Indians-Royals: Tribe's Offense Continues to Nosedive

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. 

The Kansas City Royals shut out the Cleveland Indians, 2-0, to sweep a rain-shortened two-game set at Progressive Field.  This after the Indians managed only two runs last night against the Royals.

Casey Blake threw a somewhat difficult grounder into RF to score the Royals' first run in the fifth, spoiling another brilliant effort by young LHP Aaron Laffey.

Laffey went seven strong innings, giving up four hits, two walks, and the unearned run that scored on Blake's throwing error.  He also whiffed five Royals' hitters.

In a baffling managerial move in the ninth, Uncle Eric Wedge pulled Raffy Perez for Raffy Betancourt with two outs and no one on in the ninth. Betancourt, now sporting a 6.39 ERA, promptly gave up a solo home run to feared hitter Miguel Olivo. This gave Kansas City an insurmountable 2-0 lead. 

Insurmountable for the Indians' inept offense, anyway.

Why was Perez pulled for Betancourt in that situation?  It makes no sense.  There was no strategic advantage in having Betancourt face Olivo instead of Perez. None.

The Indians' offense was shut down by Gil Meche, Leo Nunez, and Joakim Soria to the tune of four hits and no walks. 

There were only four base runners total.  But hey, they only struck out five times and didn't ground into any double plays.

The bottom five spots of the lineup are officially a wasteland.  The batting averages after the game stand as follows:  Peralta .216, Hafner .209, Garko .242 (after a 2-3 afternoon), Blake .202, and The As-Man .191. 

That's Ugly.  Purely ugly. 

The Indians are now 3-13 when scoring three runs or less.  They have played 31 games and stand at 14-17.  Yes, that fuzzy math means they have scored three runs or more in more than half of their games.

They have a day off before heading to New York to face the Yankees for their final three game set ever at Yankee Stadium.  If they can't score more than four runs in each of those games, odds are they are coming back home 0-3. 

You can't get worse than zero runs...I hope.

It's Tribe time now.  Believeland.