Indians Vs. Angels Final: Los Angeles Rallies In The Eighth To Beat The Indians 6-5

The Indians must be really glad to be coming back from the West Coast, even though the record will show that they went 3-3 on this trip and have the exact same 4 1/2 game lead that they had when they took off last weekend from Cleveland.

In a game which resembled an old Minneapolis Metrodome game at times, the Angels took the lead in the sixth thanks to an error, the Indians fought back in the eighth and regained the lead, and then the Tribe watched Los Angeles bounce two "hits" off of home plate before a double over the head of Austin Kearns in the bottom of the eighth scored a pair and gave the Angels a 6-5 victory, with the Tribe teasing us just once more with a run in the ninth on consecutive one-out doubles from Grady Sizemore and Asdrubal Cabrera, before Shin-Soo Choo struck out on what seemed like a questionable swinging strike three, and Carlos Santana ended it with another swinging strikeout.

This one started out so well for the Indians.

Austin Kearns drove in a run with a second-inning single off of Dan Haren to give the Tribe the early lead, and when Sizemore homered in the fifth, the lead doubled to 2-0.

Then, in the bottom of the sixth and with two outs, Maicer Izturis singled and Vernon Wells reached on a fielding error by Cleveland third baseman Adam Everett.

Time for Fausto Carmona to bear down and not allow the error to rattle him, yes?

No.

Alberto Callaspo drilled a double to center that Sizemore may have had trouble with, and the game was tied as both runners scored.

Then Howie Kendrick reached on an infield single (a specialty which would haunt the Indians later), and Hank Conger plated the go-ahead run with a single to center, putting the Angels up 3-2.

The Indians got Haren out of the game in the seventh, and in the eighth, off of Fernando Rodney, Cleveland rallied to go back ahead.

After Asdrubal Cabrera led off with a single, Choo was retired, but Santana singled Cabrera to third, on a play where the throw from the outfield almost got away. Santana took second on the play.

Then Travis Hafner tied the game with a single and Orlando Cabrera delivered a sac fly and just like that, the Indians led again, 4-3. After Cabrera stole second and Matt LaPorta was hit by a pitch, Austin Kearns fanned to end the rally,

Then came the bottom of the eighth, with Rafael Perez coming on for Carmona (3-3, 3.83 ERA) who was good enough to win on this day, except for the Angels’ Designated Home Plate in Los Angeles' last at-bat.

Kendrick doubled with one out, but Raffy got Conger to strike out. In came Joe Smith, with a chance to get the game to the ninth.

And into play came home plate.

Mark Trumbo beat a ball into the dish, and by the time it came down Trumbo had a hit and Kendrick was at third.

Then Peter Bourjos did the exact same thing, driving the ball off of the plate and beating it out as Smith waited helplessly for the ball to come down to his glove, scoring Kendrick with the tying run.

Two good pitches, two lucky breaks for Los Angeles.

And inevitably, it seemed, Erick Aybar followed with a double, scoring Trumbo and Bourjos, before Smith finally got out of the inning.

Smith takes the loss to drop to 1-1 on the season, while Rodney gets the win, even after allowing two runs in the eighth. Rodney moves to 2-1, with Jordan Walden getting the shaky save, his sixth on the season.

The first run in the eighth inning was charged to Rafael Perez, and — cheap as it may have been — became the first run allowed by Perez this season.

The Indians now have an off-day tomorrow. It will be needed after this tortuous affair today. On Tuesday the Tampa Bay Rays pay a visit to Progressive Field in the first of a three-game series.

That won’t be easy, either. The Rays — after beating the Orioles in Baltimore today — have now won eight straight road games.

Indians Get Another Shot At Dan Haren On Sunday Afternoon

After Dan Haren of the Angels tossed a one-hitter at the Indians on April 12, it might be considered a formidable task to try to beat Haren this afternoon in a rematch in the same venue, but after solving Jered Weaver last night, the Tribe faces Haren at 3:35 with a chance to go 4-2 on this west coast swing before returning home.

Fausto Carmona gets the job of trying to match-up with Haren in a personal rematch of that April 12 game, won by Los Angeles 2-0.

Carmona (3-3, 4.43 ERA) is coming off of a win over Oakland on Tuesday, In that game, Carmona held the A’s to one run on five hits in eight innings, with one walk and five strikeouts. Since Opening Day, Carmona has allowed only 12 earned runs in 41 2/3 innings, for a 2.59 ERA over that span.

