Bobby Don Southworth hired to lead Tribe

[RebelYell]

Devil Rays splatter Indians for series sweep
B.J. Upton capped a 3-for-4 afternoon with a two-run single in the ninth inning, giving the Tampa Bay Devil Rays some insurance in a 6-3 victory and a series sweep of the ailing Cleveland Indians.

Upton was the latest in a string of unlikely heroes for Tampa Bay. Dewon Brazelton kept Cleveland bats in check for the third straight game, following the blueprint laid out by Devil Rays starters Casey Fossum and Rob Bell.

Fossum cruised in a 12-1 victory on Monday. Dee Brown thrashed out three hits and knocked in five runs to pace Tampa Bay’s bombardment of Indians starter Kevin Millwood.

Tampa Bay kept the heat on by pecking out a 4-0 lead in Tuesday’s battle. Cleveland cashed in on some Devil Rays miscues to narrow the lead to 4-3 and had the tying run on third base in both the eighth and ninth innings.

Rob Bell prevailed, however, yielding seven hits and striking out six.
Cliff Lee took the loss.

“Cliff is pitching much better,” Tribe skipper Bobby Don Southworth said. “He pitched out of a lot of jams. True, they scored on him in four of the seven innings he pitched, but it could have been a lot worse. We’re seeing some improvement in him.”

Tampa Bay jumped out to a good lead in the finale against Jeremy Sowers. Brazelton was as good as his mound predecessors and the Cleveland bullpen, strong through most of the first two months of the season, showed leaks.

“It’s a concentration thing,” Southworth said. “Your concentration wanes when you’re tired and I think some of our guys aren’t fully rested.
I’m not blaming anybody. It’s the whole unit that has to work for us to have some success. If the starters aren’t giving us six or seven good innings, then we’ve got to go to the bullpen early and that can start to catch up to you in the long run.
Hopefully, this is just a minor glitch and not a sign of things to come.”

The Indians travel to Detroit for a series against the Tigers, who trail division-leading Cleveland by 2½ games.

[RebelYell]

Hey Amanda,
We arrived in town OK. The hotel is pretty nice, much nicer than I expected. I guess Detroit’s not too bad a town, but it’s not like Seattle or D.C. – not a place I want to go out and prowl around after dark.

The guys are very subdued. It was a short, quiet plane ride and they just filed in their rooms and laid around all afternoon.

Three big games here. I know the press and everybody is starting to get a little more impatient. It’s weird: We’re playing .500 ball and if we hadn’t started so well, then nobody would be using words like “collapsing.” We’re not really collapsing, we’re just not playing very well. Not getting all three parts to come together at the same time. We’ll get a good game out of somebody on the mound more often than not, but we’re not getting any runs. Having to rely too much on the long ball.

I’ve never seen a team so slow in all my life and we’ve got Pudge Rodriguez to contend with here. He’ll pick off one of our slow guys who has a two-step lead from second base. He’s that good.

I’m just hoping something good happens to us here. This place is buzzing with excitement. The Tigers, who have been terrible the past couple of years, are just a couple games behind us and the Pistons are in the NBA Finals again.

Pray for us.

[RebelYell]

Tribe capitalizes on Tigers' ailing bullpen to complete sweep
DETROIT – Ugueth Urbina was all the Detroit Tigers had.

Urbina was left on the mound for the entirety of the 12th inning as Cleveland battled back from a four-run deficit to complete a three-game sweep of the Tigers with an 18-7 victory on Sunday afternoon.

The win ended a weekend full of offensive fireworks for the Indians, who widened their lead over the Tigers to 5½ games and remained a full 4 games ahead of Chicago in the AL Central. The Indians hit double digits in all three games against the Tigers, posting an 11-8 win on Friday night and a 10-4 victory Saturday.

“We won this series with our offense, but we won [Sunday’s] game with Chad Zerbe,” said Cleveland manager Bobby Don Southworth. “Zerbe pitched out of jams in the 10th and 11th innings and, honestly, if we don’t score in the 12th, we’re in the same position they’re in – out of pitching.”

Southworth indicated, though, that there was a good reason his team had a little more pitching on Sunday. “We got into their bullpen in a big way on Friday and Saturday. They barely touched ours until today. We still had Matt Miller to take over for [Zerbe] in the 12th or we might still be out there trying to get them out.”

Urbina could not get anybody out in the 12th. He walked four consecutive batters and still nary a Tiger had been called upon to warm up in the bullpen.

