NewsBig inning hurts Tribe, Sowers vs. Sox
Indians held to five hits as they drop 14th of past 17
By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com
07/01/09 10:59 PM ET
CLEVELAND -- Take as long or as short a segment of the calendar as you want, and it looks bad for the Indians. Following Wednesday night's 6-2 loss to the White Sox at Progressive Field, the Indians have either just been swept in a three-game series, lost for the fifth time in six games on this homestand, lost for the 14th time in 17 games overall, lost for the first time in July after a 9-18 record in June or lost for the 49th time in 80 games this season, depending on your perspective. If it's a matter of multiple choice, just answer "all of the above." No matter the stretch you choose to focus on, it's not pretty. "It's not a mystery that we're struggling," starter Jeremy Sowers said. "We've been in some games, but we just haven't found a way to get over the top. ... Right now, we're searching for an identity and a rhythm. For whatever reason, it's not clicking." Neither the starting pitching nor the offense have been clicking consistently on this homestand. On this night, Sowers (2-6, 5.68) followed up seven strong innings against the Reds by reverting to his old ways of getting roughed up in the fifth and sixth. And the Tribe bats remained quiet when it counted for the fifth time in as many days. Jose Contreras came in with a 3-0 record and 1.74 ERA in his last four starts against the Indians, and they did little to put an end to that recent trend. In eight innings against Contreras, the Tribe mustered just a pair of runs on five hits with a walk and seven strikeouts. "His splitter was his best pitch," right fielder Shin-Soo Choo said. "It looked like a [Tim] Wakefield knuckleball. It moved a lot. It was tough to hit." Sowers was equally tough to hit in the game's first four innings. He allowed just three hits in that span and held the Sox scoreless. But Sowers tends to struggle his third time through an opponents' order, and that was certainly the case in this one. In the fifth, the Sox evened it the score up at 1 when Alexei Ramirez singled to score Gordon Beckham, who had doubled. The inning might have progressed further, had Ramirez not mistakenly tried to leg out a double on the play. In the sixth, Sowers got two quick outs before the inning fell apart. Jim Thome and Paul Konerko singled, and Ramon Castro belted a first-pitch fastball out to right for a three-run homer. "He threw first-pitch strikes in the first two at-bats," Castro said. "Third at-bat, money on the table, I'm swinging all the way, and he gave me a good pitch to hit." Jayson Nix followed with a double, and Beckham knocked him in with a single to cap the four-run inning that made it 5-1. That was Sowers' final inning of work, but it was the Sox aggressiveness, not a high pitch count, that did him in. He left having thrown 79 pitches, and the Indians took that as a sign of progress. "His last start was very good," Wedge said of Sowers. "And this one was still better than what we've seen prior to that [last start]." Sowers, who might be destined for a bullpen job when Aaron Laffey, Fausto Carmona or Jake Westbrook return to the rotation, agreed. "This one was a little bit better than some of the others because I still wasn't throwing many pitches," Sowers said. "They were just hitting the ball. That's a lot more acceptable than walking guys and having a 30-pitch inning." The Indians didn't work Contreras into any 30-pitch innings, so Sowers' start, no matter how many positives the Indians might have taken from it, was not enough to get the job done. And Choo losing a Konerko fly ball in the twilight, resulting in a seventh-inning RBI double, didn't help matters. This is life for this last-place Indians team this season and particularly the past few weeks. This club has not clicked, and the losses continue to mount. "Right now, we're in a little bit of a rut," Wedge said. "We've got to make sure we come in here and expect good things to happen and control the ballgame. I'd like to see us jump out early offensively and try to give us a chance to control the ballgame and let the starting pitcher roll with it from there."Anthony Castrovince is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
