MVN - Most Valuable Network

Game #36: Sizemore and Laffey lead Tribe to huge win

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Toronto	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	9	1
CLEVELAND	6	0	0	3	3	0	6	0	X		12	12	0
W: Aaron Laffey (1-2) L: Dustin McGowan (2-3) HR: CLE: Grady Sizemore 2 (5,6)

Grady Sizemore hit two home runs and drove in five, and Aaron Laffey pitched seven innings of shutout ball, as the Cleveland Indians hammered the Toronto Blue Jays 12-0 on Friday night in Cleveland.

Sizemore’s huge night began early, when he took a 3-2 pitch from Toronto starter Dustin McGowan into the right field seats for a lead-off home run in the first inning. The homer triggered a six-run inning for the Indians, who never looked back. Sizemore also doubled home a run in the fourth, and put an exclamation point on his offensive night with a three-run jack in the fifth. When it was all said and done, Sizemore went 3 for 5, scoring three, and driving in five. It’s the kind of night that people have grown to expect from the centerfielder, but haven’t seen much of this season.

Aaron Laffey finally caught a break, receiving some offensive support from an offensive that had let him down in his first two starts. After his first two starts, Laffey found himself 0-2, but with a sparkling 2.84 ERA. The Indians had managed only two runs total in both of his starts, and he was the hard-luck loser in both. Laffey must have felt like it was Christmas when he strolled to the mound in the second inning of Saturday Night’s game.

In the first six innings, Laffey was a buzzsaw, only giving up two hits and a walk, and only allowing one Blue Jay to reach second inning. Laffey would run into his only trouble in the seventh inning. He gave up a lead-off single to newly acquired Blue Jay, Kevin Mench, but seemed to get out of the inning when Shannon Stewart followed with a double-play ball. Things were only getting started. Lyle Overbay, Marco Scutaro and Gregg Zaun followed with back-to-back-to-back singles, but couldn’t get a run in. Eric Wedge stuck by his starter, and Laffey rewarded him by forcing Jorge Velandia to line out to end the inning, and his night.

Laffey went seven innings, giving up only six hits, walking one and striking out two. He lowered his ERA to a fantastic 1.84, which would lead most teams that don’t have Cliff Lee in their rotation. He was incredibly efficient, throwing 89 pitches, 58 of them strikes. He’s giving the Indians’ brass quite a look while replacing injured starter Jake Westbrook. It will be interesting to see what happens to Laffey when Westbrook returns at the end of May, or the beginning of June. With Jeremy Sowers and Adam Miller looking brilliant at Buffalo, Cleveland has a bevy of riches for their rotation. This will be a valuable commodity as the season progresses, whether it be for the September run, or the July trade deadline.

Cleveland’s offense seem inspired after Grady Sizemore’s lead-off home run. Dustin McGowan, the Toronto starter, didn’t exactly walk into the game used to giving up these kinds of innings. Coming into this game, he had a 2.95 ERA, but like Laffey, hadn’t gotten a whole lot of run support. That didn’t stop the Indians from making quick work of him.

After Sizemore’s homer, Jamey Carroll singled and David Dellucci walked. Victor Martinez followed with a single to score Carroll, and moved to second on Brad Wilkerson’s error. Ben Francisco than hit a sacrifice fly to score Dellucci, making the score 3-0 Cleveland, still with only one out. Travis Hafner managed to get hit by a pitch, and VMart and Hafner advanced to second and third on a ground out by Ryan Garko. Asdrubal Cabrera followed with a single that scored both VMart and Hafner, and getting to second on the throw home. Casey Blake followed with yet another single, scoring the hustling Cabrera. Sizemore would end the inning with a ground out, but Cleveland had the 6-0 lead.

They didn’t stop there. In the fourth, Cabrera and Casey Blake had back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. Sizemore doubled, scoring Cabrera. Carroll would strike out, and Dellucci would fly out, but Cleveland would again capitalize with two outs. VMart singled in both Sizemore and Blake, and the Indians led 9-0.

The action continued in the fifth. Ryan Garko would double after Hafner struck out to lead off the inning. Cabrera would strike out as well, but again, two outs seemed to be the trigger for the Indians on this night. Casey Blake would battle, before walking on a nine-pitch at bat. Sizemore would also battle, before hitting his sixth homer of the year on a seven-pitch at bat to end the scoring for the inning at three runs, and the game at 12 runs.

Those two at bats by Sizemore and Blake summarize the Indians’ improved hitting. They are willing to take bad pitches, and are fighting off good pitches, waiting for the right pitch. Cleveland also managed to score eight of their 12 runs with two outs. This was something they excelled at last season, and something they are returning to this season. Sure, we’re talking about Toronto here, but I’ll take it.

A.J. Burnett will go up against Fausto Carmona in the next game. We’ll see if Carmona can regain some of the control that he’s appeared to have lost. It seems as though Carmona is trying to throw everything either on the bottom edge of the strike zone, or just out of it. When he trusts his stuff, and throws strikes, he’s most effective. Lucky for him, his stuff is so wicked, that when he’s wild, he’s still good.

Let’s hope for that stellar start.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 11th, 2008 at 6:23 pm and is filed under Aaron Laffey, Asdrubal Cabrera, Cliff Lee, Fausto Carmona, Dustin McGowan, Jake Westbrook, Ben Francisco, Jamey Carroll, VMart, Tribe Victory, Jorge Velandia, Adam Miller, Marco Scutaro, Brad Wilkerson, Travis Hafner, David Dellucci, Cleveland Indians, Kevin Mench, Ryan Garko, Lyle Overbay, Toronto Blue Jays, Gregg Zaun, James Pete, Jeremy Sowers, Victor Martinez, Grady Sizemore, A.J. Burnett, Tribe Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.