Asdrubal struggles; Tribe bats remain silent

Poor Asdrubal Cabrera. He isn't having a very good series in Minnesota. First, on Tuesday night, he let an inning-ending double-play ground ball go between his legs in what would become a four-run inning that made the difference in the Tribe's 5-1 loss. Then, last night, he came up in the bottom of the fifth with one out and the bases loaded, the Indians still down just 3-0. Twins starter Francisco Liriano had already walked a man in the inning. Cabrera swung at the first pitch and hit an easy double-play ball to third. The Indians would go on to lose 6-0, but that was a blown opportunity to stay in the game.

David Huff followed his fine outing last week with a poor effort in this one, walking six and striking out just one in his six innings of work. He gave up four runs on three hits, one of which was Michael Cuddyer's solo home run in the sixth. Huff was lucky not to have given up more runs.

It's time to start getting a bit concerned about the Indians' offense. After last night's blanking, they're tied with Baltimore for 28th in the major leagues in runs scored, with only Houston behind them. With 46 runs in 14 games, they're averaging 3.3 a game, and no pitching staff can win with that kind of output. They have a team batting average of .215, which is positively hideous (and yes, worst in the bigs). On-base percentage is a better statistic, but they're ahead of only the aforementioned Orioles and Astros there, at .300.

Shin-Soo Choo, as covered here before, is off to a fine start (.313/.450/.625), but after that, the stat sheet's pretty ugly. I know what I just said about batting average, but it's a stat everyone can relate to, and it is a decent barometer of success, so let's take a look at it among Tribe regulars. Cabrera's hitting a respectable .288 (with no power), and next on the list is Travis Hafner, at .234 (with not much power). When the third-best batting average on your team is .234, you're in trouble. It's a testament to the Indians' starting pitchers that they're 6-8. It could be a lot worse.