As expected

I don't have a whole lot of time to write about the Victor Martinez trade, but I will say that once Mark Shapiro decided to trade Cliff Lee, we knew Victor was going too. It wouldn't have made any sense to keep one and not the other of those guys. Shapiro had obviously given up on 2010, and Martinez isn't signed past then. He's obviously trying to stockpile as many young arms as possible. If a few of them pan out, maybe we'll be glad he did it.

The question becomes, what did we get back for Victor? I don't know much about these guys, but quickly:

• Justin Masterson is a 24-year-old right-hander who's pitched pretty well in limited action in the majors, consisting of 15 starts and 52 relief appearances. He's struck out 135 guys and walked 65, in 160 1/3 innings at the major-league level, with a 3.76 ERA over two years in the majors. Those walks are troubling, but he's obviously a bona fide major-leaguer.

• Nick Hagadone, a 23-year-old left-hander who hasn't pitched higher than single-A (and boy howdy, we've added a few of those guys over the past week). He's struck out 77 hitters in 59 professional innings, which is impressive, but he's a long way from the majors.

• Bryan Price, a 22-year-old right-hander who's got a 4.42 career minor-league ERA, in two seasons, with 140 strikeouts against 41 walks. Looks like he's got good stuff. Heck, looks like all these guys have good stuff.

I like this trade a little better than the Lee trade. Time will tell ...

Oh yeah, the Browns

With the Indians having given up not only on this season, but next season too, and the NBA season still months away, perhaps it's time to turn our attention to the Browns, who open training camp tomorrow. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to stop watching the Indians, even if I should. And I'm sure I'll have something to say about the Victor Martinez trade that is no doubt going to happen sometime in the next eight hours.)

As we all know, the Browns were terrible last season, except for one shining moment in which they dominated the then-defending Super Bowl champion Giants. Romeo Crennel is gone, and Eric Mangini is now calling the shots. Brady Quinn and former Pro Bowler Derek Anderson are still in a quarterback controversy (I think it'll be Quinn, but it makes sense to let them duke it out in the preseason). Braylon Edwards is hurt, Donte Stallworth is suspended indefinitely after killing a man with his car in the offseason, and Kellen Winslow is gone, so who knows who they'll have to throw to. Brian Robiskie just signed, so all the draft picks are in the fold. The o-line is a little bit up in the air, but we know Joe Thomas and Eric Steinbach will be there, and first-round pick Alex Mack figures to compete for the center spot. Jamal Lewis turns 30 next month, but he's coming off the first back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons by a Browns running back in a very, very long time.

The defense has a few new parts (C.J. Mosley, Kenyon Coleman, Abram Elam, Eric Barton), and some guys who hope to recover from an injury-plagued 2008 (Robaire Smith, Shaun Smith), but there really aren't any big changes to last year's squad.

Basically, the Browns seem to be hoping that guys stay healthy, young players develop quickly, and Mangini makes a big difference over Crennel. Could happen, I guess. If they go 8-8, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Addendum

Just in case anyone's wondering and hasn't found the answer on their own, yes, this is the first time in major-league history the same team has traded away the defending Cy Young award winner two years in a row. In fact, it's only the fourth time the reigning Cy has been traded away the next season. They are:

• Frank Viola, traded from the Twins to the Mets in 1989
• David Cone, traded from the Royals to the Blue Jays in spring training 1995, then traded again to the Yankees in midseason that year
• CC Sabathia, traded from the Indians to the Brewers in 2008
• Cliff Lee, traded from the Indians to the Phillies in 2009.

Remarkable.

In another bit of Lee-trade-related news, two players who have failed miserably at the big-league level this year will have another chance as a result of Lee and Francisco vacating the roster. Let's hope Fausto Carmona and Trevor Crowe can do a little bit better this time. They could hardly do much worse.

Trading away the reigning Cy ... again

In 2008, Cliff Lee had the greatest season by an Indians starter in my lifetime. In 2009, he's been somewhere in the neighborhood of nearly as good, which is a convoluted way to say he's having a fine season. The Indians held an option on him for 2010, when it might take 87 or 88 wins to take the Central Division. So I'm a little bit confused by yesterday's trade. I haven't checked, but I doubt any team has ever traded away the previous year's Cy Young award winner two years in a row. It's depressing. (I know it's only sports, and I mean the word "depressing" in a sports kind of way.)

