Indians win third straight

No time for anything but quick hits:

• The Indians have followed up their seven-game losing streak with a three-game winning streak. Yes, seven is a much bigger number than three, but still, it's nice to see them put a few W's together. Fausto Carmona pitched well, Kerry Wood slammed the door for the save, and Matt LaPorta homered in the 6-5 win over Toronto.

• Here it is, the last day of June, one month from baseball's non-waiver trade deadline. The Indians have a few pieces that could be attractive. In case you missed it, the trading has already started, as Russell Branyan got shipped off to Seattle over the weekend for a couple of OK prospects. Outfielder Ezequiel Carrera hasn't done much in AAA this year and is in fact currently on the disabled list, but won the Class AA Southern League batting title last year, hitting .336. He's only 22, so let's hope he develops. Shortstop Juan Diaz is hitting .295 with seven homers in high A-ball, at age 21. I'm looking forward to seeing what he's doing in a couple of years.

• Other players that could bring attractive prospects include Wood, Austin Kearns, Jhonny Peralta and Jake Westbrook, all of whom are in the last year of their current contract. (In Kearns' case, it's the only year of his contract.) None of those guys figure to be hugely expensive next year, but this team's not going anywhere right now anyway, and might as well try to get some players who could help build something for 2012 or '13.

• The Cavaliers have said they will have a coach in place by the time LeBron James becomes a free agent. That happens less than 12 hours from now, so we'll see. It's looking like it'll be either Brian Shaw, who has no NBA head coaching experience; or Byron Scott, who took the Nets to the NBA Finals a few years ago but has a sub-.500 record in 10 years as a head coach. And the reports are overwhelmingly that Shaw is the guy. In fact, though the most recent news story I can find says the Cavs haven't made an offer to Shaw, his Wikipedia page has been edited to say he's the current head coach of the Cavaliers. Take that with a grain of salt, because any idiot can make a Wikipedia page say anything, but still.

• I have no idea what to make of Shaw at this point, but he's been an assistant of Phil Jackson with the Lakers since 2004-05. Jackson, who has now won 11 titles as a head coach, would be any organization's first choice for head coach. But he's not available, so maybe his top assistant really is the best guy out there. It's hard to say what kind of head coach he'll be, but oddly enough, that's almost beside the point right now. The only thing that really matters is what coach will entice LeBron to stay in Cleveland. So the question isn't whether he'll really be a good coach, but whether LeBron thinks he'll be a good coach. It seems ridiculous to look at it that way, but the fact is, a player like James matters a lot more to the team's prospects than any coach ever could.

• Reports on where LeBron will end up have been flying like mosquitoes at dusk. I've read that he's leaning toward Chicago, that he's giving strong consideration to Miami, and that Cleveland still has the inside track—all in the same day. It's obviously not possible that he could go all three places. So who the hell knows.

• With the U.S. out of the World Cup, eliminated by Ghana for the second World Cup in a row, I initially decided to root for Mexico. Our neighbors to the south were eliminated the very next day. Out of the eight teams remaining, I think I'll pull for the Netherlands. I'm not sure why. Maybe because Dutch people wear wooden shoes and smoke pot in public and have names like Stijn Schaars and Demy de Zeeuw (both names of players on their squad). Either way, they're up against Brazil on Friday, after which I'll probably have to pick a new team to root for.

Tribe ends skid, but still sucks

If you're a Tribe fan, you've got to love Shin-Soo Choo. After his two home runs yesterday, Choo is back in the team lead with 12, and his four RBIs were key to the Indians' 5-3 defeat of Cincinnati, ending the club's seven-game losing streak. Choo also leads the team in RBIs, hits, total bases, and the three major average stats (among those with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title).

Carlos Santana also went deep, for his fourth home run in just 15 games. True, 15 games isn't much of a sample size, but he's shown he's definitely a major league-caliber player, and could play in an All-Star Game as soon as 2011. Heck, he might have gotten there this year if he'd started the season in Cleveland. And speaking of young talent, rookie Mitch Talbot won his eighth game of the year, which leads the team; and his 3.88 ERA is none too shabby.

All of that is encouraging, unless you look at the standings. The Indians are now 27-47, which puts them on a pace to go 59-103. That would qualify as the second-worst record in team history, behind the 1991 team's 57-105. Though, it should be noted that the '91 team included a lot of players who would go on to be stars during the Tribe's coming glory days — players like Albert Belle, Carlos Baerga, Jim Thome, Sandy Alomar and Charles Nagy.

And the Indians are not, as a certain commenter recently claimed on a previous post, the worst team in the American League. That would be the Baltimore Orioles, who are an eye-popping-bad 23-52, which puts them on a pace to go 49-113. They could threaten the mark for single-season losses, set by the expansion 1962 Mets, who went 40-120. As bad as this Indians team is, we can at least take some comfort in the fact that the club that takes the field every day in Baltimore is worse. Not much comfort, but some.

News flash: Losing on a walk-off homer sucks

A quick roundup on what's going on in the world of sports:

• The Indians lost a tough one last night in Philadelphia. They scratched out a run in the top of the ninth to go up 6-5, though they should have scored more. But then Kerry Wood gave up a two-run walk-off homer to Jimmy Rollins in the bottom half, and the Tribe now has a four-game losing streak and the second-worst record in the American League.

