On Tuesday afternoon, I wrote that Jeanmar Gomez’s job may be on the line. And if that was the case, he did nothing to convince the coaching staff that he deserves to take the mound again in five days.

His performance against the Reds was the quintessential Gomez outing. He wasn’t exactly roughed up, but he was so inconsistent that his pitch count quickly climbed and he was forced out of the game after five ineffective innings.

In 32 career starts, Gomez has been knocked out before the 6th inning 12 times. And only three times has he completed seven innings of work. As a result, with Gomez in the rotation, the Tribe bullpen is essentially guaranteed three to four innings of work every 5th day.

While watching Sunday Night Baseball this week, I heard Orel Hershiser reference the idea that when you use the bullpen on your own terms, things tend to go well, but when you’re forced into using the pen, that’s when meltdowns happen. And Tuesday night demonstrated the very essence of his point.

A few other thoughts and notes…

  • Tony Sipp’s overall stats are tough to look at, and I saw more than a handful of people calling for his job on Twitter after the home run he gave up to Joey Votto. However, Sipp can still be extremely valuable when used correctly. Lefties are hitting just .176 against him this season and that’s not a weapon the Indians are going to part with any time soon.
  • Michael Brantley extended his hit streak to 19 games, matching a career high. He’s now just one game away from the Indians 7th 20-game hit streak since 1990 and their first since Casey Blake’s 26-game streak in 2006.
  • Jason Kipnis drove in the Tribe’s only run, becoming the first Indians second baseman with 40 RBI through the team’s first 60 games since Hall of Famer Robbie Alomar in 2001. He’s on pace for 108 RBI.
  • Johnny Cueto became the first pitcher to throw a complete game against the Indians in interleague play since Aaron Harang in 2006.

4 Comments

  • Swift says:

    If the rest of the rotation continues to pitch good (and I’m not completely convinced yet that Tomlin, Masterson and Jimenez are completely back on track, though all have looked better), then I’m OK with one guy who is shakey. I agree, I’m a little more worried about Sipp and I wonder if the guy they just got from the Rockies is to fix that.

    If they did send Gomez to Columbus, what are the choices down there?

  • Connor says:

    McAllister has looked great in both Cleveland and Columbus so he is an option. There are also trade options such as Dempster, Garza, and Jason Vargas.

  • Connor says:

    Also, I understand that Sipp is good against lefties, but I don’t consider Votto a lefty. I consider a pitcher killer. Votto hits like .300 against lefties.

    • Ryan McCrystal says:

      I agree. I’m not gonna fault Sipp for too much for the Votto HR. Entering the game he had retired 18 of the last 21 lefties he had faced. He’s a lefty specialist, and he’s proven to be more than capable of handling that job. He starts to struggle when he’s forced into action in other situations when guys like Gomez can’t make it past the 5th inning, but it’s though to hold that against him.