Well, one way to ensure a victory is to shut out the opposing team and that is exactly what Carlos Carrasco and the Cleveland Indians did tonight to stop a 5 game losing skid.  It was great to see Carrasco look so confident out there.  He had a great rhythm going and was able to escape any damage when he got into trouble (which was really only once).

One thing that still is a concern, however, is the Tribe offense.  Luckily they were able to scratch across an unearned run, which in this case was enough, but they need to get the bats working, and quick.  Especially since they are traveling to New York after this current homestand for a weekend series against the Yanks.  But either way, a win is a win, and they needed that one tonight.  Nicely done.

Some interesting notes:

* Apparently Cord Phelps from AAA Columbus is in Cleveland, but no roster moves have been made as of yet.  Wonder where that is going…

* Nick Johnson has a claus in his contract which basically says if he’s not on a big league club by July 1st, he can opt out.  So keep an eye on that.

* Travis Hafner to resume baseball activities soon.  Get healthy, buddy.

Tribe looking to take the series tomorrow afternoon starting at 12:05.  GO TRIBE.

Five lossess, that is.  But I’ll get to that in a second.

First off, I haven’t posted in a while due to the MLBlogs switch to WordPress as I’m sure you are all aware of.  Not that I have anything against WordPress, I just didn’t have the time to familiarize myself with a new blogging interface.  Now, I know WordPress is pretty common, but I’m not much of a blogger aside from this little Indians blog.  It’s always just kind of been for myself to get some thoughts out.  I’m what you might call a stressed out fan.

But anyway, on to the Tribe.  Now, I knew that the Indians would eventually cool off and hit a rough patch.  That’s baseball.  The best teams in all of history hit rough patches.  But of course, with our little skid the Detroit Tigers have hit a winning streak, and sure enough they’ve cut the Tribe lead in the AL Central down to a measly 1.5 games.  With all the success the Indians have had this year, they’ve gotten contributions from all over the field, up and down the lineup.   Everything seemed to be clicking.  During this losing streak, it’s been the exact opposite.  The pitching hasn’t been there, the offense hasn’t been there, and the defense has been shaky.

All I can do is sit back and hope they figure it all out and get back on track.  Travis Hafner is apparently ready to start resuming baseball activities, which is a good sign.  Hopefully he’s not too far away from returning to the lineup, and more importantly, hopefully he’ll be able to continue what he was doing in the beginning of the season.

The Choo and Santana 1-2 punch in the middle of the lineup has been extremely frustrating to watch.  I know those two guys can hit, I know they know what they are doing, but for whatever reason they simply are not getting the job done.  They’ve been killing rallies at the worst possible times, and the hits they do get rarely have amounted to anything.  Santana I’m giving a bit more leeway too for being a young player trying to find his Major League groove, but Choo needs to get his head right and quick.  He’s claiming the DUI arrest is still on his mind, which has effected his play, but he needs to man up and move on.  He’s a great baseball player when he wants to be.

So that’s it, my first post in a while and it’s probably a mess of a read, but I wanted to vent a bit.  Cross your fingers for  Tribe victory tomorrow, they need it.