• Obscured in the difficult loss were Shin-Soo Choo's pair of two-run home runs, bringing his season total to 10 and tying him with Russell Branyan for the team lead. Also, Carlos Santana had two RBIs, both coming without hits (though he did have a hit in the game, and drew a walk). Santana's major league career is off to a roaring start, as he's hitting .353/.477/.706. He's only been up for two weeks, but if he were to keep up that pace long enough to qualify, he'd currently be leading the AL in both on-base percentage and slugging percentage. It's doubtful he could keep hitting like that over a full season, at least this early in his career, but he's shown Manny Acta enough that he's going to stay batting in that number-three hole for quite a while.

• The United States will play Ghana, who finished second in Group D, in the next round of the World Cup. Ghana finished 1-1-1 in group play, and is ranked 32nd in the world by FIFA. (The U.S. is ranked 14th.) I think we have an excellent chance of moving on, as long as we don't get another America-hating referee. Fingers crossed.

• The Cavaliers don't have a pick in tonight's NBA draft. There are rumors that they'll try to get one via trade, but I find it hard to care about the draft when there's a much, much bigger off-season consideration going on with this team. Off the top of my head, I can't remember what it is ... Oh, yeah. LeBron.

• I have never heard of a tennis match lasting 10 hours, but that's what's going on right now at Wimbledon. (And you've never heard of it either; it's never happened before.) American John Isner is locked in an epic struggle with Frenchman Nicolas Mahut that was suspended 10 hours into play. Can you imagine playing tennis for 10 hours? These guys are some of the best athletes in the world, but their bodies must be killing them right now. And they have to take it up again today, probably both fighting off soreness like they've never felt in their lives. From the Associated Press story:

Never before in the history of Wimbledon, which was first contested in 1877, had any match -- singles or doubles, men or women -- lasted more than 112 games, a mark set in 1969. Isner and Mahut have played more games than that in their fifth set, without a victor, although the American came close: He had four match points but Mahut saved each one.

"He's serving fantastic. I'm serving fantastic. That's really all there is to it," Isner said. "I'd like to see the stats and see what the ace count looks like for both of us."

Well, here they are: Isner has 98 aces, Mahut 95 -- both eclipsing the previous high in a match at any tournament, 78. All the numbers are truly astounding: There have been 881 points, 612 in the fifth set. Isner has compiled 218 winners, Mahut 217. Isner has only 44 unforced errors, Mahut 37.

And this cannot be emphasized enough: They are not finished.

No one won yet.

After the two men split the first four sets, they are tied 59-59 in the fifth set. They will start up again at 10:30 a.m. our time. One of them could win it right away, or it could last another few hours. Should be interesting.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

When the clock hit 90 minutes in the U.S. match against Algeria this morning (our time), it was still zero-zero (or nil-nil, as they say across the pond). England was leading Slovenia 1-0, appearing to erase any possibility that we might sneak through to the next round on a tie-breaker. And then Landon Donovan, considered by many the greatest American-born soccer player in history, kicked in a rebound after Algerian goaltender Rais Bolihi stopped Jozy Altidore on a breakaway.

The unbelievably dramatic 91st-minute goal sent the Americans into the round of 16, eliminating the Slovenians after their loss to the Brits. And it also took the focus off what was apparently a bad call by a referee in the first half. I didn't see the game (I have a job), but according to the AP's initial report:

Clint Dempsey put the ball in the net in the 21st minute off the rebound of Herculez Gomez's shot. But the goal was called offside, just as Maurice Edu's late goal was disallowed against Slovenia last week, a score that would have given the Americans a victory. Replays appeared to show Dempsey was onside.

So not only did we get hosed out of a victory over Slovenia, we came this close to getting hosed out of a victory over Algeria. The U.S. would have gone 0-0-3 and been drummed out of the World Cup, when we should have been 2-0-1 and a strong favorite going into the next round. Is this a referee conspiracy? I doubt it, but I have to admit it's possible. There are a lot of America-haters out there, and surely some of them are soccer referees.

But it doesn't matter now, if we get clean officiating the rest of the way. As the Group C champions, the U.S. will next play the second-place team from Group D, which includes Germany, Ghana, Serbia and Australia, at 2:30 eastern time on Saturday. Any one of those nations could finish second, and that will be decided this afternoon. I don't know if we have a realistic shot at beating the Germans, but the rest of those teams shouldn't be a big problem for us.

Indians skidding again; more thoughts on more stuff

Sometimes it's darn near impossible to keep a regular sports blog AND a regular life. But I'm back.

• Mitch Talbot was not yet three years old when Jamie Moyer made his major league debut in 1986, but Moyer has hung around long enough to pitch against Talbot last night, and it was quite a pitcher's duel. Moyer's Phillies scored two off Talbot in the bottom of the first, then the Indians came back with one in the top of the second, and there was no more scoring after that. Talbot, who's having a fine rookie season, was the hard-luck loser in this one. He went seven innings, giving up four hits and three walks, and striking out four, in the Tribe's third straight loss.

