and Magic retired.

Depressing.

Too many mistakes

The Cavaliers could have won that game yesterday in Boston. The national media will always remember it for the epic individual battle between Paul Pierce and LeBron James, and rightly so. But I'll remember it for the many mistakes the Cavaliers made -- missed foul shots, failure to box out for rebounds, sloppiness with the ball, etc., etc.

Pierce and James played about even. Our guy got 45 points, five rebounds, six assists and two steals; their guy put in 41 points, along with four rebounds, five assists and two steals. Beyond the box score, Pierce deserves credit for coming up with that jump ball in the waning seconds, but don't forget about the play a minute or so earlier when LeBron picked Pierce's pocket. What it came down to is, the other Celtics played better than the other Cavaliers.

Just look at the foul shooting. The Cavs hit 25 of 35, the Celtics 28 of 34. If the Cavs had shot from the line at the same clip as the Celtics, they'd have hit 29 of 35. The Celtics won by five. Add those four points to the Cavs' total, and it's a totally different ending. I'm not saying we'd have won, but who knows.

Boston out-rebounded us 39 to 29. Even up the glass stats, and that would give us five more rebounds. If we could have kept them from hitting five second-chance shots, we're looking at a completely different ballgame.

The Cavaliers turned the ball over 14 times, to the Celtics' 10. If we'd held onto the ball long enough to get four more shots off, ... well, you get the idea.

It's amazing that the Cavaliers were able to hang around so well in that game, given how many miscues they made. And it's all due to one man, who wears his age on his jersey.

I'll have some thoughts on the Cavs' future later this week, but right now, I just have to shake my head.

Game Seven

Turns out the Cavaliers and Celtics are each incapable of winning on the other's home floor. That's been the trend in this round of the 2008 NBA postseason, in which, adding up all four series, the home team is 21-2. (In case anyone's wondering, the home team was 30-13 in the first round.) Of course, the national media is making a big deal about how the Celtics have won all their home games but lost all their road games against the Cavs and, in the first round, the Hawks. And that is a very odd thing. In just one completed series so far in this postseason has the home team gone undefeated, and that was that Celtics-Hawks series. If the Celtics win today, that'll make two. The one Western Conference semifinal that's still going on will also fit that description if the Hornets beat the Spurs on Monday night in New Orleans.

So it all comes down to today's game. The natural favorite, obviously, is the Celtics, and for good reason. They had the NBA's best regular-season record, and as previously mentioned, they're undefeated at home in the playoffs.

But they don't have LeBron. They've got three superstars, and yes, three superstars would seem to be better than one. And LeBron's been pretty mortal in this series, though he's picked it up considerably over the last couple of games; and he played better in the early games of this series than his point totals would seem to suggest. But it's painfully obvious that if the Cavaliers are going to win this game and this series, LeBron James is the guy who's going to win it for them. But we know he can do it, because we have witnessed it. (That's as close as I'm going to come to advertising Nike in this space. Well, besides mentioning it by name just now.)

The game starts at 3:30 p.m. Eastern, on your local ABC affiliate (Channel 5 here in Cleveland). I can hardly wait.

Tribe starters still humming, but ...

The bullpen -- perhaps the Indians' greatest strength last year -- has been dreadful. And they're just not scoring runs, either. But let's tackle the bullpen first.

Fausto Carmona turned in 7 1/3 innings yesterday in Cincinnati, leaving with a 2-1 lead. His personal ERA for the day was 1.23. Rafael Perez came in and struck out Ken Griffey Jr., the only hitter he faced, and then Masa Kobayashi took over. He got Brandon Phillips on a fly ball to center to end the eighth, and that would be the Reds' last out of the game. Kobayashi came out to protect that 2-1 lead in the ninth, and promptly gave up a single, hit a batter, and then served up Adam Dunn's walk-off three-run homer. The bullpen ERA for the day: 40.50.