This will be Carmona’s ninth career appearance against the Angels, against whom he is 0-3 but with a nice 2.11 ERA.

Haren (4-2, 1.76 ERA) is now 3-2 in his career against Cleveland, with a 4.06 ERA in 51 innings, but that one-hitter in April will be what the Indians think about when they take the field today.

Haren had a somewhat rough outing in Boston on Tuesday, but went seven innings in a 7-3 loss, giving up four runs on nine hits, with eight K’s.

The Angels, surprisingly, have lost the last three games started by Haren. If the Tribe could run that streak to four, they would come home for an off-day tomorrow with a 23-10 record.

Now let’s see if The Good Guys can do what they could not last time Haren took the mound against them.

It will be another test of the offense, and another tough contest for Carmona. But Fausto has been pitching like an ace as of late. That kind of performance this afternoon, and the flight home might be a happy one.

Go Tribe!

Indians Vs. Angels Final: Shin-Soo Choo Breaks A Slump To Help Cleveland Win 4-3

It was not looking good early last night, as the Los Angeles Angels’ Vernon Wells gave the home team an early 2-0 lead with a homer off of Tribe rookie Alex White, who was making just his second career appearance, but White hung tough for six innings, allowing just three runs, Shin-Soo Choo hit a two-run double (breaking an 0-for-18 slump) to give Cleveland the lead in the fifth, and the Tribe bullpen shut down the Angels for three innings as the Indians won the middle-game of this three-game series 4-3, beating Jered Weaver and assuring no worse than a .500 road trip.

White (1-0, 3.75 ERA) tossed 100 pitches in doing a splendid job of keeping the Indians in the game. And Weaver (6-2, 1.87 ERA), who has been nasty against the American League this year, could not sustain the early lead.

After Wells gave Los Angeles the 2-0 lead in the second, White got out of a first-and-third-and-one-out jam in the third, getting a double play grounder from Maicer Izturis to end the threat, and the Indians got one back in the fourth.

With one out, Carlos Santana doubled and moved to third on a single by Travis Hafner. Orlando Cabrera then came through with a sacrifice fly, and it was 2-1 Angels.

In the Cleveland fifth, the Indians did all of their damage with two outs. Grady Sizemore walked and went to second on a wild pitch from Weaver, and Asdrubal Cabrera also walked. That was when Choo came through with his double down the line to right, scoring both runners and giving the Tribe the lead.

Carlos Santana followed with a single to center, scoring Choo with what would turn out to be the winning run.

The Angels got their final run in the bottom of the sixth when Wells got his third RBI of the game on a sac fly, but that came an inning after White allowed two singles to start the fifth and got out of the jam without any damage.

Tony Sipp pitched a perfect seventh. In the eighth, Vinnie Pestano was helped by a base-running blunder from the Angels’ Izturis, who led off with a single and then — after one was out — tried to go to third on a ground out and was cut down at third by Santana, who hit Jack Hannahan in stride going to the bag, where Hannahan’s tag completed the odd double play.

Chris Perez pitched a perfect ninth for his tenth save of 2011.

The Indians collected nine hits, with Choo, Santana and Hafner all coming through with two.

It was the second game in a row with two hits for Santana — a good sight and hopefully a sign that Santana is coming out of his slump.

The series and road trip concludes on Sunday afternoon at 3:35.

Indians Need To Find Their Hitting Shoes With Rookie Alex White Facing Los Angeles

Indians’ rookie pitcher Alex White has an unenviable task tonight, but if he can handle it as well as he handled his first major league start, it would give the Tribe a chance.

But that "chance" would be more viable Cleveland could find a way out of the offensive funk that has plagued them on much of this road trip to the West Coast.

After collecting only three hits in eleven innings off of rookie Tyler Chatwood and three Los Angeles relievers in last night’s 2-1 loss to the Angels, the Indians will try to earn their third win on their trip tonight.

But it will not be easy.

White went six innings in his major league debut last Saturday, surrendering only two runs on six hits with four walks and four K’s against the Tigers, in a game eventually won by Cleveland 3-2. It was an impressive debut (remember that Detroit took three straight from the Yankees earlier this week), and now White is matched up with one of the most impressive pitchers in the American League in the Angels’ Jered Weaver.

Weaver (6-1, 1.39 ERA) suffered his first loss of the season in Boston on Monday, being touched up for three runs in six innings of a 9-5 Red Sox win. But even with allowing an average of a run every two innings in Fenway, Weaver struck out six and walked only one, while permitting six hits.