• The one run scored off Moyer came courtesy of a Russell Branyan home run, which was the 505th Moyer has given up in his lengthy career. That ties him with Phillies great Robin Roberts for the most home runs given up in a career, and Moyer will no doubt hold that record by himself in about four days, or possibly nine. Two weeks, tops. This falls under the category of dubious records you can't get without being pretty good for a long time, because nobody's going to keep throwing you out there if you suck. It's like holding the record for striking out (which belongs to Reggie Jackson, Hall of Famer), being caught stealing (Rickey Henderson, Hall of Famer) or grounding into double plays (Cal Ripken, Hall of Famer). More important than the home run total is that it was Moyer's 266th career win.

• The home run was Branyan's 10th of the year, in just 48 games, after he started the season on the disabled list. He's only pinch-hit in a lot of those games, too. He's only had 156 at-bats. So in a 600-at-bat season, he'd be on pace to hit 39. He and Shin-Soo Choo (who has eight dingers) are the only hitters providing any power for this team all year, though Carlos Santana has shown some promise in the two weeks since his call-up.

• The U.S. soccer team's game against the Algerians starts in about an hour and a half, and if the Americans win, we're into the round of 16. As I covered in my last post, there's a possibility of moving on with a tie, but I don't think anybody wants to see what happens in that case. This team is definitely one of the 16 best at the World Cup, but they have to prove it on the pitch. France was supposed to be one of the best too, but they've been eliminated. It can happen.

• From the department of "Are you bleeping kidding me?" comes a story of a fishing tournament in North Carolina. At the 52nd annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament, anglers on a boat called the Citation bagged an 883-pound marlin, which not only would have won the event (the next-largest marlin was 528 pounds) and set a new record for biggest marlin caught in the tourney (previously 831), but would have brought in a nearly $1 million purse for the boat's owners and crew. But it was discovered that one of the boat's mates, 22-year-old Peter Martin Wann of Alexandria, Virginia, did not have a North Carolina fishing license, which he could have bought for $15, and the boat was disqualified, the catch erased from the records. They lost out on a high-six-figure purse because one of the crew members forgot to get his fishing license. Can you bleeping believe that bleep? Bleep, man! ... I first heard about this story on WTAM this morning, and Bill Wills was saying how that guy probably lost a bunch of friends over this. But I'm sure he feels awful about it, and at some point, whoever heads up the crew has to make sure all the i's are dotted and all the t's are crossed. Yes, it's his fault, but it's not all his fault.

Tie helps a little, but we needed a win

Because most sporting events are at night and I go to bed early, it's fairly rare that I get a chance to blog about a sporting event that just happened. The U.S.-Slovenia match ended a little over an hour ago, but I still think that counts. Of course, I didn't actually watch it, because I have a job, but still, I am capable of laying out the potential advancement scenarios for you.

First, the match itself. Slovenia took a 2-0 lead into halftime, but a goal by Landon Donovan in the 48th minute (shortly after the second half started, for the uninitiated among us) cut the lead in half, and a goal by Michael Bradley tied it in the 82nd minute (perilously close to the end of the game).

By the sound of it, the Americans definitely outplayed the Slovenians, but were victimized by a questionable call by the obviously anti-American referees. (All right, I don't know if they were anti-American, but it seems plausible.) Maurice Edu appeared to score a goal that would have given us the lead in the 86th minute, but the Malian official disallowed it, apparently for a foul before Edu got the ball. And there were two other near-goals in the first half that the Slovenian goalkeeper managed to stop. U.S. goalie Tim Howard, playing with sore ribs, was not able to stop either of Slovenia's shots on goal in the first half.

For those of you who don't follow soccer or understand how this works, we're in a group with Slovenia, England and Algeria. The top two teams in the group advance to the next round. A win gets you three points, and a tie gets you one. Slovenia, at 1-0-1, leads with four points. The USA, at 0-0-2, is second with two points. England plays Algeria this afternoon, but currently has one point by virtue of tying the Americans on Saturday. Algeria has no points, because they lost to Slovenia in their only game so far. The U.S. team no longer controls its own destiny; we could beat Algeria and still not move on. Allow me to explain.

If, as expected, England defeats Algeria in this afternoon's game, which starts at 2:30 Eastern, that will tie England with Slovenia at 1-0-1. The Brits and Slovenes have a date with each other next week. So here are the scenarios, assuming the British beat the Algerians:
• If England and Slovenia tie and the U.S. beats Algeria, that will create a three-way tie between England, Slovenia, and the United States, at 1-0-2. The tiebreakers are top goal differential, followed by total goals, then total points in matches between the three teams concerned, then goal differential in those matches, then total goals scored in those matches. If the tie is unresolved after all of those questions are answered, FIFA will draw lots.
• If England beats Slovenia OR Slovenia beats England and the U.S. beats Algeria, we're into the next round, because we'll have five points and the loser of the Slovenia-England game will have four.
• If the U.S. ties or loses to Algeria, we're out, no matter what happens between Slovenia and England.

Now then, if England and Algeria should happen to tie, that would mean we'd be tied with England in the standings at 0-0-2. Under that scenario:
• If the U.S. beats Algeria, we're in, no matter what happens between Slovenia and England.
• If the U.S. ties Algeria and England beats Slovenia, we're out.
• If the U.S. ties Algeria and Slovenia beats England, we're in.
• If the U.S. ties Algeria and Slovenia ties England, it goes to a two-team tiebreaker between us and England.
• If Algeria beats the U.S., we're out.

