Doug Fister Throws a Gem as Indians Fall 6-1

Can someone please let me know when this ride comes to an end? I’d like to get off now, please. Actually I’m pretty sure I’m speaking for every fan. In case you didn’t know, the Indians lost again last night, 6-1, and have run their season long losing streak to eight games. That’s right, the Tribe is ocho stinko!

Where do we even start with this one? How about with Tigers’ starter Doug Fister? He threw a complete game and just missed a shut out thanks to a ninth inning triple by Ezequiel Carrera and an RBI ground out from Jason Kipnis. Oh, and he was perfect through 5.2 innings. He was pretty much spectacular. Over the course of nine innings he struck out six, walked none, and allowed only four hits. He was as dominant as a pitcher can get as well as extremely efficient by throwing only 107 pitches, 73 of which were for strikes.

Then there was embattled Indians starter Ubaldo Jimenez. He took the mound last night looking to stop the hemorrhagic bleeding of the seven games that preceded. It wasn’t his night. Jimenez lasted only 5.1 innings and gave up six runs in the process. That’ll happen when you give up seven hits and four walks. All of that aside, Ubaldo has to be better. As one of the two dueling aces on this staff along with Justin Masterson, one of them has to step up and be a stopper. It didn’t happen Friday night and it didn’t happen again last night either.

Detroit got their scoring started in the bottom of the second inning. After Prince Fielder was issued a lead-off walk, Brennan Boesch followed with an RBI triple to the gap in right center. Yes, the not so fleet of foot Prince Fielder was able to score all the way from first on the play. Delmon Young followed with a sac fly to make it a 2-0 game.

In the bottom of the fourth, Fielder singled to lead things off and then Jimenez was once again done in by a walk and a triple. This time it was to Alex Avila and Jhonny Peralta respectively to run the score to 4-0. Omar Infante, acquired from the Marlins prior to the trade deadline (a sneaky good pick up) then singled to score Peralta, 5-0 Tigers. They eventually added their sixth and final run of the game in the bottom of the sixth thanks to a sac fly by Infante.

With the loss, the Indians are now 50-57 but still only 8.5 games out of first thanks to a White Sox loss last night to the Angels. They’ll end their abysmal nine game road trip today as they take on Max Scherzer in the series finale. Throwing for the Tribe will be recent call up Chris Seddon. Seddon has made 21 career appearances (four starts) all with the Mariners in 2007 and 2010. Can he be the one to come through and end this miserable run? We’ll have to wait and see.

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The Good: Ezequiel Carrera had two triples and scored the Indians only run. He’s looked pretty good since his call up from triple A and Johnny Damon’s designation for assignment. Once again he showed just what a threat his speed can be when given the opportunity to play.

The Bad: Ubaldo Jimenez didn’t do what he needed to do to stop the losing streak, but the offense was even worse. They could only manage four hits on the day and couldn’t force a single walk. Most of the credit has to go to Doug Fister, but you can’t help but feel like the Indians helped him out.

The “Huh?”: Comerica Park is the most spacious park in baseball, but how often do you see four triple in one game there? Each team managed to hit two. The Tigers’ recorded major damage as a result theirs and were the turning points in the game. As for the Indians, both were hit by Ezequiel Carrera. The first ended Fister’s perfect game and the second put him in position to score the Tribe’s lone run.