On Friday, Jeremy Sowers made his first big-league start of the season. He turned in the worst start by an Indian in a couple of weeks -- which isn't to say he was bad. The Indians' starters have been unbelievable. Sowers gave up three runs in five innings. So the starters have given up four runs in 12 1/3 over the last two games, an ERA of 2.92. Jorge Julio and Rafael Perez put in 2 1/3 scoreless between them, and then Jensen Lewis walked three, including one that sent what turned out to be the game-winning run jogging across home plate -- which should NEVER happen. So in those same two games, the bullpen has given up four runs in 3 2/3, an ERA of 9.82.

On Thursday, Aaron Laffey turned in what was possibly his best start of the season, giving up just one unearned run in seven innings, and striking out six. That's four runs over the last 19 1/3 innings for the starters (1.86). Laffey's unearned run was the first run an Indians starter had given up in the previous 43 1/3 innings, so you'll see that number continue to shrink as we go back in time for a while. Anyway, the Tribe won that game, completing the sweep of Oakland, but not before Rafael Betancourt continued his disappointing season by giving up a run on two hits, and getting just one out. So that's five runs over the last 5 2/3 innings for the bullpen (7.94).

On Wednesday, C.C. Sabathia pitched a five-hit, complete-game shutout over the A's, who (as we've covered in a previous post), have historically battered him. So that's four earned runs over the last 28 1/3 for the starters, or 1.27. The bullpen, mercifully, was spared having to so much as get up and stretch. Incidentally, that got C.C.'s season ERA down to 5.47, which is pretty good when you consider it was 13.50 after four starts. It's also worth mentioning that it was the Indians' major-league-leading seventh shutout as a staff.

The staff's sixth shutout came the previous day, also against Oakland. Paul Byrd was fantastic, striking out seven and giving up five hits in 7 1/3. Starters' ERA in the past five games: 1.01 (four runs in 35 2/3). The bullpen, obviously, did the job in that game, with 1 2/3 scoreless innings, between Perez and Kobayashi. So that's five runs in 7 1/3, or 5.87.

The Tribe's previous game was the nightcap of a doubleheader against Toronto, and Cliff Lee was unbelievably good, as he's been all year. He gave them nine scoreless innings, but it wasn't enough, as the game went into 10. So over the last six, the starters have given up four runs in 44 2/3 innings, or 0.81. Betancourt came in for the 10th and was lousy, giving up three runs in one inning. That's eight runs in 8 1/3 for the bullpen, or 8.64.

In the first game of that twinbill, Fausto Carmona tossed a complete-game shutout, so in the last seven games, the rotation has allowed four runs in 53 2/3, or 0.67 (which, coincidentally, happens to be Lee's eye-popping season ERA right now, going into this afternoon's game against the Reds).

On May 10, Laffey and little-used Craig Breslow combined to shut out the Blue Jays. Laffey went seven innings (eight games, four runs in 60 2/3, 0.59), and Breslow finished (eight runs in 10 1/3, 6.97). Incidentally, Breslow has given up just two runs in his eight innings this year. Given how the rest of the bullpen's been doing, why have we not seen him in over a week? Why keep trotting guys out there who haven't been successful lately, when you've got a guy sitting out there who's been nothing but successful so far? One other note on that game, which the Indians won 12-0: That's the last time they've scored more than four runs in a game. They've scored 18 runs in the seven games since, about 2 1/2 runs a game. It's a tribute to the pitchers (and the defense, to be fair) that they've gone 4-3 in those games.

The day before that, Sabathia gave up one run in seven innings of a 6-1 win over Toronto. So in the last nine games, the starters have yielded five earned runs in 67 2/3 innings, for a shiny 0.66 ERA. Lewis and Kobayashi got the job done in that one, so the bullpen ERA over those nine games is 5.84 (eight runs in 12 1/3).

So the bullpen's got to shape up. The Indians might have the best starting rotation in the majors right now, but they're not going to be this good all year. They're going to need better support from the relievers. And they're going to need more offense. Hear that, Travis Hafner? Casey Blake? Jhonny Peralta? Everybody?

Of Asdrubal, Fausto and Cliff

Asdrubal Cabrera turned the 14th unassisted triple play in major league history in game two last night -- and yet, that might not be the most notable thing about yesterday's doubleheader.