And if Algeria should happen to defeat England, which is unlikely but nonetheless possible, that would put Algeria into second place, with the three points from that victory. Under that scenario:
• If the U.S. beats Algeria, we're in.
• If the U.S. ties Algeria and Slovenia beats England, we're out.
• If the U.S. ties Algeria and England beats Slovenia, we're out.
• If the U.S. ties Algeria and England ties Slovenia, we're into a two-team tiebreaker with Algeria.
• If the U.S. loses to Algeria, we're out.

Got all that? Good. There will be a test on it later. Bottom line? Go Algeria! Beat England! Or at least tie them! But don't get too much confidence!

Some birthday notes

OK, I don't mean to fish for happy birthday wishes, but, well, it IS my birthday.

• The Indians were playing pretty well until they ran into the red-hot Mets. In each of the first two games of the series, the Mets have undone the Tribe with one big inning. On Tuesday, it was because of terrible fundamental defense by the Indians' infield, including the pitcher and catcher. Yesterday, it was because of four consecutive doubles given up by Tribe pitcher Mitch Talbot, who turned in his worst start of the season. Talbot attributed some of that to a problem with the signs between him and rookie catcher Carlos Santana, especially with runners on second.

• Left fielder Shelley "Slam" Duncan didn't play those doubles very well, as all four went to his part of the field. He did make a fine catch on a foul ball in front of the tarp, but that doesn't make up for his lapses. But he is an inexperienced left fielder, and Manny Acta knew that when he sent him out there. Duncan did hit a two-run homer for the second straight game, so maybe Acta knows what he's doing, at least a little bit.

• Game seven of the NBA Finals is tonight, and it starts at 9 p.m. here in the Eastern Time Zone, where approximately half of the country's population resides — including the visiting Boston Celtics' home fans. I'd like to stay up and watch it, but I have to work tomorrow. So I have to decide whether I want to miss the excitement or come to work bleary-eyed. This is an increasing trend in pro sports, and I'm getting sick and tired of it. I know the game starts at 6 p.m. in Los Angeles, where it's played, and that if it started earlier, ticket-holding fans who work would have trouble getting there in time. But which is more likely: that a few thousand Lakers fans who have tickets would have trouble finding a way to get out of work early, or that several million East Coast fans with TVs will decide to go to bed at halftime because they have to get up for work the next day? Stupid NBA.

• If the Celtics should happen to win tonight, it will make me feel ever-so-slightly better about the Cavaliers having lost to them two rounds ago. It will be very small comfort, but some comfort.

• It's been hard to pay very close attention to the World Cup, since all the games in South Africa are played during work hours over here, but it's been exciting so far. Switzerland pulled off a monumental upset of Spain yesterday, which I think is great because Switzerland is my daughter's ancestral homeland on her paternal side. The next US game is tomorrow morning (our time) against Slovenia, and there's been some question about the health of American goaltender Tim Howard, who sustained a rib injury in Saturday's tie with England. Howard has been cleared to play, with the assistance of pain pills. I hope they don't make him loopy.

• What in the world is up with those vuvuzelas that the South Africans keep blowing? It sounds like every stadium in the country is being attacked by killer bees. My beautiful wife says it drives her crazy, and things that drive my wife crazy are simply unacceptable. I'm told the players and some of the fans hate them, but that FIFA won't ban them because it's such a big part of South African culture. I'm also told that they can cause hearing damage. I'm sorry, but any culture that embraces something that stupid needs to re-evaluate its priorities.

Not heartbroken over Izzo

I'm neither surprised nor disappointed that Tom Izzo has chosen not to become the next coach of the Cavaliers. Izzo left some money on the table in the short-term, as the Cavs were offering him $6 million a year — double what he's making at Michigan State. But he traded that for the job security of his college coaching gig, which is much greater than any NBA team could ever offer. He's pretty much guaranteed a job in East Lansing until he dies or decides to retire, and there's just no parallel in professional sports. Somebody like Phil Jackson will probably never get fired, but even he couldn't coach until he's in his 80s, like Joe Paterno has at Penn State. I know it's a different sport, but the principle is the same.

It's pretty obvious that if Izzo had been able to get some kind of indication from LeBron James that he's planning to stay in Cleveland, his decision would have been different. Izzo claims that if he found out LeBron were staying, that wouldn't necessarily change his decision. That may well be true, but it would clearly have shifted the equation in that direction, and Izzo admitted as much.

So now we know one person who's NOT going to be the Cavs' next coach. But who IS it going to be? I expect and hope that Dan Gilbert will look at other coaches with NBA experience, and not continue to go fishing in the college ranks. They've reportedly already talked to Mike Krzyzewski, whose situation at Duke is very similar to Izzo's at Michigan State, but even more so, if that makes sense. Coach K has already passed, which suits me just fine. Jeff Van Gundy apparently wants to stay a TV analyst, which is too bad, because I think he would have been a good choice. Byron Scott is available, but he wants to wait and see if Phil Jackson's going to stay with the Lakers, the team Scott spent most of his playing career with. That strikes me as a bit greedy, because there's no guarantee he'd get that job even if it did become available, but he's a grown man and can make his own decisions.

So who knows who the &#@$ it'll be. Whether LeBron stays or goes changes the whole package for any coach, that's for sure.

