Pathetic Offense Masks Strong Pen Effort

"Harry Doyle: That’s all we got, one goddamn hit?Assistant: You can’t say goddamn on the air.Harry Doyle: Don’t worry, nobody is listening anyway.-Major League"

Well, they got more than one hit, but not by much. The Tribe managed just two hits (and three baserunners total), and indeed, no one was watching, as the attendance was reported at 10,183. The Indians have been shut out for a major-league leading 15th time.

Ouch.

And I really hate to say I told you so, but in the case of Jeanmar Gomez, well, I told you so. He’s going to have outings like this because he’s never going to be a stud. He’s probably not 100% ready for the majors, but is managing to keep his head above water.

Of course, Gomez’s poor start masked a sterling effort by the Indians bullpen. Justin Germano (who is forcing himself into the bullpen picture for 2011) pitched 3 perfect innings, lowering his ERA to 1.35 in 26.2 IP with a WHIP of 0.86 (!). Frank Herrmann, who apparently has fallen out of favor with Manny Acta (or at least it seems this way because he’s only pitched 3 times in the month of September), pitched 2 perfect innings as well. Jensen Lewis, who I called out recently, kept it going with a perfect ninth. Lewis has allowed one earned run since August, and seeing as he’s out of options, will either make the pen next year or be traded before the season starts.

While I’ve given up on the Tribe calling up Jared Goedert, this Jayson Nix experiment needs to end. It’s just not working. Acta needs to realize that his team is reliant on the ground ball, and therefore you need a good defensive infield. So playing a guy like Jayson Nix for his offense and letting him learn on the job isn’t really helping this young Indians pitching staff. Nix isn’t even that good offensively (.294 OBP, for example), so I’m not sure why Acta is still trying this.

Fausto Carmona takes on Ervin Santana tonight at 7:05 for the series victory.