It wasn’t a good night for the Indians.

First, the result on the field wasn’t very good. Justin Masterson (8-4, 3.57) had one of his bad games, which means he gave up a lot of runs but looked surprisingly competent in the process. In the third inning, for instance, he gave up seeing-eye BABIP-elevating hits to Reid Brignac and Austin Romine, which of course led to a Mark Tiexiera grand slam. Masterson didn’t have his best stuff, but he was a few pitches away from a much better line all the same.

The middle of the order was the culprit offensively tonight. Asdrubal, Swisher, and Reynolds combined to go 0-9 with 4 Ks on the day. Carlos Santana collected two more hits, suggesting he may be coming out of his month-long slump.

Honestly, not much to say about this loss… it was a bad pitching matchup (Masterson is subpar against lefties, and Yankee Stadium is very favorable to lefties, so it’s a perfect storm) and the Yankees are a good team. Sometimes a team is going to lose 7-4 to a better team on a given night. I just know I’ll be glad when this brutal stretch of schedule is over with.

Lastly, and most importantly, Asdrubal Cabrera is almost certainly headed to the DL with some kind of severe strain and/or tear in his quad area. Cabrera came up limping while running to first, and was unable to put any weight on his leg as he was helped off the field. We won’t know what the prognosis is until tomorrow, but it doesn’t look good.

Sounds like more Aviles and maybe a roster spot for Cord Phelps. Can’t say I’m thrilled about that (Cord Phelps, not Aviles. I like Aviles well enough for a stopgap role.

We will see how the Indians respond on Tuesday night. These games are not “must-win” games, but the team is definitely feeling some pressure. Guys like Reynolds and Stubbs need to find their offensive happy place again, and soon.

9 Comments

  • Chris Burnham says:

    I’m surprised Tito didn’t try for a replay on the grand slam. The kid used his hat to haul it over. Maybe he didn’t want to tempt fate since we got lucky last month.

    • Adam Hintz says:

      I think it got over the fence… it was inconclusive, at best.

      That’s what I mean about it being just bad for Masterson. He struggles against lefties and that porch in right makes it easier for lefties… so it’s just asking for trouble. That grand slam is in Stubbs’ glove in Cleveland.

  • shaun says:

    i think our karma from the A’s blown call has stung us more than a few times lately…anyone else notice just how poor umpiring has been this season? and not just for the tribe?

    • Adam Hintz says:

      It’s been bad. I’m surprised more managers aren’t getting tossed… I figured Sportscenter and Twitter will be all over the highlights of an ejection… might spotlight the bad call, too.

  • Steve Alex says:

    I appreciate Cabrera’s toughness in trying to grit it out the last couple of weeks with the quad. But, we have arguably the best backup shortstop in the league in Aviles. He could start for many teams. Maybe some of the Yankees’ success with no-name backups while their stars were hurt will inspire the Tribe to win while Cabrera and Perez are on the shelf. Overall, the team has settled into a mediocre level of play that could really hurt them in the standings on this road trip against elite teams. Coming home from NY, DET and TEX still over .500 would be good.

  • Sean Porter says:

    Apparently Jhonny Peralta will be named as one of 20 players who failed PED tests… The Tribe won’t be the only team in the Central without their starting shortstop for the time being.

  • shaun says:

    interesting to see what comes out of this. did anyone catch the chinwag b/w aviles and then francona and randazzo. couldn’t make it out but it looked good..took a bit of sting out of the loss to see some fire.

  • Sean Porter says:

    If I was Francona I’d probably be thrown out of every game over the last two weeks or so.

    The umpiring of late has been atrocious. As bad as the foul tip that wasn’t for Aviles was, the dozen pitches around our batters ankles called for strikes was worse. Randazzo personally saved Phelps ass one inning.

  • shaun says:

    i wouldn’t mind as much if it went both ways but when they’re balls for nyy and strikes for us, ya i care!