Thirty years ago today: Jorge Orta

There's not much news in the Cleveland sports world today, so I thought I'd revisit something that happened 30 years ago today. On June 15, 1980, the memorable Jorge Orta went six-for-six in a 14-5 win over the Twins, becoming one of just 35 players in American League history to get six hits in a nine-inning game.

Orta, batting second and playing right field, hit five singles and a double in that game. But that might not even have been the most notable performance of the game, even if it was the rarest. Teammate Toby Harrah went four-for-five, including a triple and a home run, and knocked in seven runs.

Dan Spillner, in his last full season as a starter, went 6 2/3 innings for the win, even though he didn't pitch particularly well. He gave up five runs (four earned) on seven hits and four walks, striking out four. Sid Monge went the last 2 1/3. Spillner would spend 1981 in the bullpen, then become the team's closer in 1982.

Orta, a native of Mazatlan, Mexico, had a pretty decent year in 1980, hitting .291/.379/.403, in a low-offense era, and making his second (and last) All-Star appearance. He was spending his first of just two seasons in Cleveland, before being traded for Rick Sutcliffe. Orta's 16-year career that would end in 1987 with Kansas City, where he was a member of the World Series champions in 1985.

In fact, Orta would be a key player in one of the most controversial plays in major league history in that World Series, as first base umpire Don Denkinger made what might have been the most famous blown call in baseball history until Jim Joyce's recent gaffe. Orta led off the bottom of the ninth of game six with the Royals trailing the Cardinals three games to two, and 1-0 in the game. He hit a ground ball to St. Louis first baseman Jack Clark, who flipped to pitcher Todd Worrell at first, and the throw easily beat Orta to the bag. Denkinger was watching the bag and listening for the ball to hit Worrell's glove, but because it was so loud in the ballpark, he couldn't hear the ball hit the glove, and therefore had to guess. He guessed wrong, and called him safe. The Royals would go on to win that game 2-1, then beat the Cardinals 11-0 the next day to win a World Series that should have gone to the team on the other side of Missouri. And yet, 25 years later, we still don't have instant replay for anything but home run balls.

Tribe wins four straight; thoughts on Nebraska, World Cup, etc.

A few thoughts on what's currently going on in the sports world:

* After last night's 7-1 victory, the Indians are riding a four-game winning streak. They're still a long way from contending, but this team is starting to do some exciting things. Last night's stars were Carlos Santana, who homered and doubled to drive in three runs in his second career major league game; and Fausto Carmona, who is really having a strong comeback season. The win evened his record to 5-5, but with a nifty 3.23 ERA that is good for 13th in the American League.

* The Indians have spent most of the season in last place in the AL Central, but their record is now a bad but at least somewhat respectable 25-36. That puts them on pace to finish 66-96. More importantly, they have moved into a virtual tie for fourth place, just percentage points behind the woeful Royals.

* As loyal reader Jeff Brown has been trying to get me to write about, the Indians are dead last in the majors in attendance. From Jeff's most recent email on the subject:

As I've mentioned several times now, the Indians rank dead-last in home attendance, and by a growing margin: they are averaging 15,658, and the next worst team (Toronto Blue Jays) are averaging 16,267.

For perspective, there are 12 major league teams averaging MORE THAN TWICE AS MANY FANS as our lowly Cleveland Indians, Steve,

But here's the real rub, Steve -- the Indians rank 14th out of 30 teams (in the upper 50 percentile) in AWAY attendance, meaning that in the eyes of the rest of the league, they are a worthy team to watch in person.

View it here:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance/_/sort/awayAvg

So what the hell is wrong with hometown Tribe fans, Steve? If visiting teams can support them better than more than 1/2 of the teams in the majors, why the hell can't Cleveland fans get their heads screwed on straight for a change?

I find it highly doubtful that fans on the road are all that interested in the Indians. I think it's much more likely that the Indians' road attendance is helped by the fact that they've played in cities where the home team draws well. They've gone to Minnesota, which has its new ballpark; along with places like Chicago, Anaheim, New York, etc. Their road average will probably come down.

But it is somewhat distressing to see the home attendance numbers. It's simply a function of the fact that this team got rid of its best established major leaguers last year in favor of cheaper young talent. It was an understandable decision, but it has definitely cost them at the gates.

* One game that will raise that average number, at least a little, is this afternoon's game, in which Indians hitters will face Nationals phenom Stephen Strasburg in his second career start. That's going to be pretty interesting. Strasburg would have to strike out 13 Indians today to tie the major league record of 27 strikeouts in a pitcher's first two starts combined, set by Dodgers rookie Karl Spooner in 1954.

* Another mailbag item from Jeff Brown concerns the Big Ten landing Nebraska:

The Big Ten Conference hit a home run by getting the University of Nebraska as a new member.

Even if the Big Ten stays put and doesn't invite any new members from this point forward, this is a slam dunk and greatly improves the conference.

They have some of the best football fans, rich tradition, national titles, an iconic figure in Tom Osborne who is still their A.D., and fits in very well culturally into the Big Ten region.

And while they had a few down years after Osborne retired as head coach, lately they have come raring back and are once again a powerhouse under stud coach, Bo Pellini.

