News
Indians notch first road victory
DeRosa rips go-ahead RBI single; Laffey has solid outing
By Robert Falkoff / Special to MLB.com
04/15/09 7:35 PM ET
KANSAS CITY -- It seemed totally appropriate that Aaron Laffey was pitching in Missouri on Wednesday. Missouri is known as the "Show-Me" state, and Laffey had something to prove.Stung by his demotion to Triple-A Columbus on March 25, Laffey got the call to start in place of the injured Scott Lewis against the Royals. He proceeded to make a convincing case for staying in the rotation by taking a shutout into the sixth inning of Cleveland's 5-4 victory at Kauffman Stadium.
Laffey celebrated his 24th birthday in style by allowing just three hits and two runs over 5 1/3 innings. Though he wound up with a no-decision, the diminutive left-hander gave Cleveland the type of solid starting pitching that manager Eric Wedge has been seeking.
Cleveland was ahead, 2-1, when Laffey left the mound in the sixth. Kansas City scratched out another run to tie the game, but the Indians quickly answered with a three-run rally in the seventh and held on late as Kerry Wood recorded his first American League save.
Good starting pitching leads to good things. Laffey gave his mates a chance to win, and a run-scoring single by Mark DeRosa, an RBI double by Travis Hafner and a sacrifice fly by Shin-Soo Choo put Cleveland over the top in the decisive seventh.
"I knew that if I just had confidence in my ability and my pitches, everything would work out all right," Laffey said.
Laffey cleared a big hurdle by pitching out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the first. He got Mark Teahen on a short fly ball to right before Billy Butler grounded out. Then Laffey settled into a nice groove and made a positive impression on Wedge.
"Laffey was good today," Wedge said. "He had to work through that first inning, but once he did that, he settled down. He did a good job with his sinker and threw a couple of different sliders -- a hard one and a soft one."
The Indians, winning for the first time on the road, are 2-7 as they head for New York to help open the new Yankee Stadium on Thursday. They have an off-day on April 20, but Wedge indicated that Laffey will get another start.
"He pitched well enough to earn that," Wedge said.
After Cleveland rallied against Kyle Farnsworth (0-2) and Ron Mahay to take the 5-2 lead in the seventh, the Royals (5-4) pecked away with a run in the seventh and saw Teahen lead off the eighth with a hit to right. But Teahen tried to stretch it into a double and was thrown out at second by Choo.
"That was huge," Wedge said.
The Choo assist came just before Mike Jacobs launched a long home run off Jensen Lewis (1-0). Still clinging to a 5-4 lead, the Indians held on until Wood came on to deliver a clean ninth-inning save.
"We've had a tough start, but in the grand scheme, it's just a week," Wood said. "The talent is definitely in this room, and we're going to score runs. Laffey stepped up today and had a huge game. We'd like to start winning some series, and we'll start working on that tomorrow."
Laffey didn't hide his displeasure at being sent back to the Minors and relished the quick opportunity to get back up and help the Indians.
"Everybody is going to be upset at going back to the Minor Leagues," Laffey said. "Nobody wants to be there, especially after being here and having some success here. There was a little more incentive for me to get back this time.
"The other times, it was like, 'I'm young, I'll be back up.' But this was a situation where I felt like it was my spot. I felt that if I came back up, I could prove that, and I think I did a good job of that today."
Indeed, and it came at a most opportune time for the Tribe.
"It's baby steps," Wedge said. "It's always going to start with our starting pitching. [Carl] Pavano was good [on Tuesday]. Laffey was good. We want to start putting this together."
Robert Falkoff is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
