Friday, June 29, 2007

Westbrook Shines, Francisco Delivers












And with that, and thanks to the hard charging Twins steamrolling the Tigers, the Tribe regains first place over the Tigers by 1/2 games.

Despite struggling again on offense, (can we PLEASE cut down on the strikeouts) the Indians managed to top the Devil Rays, 2-1, in the opening game of a four game set at Jacobs Field. The great thing to see was Jake Westbrook's 7 inning, 5 hit, 1 run, 2 walk, 7!?! strikeout performance in his second start after coming off the Disabled List. Jake worked out of a bases loaded, 1 out jam in the first and gave up a run in a shaky second, but was lights out from then on. Unfortunately the Tribe offense was dormant and he was blocked out from picking up the win. That went to closer Joe Borowski who pitched a harmless ninth, and for the first time I can remember, came through in a NON-save situation.

The Indians won on a walk off home run by Ben Francisco, the first batter reliever Shawn Camp faced in the bottom of the 9th. The dinger was Francisco's first in the Majors and was the capper to a night in which he slapped his first major league hit to RF in the 4th inning.

Even with the slumbering offense the Tribe appears to get a little more of their moxie back which they seemed to rediscover after taking 3 of 4 from Oakland. A good sign after looking dead in Washington, DC against the lowly Nationals. The Indians MUST stop playing down to their opponents and a sweep of the D-Rays prior to heading to Detroit would be nice.

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