After a string of 8 consecutive decent starts, Carl Pavano blew one today. Pavano simply couldn't keep the ball out of play, recording only one walk and one strikeout while facing 24 batters in 4.2 innings. At times, it seemed like Carl was going to escape until, with two outs already recorded, Alberto Callaspo (who I was once obsessed with the Indians acquiring) socked a grand slam to make the score 9-0 in the 5th.
After that, the night was a blur; the Indians saw good, low leverage performances from Jensen Lewis and Joe Smith but, other than that, very little is worth noting. With the loss tonight, the Tribe fell back into last place in the AL Central, a half game behind Kansas City.
With the sands of the season continuing to slip through the hourglass of time, the Indians continue in their holding pattern with a little (but not much) hope for the future. Tomorrow night the Indians will trot out Jeremy Sowers (who's great at plenty of things, I'm sure) to face the best pitcher in baseball Zack Greinke. After that, Tomo Ohka and David Huff will face the Cardinals, setting up an ace matchup between Cliff Lee and Chris Carpenter. Not that this is news, but the Indians need to win games started by guys with last names like "Sowers", "Huff", "Ohka" or "Van Arsdale" if things are going to get turned around any time soon. There are just 28 games left until the All-Star Break and so it's likely that the next 25 will determine the fates of Mark DeRosa and his merry band of trade chips, as well as the Indians season.