It's true that Nebraska is a great get for the Big Ten, but I don't know if I'd quite call it a home run. Texas, which is a national power in football, basketball and baseball, would be a home run. Notre Dame, the nation's most storied football program, would be a home run. Nebraska is a solid two-run double off the wall. The Cornhuskers have probably one of the 20 best football programs in the country, and they definitely make the conference stronger in that sport. And it gives the Big Ten a solid presence at its western end. Schools like Iowa and Wisconsin often have strong teams, but the conference is usually dominated by eastern teams like Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State. This makes the possibility of a Big Ten championship game more interesting, as the league will probably separate into eastern and western divisions.

* The United States soccer team got one of the luckiest goals you'll ever see to tie England yesterday. Short of an own-goal, I can't think of a luckier way to score in soccer than having the goaltender fail to scoop up a ball that's rolling slowly toward his waiting arms. But the Americans deserve credit for holding a very strong British team to one goal (which they scored just 3 1/2 minutes into the game), and this bodes well for our chances to advance in the World Cup. Our remaining preliminary-round games are against Slovenia and Algeria, and we'll be favored in both.

Gotta love the walk-off

Some quick thoughts:

• Going into the bottom of the ninth last night, it looked like another tough loss for the Indians, as Kerry Wood had come this close to saving the game, but with two outs and two strikes on J.D. Drew, he threw a slider that slid too much, hitting Drew; and then gave up a two-run homer to Adrian Beltre to give the Red Sox a 7-6 lead. But the Indians' offense roared back in the bottom of the ninth, loading the bases with nobody out against Daniel Bard. Bard then bore down and struck out Travis Hafner, then got Jhonny Peralta on a pop foul. Enter Russell Branyan, who roped a single to right that scored two runs and gave the Indians a walk-off win.

• The Tribe won despite committing four errors, three of which were committed by third baseman Andy Marte in the first inning. Two of those were on one play, as he failed to field the ball cleanly to score one run, then threw it away to score another. As a result, Mitch Talbot had to work a lot harder. He only gave the Indians four innings, giving up five runs, three of which were unearned. Marte is supposed to be strong on defense, but he sure didn't show it last night.

• The Indians are reportedly set to call up catching uber-prospect Carlos Santana in time for tonight's game against the Nationals. In the words of ESPN's Rob Neyer:

There are so many things to love about Santana, whose performance has improved as he's moved up the ladder. He was great in fast-A, greater in Double-A, and sublimely brilliant in 56 Triple-A games this year. He's 24, though — older than Matt Wieters and Buster Posey — and so it's time to move him up and see what he's got.

Couldn't agree more, Rob. They will presumably send down Lou Marson, who's been good with the glove (and the arm) this season, but terrible with the bat.

• Speaking of the Nationals and uber-prospects, Stephen Strasburg will get his second career start Sunday afternoon at Progressive Field. Strasburg struck out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates in his first career start, while walking zero of them, in seven innings. This kid looks like the real deal. I look forward to seeing what he's got. And I'm obviously not the only one, as the Indians have reportedly sold more than 8,000 tickets to that game since it was announced that Strasburg would be starting.

• Tom Izzo was in town yesterday, being wined and dined by the Cavaliers. It sounds like they're close to a deal. I'm not backing off what I said the other day, which was that the track record of college coaches who jump to the NBA isn't good, and therefore it seems a bit foolish to hire one, but Dan Gilbert seems to have his mind made up. Izzo apparently hasn't signed anything yet, but if he does, I hope he proves me wrong.

A fun inning; Masterson's masterpiece

Going into the bottom of the eighth inning last night, the Indians were clinging to a save-opportunity-size 3-0 lead over the Red Sox. The way Justin Masterson was pitching against his former team, that lead looked fairly safe, but it was the type of situation in which a team hopes to add an insurance run or two. Well, they did that, and then some.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona chose to use Boof Bonser to try to hold the Indians' lead to three. Bonser (fun fact: he legally changed his name to Boof a few years ago) hadn't pitched in the majors yet this season, having just been activated after a rehab stint in the minors due to a groin injury. He now has the distinction of a sideways 8 in his ERA and WHIP columns, because he didn't record an out. He pitched to four hitters, all of whom would eventually score. Since Bonser couldn't get anybody out, Francona pulled him in favor of Joe Nelson, who failed to retire any of the first five hitters he faced, and the first four of those would also score.

Here's a quick blow-by-blow of that Indians eighth:

1. Trevor Crowe walked and stole second.
2. Shin-Soo Choo singled to center, sending Crowe to third.
3. Austin Kearns walked to load the bases.
4. Russell Branyan singled to right, scoring Crowe. Score 4-0. Bases still loaded.
At this point, Nelson "relieved" Bonser.
5. Jhonny Peralta singled to right, scoring Choo. 5-0, bags still juiced.
6. Travis Hafner homered to right for his 10th career grand slam. Indians lead 9-0.
7. Luis Valbuena singled to right.
8. Anderson Hernandez, who was recently called up, doubled to deep right for his first hit as an Indian, sending Valbuena to third.
9. Lou Marson walked, loading the bases AGAIN.
10. Crowe grounded into a double play, plating Valbuena and sending Hernandez to third. 10-0, but now with two outs.
11. Choo walked.
12. Kearns walked, sending Choo to second and loading the bases yet again.
13. Branyan reached on an infield single to third, scoring Hernandez. And it was 11-0.
14. Peralta struck out looking.

So the Indians sent 14 men to the plate in the inning, six of whom batted with the bases loaded. They batted around before even making an out. They collected seven hits — including five in a row — and drew five walks.