It was surreal to see Lee and Ben Francisco, who is joining him in Philadelphia, sitting in the dugout during yesterday's loss to the Angels because the trade wasn't official yet. Lee and Francisco both knew they were going, but had to sit in their Indians uniforms and wait for the official word. But they both seemed to be handling it well. Why not? They're probably going to be in the playoffs this year. I don't care much about Francisco; he's a useful player, but outfielders like him practically grow on trees. But a left-hander like Lee doesn't come along very often. I know he was gone after 2010 either way, but ...

All right, let's try to stay objective as we look at what we got for him. We did get four of the Phillies' top 10 prospects, though neither of their top two (according to Baseball America). They are:

• Carlos Carrasco, a 22-year-old right-handed starter who went 6-9 with a 5.18 ERA for the Phillies' AAA team in Lehigh Valley. Those numbers aren't great, but he's still considered a top prospect. Rob Neyer on ESPN.com, whose opinion I greatly respect, says he could be the Indians' best starter as soon as next year.

• Jason Knapp, an 18-year-old fireballer who's struck out 149 batters in 116 1/3 innings as a pro, all at the single-A level or below. He's got a 98-mile-an-hour fastball. Tantalizing, but if a 22-year-old pitcher is a risk, an 18-year-old pitcher is a humongous risk, because there's a lot that can go wrong with a young arm.

• Lou Marson, a 23-year-old catcher who, according to some things I've read, could become Victor Martinez's replacement when Mark Shapiro trades Martinez today or tomorrow. The Indians are a catching-rich organization already, with Wyatt Toregas and Carlos Santana waiting in the wings, but Marson is apparently considered a better prospect than those guys. His .433 OBP was tops in all of AA ball last year, but he's not hitting nearly as well this year, and he has no power.

• Jason Donald, a 24-year-old shortstop who has hit well in the lower levels of the minors, but was hitting .236 with one home run in Lehigh Valley at the time of the trade. I've read that he's below-average defensively.

With the exception of Knapp, everybody the Indians got has regressed this season. Marson is the only one who's played at the major-league level, hitting .235 in 17 games with the Phillies this year, after going 2-for-4 with a home run in a single game as a September call-up in '08.

Sure, one or more of these guys might turn out to be great, but I just don't understand why this trade was made now. Seems to me Shapiro should have held onto Lee for another year, then dealt him if we're out of it again next year. I guess he doesn't plan to contend in 2010 either.

Garko goes; Tribe rolls on

It came as a bit of a surprise that the Indians traded Ryan Garko yesterday. No one had been talking about Garko as possible trade bait. But as usual, it's about salary. Garko is making less than half a million this year, but he's going to be much richer next year, as he is eligible for salary arbitration for the first time. He's hitting .285/11/39 so far this year, which are decent numbers but nothing special for a part-time first baseman who's no wizard with the glove and can't run.

In return, the Tribe got 21-year-old A-ball pitcher Scott Barnes, who went 12-3 with a 2.85 ERA and 99 strikeouts in 98 innings for the Giants' California League affiliate in San Jose. Those are fine numbers, and Barnes appears to have a lot of upside. But it needs to be said that a 21-year-old pitchers' arms are fragile things, and I just hope Barnes stays healthy.

After the trade was announced, the Tribe brought up Andy Marte, who's been a colossal flame-out so far in several shots at the majors, but was tearing it up for AAA Columbus this year. Marte was hitting .327 with 18 home runs and just 50 strikeouts in 300 plate appearances for the Clippers. He'll take Garko's spot at first base, and I have some hope that he'll actually succeed this time. If he does, the trade will have some positive value, regardless of what Barnes does. So in summary, it's a bit of a risk, but all trades are, and I'm optimistic about this one.

Whether this is Shapiro's last deal before Friday's trading deadline or not, we'll just have to wait and see. I remain hopeful that we can be contenders next year, which should mean he'd have to be blown away to trade Cliff Lee or Victor Martinez. We'll see.

In unrelated news, the Tribe pulled out their fifth straight win last night, after many Northeast Ohioans (myself included) had already gone to bed. The aforementioned Martinez hit a three-run homer off All-Star closer Brian Fuentes in the top of the ninth to make it 7-6, and a Jhonny Peralta solo shot tied a bow on it, to make it 8-6. It was Peralta's fourth hit of the game, as he and Shin-Soo Choo (also with four hits) led an eye-popping 20-hit attack off the Angels' pitchers.

