Game 38: Cleveland 2, Tampa 4

In his still young career, the Indians have a good history of beating up on Matt Garza.  In the 5 games Garza had started against Cleveland coming into this afternoon's affair, the Indians had put up a .933 OPS.  Not today.  This afternoon the team only managed six hits, three of them coming from the spirit of Tris Speaker currently residing in the body of Victor Martinez (.409 batting average).  Given that lack of offensive output, five singles and a double, it is hard to manage a victory under even the best pitching circumstances.

Carl Pavano, for a while, looked like he might put together that kind of an outing.  Pavano struck out each of the first four batters he faced, all of them swinging, before finishing off the second with back to back grounders.  Aki Iwamura started off the 3rd with a single, but was quickly erased via a double play.  The first notch off Pavano came when BJ Upton led off the fourth with a HR, giving Tampa the early 1-0 lead.  Pavano notched two more swinging Ks in the 5th, but not before Tampa extended the lead to 3-0 on the back of a walk, single, multiple stolen bases and another single. 

Cleveland made an effort to mount a comeback in the top of the 6th, putting together consecutive hits from Vic, Shin-Soo and Jhonny.  When Luis Valbuena fouled out to end the inning, though, the Indians still trailed 3-2, and wouldn't put together anything resembling a rally for the remainder of the game.  On the bright side, Aaron Laffey spared the remainder of the bullpen by finishing off the final three innings, allowing a single run in the span.

Next up: David Huff making his major league debut vs. Andy Sonnanstine (1:38 pm)