Crazy, crazy, crazy
If Thurday's game against the Yankees was a contest the Indians should have won (and it was), Sunday's against the Devil Rays had "loss" written all over it for 8 1/3 innings.
Cleveland was sluggish all afternoon, collecting two hits in the game before the ninth inning -- a double by the infamous Casey Blake and a homer by the next batter, Jhonny Peralta.
But it wasn't just the offense that was a problem. The bottom of the eighth inning was a disaster. Only one ball left the infield for a hit, and yet the Devil Rays scored twice. Tom Mastny's wild pitch appeared to be the game's climax.
But the Indians were given a gift by the Devil Rays, who opted not to bring in closer Al Reyes, because he had pitched in consecutive games (what are they trying to do, kill the man?). Instead, the Indians faced a shaky Brian Stokes, who hit Grady Sizemore, then with one out, walked Travis Hafner.
Victor Martinez followed with an RBI single.
Then Ryan Garko batted with runners at first and second.
To me, the at-bat was the game. Blake was on deck, and since he hasn't exactly been lighting it up with runners on this year (3 for 24), I figured Garko had to come through to avoid a series loss to Tampa Bay.
He did, clubbing a three run shot to left.
Joe Borowski had no trouble in the ninth (2 for 2 in save situations since the meltdown in the Bronx) and the Indians won.
They say things work themselves out over a baseball season. Every team, no matter how well-built, will suffer a few humiliating losses. In the last four days, the Indians had one of those.
Sunday, they got one back.
I'm still not crazy about Eric Wedge as a manager, and I'm not crazy about Blake getting so many starts.
But don't sound the alarm just yet.