It was a bad start for Carl Pavano, who's had a lot of those lately, as he gave up back-to-back-to-back homers in the second inning on the way to surrendering six runs in six innings, but Jose Veras and Kerry Wood combined to shut out the Angels over the last three frames, and that was huge.

Yes, we're out of the race, and yes, we're losing key pieces left and right as we rebuild. But this team is fun to watch right now.

Domination!

Just when you thought it was time to forget about the Indians and spend the rest of your summer doing crossword puzzles and waiting for football, they go out to Seattle and slug the bejesus out of a pretty decent team in three straight, outscoring them a combined total of 31-6. Baseball's a funny game, isn't it? The Mariners entered the series at 51-44, thinking they were contenders for the AL West crown. The sweep at the hands of our Tribe knocks them back to 7 1/2 games behind the Angels, and four behind the second-place Rangers. And it probably means the M's will be sellers instead of buyers at the trade deadline. That's what the Indians did to them this past weekend. And the Tribe now finds itself back in fourth place, ahead of the slumping Royals.

Here are some fun little observations about the series that just ended:

• The two runs Cliff Lee gave up in the first inning of yesterday's 12-3 blowout were the only two runs surrendered by an Indians starter in the entire series. Lee held them scoreless over the next six innings to pick up his seventh win of the season. He is 3-0 with a 1.44 ERA over his last three starts, the previous two of which were complete games.

• Jeremy Sowers, fresh off a stint in Columbus, went seven shutout innings in Saturday's 10-3 whitewashing, his best start of the season. It's been well-chronicled here and many other places that he's been absolutely crushed his third time through the batting order, but not this time, Biff. The Mariners went 1-for-8 with a walk the first time through the order, 3-for-9 the second time through, and 0-for-8 with a walk the third time through. Sowers even retired leadoff hitter Ichiro Suzuki in Ichiro's fourth trip to the plate before heading for the showers. (And try saying "Sowers showers" five times fast.)

• Aaron Laffey shut out the M's for seven innings in Friday night's 9-0 laugher, giving up three hits and three walks while striking out seven. It was also Laffey's best outing of the year, though it was only his seventh start in the majors, as he's battled injury and spent time in the bullpen. If Laffey can stay healthy going forward, he figures to have a bright future. He's only 24.

• The three starters' combined ERA for the series was a sparkling 0.88. Contrast that with Mariners starters Ryan Rowland-Smith, Erik Bedard and Jason Vargas, who gave up 12 runs in 14 combined innings, for an ERA of 7.71.

• The bullpen ... Well, the relievers didn't have any tight leads to protect, and did well enough with the huge, gaping leads they were given. They combined to give up four runs in six innings in the series, which works out to a 6.00 ERA. Yeah, the bullpen still sticks out like a sore thumb. But at least it was better than Seattle's bullpen, not that that's saying much after this series. (The Indians scored 17 earned runs in 13 innings against the Mariners' relievers, for a series bullpen ERA of 11.77. I sure am glad the Indians' bullpen was better than that.)

• Indians pitchers kept the Mariners' hitters in the yard the entire series, which you just don't see much these days. On the flip side, the Tribe hit 11 home runs in the three games, capped off by the four they hit yesterday, including Jhonny Peralta's grand slam. The Indians also outhit the Mariners by a combined total of 39-20. They dominated this series by any measure you can come up with.

• The Indians have now won four straight, their longest winning streak since May, and their longest road winning streak of the season. The sophisticated computers at coolstandings.com recently gave them a 0.2% chance, or one in 500, to make the playoffs. They now say it's a 0.7% chance, or about one in 150. Still not great odds, but quite an improvement.

Our boys open a three-game set tonight against the first-place Angels. I'd be very surprised if they can keep this kind of streak going, but maybe they can stay hot and finish this road trip strong.

Trading Betancourt? Sure, why not?

A guy that used to be one of the linchpins of the Indians' bullpen got traded yesterday to Colorado for a 24-year-old pitcher who's currently in single-A. Thus have the fortunes of the Tribe bullpen fallen.