If the Indians could have put a single run across in that game -- and they had their chances -- they'd have had complete-game shutouts thrown by their two starting pitchers. Cliff Lee didn't come out for the 10th in the scoreless tie, and Rafael Betancourt laid an egg, leading to a 3-0 win by the Blue Jays. Fausto Carmona tossed a shutout in the first game. Carmona and Lee became the first teammates to throw nine shutout innings in the same doubleheader since 1977. (Don Aase and Reggie Cleveland turned the trick for the Red Sox, against the expansion Blue Jays.) The last unassisted triple play was just last year. So at least in those terms, this was a rarer feat.

Asdrubal also hit his first home run of the season in the first game, making him just the fourth player to go deep on the same day he turned a UTP. So, yeah, that's pretty special, though there's a lot of luck involved in an unassisted triple play. Make no mistake, it took a great play for Asdrubal to turn that triple. He made a diving catch. That was the hard part. Then he touched second and tagged the runner coming from first. That was the easy part, because the runners were off with the pitch. But Cabrera also made some outstanding defensive plays in the first game. If he can hit like he did last year, he'll be a fine major leaguer for a long time.

Incidentally, this makes the Indians the first team to have turned three unassisted triple plays. But it's unlikely anyone who's reading this remembers the first two: Neal Ball turned the first one in major league history in 1909, and Bill Wambsganss got one in the 1920 World Series.

One other thing: After Asdrubal turned that triple, he threw the ball into the stands. What could he have been thinking? Why wouldn't he want to save that ball?

Oh, and by the way, Cliffy's ERA is now 0.67, after seven starts. That gives him the third-lowest ERA in the majors after seven starts in 50 years. And he spent part of last year in the minors. Unbelievable.

Oh, and across the street, the Cavaliers tied the series against the Celtics last night. So that was pretty cool too.

Offense! Pitching! Defense!

The Tribe was firing on all cylinders last night in beating the Blue Jays 12-0. You don't have to look past the final score to see it was a strong overall performance. Obviously, when you win 12-0, you don't need Bill James to tell you you've done a few things right.

Aaron Laffey finally got his first major-league win of 2008, in his third strong start. The Indians scored just two runs for him in his first two starts. They'd matched that before even making an out Saturday, and by the time Laffey took the mound for the second inning, he was working with a 6-0 lead. Laffey recorded seven scoreless innings, and his ERA is down to 1.83. Not bad for a guy who opened the season in Buffalo.

And the offense! Let's be honest, the Indians' offense has been disappointing so far this season. Even after last night's outburst, the Tribe has scored fewer runs than all but four American League teams. So it's always good to see a double-digit number on the scoreboard. Grady Sizemore, who has had a fairly slow start, had his best game of the year last night, on Grady Sizemore Fleece Blanket Night. He hit two homers, including one to lead off the first inning. Grady wound up with three hits, three runs scored and five RBIs.

Victor Martinez got two hits to raise his batting average to .346, which now leads the AL. Asdrubal Cabrera and Casey Blake, who have started very slowly, each had two hits as well. Now, if we can just get Pronk going ...

Well, that's another matter for another time. Let's just enjoy this one.

Now that's more like it

LeBron seemingly still can't hit the broad side of a barn, but it didn't matter in last night's blowout win over the Celtics. Mr. James did hit 3-of-5 three-pointers, but was just 2-of-11 from inside the arc. But it should be pointed out that LeBron didn't exactly lay an egg -- he did rack up eight assists and five rebounds, and he led the team with four steals and three blocked shots to go along with his 21 points. He's still LeBron, even when he's not hitting his shots.

The midseason blockbuster Danny Ferry pulled off bore fruit in that game. The four guys he got were all keys to the strong performance last night.

• Delonte West had 21 points, five rebounds and seven assists.
• Joe Smith came off the bench to score 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting.
• Ben Wallace, who nearly didn't play at all because of an inner-ear infection, had nine rebounds and two blocks, along with nine points.
• Wally Szczerbiak put in 16 points in 43 minutes.

