Indians Lose Series Against Great Pitching

The Indians entered Anaheim on a seven game winning streak, and leave on a two game losing streak. They dropped the last game in the series 4-3 in 12 innings on Wednesday.

It was only a matter of time before the Indians came back down to Earth and experienced a loss. After their consecutive sweeps of the Red Sox and Mariners, confidence was extremely high.

The difference in the last two games compared to the previous seven was starting pitching. The Indians went up against Dan Haren on Tuesday, and Ervin Santana on Wednesday. They are among the top pitchers in the AL. The Indians faced the backend of the Mariners rotation and avoided Cy Young winner Felix Hernandez.

The Red Sox pitchers were struggling, as they have been all season, so the Indians took advantage of them.

The Tribe won the first game of the Angels series against 21 year old pitcher Tyler Chatwood. It was his MLB debut, and he did fairly well. He only allowed 4 runs which all came off of home runs. The problem was that the Angels were shut down by Mitch Talbot who allowed 0 runs in 8 innings.

The following night was the opposite of the previous. All the runs belonged to the Angels who won 2-0 behind the pitching of Dan Haren. His pitched the entire game and only allowed 1 hit while striking out 8.

Fausto Carmona pitched a gem for the Indians, going 7.2 innings and only giving up two runs, but he gave up two solo home runs which were the difference in the game.

Wednesday’s game saw little offense once again. The score was 3-3 heading into the twelfth inning when Chad Durbin came in for the Tribe. His struggles continued as he loaded the bases and gave up a sac fly that lost the game.

The Indians get Thursday off and will open up a weekend series against the Orioles on Friday. They need to find their offense which seemed to be missing in Anaheim. As long as their pitching continues to stay at its current level, the Indians should find ways to win.