As Crowe was coming to the plate to start the inning, I told my wife the game would probably be over in about 20 minutes, since if things went according to plan, we only had the bottom of the eighth and the top of the ninth to go. But the bottom of the eighth alone lasted more than half an hour. (She pointed out that she had predicted the game would last another hour, and that her prediction was closer than mine. True, honey, but who could have predicted an eight-run bottom of the eighth by the punchless Indians?)

Masterson, whom the Tribe acquired in last year's Victor Martinez deadline deal, made quick work of his former teammates in the top of the ninth, as he had done all night. Masterson put together a masterpiece, a two-hit complete-game shutout, the first nine-inning goose egg of his career. And he needed it. Though he has now won his last two starts, that two-game winning streak follows a streak of 17 starts without a win, dating back to last year. He hadn't been as bad as that sounds — after this one, his ERA is a decent 4.74 — but he certainly didn't look like any great shakes on the mound. But he pitched like an ace last night. In the words of Francona, his ex-manager:

"All the things we used to brag about when he was in our uniform he showed tonight. He maintained his velocity from the first pitch to the last pitch, he threw a lot of strikes, he stayed down in the zone, he elevated a couple of times I'm sure on purpose, changed speeds enough on the lefties, got the slider under their hands. That's about as good a game as he could pitch."

Let's hope we see more of that from Masterson. If he can keep it going, the Indians could actually have the makings of a strong starting rotation.

Tribe's new young arm

There are a few things I could write about today. There's the Indians' 4-1 loss to Boston yesterday, in which Austin Kearns' homer was the Tribe's only run; there's Victor Martinez's first return to Cleveland in an enemy uniform; there's further developments on the Izzo front; there's minor stuff from the Browns' optional workouts; there's always more to report on LeBron; and there's the fact that the Cavaliers will be introducing new general manager Chris Grant this afternoon.

But today's Cleveland sports news that interests me the most is Major League Baseball's amateur draft, in which the Indians, with the fifth overall pick, selected Drew Pomeranz, a left-handed pitcher from the University of Mississippi. Pomeranz, named the Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Year as a junior this season, went 9-2 with a 2.24 ERA in 16 starts for the Rebels. He struck out 139 hitters in 100 2/3 innings, against 49 walks. Opposing hitters batted .195 against him.

I listened to a little bit of the Indians-Red Sox game on the radio last night, and Mike Hegan and Tom Hamilton were talking about Pomeranz's prospects. They compared him to Mike Leake, whom the Reds took with the eighth pick in last year's draft. For those who haven't been following, Leake signed late last summer, the Reds chose to rest his arm the remainder of the season, and after a stint in the Instructional League, he made the big club out of spring training to be the first player to totally skip the minor leagues since Xavier Nady in 2000. Leake is off to a phenomenal start, going 5-0 with a 2.22 ERA so far. (It must be noted that Leake is a right-hander, and Pomeranz is a southpaw; nonetheless, their college numbers are similar.)

It would be ridiculous to predict such a start for Pomeranz, simply because it so rarely happens. For that matter, it would have been ridiculous to predict such a start for Leake. And even Leake's fast start doesn't necessarily indicate future success in the majors. How many times have we seen a young pitcher dominate, only to flame out because of arm trouble? Current Indians closer Kerry Wood is a prime example of that, but at least he's been able to stick around as a reliever. The same cannot be said of his former teammate Mark Prior, who won 18 games at the age of 22, but hasn't pitched in the bigs since 2006, when he was just 25, because his arm gave out. There's just an awful lot that can happen to a young arm.

The Indians have until August to sign Pomeranz. If they don't, he can go back to Ole Miss and pitch again next year; but I don't anticipate too much trouble on that front. I would presume they'll handle him similarly to how the Reds handled Leake last year. And barring injury, we'll see him at Progressive Field in 2011 or 2012. I look forward to it.

Izzo to Cleveland?

The Cavaliers have reportedly offered their vacant head coaching job to Michigan State's Tom Izzo, one of the most successful college coaches out there since he took over the job in 1995. In Izzo's 15 seasons, the Spartans have won one NCAA championship (in 2000) and six Big Ten titles. They have reached the Final Four six times, including each of the last two years. In his first two years in East Lansing, Izzo took the Spartans to the NIT; they have not failed to secure an invitation to the NCAA Tournament in the 13 years since. He is the winningest coach in MSU history. This man has earned his stripes.

I should note at this point that the Cavs are in kind of a catch-22 situation right now, as they will likely have trouble hiring a top coach without signing LeBron James first, and they will likely have trouble signing LeBron James without hiring a top coach first. That said ...

I caught a little bit of talk about Izzo on "Mike & Mike in the Morning" on WKNR this morning, and the eponymous hosts disagreed about whether they wanted Izzo to test his skills in the NBA. Mike Greenberg really hopes he stays in the college ranks, where he's built up a great program and makes more of a difference to his team than he might in the NBA; and Mike Golic would like to see him at the top level of the sport, which is of course the NBA. (Both were careful to say that they're not presuming to tell Izzo what to do.)