The Cavs played stifling team defense, especially in getting off to a 32-13 lead after one quarter. The Celtics outscored us in the second and third quarters (by three points total), and then our boys outscored the green men 29-21 in the fourth, for the final 24-point margin.

So the guys from Boston now have a 2-1 lead. They haven't lost a game at home yet in the playoffs, but they also haven't won a game on the road. If that trend holds, they'll win every series 4-3 because they have home-court advantage throughout the postseason. But the Cavs nearly stole Game 1 in Boston, and we have reason to hope they'll pull out Game 5 or Game 7, if they can get there.

There's one other thing I'd like to address. No matter what anyone else says, I say James Posey's tackling LeBron by the neck as he drove to the hole was a dirty play, and I cannot believe it almost wasn't called a flagrant foul. Yes, it seems clear he didn't mean to put a choke-hold on LeBron, but he clearly was trying to grab him, and he made no attempt at getting the ball away from him. I'm not going to say Posey should have been thrown out of the game or should be suspended for the next one, but there's no place in the sport for a play like that.

It's a lovely, sunny Saturday

I haven't been able to post in a while because I just got back from Chicago, where I spent four days at a nursing conference. I'm not a nurse, in case anyone was wondering, but there's certainly no shame in being a male nurse.

Anyway, I'm going to round up all my recent thoughts in a fun little package of vignettes. I hope you enjoy them.

• Yeah, the Cavs' loss to the Celtics on Thursday was disheartening. The Fighting LeBrons had a chance to steal Game 1, but Game 2 was over long before it was over. Of the six games the two teams have played this year, including the regular season, that was the first blowout. The Celtics have done it with defense, holding Mr. James to just 19% shooting (8-for-42) in the first two games. Clearly, LeBron's going to have to either figure out how to get open or let his teammates take some of those shots. I would like to point out the home team is still undefeated in the season series, and the next two games are in Cleveland. So all is not lost. But these Celtics are tough.
• C.C. Sabathia is looking like he's back to his old self, thank goodness. C.C. was fantastic last night against the Blue Jays, giving up one run on six hits in seven innings, and striking out nine. He won the battle between Cy Young winners, beating Roy Halladay, who was cruising until getting battered in the seventh. C.C. has now made eight starts this season. In his first four, he went 0-3 with an ugly, ugly 13.50 ERA. In his last four, he's 2-2 with a 1.98 ERA. In one of those losses, he only gave up one run in eight innings. So he's now 2-5, 6.55. That's not great, obviously, but recent signs are encouraging.
• It sure was good to see the Tribe offense break out last night, putting a 6 on the scoreboard in the seventh. Travis Hafner and Casey Blake each had two hits in the game, bringing their batting averages up to .220 and .221, respectively. One of Blake's came just a few feet from being a grand slam, going for a two-run double instead. The offense has been struggling, Victor Martinez's hot start notwithstanding. I hope to see them do this kind of thing more often.
• Speaking of Victor, he'd be second in the AL batting race at .340, except he doesn't have quite enough plate appearances to qualify. Remember, of course, that Victor has missed a handful of games due to various ailments, most recently a stiff neck. That's what tends to happen to catchers as they get older. Yes, Victor is only 29, but 29 is fairly old for a catcher. Around this point in their career, most catchers start playing first base or DH-ing (both of which Victor has dabbled in). In any case, when he has been well enough to play, he's been the Indians' most consistent threat at the plate. Interestingly, the leader is Twins' catcher Joe Mauer, and I don't know if catchers have ever finished 1-2 in a batting race, but I doubt it.
  
