Sensational debut for Lewis

We'll never know for sure, but it seems to me the only thing that kept Scott Lewis from pitching a shutout in his major league debut tonight was Eric Wedge's hook. Regardless, Lewis gave the Indians eight innings of three-hit shutout ball in their 7-1 win over Baltimore. Masa Kobayashi gave up a run in the ninth, after Wedge decided not to send Lewis out despite his having only thrown 96 pitches. Had Lewis pitched a scoreless ninth, he'd have been the first Indian to toss a complete-game shutout in his major league debut since Luis Tiant, 44 years ago. That would have been pretty dad-gummed cool.

As I think is pretty obvious by my word choices above, I wanted to see Lewis try to put a bow on it himself. I hate to criticize a manager for practicing caution with a young pitcher who's already had to overcome some injuries, but Lewis isn't that young; he's about to turn 25, which means his arm is past that dangerous late-teens-early-20s period. But whatever. At the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is that he's 1-0 in his major league career, and he's still healthy.

I used to follow the Indians' minor league teams a lot more than I do now, and I have to admit I had no idea who Scott Lewis was before a few days ago, when I heard he'd be pitching tonight in place of the injured Anthony Reyes. But his numbers from Akron and Buffalo show he's ready for this. He was 6-2, 2.33 in 13 starts with the AA Aeros, and 2-2, 2.63 in four starts with the AAA Bisons. In the two levels combined, he's struck out 82 hitters in 97 1/3 innings, against just 13 walks. And the topper? He's a Buckeye through and through. He grew up in Washington Court House and pitched for Ohio State.

Speaking of Reyes, I don't know when he'll be back, but I'm sure hoping we'll see Lewis a few more times this year. Reyes has earned the right to keep pitching if he's healthy, so that would be a good problem to have. And if you look at the Indians' starters right now, there's a lot of reason for optimism going into 2009. We all know what a mockery Cliff Lee has made out of the American League this year. Fausto Carmona hasn't looked like he did last year, but if he stays healthy next year, starting in spring training with everyone else, I expect him to pitch like a near-ace again. Jeremy Sowers has been up and down, but he was excellent last night against these Orioles, and I believe he'll get it together and be a solid fourth or fifth starter. And Aaron Laffey looked pretty good in his first few starts after being called up this year.

That's six guys right there who could be in the big-league rotation next year. I don't know what Mark Shapiro will do in the offseason (and he probably doesn't either, though he could probably make a better guess than I could), but he's going to keep his eyes open for pitching bargains, because you can never have enough arms. I think this is going to be a strong rotation next year, CC or no CC.