Of course, Greenberg and Golic are not Cavaliers fans, so far as I know, and therefore are looking at this through the lens of the national sports media. But Greenberg made some good points. Izzo would be taking a great risk by jumping to the NBA. If he stays at Michigan State (my dad's alma mater, by the way, in the interest of full disclosure), he's basically guaranteed a job for as long as he wants it, and could eventually become East Lansing's version of Dean Smith or Jim Calhoun — or Woody Hayes or Bo Schembechler. They would someday name the court after him and such. If he goes to the NBA, even if he's very successful for a few years, he's probably gone the first time the team has a 50-win season when the team leaders were expecting 60 wins.

And the fact is, the track record for successful college coaches coming to the NBA is not very good. Look up P.J. Carlesimo, Rick Pitino, Tim Floyd, Lon Kruger, and John Calipari, just for starters. All were highly successful college coaches who bombed in the NBA. The only one of those who had any real success at all after going to the pros was Pitino, who won a division title with the Knicks in 1988-89 but lost in the second round of the playoffs; Pitino nonetheless has a losing record as an NBA coach, as that was his only plus-.500 record in six NBA seasons. There probably is a college coach who's come to the NBA and done very well, but off the top of my head, I'm not thinking of him.

Can Izzo break that mold? I don't know, but I kind of doubt it. He's a great coach in the college ranks, and I think he should stay there.

Talbot gets his seventh win

I've written about Mitch Talbot enough in this space that I'm starting to feel like a broken record. Talbot came into the season with some major-league experience, but zero major-league wins. And now he has seven, after yesterday's 3-1 victory over the White Sox. The Indians are now a game and a half behind those same White Sox for fourth place in the AL Central, which isn't much, but it's something.

Talbot allowed just one run in seven innings of work, on six hits and three walks. He struck out five. For the second time this season, he out-pitched former Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy. He leads all major-league rookies in victories, and his 3.54 ERA puts him 18th in the American League, just one one-hundredth of a run behind teammate Fausto Carmona (about whom I haven't written much this season, but definitely should, because he's quite a comeback kid). It must feel pretty good to be Mitch Talbot these days.

The Indians will go for the three-game sweep this afternoon, as Jake Westbrook faces off against Mark Buehrle -- who, like Peavy, is having a very disappointing season so far. I like our chances.

I cannot believe that just happened

Armando Galarraga was one out from the 21st perfect game in major league history tonight against the Indians. One out away. He got Jason Donald to hit a fairly routine ground ball between first and second. First baseman Miguel Cabrera fielded it, set his feet and delivered a strong throw to Galarraga, who was covering first. The ball got there, and it landed in the webbing of Galarraga's glove a full step before Donald reached the bag. First base umpire Jim Joyce called him safe.

He called him safe.

Armando Galarraga just pitched a perfect game, except it won't go into the record books as a perfect game because the first base umpire blew a call on the last out of the game. THE FIRST BASE UMPIRE BLEW A CALL ON THE LAST OUT OF WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A PERFECT GAME.

I know a lot of fans, even when their team is on the losing side of a no-hitter, will root for the pitcher to get it. I am not one of those fans — I would rather see my team break up the no-hitter. And according to how this game will be recorded in the books, I did see my team break up the no-hitter. But I would much, MUCH rather have seen this go into the books as a perfect game than see it broken up on a bad call at first base.

Ladies and gentlemen, baseball NEEDS instant replay. As it stands now, it's only allowed on home run calls. That's baloney. Commissioner Bud Selig is on record as saying he doesn't want it expanded, and as long as Bud doesn't want it expanded, it's not going to expand. But Bud is going to see what happened in this game. Armando Galarraga lost his perfect game because of a bad call. How can he allow that to happen?

I feel really sorry for Jim Joyce. I can't imagine what he was looking at, but I'm sure he made the call he thought was correct, unless he somehow bet a buttload of money that Armando Galarraga wouldn't pitch a perfect game. When he sees that replay, he's going to be sick. Come to think of it, he's probably seen it by now, and he's probably not going to get much sleep tonight, because that's a big damn call to get wrong. He drew the wrath of the entire Tigers organization and the home crowd, and understandably so.

The one guy who took it in stride was Galarraga, who simply smiled and went back to work, retiring the next hitter, Trevor Crowe, on another routine ground ball. You've got to hand it to him — he pitched the game of his life, and appears to be happy with the victory, perfect game or not.

LeBron James to Larry King: Cleveland has the edge

In an interview that will air Friday on CNN's Larry King Live, LeBron James had this to say when the eponymous star of that show asked him whether the Cavaliers have the edge to keep him:

"Absolutely. Because, you know, this city, these fans, I mean, have given me a lot in these seven years. And, you know, for me, it's comfortable. So I've got a lot of memories here. And — and so it does have an edge."

LeBron also told Larry that his main goal is winning championships "and not just because of LeBron James," which strikes me as a bit arrogant for someone who could probably have propelled the Cavs past the Celtics if he'd played the way we've seen him play in the playoffs before.

He also said he won't try to dictate who his next coach will be, that he would love to play with either Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh, and that he's humbled by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's push for him to sign with the Knicks and President Obama's call for him to go to the Bulls. (The latter seems like an unbelievably stupid thing to say, politically. Ohio's a very important swing state that Obama probably doesn't want to take any chances with in 2012.)

All of this is very preliminary. LeBron can't do anything until July 1, and will certainly take longer than that. I hope he stays in Cleveland, and I'm inclined to think he will, but there's a long way to go before we find that out.