• Remember Jody Gerut, Tribe fans? He finished fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting in 2003, while wearing our smiling chief on his hat. He slid in '04, got traded twice in '05 (we got Jason DuBois for him, for those who don't remember), then never reached the majors again ... until this year. He opened the season on the Padres' big-league roster, went 1-for-6 in the first week of the season, then got sent down again. But when the Daddies released Jim Edmonds yesterday, Gerut was the guy they called up. May he prosper.
• Speaking of former Indians, Richie Sexson embarrassed himself when he charged the mound against Kason Gabbard on Thursday night, and nailed Gabbard with his batting helmet. Sexson, now with the Mariners, was obviously anticipating some payback after M's pitcher Felix Hernandez hit two Rangers, including Ian Kinsler in Kinsler's next at-bat after hitting a home run off him. I think we can all understand that Sexson might have been on guard. But the pitch to which Sexson took exception was not inside. It was up around his eyes, but it was over the plate. It didn't even come close to hitting him. Sexson's former teammate Eduardo Perez, now a commentator on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight," points out that Richie had spent the previous night in the hospital with his sick 2-year-old son, and that he apologized afterward. Those are mitigating factors, but they don't make it less ridiculous that he charged the mound and threw his helmet at the pitcher after a pitch that was over the plate.
• Danica Patrick ran over somebody on the racetrack yesterday. Like most people I know, I don't care the least bit about auto racing, but I saw the footage on SportsCenter, and it was hard to watch (though I admit I couldn't look away). It was a member of another driver's pit crew, and she got him with both left tires. His injuries were not serious. Racing great Mario Andretti saw it happen right in front of him, and said it "wasn't anybody's fault." I'm sorry, but if a guy gets run over on pit row, there has to have been a serious error somewhere. Either he shouldn't have been standing there, or she shouldn't have been driving there.

Boston, here we come

An espn.com poll found that 65% of the country believes the Celtics will win the seven-game playoff series against the Cavaliers that starts tonight. And there's certainly good reason to think so. The Celtics had the NBA's best record this year, at 66-16. They started the season strong, struggled a bit in January and February, and then finished the regular season strong. Yes, Atlanta surprisingly took them to seven games, but Boston dominated its home games. And the Cavaliers struggled after making the mega-trade that brought them more talent than they gave up, but altered their team chemistry.

But the Cavs did beat Washington pretty handily in two games, and pulled out two others, which was enough to take the series. Sure, the Celtics are a better team than the Wizards, but let's not forget the Cavaliers did win two of four games against Boston this year. Each team won both home games, but it's not like the Celtics blew us out.

And one other thing. Yes, the Celtics clearly have more overall talent than the Cavaliers. But we do have one thing they can't match: LeBron. He showed us last year against the Pistons that he's capable of winning a playoff game practically singlehandedly.

It should be an interesting series. Go Cavs.

Clifton Phifer Lee

ESPN's Rob Neyer, one of my favorite baseball writers of all (and yes, I'm the sort of person who has a handful of favorite baseball writers), wrote a column the other day opining that ... well, I'll let HIM say it, after I set it up for him. Since it requires an ESPN Insider membership to read the whole thing, I'll give you the gist of it.

Neyer's column is titled "What's weird in April?" beginning with the fact that the Braves are in fourth place despite having the best run differential in their division. That's mostly explained by their 0-9 record in one-run games, which indicates bad luck more than anything. But I don't really care about the Braves or the National League East.

Then he moves on to what he calls "individually, the weirdest story of April," our Cliff Lee. Neyer points links to a column by Rany Jazayerli of Baseball Prospectus (posted April 26, so it's a week old, but still), which contains the following passage:

In 31.2 innings, he has allowed 11 hits, walked 2, struck out 29, and has a 0.28 ERA. I’d venture to say that half the pitchers in the majors today would struggle to put up those numbers if they got four starts in the Midwest League.

Just focus on his last three starts. On three consecutive occasions Lee has pitched 8 innings or more, allowed no more than 3 hits, walked no more than one batter, and struck out at least 8 batters.

We have game logs going back to 1956, courtesy of Retrosheet and Baseball-Reference.com. Since 1956, do you know how many pitchers had made three straight starts with 8+ innings, <=3 hits, <=1 walk, and 8+ strikeouts? Here's the list, which I have put in alphabetical order for your convenience:

Cliff Lee.

Here's that list again, sorted by last name:

Lee, Cliff.

That's it. Lee's stretch of pitching is unmatched in at least 50 years, and quite possibly ever, when you consider that strikeouts tend to decrease in frequency as you go back in time.