Rafael Betancourt had an amazing year in 2007, the year the Indians got within a win of the World Series. He went 5-1 with a 1.47 ERA as the main setup man for closer Joe Borowski, struck out almost nine hitters for every hitter he walked, and gave up just four home runs all year, in 79 1/3 innings. Then last year, he regressed badly along with the rest of the bullpen, posting a 5.07 ERA in 71 innings, striking out about 2 1/2 hitters for each one he walked, and giving up 11 home runs. He's been somewhere in the middle this year, with a 3.52 ERA. His K/BB numbers are even worse than last year, but he's only given up three taters. I think it can be said he's been one of the Indians' better relievers this year, which is kind of like choosing your favorite flavor of Boone's Farm wine.

Regardless, Betancourt was likely to be gone after this year anyway, and it's not like he'd have made the difference between playoffs or no playoffs this year. The Indians had a $5.4 million option on him for next year, but they weren't going to spend that on a reliever who's not even a great setup man anymore. The surprising thing, to me, is that this was Betancourt's seventh year in the majors, all with the Indians. Did you know he'd been around that long? Time flies when you're getting older, I guess.

In return, the Tribe got a 6'7" pitcher named Connor Graham, an Ohio native who played college ball at my alma mater, Miami University, before being drafted in the fifth round in 2007. Baseball America rated him as the Rockies' 12th-best prospect. He was 7-4 with a 3.14 ERA in 16 starts at Modesto of the California League. Pitchers tend to develop later than hitters, but I can't get too excited about a guy who hasn't gotten past A ball yet, at age 24. But hey, his numbers are good, and maybe he'll get to Cleveland in a couple of years and show us something.

Victor, Cliff on the block?

It's no secret to anyone that the Indians aren't going anywhere this year. Just for the heck of it, I checked coolstandings.com this morning, and they predict a final record of 67-95 and give the Tribe a 0.2% chance of making the playoffs. So that's a one-in-500 shot. Ain't gonna happen.*

So the rumor reported last night on ESPN's Baseball Tonight is that Mark Shapiro is shopping Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez. Both are have club options for 2010. In Lee's case, it's a $9 million option, and in Victor's case, it's a $7 million option. Presuming both are still here and still healthy, there's no doubt the Tribe will pick up those options. The big question is whether Shapiro can sign them past 2010, and the correlary to that question is whether he should.

If Lee is still here in 2010 and has another year like this year (never mind last year), he'll make somewhere around $15 million on the open market. That's not in the Indians' budget for one player. If they did spend that kind of money on him, it would put a serious crimp in their ability to sign other players. I don't see him giving us a hometown discount. So if Shapiro doesn't think we can contend in '10, he should trade him. No, you're not going to get another Cy Young-caliber pitcher for him, but maybe you'll get two or three players with All-Star potential. Of course, if Shapiro hangs on to Lee for another year, and the Indians don't contend next year, he could always trade him then. The return might not be as good, but contending teams are usually willing to pay premium prices for premium talent, even if the player isn't signed past the current year.

Victor's in a different situation. He's a 30-year-old catcher who has begun the transition to first base. It's clear that Kelly Shoppach can't hit enough to be a regular catcher, but the Indians do have some top catching prospects in the high minors (Wyatt Toregas, Carlos Santana). A trade of Martinez will immediately open the door for one of those guys. But regardless, Victor's never going to be able to catch 100 games in a season again. His body will break down. Even if he does stay in Cleveland, he'll probably become a full-time first baseman/designated hitter before long. But Victor is probably more signable for the Indians than Lee is. For one thing, he'll be cheaper, because of the aforementioned, and because he's never accomplished anything as amazing as a Cy Young. For another thing, Victor genuinely seems to want to stay in Cleveland.

My thoughts? I hope Shapiro doesn't trade either one of those guys, and tries to make a serious run at it in 2010. The pieces are pretty much in place; he just needs guys to stay healthy, and he needs to revamp the bullpen. And if things don't go well next year, then trade those guys.

* There are five teams with less chance than the Indians, and the Nationals are the only team at 0.0%. They're expected to finish about 53-109. Now that is a bad team. They also have the distinction of being the only team this year (so far as I know) to send their players out onto the field with the team's name misspelled on the front of their jerseys, as a result of which SportsCenter anchor Neil Everett calls them the "Natinals" every time he talks about them. What a pathetic organization that is. At least we're not them.

Another AL win

Some thoughts I accumulated during the All-Star festivities in St. Louis:

• This was a pretty decent All-Star Game. It looked like it could turn into a slugfest early, but pitching and defense carried the day, as only two runs were scored over the last seven innings. Carl Crawford made the play of the game in the seventh, robbing Brad Hawpe of a home run, and Adam "Not Pac-Man" Jones got the game-winning RBI on a sacrifice fly after Heath Bell intentionally walked our very own Victor Martinez to pitch to Jones.

