seven of eight?

Indians 5, Angels 2 Here comes our Tribe? So, all it takes is a twelve-day rest? Paul Byrd notched his first win since June 6th, despite a less-than stellar outing (9H, 2BB, 5.1 IP). In fact, Byrd's outing against the Tigers during his last appearance (which was later blown by a seven-run inning against the bullpen) was waybetter than last night's. Couple that with the fact that Ervin Santana struck out eight and walked none (in fact, no walks were given during the entire game) in seven innings and this was a bit of a bizzaro game. I guess it helps when 33 percent of your hits are home runs, eh? Said contributors to the long ball were Andy Marte (who went 2-for-4 on the evening), Casey Blake (also 2-for-4), and Jhonny Peralta. Given that the team only had six other hits, it comes as little surprise that only Blake's came with a runner on. Franklin Gutierrez and Asdrubal Cabrera combined to go 0-for-8 with three strikeouts, but aside from that disaster, every other member of the Tribe was on base. A quick aside: LA's seventh batter last night was Howie Kendrick, the much-heralded yet oft-injured second baseman. He is batting .325…and is batting seventh. Our seventh hitter was Marte, who just upped his average to .187. Though Marte is batting .278 for the month, I think this speaks volumes for this year's team. Don't look now, but Grady Sizemore (.273), Casey Blake (.287) and Ben Francisco (.289) are all within sniffing distance of the .300 mark. Granted, Blake could be gone within the next 10 days, but at least some of our team has improved their hitting for average. And while he is frustrating the heck out of us in the field, Jhonny Peralta is 10-for-25 with three home runs and 10 RBI over the last seven days. I actually had to look at that twice myself, so I don't blame you for re-reading it. Fausto Carmona has officially been penciled in to start Saturday's game against the Twins. It will be his first appearance on the hill since the May 23rd hip injury. Let's hope he regains his control and can continue to roll the Twins like he did last season (3-1, 1.45 ERA). Until then, two more against the Halos…