Indians are on fire! But nobody put them out!

Our lousy baseball team (the Indians, duh) swept a four-game series against the Blue Jays this week, culminating in yesterday afternoon's 6-1 triumph, keyed by a three-run homer off the bat of Matt LaPorta and a fine performance by starting pitcher Justin Masterson, who got his third win of 2010 after failing to win a single game the first two months of the season.

First, let's talk about LaPorta. At 25, he's getting his second shot to play every day in the bigs, thanks to the Russell Branyan trade. His first shot came at the beginning of the season, when he was the everyday first baseman for a while, but he knew he'd be losing his job when Branyan came off the disabled list. Now, he's in no one's shadow. Whether that explains this week's power surge, I cannot say, for I am not a licensed therapist, and I have never spoken to him anyway. But facts are facts, and it's a fact that he entered the series against the Blue Jays with just one home run in 123 at-bats at the major league level this year. He has now gone deep three games in a row, and since the start of the Toronto series, his average stats have jumped from .211/.281/.268 to .228/.300/.353. His minor league numbers (56 home runs in 884 at-bats, including five dingers in 69 at-bats at Columbus this year) suggest this is closer to the LaPorta we should expect to see, and I hope they're right. Don't lie to me, Matt LaPorta's minor league numbers.

Now, on to Masterson, who has been up-and-down the last few weeks, after being pretty much just down in April and May. He was bad in his last outing going into yesterday's game (six runs in five innings in a loss to Cincinnati), but was very good yesterday, giving up just one run in 8 1/3 innings, on eight hits. He struck out five, didn't walk anybody, and kept the ball in the yard. And while he's still not consistent enough, he's really turned his season around. On May 24, after giving up five runs in four innings of a loss to the White Sox, Masterson was 0-5 with a 6.13 ERA, and appeared to be about ready to lose his spot in the starting rotation. He's now 3-7 with a 4.85 ERA, and though he's not likely to pitch in any All-Star games anytime soon, he's obviously a highly serviceable starter right now.

Masterson did get into trouble in the ninth, the inning in which the Blue Jays got their one run. Masterson left with the bases loaded, just one out, and the one run in, and rookie Frank "Extra Consonants" Herrmann came in to face Jose Molina. It was a save situation, because the Jays had the tying run on deck. After getting ahead of Molina 1-2, Herrmann got him to hit a routine double-play ball to shortstop, ending the game. Not only was it Herrmann's first major league save, he became the third Indian to save a game in three days. I'm sure that's been done before, but I can't remember ever hearing of it. That's pretty cool, if you're into that sort of thing. Which I am. If that makes me a nerd, then I guess I'm a nerd.

The Tribe opens a three-gamer tonight against Oakland at Progressive Field, and comes in riding a season-long five-game winning streak. Can they keep it going? Tune in tonight to find out!

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 rotation nearly set

I missed this the other day (sorry, loyal fans), but Indians manager Manny Acta on Monday gave the #4 spot in the starting rotation to Mitch Talbot.

WHO?

Talbot, 26, came over in December as the player to be named later in the Kelly Shoppach trade. His major league career to date consists of 9 2/3 innings in three appearances (one start) with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008. He did not make the most of his opportunity, to say the least. In those 9 2/3 innings, Talbot gave up 12 runs, all earned, so his career ERA is currently 11.17. More troubling, he walked 11 men while striking out just five, and gave up three home runs. You can't win in the majors that way. But that's a small sample size, and it was two years ago, when he was just 24.

His minor-league numbers have been much better. In five seasons, he has amassed a career record in the minors of 48-40, with a 3.85 ERA. He had some injury issues last year, but went 4-4, 4.47, at AAA Durham last year. This spring, he's gone 1-1, 3.71, in 17 Cactus League innings. ESPN's Rob Neyer believes he will be a solid, if unspectacular, major league pitcher. Neyer projects that he'll put up an ERA somewhere between 4.50 and 5.00. I hope he's right. A lot of clubs' #4 starters will do worse.

Talbot joins Fausto Carmona, Jake Westbrook and Justin Masterson in the rotation, and there are big question marks with all of those guys. We all remember how Carmona had a Cy Young-caliber 2007, but has fizzled since then. But he's had a phenomenal spring (20 innings, 3-0, 0.45), and all observers say he's doing what he wants to out there, so there's reason for optimism. Westbrook has been an All-Star before, but hasn't pitched since early 2008, when he got shut down to have Tommy John surgery. Lots of pitchers have come back from TJS to be great, though, so we'll see. Masterson just turned 25 and has only made 25 major league starts, and though he has pitched reasonably well in the majors, he has had a tough spring — though he has struck out 22 hitters in just 16 innings, which is encouraging.

