Tribe Falls to 0-2

Carlos Carrasco took the mound for the Tribe today, and had a less than satisfactory outing. Going 6.2 innings giving up 7 earned runs on 10 hits is not going to cut it as a number 2 pitcher in Major League Baseball. The final score was 8-3 in a game that was all White Sox. The Sox got up early again, and the Tribe was not able to catch up.

About the only positive thing that happened today was Travis Hafner swung the bat well. Hafner went 2-4 with a solo home run. Also, Hannahan continued to show impressive numbers at the plate going 1-4 driving in 2 runs. As a team, the Tribe hit terribly with runners in scoring position going 1-11. This is not going to cut it for a young Cleveland team. With the few opportunities that they are going to have to score, they have to capitalize. 1-11 is simply not good enough, and the Indians will need to improve on that category.

In my opinion, the player of the game for the Indians was Travis Hafner. He blasted a home run, and showed that Pronk still has what it takes to me a middle of the lineup hitter. I called it in an earlier article that this is Hafner's year. This is the year that he returns to the 2007 Travis Hafner that had hit 42 home runs. Right now he is on pace to hit 81 home runs! Though I don't think that he will stay on this pace, I still think he is capable of hitting 40 or more home runs this season.

What really is disappointing is that the Tribe's pitching rotation does not feature one veteran player. The oldest pitcher is Mitch Talbot, who will be 28 in October. With this young of a pitching staff, it would really benefit the Indians to have a veteran in the rotation that could help the younger guys out. I'm not saying that the Indians need to go out and get an all star, just bring in someone like they did in the past with Paul Byrd, Carl Pavano, and Kevin Millwood. However, the Indians failed to add that in the off season, and the pitching staff is going to suffer because of it.

The Tribe will conclude this 3 game series against the Chicago White Sox tomorrow at 1:05 pm at Progressive Field. Toeing the rubber for the Tribe will be young Justin Masterson. Masterson will be squaring off with John Danks. The Tribe will be hoping to avoid the sweep tomorrow. I am predicting a high scoring affair as neither starting pitcher is that great. I think the final score will be 7-6 Indians.