Yes, it's impressive. Since then, in his last start, Wednesday night, Lee gave up three runs, all on the last pitch he threw in the game, and his ERA ballooned to 0.96. Before that swing, he was at 0.24. Lee's obviously not quite this good -- no pitcher is -- but it's fantastic to see him get off to this kind of start, especially when you consider how bad he was last year.

Anyway, Neyer believes (and rightly so, I'd say) that Lee is fundamentally a much better pitcher than he showed last year, and a much lesser pitcher than he's shown thus far in '08. Were the Cy Young given out in early May, he'd have it locked up -- but, of course, there are five months left to go in the season, and Lee will struggle from time to time. Every pitcher does. Baseball simply isn't this easy.

Neyer also notes, quoting another blogger, that Lee's batting average on balls in play (kind of an egghead statistic, but it does serve as a fairly reliable predictor of future success) is .153. He's not going to be able to keep that up, because no defense is that good.

Neyer's conclusion, which is what I was setting up in my first paragraph:

So is Cliff Lee for real? I think all we can say is that he's really healthy. He's going to give up a higher batting average on balls in play, and some reasonable percentage of the fly balls he gives up will fly over the fence. So no, he probably doesn't wind up winning the Cy Young Award. But I'll bet he's better than average. And considering how well C.C. Sabathia's pitched in his last two starts, suddenly the Indians would seem to have the best rotation in the majors.

Sabathia struggled a bit last night against the Royals, and took the loss, but still, he appears to have largely turned it around. And while the Indians are off to a bit of a disappointing start as a team, at 14-16, they're still only a game and a half out of first place. I feel pretty optimistic.

Interesting series

The Cavaliers absolutely dominated that game last night in Washington. It's hard to believe the Wizards were actually winning after the first quarter, and extended the lead to six in the second. But after Boobie Gibson's three-pointer with 5:35 to go in the first half gave the Cavs a 43-41 lead, they never looked back. Our guys outscored the Wiz 21-7 the rest of the quarter, and the Washingtonians never got closer than eight the rest of the way.

After that domination, it's hard to believe these same two teams played such an up-and-down series. The margins of victory were: Cavs by 7, Cavs by 30, Wizards by 36, Cavs by 3, Wizards by 1, Cavs by 17. And Cleveland eliminates Washington for the third year in a row. It was a real battle, marked by hard fouls (of which LeBron James took most of the brunt), 13 technicals, one ejection and one suspension.

Of course, LeBron atoned for his missed shot that would have won Game 5, scoring his third career playoff triple-double (27 points, 13 rebounds, 13 assists). He was a monster in that game. As Zydrunas Ilgauskas put it, the Cavs always have a chance because "We have LeBron on our team, and there are 30 other teams, or 29, who don't. That's the biggest difference."

Wally Szczqzxzerbiak, who couldn't buy a basket for a couple of months after the Cavs traded for him, seemingly couldn't miss last night, and wound up with 26 points. He and Boobie (22 points) combined for 10 treys.

And maybe DeShawn Stevenson and Caron Butler will learn to keep their mouths shut. But I'm guessing not.

It's also hard to believe we don't know who we're playing next yet. Really, the HAWKS taking the CELTICS to seven games? If Atlanta were to win somehow, this would be the biggest series upset in NBA history. Remember 1994, when Dikembe Mutombo's Nuggets became the first eight-seed to beat a one-seed, and it was Shawn Kemp's Supersonics? Remember the image of Mutombo lying on the floor at the end of the deciding game, holding the ball over his head in unbridled glee? Those Nuggets went 42-40 that year, to Seattle's 63-19, a 21-game difference in the standings. That's a big upset, no question.

But these Hawks went 37-45, to Boston's 66-16. That's a 29-game spread, for those who aren't good at subtraction. The Hawks are one of the worst teams to even make the playoffs in recent memory, and the Celtics basically ran roughshod over the league. The fact that Garnett, Allen, Pierce and company didn't send the Hawks home a few days ago is incredible by itself; never mind the idea that the Hawks might actually win. That's why they play the games, I suppose. But whoever wins Game 7 tomorrow, we can at least hope they'll be worn out when the Cavs get them.