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Rock bottom?
Friday's loss may not have been the Indians' worst of the season - the competition for that honor, so to speak, is extremely intense - but it's at least in the top five. Maybe the top 3.
When you have a 7-0 lead with the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner on the mound, you should probably win that game. The Indians lost that game, 8-7 in 10 innings. They lost the game because their bullpen is a lost cause. When Cliff Lee, pitching magnificently again, left the game in the eighth inning, the Indians were leading 7-2. All Lee was was asking from the bullpen was for six outs.
Instead, the bullpen blew sky high again and the Indians gave up four runs in the eighth inning, one in the ninth, and one in the 10th. Manager Eric Wedge tried most of what's out there, all the usual suspects - with the exception of Jensen Lewis (and how buried is he right now?) - but nobody could stop the bleeding.
The most revealing moment of the day, however, came before the game started, when Wedge was talking to the media about the decision to release reliever Greg Aquino. "We probably could have sent out two or three guys,'' said Wedge.
That's how bad the Indians' bullpen is right now. There is nobody that Wedge can count on, and that includes Kerry Wood, who has already given up five home runs in 24 innings after giving up only three homers in 66 innings in the entire 2008 season. Wood's problem, however, is he simply isn't sharp due to a lack of consistent work.
There are no such excuses that apply to the other relievers. Based on what we've seen so far, this has a chance to be the worst Indians bullpen in not years but in decades.
When you have a 7-0 lead with the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner on the mound, you should probably win that game. The Indians lost that game, 8-7 in 10 innings. They lost the game because their bullpen is a lost cause. When Cliff Lee, pitching magnificently again, left the game in the eighth inning, the Indians were leading 7-2. All Lee was was asking from the bullpen was for six outs.
Instead, the bullpen blew sky high again and the Indians gave up four runs in the eighth inning, one in the ninth, and one in the 10th. Manager Eric Wedge tried most of what's out there, all the usual suspects - with the exception of Jensen Lewis (and how buried is he right now?) - but nobody could stop the bleeding.
The most revealing moment of the day, however, came before the game started, when Wedge was talking to the media about the decision to release reliever Greg Aquino. "We probably could have sent out two or three guys,'' said Wedge.
That's how bad the Indians' bullpen is right now. There is nobody that Wedge can count on, and that includes Kerry Wood, who has already given up five home runs in 24 innings after giving up only three homers in 66 innings in the entire 2008 season. Wood's problem, however, is he simply isn't sharp due to a lack of consistent work.
There are no such excuses that apply to the other relievers. Based on what we've seen so far, this has a chance to be the worst Indians bullpen in not years but in decades.
posted by News-Herald Blogs at
12:06 AM
2 Comments:
a true shame, if we even had a so-so bullpen we probably could take this division.
A while back the Blue Jays had a long losing streak an dhad Hallady on the mound up 8-3. They took Hallady out and the guy they brought in gave up 5 to go to extras. In the 11th Toronto scored 2 to go up 10-8. B.J. Ryan and some other guy promptly gave up 4 and Baltimore won 12-10. If you really follow baseball this happens every day. Philly is in a long losing streak and they gave up 3 in the 9th Sat. and lost 6-5 to Balt. It's not fun but it is baseball reality and it happens to everybody.
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