The last rotation spot is between David Huff, Carlos Carrasco and Aaron Laffey. Former future star Jeremy Sowers appears to be out of the running. Those are all guys who've got some major-league success. I'm going to guess it'll be Laffey, but that's just a guess.

Commendable Carmona, Masterful Masterson

On Wedge Firing Day, Fausto Carmona and Justin Masterson turned in some fine performances on the mound in yesterday's doubleheader against the White Sox. Masterson's was one of the finest outings by an Indians pitcher this year, even though he lost.

Fausto, making what was no doubt his last appearance in a disappointing season, opened up with a seven-inning, one-run, five-strikeout performance that gives us some hope he can turn it around next year. The guy who won 19 games in 2007 must be in there somewhere. Maybe he'll show up in 2010. He ends 2009 with a 5-12 record and a 6.32 ERA. Not really anywhere to go but up.

Masterson went the full nine in the nightcap, striking out 12 White Sox, walking two, and surrendering four hits. Unfortunately, two of those hits were in the same inning, the sixth, in which Paul Konerko singled home DeWayne Wise, who had doubled. Still, Masterson became the first Indians pitcher to strike out as many as 12 hitters in a game since CC Sabathia fanned 13 two years ago. Masterson's 4-10 record this season is a bit misleading; his 4.52 ERA is a little high, but he sure showed us something last night. He's been very inconsistent since we got him in the Victor Martinez trade, but he's also just finishing his first full season in the bigs. I look forward to seeing him toe the rubber for us in '10 and beyond.

A new team record ... for the Royals

There's something very bittersweet about seeing a record set against your team. On the one hand, you have to appreciate seeing someone do something nobody's ever done before; on the other hand, every success for one team or individual is a failure for the opponent, and when that opponent is your team, that means your team is failing badly.

Such was the case in last night's game between the Indians and Royals. Zack Greinke has been a monster all season — there's no secret about that. But he had never missed as many bats as he did last night. Greinke went eight strong innings and struck out 15 Indians along the way, setting a new Royals team record for strikeouts in one game. (The record he broke, incidentally, was set 21 years ago by Mark Gubicza. Thought you'd like to know.)

Greinke took advantage of the Tribe's reluctance to swing at curveballs early in the count. And he was putting all his pitches exactly where he wanted them, which meant he had no trouble getting ahead in the count. Then he'd punch them out with sliders and his mid-90s fastball. Some of his off-speed pitches were somewhere in the 60s, and that variability in speed makes for a tough evening for the other team's hitters.

Greinke struck out Kelly Shoppach and Shin-Soo Choo three times each; Jamey Carroll, Travis Hafner and Matt LaPorta twice each; and Jhonny Peralta, Luis Valbuena and Andy Marte once each. Asdrubal Cabrera was the only hitter in the Indians lineup to avoid being whiffed at least once; he drove in the Tribe's second run in the eighth, and then promptly got thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple. Marte got a measure of revenge with a home run in the top of the sixth, his first of the season in the bigs. Peralta, for good measure, struck out a second time in the ninth against Robinson Tejeda, giving the Royals staff 16 total for the game.

Greinke is now 12-8 with a 2.43 ERA (tops in the American League) while pitching for a team that's on pace to lose 100 games. The Cy Young discussions tend to favor pitchers who get a lot of wins, and there are six AL pitchers who've won more games than Greinke, but it's not his fault the Royals suck.

Justin Masterson struggled in his fourth start as an Indian, giving up four runs on seven hits, including one home run, and two walks in six innings. He struck out four, which looks laughable next to Greinke's 15. He wasn't awful, but I'd sure hope he'd do better against the worst team in the American League.

Masterful Masterson?

On the surface, Justin Masterson turned in a pretty darned solid performance last night against an explosive offensive team in the Los Angeles/Anaheim/California Angels. Masterson, acquired in the Victor Martinez trade, went 6 1/3 innings, giving up just one unearned run on three hits. But Masterson only struck out three hitters while walking four. That's way too many walks. Usually, if you do that against a team like LA/A/C, you're going to get burned in the butt. Still, holding the Angels, who had eight .300 hitters in the lineup, to three hits is impressive, so I don't want to be too negative.

The real story last night was the Indians' offense, which has chugged along all season, no matter who is in the lineup. It was looking like a pretty good pitchers' duel until the sixth, when the Tribe hitters blew it wide open. The Indians hit four singles and three doubles in the inning, with a walk for good measure, in the course of batting around and putting a 7 on the board. Even the outs were pretty loud in the inning. Kelly Shoppach's sacrifice fly to deep center was the first out, and Shin-Soo Choo's liner to shortstop was the second and third outs, as Asdrubal Cabrera got doubled off second. Shoppach was the only hitter in the lineup who didn't reach base in the inning. The Tribe wound up putting 11 on the board for the game.

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 ...