Talk about unfortunate circumstances.
Sowers, who was originally called upon to fill the gap for Indians' pitcher Jake Westbrook, now will be heading back to Triple-A Buffalo as Grady Sizemore's ankle injury seems to be more of an issue than people originally expected.
Even though Aaron Laffey was originally expected to be the pitcher optioned after this series against the Yankees, Grady Sizemore's sprained ankle unfortunately mended the situation. The Indians needed an extra outfielder, and the only option available was to option Sowers down, allowing Laffey to become the new substitute for Jake Westbrook's absence.
Brad Snyder was the outfielder called upon to fill the roster.
Sowers pitched 5 1/3 innings this past Saturday, giving up three earned runs (which by the way really weren't his fault) and striking out 3 in the process.
Manager Eric Wedge described Sowers as someone with "great poise", and told the press how he was impressed on Sowers' performance.
The Indians and Yankees are ending their series with on Monday with Mike Mussina and Aaron Laffey, the new Westbrook substitute, on the mound for each team.
The Indians will be aiming to win the majority of the series, while also getting back to .500.
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2 months ago
Yeah it is in no way indicted by the play of Sowers. They only have on roster spot and they are just trying to get by.
The injury to Grady caused them to bring up Snyder so they have an extra body.. Snyder will go back down today to make room for Laffey, and I'd expect, even if Laffey does well(unless he does EXTREMELY well), Sowers will get recalled after Laffey pitches.
from 2 months ago
Nino,
we're on the same page old' chum. Unless Laffey does Cliff Lee-like, expect Sowers to still get called up to take the spot.
Remember though, there is a 10 day wait until you can recall a player after he is optioned down. So either way, Sowers won't be available at least until next Saturday/Sunday.
I really hope people don't just look at the box score and think that Sowers didn't do well. He exceeded my own expectations on the guy, and he was the victim of a stupid mistake. Sowers only earned one earned run in my opinion, not 3. Dellucci's dive should have been an error, and whether it should be or not it was entirely a stupid move on his part for the all or nothing move. He should have taken the easily bounce and only given away one run.
from 2 months ago
Yeah Sowers did as well as you could expect.
I forgot about the 10 day rule. Sowers would pitch on..... Friday the way it is working out now, and Laffey would pitch on four days rest if he pitched Friday... That rain out game really screwed things up.. They might just have to start someone on four days rest to set it right.
2 months ago
actually I screwed up my math.. yikes.. CC is slated for Friday.. Laffey just might have to pitch Saturday.
from 2 months ago
After watching Laffey pitch tonight, my favoring still fares to to the same pitcher. I think Laffey is better prepared to be in the league at the present time, and pitching a no-hitter till the 6th definitely doesn't hurt your case.
As analysts said on ESPN, the 4 earned runs given up was just an unfortunate and unfair part of the game. He actually pitched very well, except for hitting A-Rod. Two ground outs to first that could have been turned to get another out at home, but Garko was standing far away from the bag both times, along with the hit to Casey Blake that took an unfortunate hop which should have been a pretty simple out.
I'm sure Wedge is glad with Laffey's performance, and if I was in his situation is would be very glad to know that he has two very good, quality starters that can be trusted with to help be optioned up into the big leagues to help finish a series and help give the starters a day off.
2 months ago
I recently heard that Laffey is going to keep his job as the fill-in spot for the rotation for Westbrook... any truth to this?
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