General: The Tribe won two of three in the unfriendly confines of Ameriquest Field in Arlington to continue their recent hot streak. They've won 9 of 11 ... On Friday, they got to Vicente Padilla early, slapping him around for three runs in the first and ultimately hanging 6 runs in 5.1 innings on the much-hyped free agent-to-be. Grady Sizemore was 3-for-3 with two walks, leading the first-inning rally off with a double and taking Padilla deep for a solo shot in the second. Starter Jake Westbrook, the kind of ground ball machine the Rangers should really look into acquiring to pitch in their launching pad, went seven strong innings. He struck out six, walked two and gave up two runs. Rafael Betancourt and Nasty Mastny pitched two no-hit innings to nail down a 7-2 victory ... On Saturday, the Indians hung a beating on righty Edinson Volquez, one-third of Texas' awesomely-acronymized pitching prospect trio of Diamond, Volquez and Danks. Again, Sizemore led the charge with a leadoff homer, and the Indians would go on to put up a 5-spot. In that inning, Kevin Kouzmanoff, DHing in his major-league debut, came up with the bases loaded hammered the first pitch he saw for a grand slam. Whomida? Volquez was yanked in the second and wound up on the hook for six runs. However, Josh Rupe, Scott Feldman and Rick Bauer combined to shut out Cleveland the rest of the way. Cliff Lee did his thing, going seven innings allowing four runs to leave with a lead. Fernando Cabrera pitched a spotless eighth to get the 6-4 lead to Mastny. Then it got interesting. Gerald Laird led off with a bunt single (Gerald Laird! A catcher!) Ian Kinsler followed with a sharp grounder past a diving Andy Marte down the line to left to put runners on second and third. Rookie Nelson Cruz grounded out right to Marte. Gary Matthews got ahead 3-1 and laced a single to right. Laird scored; curiously, Kinsler was waved home with one out and Michael Young and Mark Teixeira due up. Right fielder Casey Blake punished the Rangers for tempting fate, gunning Kinsler down on a bang-bang play. Young lined a 1-2 breaking ball up the middle, but Mastny made a slick glove save to escape his jam and nail down the save and the 6-5 win around three Texas hits ... On Sunday, the Indians ran into their old friend Kevin Millwood, who locked them down over 8 two-hit innings. One of the hits was a Kouzmanoff homer (two games, two homers) that accounted for Cleveland's only run. Millwood struck out ten. The Indians' bottom third of Shin-Soo Choo, Kelly Shoppach and Aaron Boone each whiffed twice. Starter Paul Byrd actually pitched around six hits to carry a 1-0 lead into the seventh, but back-to-back-to-back singles from Kinsler, Laird and Cruz, an RBI groundout from Matthews and a single from Young prompted manager Eric Wedge to summon Cabrera on zero days' rest to face Teixeira. Tex hit a grand slam on the second pitch he saw to effectively end the game right then and there. The Indians put together a hit and a run off reliever C.J. Wilson in the ninth, but that just made the Rangers call on Akinori Otsuka to squash the rally, close out the 5-2 victory and halt the Tribe's win streak at five ...
Travis Hafner: The biggest news coming out of that series came in the top of the 8th on Friday. Texas reliever C.J. Wilson beaned Pronk on the right hand with a fastball, and in less than a minute, it swelled up and turned purple. Hafner sat out each of the next two games, and the injury was what prompted the Indians to call up Kouzmanoff. I suppose that worked out OK. Hafner is still day-to-day and will probably return to the lineup by the end of the Jays' series. The hand is not broken ... On the bright side, the beanball came with the bases loaded, so Hafner earned his 117th RBI of the year for his pain ...
C.C. Sabathia: Big power lefty. He lights up the radar gun with his hard fastball and deadly low-80s breaking ball. When his changeup is working, he's unhittable ... Splits are backwards this year and always have been. I have no idea why ... Is very deserving of Cy Young votes, averaging more than 6.2 innings a start with a rock-steady 3.22 ERA, better than Roy Halladay's. Of course, his 10-8 record probably precludes him from finishing in the top 5, but he's replaced slumping Dan Haren as my official Personal Cy Cause Celebre. He's really improved in the last two years: while his K rate has steadily and tangibly gone up (6.65, 7.37, 7.94), his walk rate has done the opposite (3.45, 2.84, 2.13) and his ERA has cooperated (4.12, 4.03, 3.22). He's the real deal. Ask the last team he faced ...
Jeremy Sowers: Unoverpowering lefty who relies heavily on his slider ... Seems to be much more comfortable and aggressive against lefthanded batters. He walks far more righties than lefties, but lefties hit him for more power ... Sowers is throwing a low 3.6 pitches per batter ... He recorded back-to-back shutouts in late July to really make a name for himself. He's probably clinched a spot in Cleveland's rotation next year, but it will be interesting to see how he performs, because many of his peripheral stats scream fluke ... 3.5 K rate, 2.2 BB, 22.7% LD and .257 BABIP are not particularly encouraging signs. He is doing a very good job of inducing grounders (48% GB), but either that line drive rate is going down, that K/BB rate is going up, both, or that 3.42 ERA is going way up ... He has a bit of the Chacin clutchness in him. Sowers with nobody on: .275/.320/.389; with runners on: .220/.267/.374, and since he's a lefty, I'm guessing he does a decent job of locking down the running game. If he can keep that split right where it is, that will help immensely ... Sowers allowed zero extra-base hits last time out against the Jays ...
