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.