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.

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.

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.

Four days to Opening Day

For the Indians, that is. The A's and Red Sox only have 160 games to go. Incidentally, am I the only one who didn't know Keith Foulke was making a comeback with Oakland? Didn't he say he was retiring last year when the Indians were expecting him to be their closer? Not that I'm dissatisfied with how the season went overall, but still, I was surprised to see him take the mound in Tokyo. He pitched in both of those games, in fact. If he'd made his comeback with the Red Sox, I'd have taken it a little harder, but since it's the small-market A's, I forgive him.

This has nothing to do with the Indians, but I saw it on SportsCenter, and I just have to mention it. During a spring-training game yesterday between the Twins and Braves, Atlanta's Elliott Johnson tried to bunt for a hit, and he laid down a beaut that dribbled down the first-base line. Twins pitcher Livan Hernandez knew he didn't have a play if he picked it up and threw it -- so he KICKED IT to first base. He must have some soccer experience somewhere along the way, because he kicked it right into the first baseman's glove, and got the out. Absolutely brilliant.

Here's an interesting column about the prospects of C.C. Sabathia eventually getting to 300 wins. The prognosis? Don't put money on it. Of course, he's probably not going to be with the Indians a whole lot longer, but who knows. Maybe he'll surprise us on both counts and win 300 games as an Indian.

And if you follow this link, you'll see that our old friend Charlie Manuel believes his Phillies can score 1,000 runs this year. Charlie's deeply, deeply wrong about this, of course. I think he overestimates the prospects of any team scoring 1,000 runs in a season, simply because he was the hitting coach for a team that did it -- the 1999 Indians, led by Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, David Justice, Roberto Alomar and Kenny Lofton. Charlie may or may not know that those Indians are the only team that's scored 1,000 runs since 1950. And for a National League team to do it, with pitchers taking up one-ninth of the batting order? Virtually impossible. But I suspect Charlie won't care much if they only score 850 runs and win the NL East.

Tim Kurkjian just said on "Mike and Mike in the Morning" that he changed his mind a few days ago about who's going to win the AL Central. He now believes it will be the Indians because the Tigers have too many problems in their bullpen. But of course, it makes no difference what Tim Kurkjian or anyone else thinks. It'll be settled on the field. And I don't know about you, but I'm sure looking forward to it.