Bullpen Collapses Again in Loss to Cubs

Same story, different day for the Cleveland Indians. The Indians jumped out to a 7-0 lead through four innings, and Cliff Lee still kept the Cubs at bay as the score was 7-2 going into the eighth inning.

Surprise, surprise, the bullpen choked. There’s no sugar-coating what happened yesterday. There’s no blaming the loss on clutch fielding and pitching by Chicago or bad bounces in the field for Cleveland. The bullpen flat out, choked.

Unfortunately, nobody has had to pay the price for these woes yet. Joe Smith and Rafael Perez were the main choke artists in the eighth inning. They combined to give up three hits, easily allowing Lee’e runner to score, as well as three of their own. Matt Herges recorded the final out of that inning to keep the Indians on top by one…certainly not enough for the unpredictable Kerry Wood.

Derrek Lee’s ninth inning blast off Wood tied the game, and Ryan Theriot’s single in the tenth off Luis Vizcaino brought in Soriano for the winning run.

At least the game ended…it was becoming painful to watch. Unfortunately, at this point in the season, you would think the Tribe would try something different. Send players down, call players up, scope out of the free agents. Something. ANYTHING! But no, Eric Wedge continues to run guys out to the mound who routinely fail, most notably Rafael Perez.

When the Cubs are the latest team to commit highway robbery on your bullpen, you know the problems run deep. This is the stuff that is supposed to happen to Chicago…

Attention any/all left-handed persons: learn how to throw a curveball and give the Indians a call. Open tryouts should be starting soon.