Weaver has also had considerable success in his career against the Tribe. He comes into tonight’s game with a mark of 4-1 in ten starts against The Good Guys, with an ERA of 3.39 in 58 1/3 innings.

And Weaver has been almost untouchable in Anaheim this year, where he is 2-0 with an 0.54 ERA, giving up just one run and eleven hits on his home turf, walking five and fanning an impressive (and daunting, for a struggling offense) 25 strikeouts.

It would be helpful if the Tribe could get some good innings from White, as the bullpen has been taxed, having had to endure two straight extra-inning games.

Last night, after most of the pen had been gone through and with Chris Perez not available, it was up to Justin Germano — who had not pitched in nine days — to try to hold the Angels at bay in the eleventh.

Four straight hits and zero outs later, the Indians had fallen to 21-10. But thanks to Toronto beating Detroit and Oakland beating Kansas City, the Tigers remained seven games behind, and the Royals stayed 4 1/2 games back, in second place.

The only Central Division team to win (and gain ground) last night was the Twins, who still languish 8 1/2 games behind, with the White Sox a full eleven games in arrears.

This series and road trip will conclude tomorrow afternoon when Fausto Carmona takes on Dan Haren — the Dan Haren who bewitched the Indians on one hit in April.

Now would be a really good time to get the offense going again, guys. For even when this trip is over and you are back home, Tampa Bay will be coming at you with David Price and James Shields — another couple of pitchers who can be lights-out.

Ergo…please wake up offense, while the lead is still healthy.

This Place Looks Familiar: Indians Return To Anaheim For Three More With The Angels Beginning Friday Night

The Indians will be back in familiar territory tonight as they begin a series in Anaheim against the Angels.

This will be the Tribe's second trip to face Los Angeles this season. The Angels took two out of three against Cleveland April 11-13.

In the series opener tonight, Justin Masterson will try again for his sixth win of the season, when he opposes the Angels' Tyler Chatwood (2-1, 4.94).

Chatwood lost to the Indians in his major league debut on April 11, giving up homers to Asdrubal Cabrera and Matt LaPorta on the way to allowing four runs in five innings of a 4-0 Indians' win. Chatwood received no decision in his last outing, giving up nine hits and five runs in only four innings against the Tampa Bay Rays in a game eventually won by the Angels.

For the season, Chatwood has gone 27 1/3 innings, allowing 29 hits and 17 walks, but only 15 earned runs. Chatwood has struck out 13 in five starts, and has wins over the White Sox and Oakland since losing to the Tribe in April.

Masterson (5-0, 2.25 ERA) had his string of five straight games with a win broken last Sunday against the Tigers when he allowed three runs -- two earned -- in seven innings of a game the Indians eventually won 5-4. Masterson walked two and fanned seven in that outing, and surrendered seven hits to Detroit.

In his career Masterson has had good success against the Angels. In seven games, including four starts, Masterson is 2-0 versus Los Angeles, and has given up only nine earned runs in 30 innings for a 2.70 ERA. This will be Masterson's first appearance against the Angels in 2011.

The Angels are fifth in the majors with a .267 team batting average. They are led in hitting by Erick Aybar at .342, and have five players batting over .300 on the season. Howie Kendrick and Mark Trumbo share the team lead with six homers, and Trumbo leads with 17 RBI.

On the pitching side of the ledger, Los Angeles is also fifth in the majors with a 3.13 ERA as a team.

The Indians will be seeing two of the best later in this series when Jered Weaver and Dan Haren take the hill. Haren has already tossed a one-hitter at Cleveland this year in Anaheim'

The Tribe is tied for third in the big leagues with a .271 team average, led by Travis Hafner at .353. Asdrubal Cabrera and Carlos Santana each check in with five homers, and Asdrubal leads with 21 RBI.

The Indians' staff comes in at sixth in the majors with a team ERA of 3.31.

This series will continue on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, before the Tribe comes home and takes on Tampa Bay after a day-off on Monday. It is sure that the Indians will be seeing Tampa Bay ace David Price in that series, so runs will be at a premium this weekend and on into next week.

But runs were at a premium in Oakland and Cleveland was able to take two-of-three to maintain their 4 1/2 game lead over the Royals. There is no reason to think that -- with strong starting pitching -- the Indians can't continue the roll that has seen them go 8-1 in their last nine games.

Los Angeles enters this series in first place in the American League West, a game ahead of the Texas Rangers.