Jake Westbrook: Sinkerballer. Not much else to it ... His GB% has cleared 60 in each of the last three years, ever since his breakout 2004 campaign, in which he posted a 3.38 ERA ... His K/BB numbers are always much, much better against righty batters, largely because the pitch with which he misses the most bats is his slider, which works best against righties ... He's forced 25 GIDPs in each of the last four seasons ... Has good numbers against the current Jays; Cat's 5-12 with 2 walks is the best career line ... Is an excellent fielder, with good instincts and speed and an accurate throwing arm ... He's thrown three complete games this year ...
Kevin Kouzmanoff: Was called up over the weekend ... Newport Beach, CA native was chosen by the Indians out of Nevada in the 6th round of the 2003 draft. He'll probably meet up with fellow Wolfpack alums Lyle Overbay and Joe Inglett ... Has succeeded at every level he's played in the minors, and just demolished AA and AAA pitching this year ... and homered in each of his first two big-league games, including the aforementioned first-pitch grand slam ... Kouz will see time at DH and third base, spelling Andy Marte ... Kouzmanoff's trip to Texas for his major-league debut was a wild and wacky adventure that left him a discombobulated mess, according to Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com. His flight to DFW was delayed, causing him to nearly miss his first pregame stretching session. But he made it, and when his first at-bat came with the bases loaded, Victor Martinez sensed something special: "When [Kouzmanoff] came up, I told Cliff Lee, 'I'm going to call it right now. He's going to hit a grand slam in his first at-bat.'" And then everyone else in the dugout joined in, and Kouz made them look brilliant ... Kouzmanoff hit his slam in front of his parents and brother, and received no fewer than "about 25 voicemails and 30 text messages," according to Castrovince. "Some of the numbers, I didn't even recognize. I've got a lot of support. A lot of people are pulling for me" ...
Shin-Soo Choo: Wears a helmet with double ear flaps ...
Hector Luna: Has struggled mightily since arriving in Cleveland. His walk rate and isolated power are way down in the 74 PA sample, but he's still hitting line drives at his usual above-average rate. He should be fine ...
Rafael Betancourt: This was mentioned on the Jays' broadcast of the series back in Cleveland, but Betancourt has a wacky nervous twitch, the kind of quirk of which baseball is sorely lacking. He tugs on his hat. It's one thing for a hitter to adjust his helmet, like Jonny Gomes does, but when a pitcher like Betancourt does it, it looks particularly weird ...
Fernando Cabrera: Sharing the primary setup man role with Betancourt ... Has a wild delivery that seems awfully conducive to short spurts of complete loss of command ... But his mid-80s splitter is devastating ...
Andy Marte: Dead pull hitter, as Rob pointed out. Once he gets any success at the big-league level (which he will), pitchers are going to pound him exclusively outside, and defenses are likely to come up with a shift for him ... He's struggling, striking out a quarter of the time and only hitting .211, but he is getting a fair bit of power ... His biggest problem, as it is for so many young power hitters, is laying off breaking balls ...
Brian Sikorski: Big 31-year-old righty was acquired from the Padres in exchange for reliever Mike Adams ... Sikorski spent the last six seasons in Japan. He had difficulty trying to catch on with major-league teams because the Yomiuri Giants always requested a decision on whether he wanted to return to Japan before MLB teams could seriously consider offering him contracts ... Sikorski hasn't pitched since last Sunday ... Lefties are creaming him (.326/.367/.717), but he's held righties in check (.214/.250/.429) ... Throws a fastball that occasionally sinks and hovers around 94 ... Out pitch is a very tight slider in the mid-to-high 80s ... Unfortunately, he's given up a homer almost every three innings ...
Nasty Mastny: Even with the close call on Saturday, Mastny has a 0.97 WHIP, a 29.5 K%, a 51.7 GB%, and zero blown saves as a closer. So far, so good ... Saturday's game was the first time since his callup he'd allowed more than one hit ... Hasn't allowed a homer yet ...
Prospect Watch: According to the Plain Dealer's Paul Hoynes, a pair of Indians prospects took home their leagues' Cy Young Awards. 21-year-old righty Adam Miller went 15-6 in AA Akron, striking out more than a batter an inning with a 2.75 ERA, to claim Eastern League pitcher of the year honours. He's a high-school pitcher from Texas; he was the first sandwich pick in the 2003 draft. In the Carolina League, 20-year-old lefty Chuck Lofgren (another high schooler, from California) was 17-5 with a 2.32 ERA at A Kinston to win his league's award. He was taken in the fourth round in 2004.