• The decision to walk Martinez may seem like a poor one, given that Victor's been ice-cold the last few weeks. But that was more or less irrelevant to the situation, as there was one out and the score was tied with a runner on third. They were just trying to set up the double play.

• The National League still has not won an All-Star Game since 1996. Naturally, you want to know why, and I have some theories. First of all, as Tim McCarver pointed out when President Obama asked him, the AL has the DH, which means more hitters available to pull from when filling out a 33-man All-Star roster. Second, the AL is just plain better than the NL these days, as evidenced by our league's domination in interleague play. Third, and I think most importantly, the NL has two more teams than the AL, which coupled with the requirement that every team must have a representative, means the NL has more mandatory spots to fill on its roster every year. The AL manager has his hands tied a little bit less by being able to select two more "at-large" players. As further evidence that this is a factor, I would point to the fact that the NL dominated All-Star play in the '70s and '80s, when the AL had 14 teams and the NL had 12.

• All that said, I don't think the AL is really this much better. The NL could easily have won this game with a couple of bounces going different ways, and in fact could have won several others over the past 13 years. Each of the last four has been a one-run game. Part of it is just plain luck.

• This is not a political blog, and I don't mean to express a political opinion of the president. But I will say that I'm getting a little bit tired of seeing him on SportsCenter, and I really don't give a rat's petoot which baseball team he roots for or what jacket his wife thinks he looks cute in.

• I always get a kick out of seeing my old friend and Cleveland native Chris Rose on TV. I haven't spoken to him since he became a star, but we were classmates at Miami University, and I always figured he'd do great things with his life. I didn't expect him to be hosting a sports talk show on national cable or being on the field at the All-Star Game, though. Good for you, Chris. (I'm sure he's a regular reader.)

• I always find the home run derby entertaining, and this was a particularly good one, with the battle that emerged between Nelson Cruz and eventual champion Prince Fielder. But it's never as much fun to watch as an actual game. What I'd really like to see is an inside-the-park home run derby. I'd like to see Prince Fielder win that!

Pavano good, Wood bad

Carl Pavano got off to a rough start last night against the Tigers, but he turned it around with the help of three double plays turned by his defense, one of which was a rare 2-4-5-2 strike-'em-out-throw-'em-out job, and gave up two runs in his eight innings of work. Pavano threw 101 pitches, and he struck out seven and didn't walk anybody, while keeping the ball in the yard, and that's a recipe for success. Pavano left with a 5-2 lead, which should be enough for a major-league closer to handle.

But Kerry Wood came in and walked the leadoff man, Placido Polanco, then gave up a two-run homer to Miguel Cabrera to make it a one-run game. He got the next three guys on two fly balls and one ground ball, but man, you hate for your closer to come in and walk the leadoff man with the heart of the order coming up. Wood did record his 12th save of the season, but he threw just seven strikes in 14 pitches, and his ERA now stands at 5.28, which is just plain too high for a closer.

But I don't want to be too negative. Asdrubal Cabrera went 3-for-5 to get his average back up over .300, and fellow former DL denizens Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner each had two hits. Hafner is actually having a pretty decent season (while he's playing, that is), with a .288 average and nine home runs in just 132 at-bats. He's got a .946 OPS, which would be good enough for seventh in the American League if he had enough plate appearances to qualify. If he can stay healthy, maybe he can put together an All-Star-caliber season next year, when he'll turn 32.

Tomo Ohka starts today against Justin Verlander in the last game of the first half. It's been a very, very disappointing first half, obviously, but maybe we can end it on a positive note.

Recession to benefit Cavs?

Well, it seems the current recession may have affected the Cavaliers in a positive way, as it would appear to make it more likely that they will be able to sign LeBron James next offseason. The NBA just sent out a memo to teams, warning them that the salary cap will likely drop to somewhere in the range of $50 to $54 million for the 2010-11 season, down from last season's $58.7 million cap and the upcoming season's $57.7 million cap.

