Come on already!

Does anyone remember the 1988 group that the Plain Dealer's Paul Hoynes dubbed the Bullpen From Hell? His colleague, Bud Shaw, proposed this week that the current Indians bullpen should replace them with that moniker, and he's quite right. This is a terrible, horrible, awful bullpen.

They did it again last night in Pittsburgh. After Cliff Lee turned in a typical performance for him — seven innings, two runs — Eric Wedge had little choice but to call on one his relievers to pitch the eighth and ninth of what was then a 2-2 game, as Lee had thrown 115 pitches.

The eighth was very dicey, as Joe Smith walked both the LaRoche brothers after striking out Freddy Sanchez, and Rafael Perez followed by walking Brandon Moss to load the bases. He got out of it with a double play, but man oh man, your relievers can't be walking the bases loaded in the eighth inning of a tie game. That's a recipe for disaster. And by the way, the two outs Perez got lowered his ERA to 9.70. The fact that Wedge keeps having to give the ball in late-inning pressure situations to a guy who gives up more than a run an inning speaks volumes about this "relief" crew.

Enter Matt Herges in the ninth. The 39-year-old veteran made his first appearance for the Tribe on May 7, and had a fine May, entering June with a 1.13 ERA. His June? Yeah, not so good. He entered last night's game having given up seven runs in 6 2/3 innings this month, for a 9.45 ERA. The difference is right there in the strikeout column — he struck out 14 in 16 innings in May, and just two of the 20 outs he's gotten in June have come via the K. Regardless, he sure didn't get the job done last night. He didn't record an out, the three hitters he faced all singled, the last of the three bringing home the first of the three, and that was the game.

This is getting pathetic. I don't know what needs to be done, but I will say this: If Eric Wedge is still the manager when the 2010 season opens, I'll be surprised.