News
Lee outdueled by Jays' Halladay
Tribe records 0-5 start for the first time since 1985
By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com
04/11/09 6:15 PM ET
CLEVELAND -- In one sense, it's only five games. And if these five games came, say, in the middle of a 162-game season, they'd probably be shrugged off as a bump in the long road. In another, very real sense, it's a five-game stretch at a time when teams are trying to establish a tone. And the tone being established by the Indians thus far in 2009 is a perilous one. Reigning Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee is laboring, the offense is scuffling in the clutch, the defense has made some notable miscues and the club's record is now 0-5 after a 5-4 loss to the Blue Jays on a chilly Saturday at Progressive Field. "What the guys are battling right now is what every fan is feeling," manager Eric Wedge said. "When you get off to a start like this, everything's going to be [multiplied] times 10." Yes, and it probably won't help the Indians much to hear they're the first Tribe team to begin a season 0-5 since the 1985 club that finished 60-102. It definitely won't help them to hear they're in danger of becoming the first Cleveland club to begin 0-6 since the 1914 Cleveland Naps, who finished 51-102. These are the sounds that must be shut off in the Tribe clubhouse. "We're going to win a lot of ballgames," first baseman Ryan Garko said. "No one's going to panic." Indeed, all precedents aside, the Indians can certainly pull out of this funk. But the first step in doing so is getting the starting rotation on track, and that's a job that fell into the left hand of staff ace Lee on this day. And Lee, much to the Indians' chagrin, simply didn't have it. He didn't get roughed up quite as bad as he did on Opening Day, when the Rangers torched him for seven runs in five innings. But in five innings, he was inefficient, using 102 pitches, and ineffective, giving up four runs on seven hits with four walks, five strikeouts and a wild pitch. He let the leadoff man aboard in each of the first four innings, and three of those runners scored. The walks stood out above all else. Lee has walked five this season. He didn't reach that tally until his eighth start of the '08 season. Yet Lee, who began using his curveball more often as this start evolved, with noticeably improved results, nonetheless insisted his fastball location was fine. "Obviously, those aren't the results I'm looking for," Lee said. "I felt I was locating the fastball, to be honest. I did miss a few times, but, for the most part, I felt I was locating." Wedge was a little more realistic. "I thought he was a little erratic with his fastball," Wedge said. "There were times when he was throwing where he wanted to, but he was also missing by quite a bit at times." On the other end of the spectrum, right-hander Roy Halladay, who finished second in the American League Cy Young voting last season, had the Indians guessing and missing out on some prime early opportunities. Trailing 3-0 in the second, Shin-Soo Choo singled and Jhonny Peralta doubled off the top of the right-field wall to put two runners in scoring position. But Garko, Kelly Shoppach and Ben Francisco went down in order to end the threat, with Garko and Shoppach striking out swinging. An inning later, the Indians stranded Asdrubal Cabrera at third. "Those are the things we've got to do a better job with," Wedge said of his club, which is 5-for-39 (.128) with runners in scoring position. "Even if you get jammed and push the ball to third base, you've got to put the ball in play. You can't miss opportunities like that, because, more times than not, that comes back to get you." Another mistake that came back to bite the Tribe came in the top of the second. With the bases loaded and two out, Lee served up a bloop single to Aaron Hill. One run scored easily, but Choo's throw from right should have easily nabbed Kevin Millar at the plate. Instead, Shoppach dropped the ball and therefore missed the tag. "He knows and everybody knows he needs to hang onto that one," Wedge said. The Jays hung onto their lead for the remainder of this game. Grady Sizemore's RBI double off Halladay in the fifth got the Indians on the board, but the Jays put up an important insurance run in the eighth, when Joe Smith inherited two baserunners from the newly promoted Vinnie Chulk and let one across on a sacrifice fly. That run proved important because the Indians awoke against the struggling B.J. Ryan in their last at-bat. With two out, Francisco singled and Cabrera and Sizemore both walked. Mark DeRosa, mired in season-opening slump, came up and belted a bases-clearing double off the left-field wall to make it 5-4. But Jason Frasor came on to strike out Victor Martinez and end the game. If nothing else, the Indians showed some needed signs of life in that late rally that they hope they can take with them moving forward. "We need to get back to controlling the baseball game and not making it so hard for ourselves," Wedge said. "Today should be a step in the right direction." What the Indians can't do, Wedge said, is focus on their early missteps. "There are a lot of things that go on mentally early in the year that you've got to handle," Wedge said. "I know what it takes to handle situations like that. We've developed a lot of toughness over the years, and you've got to draw from that and use it to your advantage."Anthony Castrovince is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