That means that a team like the Knicks, who were clearing cap space to take a run at LeBron next year, will not have nearly the money available to sign free agents that they'd been expecting to have. This story on ESPN.com says teams were counting on a roughly $63 million cap to work with next offseason, so it looks like they'll have at least $10 million less to spend than they expected. And because the NBA has a "soft" cap, that means the Cavs can go over the limit to sign LeBron, and no other team in the league can do that. The Knicks' plans to take a run at LeBron apparently included signing at least one other big-name free agent, and they're not going to have the money to do anything of the kind.

So I guess the economic downturn may create some intangible benefit to those who care about the Cleveland Cavaliers. I still hope the economy turns around, but we'll take what we can get.

Sowers sours again

There's not much to say about Jeremy Sowers' outing last night against the White Sox that I haven't said already about his last few starts, but it's truly amazing how it seems like he flips a switch when the batting order comes up the third time. Sowers sailed right through the first five innings, his only blemish a solo home run by Paul Konerko in the second inning. Then, in the sixth, Scott Podsednik came up for the third time, and Sowers fell apart. Again. He got Podsednik on a ground ball, and that was the last hitter he retired.

Of course, the bullpen fell apart too, as it has so many times. Chris Perez came in and immediately gave up a grand slam to Konerko (the second of his three homers in the game), and Winston Abreu, making his Indians debut, gave up a walk, a single, and two two-run homers while only retiring one hitter. Tomo Ohka came in and retired all five hitters he faced.

The Tribe offense showed signs of life, and it was good to see Grady Sizemore hit two four-baggers. But with pitching like this, this team is going nowhere.

Aaron Laffey, fresh off the disabled list, starts tonight's game, his first big-league action since May 22. I hope he's feeling good. He's had two rehab starts in the minors, both of which went badly, but got called back up to Cleveland anyway. You can tell me what that says about this rotation as well as I can tell you.

LeBron to opt in?

So it sounds like all this talk about LeBron James signing with the Knicks next year might have been premature. LeBron reportedly told Trevor Ariza, whom the Cavaliers were courting as a free agent, that he plans to stay in Cleveland when his contract expires at the end of the '09-'10 season. Ariza apparently didn't put much stock in what LeBron said, signing with the Rockets instead.

As I've mentioned in this space before, there is going to be a lot, lot, lot of talk between now and this time next year about where LeBron will go, if anywhere, when his deal is up. When you think about it, there is basically no news here at all. LeBron told someone he'd sign with the Cavaliers. That's not the same as actually signing with the Cavaliers. Of course, if he does wind up signing elsewhere, he's now a liar. I won't draw a Carlos Boozer analogy, because they're not the same person, but there are nonetheless lessons to be drawn from Boozer's exit from Cleveland.

For what it's worth, I believe LeBron meant what he told Ariza, and currently plans to stay in Cleveland. But none of it means a cotton-pickin' thing until he signs a new contract.

Hey, at least we're better than the Nationals

Following this week's three-game sweep at the hands of the Chicago White Sox, the Indians are now on a five-game losing streak, and at 31-49, have the worst record in the American League. They are 13 games behind first-place Detroit, and 3 1/2 games behind fourth-place Kansas City. Many of had hopes as the season dawned that the Tribe would contend for the Central Division crown this year; it's pretty obvious that isn't going to happen. The Indians have been a bit unlucky — they do have a better run differential than the Royals and Orioles — but let's face it, this is not a good team.

With Jeremy Sowers on the mound, last night's game went about as might have been expected. As we've discussed previously, Sowers has lights-out the first two times through the order this year, then run into serious trouble when hitters started coming up the third time. And when White Sox leadoff hitter Scott Podsednik got his third look at Sowers with two out in the top of the fifth, Sowers and the Tribe were hanging onto a 1-0 lead. Podsednik reached on an infield single, setting up a first-and-third situation; and Alexei Ramirez followed with an RBI single, then got thrown out trying for second, ending the inning.

The Indians went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the fifth, and then came the sixth. The top of the sixth went like this: Fly-ball out, single, single, three-run homer, double, RBI single, double-play groundout. And a tie game was now a 5-1 White Sox lead. The third time through the order, the White Sox went 7-for-9 against Sowers, with two runners getting thrown out on the bases. Obviously, Sowers either needs to figure out why he can't get hitters out the third time through the order, or stop pitching to hitters three times in the same game. Because this just can't be allowed to continue.

Our Tribe opens a three-game set at home on Friday night against the 33-44 Oakland A's. Maybe they can take a game or two. But they way they're playing, I'm not holding my breath.