“It was over right there. We knew it. Our guys sensed it,” Southworth said. “A lot of guys then went up there hacking and we were able to get a big inning out of it.”

Travis Hafner’s grand slam was the highlight of the inning.

Southworth made no apologies for the lopsided final score.
“That stuff happens,” he commented. “Like I said, that could have been us out there for an hour trying to get them out. They were just one pitcher away from doing the same thing to us.”

For the second straight day, a reserve stepped into the Cleveland lineup and made a mark for himself. Catcher Javy Herrera went 4-for-6 and knocked in four runs, including two in the seventh when Cleveland trailed, 7-3.

In Saturday’s game, Jake Gautreau had hits in his first two major-league plate appearances and knocked in a couple of runs during a 10-4 rout. C.C. Sabathia breezed before leaving the game in the sixth with apparent stiffness in his left elbow.

“That’s not good news,” Southworth said. “I was afraid we might have brought him back too fast after he tweaked it a few weeks ago. Now they’re saying one to two weeks. I’m thinking he’s going to end up on the DL and we won’t see him until we know he’s 100 percent.”

Victor Martinez earned Sunday off by going 2-for-4 with three RBIs in Saturday’s win. Cleveland scored seven times in the first inning and never looked back.

On Friday, the Indians had an 11-5 lead at the halfway point in the ballgame. Jake Westbrook toiled in front of a near-capacity crowd of 40,084 on Noddin’ Head Day at Comerica Park.

Grady Sizemore was 3-for-5 with a home run and three runs batted in and Chad Zerbe registered his 15th save with a four-pitch ninth to get the final out.

The Indians have the day off before making a trip to New York and a Tuesday game with the Yankees.

[RebelYell]

The picture of the girl’s face in the paper caused me to stop and read a back-page story in the late edition of the Detroit newspaper.

Usually, it’s exciting to read the immediate reaction of a writer following a baseball game. Just four hours ago, we were scoring 11 runs in the 12th to beat Detroit and sweep them down to third place. Now, I can read all about it, look at the picture of Travis Hafner being greeted at home plate by half a dozen guys after his grand slam, and pore over the box score.

But before reading about our quest, I turned to the jump of the back-page story about a young girl who had been found, raped and murdered, at the edge of a suburban ravine.

She was a beautiful girl from the picture and the hair on my neck stood up. I was unable to focus on the story because I had been momentarily whisked back into a Seattle stairwell.

When I had been able to drag my mind back into my hotel room – We’re just an hour away from taking a puddle-jumping late-night flight back across the lake to Cleveland – I was relieved to find that the girl’s killer was already in custody. He had practically confessed and was arrested in his home following a six-hour standoff where he had threatened to kill himself.

“Hey B.D.” came a voice from my open doorway.
It was my right-hand man in the dugout, Buddy Bell.

“What do you want to do about C.C.?”
We’ve got to give him up for 15 days, I said. He needs to be healthy before we run him back out there.

“Yeah, I hear you,” said Bell, who looked younger than everybody on the coaching staff even though he was the oldest member of our team. “So who do we run out there in his spot?”

Let me figure something out, I told him. Lee and Sowers are both ready, right?
“Yeah, we’re fine until we get back to Millwood. And Cruceta looked OK finishing up for C.C. Saturday. We could trot him out there later this week,” Bell said.

That might do, I thought. But it might be time to bring up another of these young studs we have clogging up the pitching path from Buffalo.

Let me make a couple phone calls and I’ll let you know before we get off the plane in Cleveland, I said.
“Awright,” Bell said.

I folded the paper up and tossed it into the trash and then finished packing for our trip back home.

[RebelYell]

Other than her handed-down family name, Nora had everything going for her. She was one of the most beautiful, personable and sweetest girls a guy would ever want to meet. She had thick, dark hair, chocolate-colored eyes and a smile that wouldn’t go away.

To older men, she was adorable and didn’t look at all like she was within 52 weeks of turning 30.
To the young boys, she was luscious.

And for a girl from North Dakota, she was feminine perfection.
It was hard to believe that the same graduating class from her high school – all nine of them – could produce a major-league baseball player and a beauty queen.

But Nora was never much of a fan of the competition that came along with winning beauty pageants. In fact, she was only 1-0 in beauty contests: She won as a 6-year-old contestant to carry the Homecoming Queen’s crown way back in 1983. And Homecoming Queen? She was appointed for that when she promised her friends she could never compete for such an honor.

But she had to be a Homecoming Queen. No girl that ever looked like Nora could have been anything but a Homecoming Queen.
She had her weaknesses, though, and the guy she wanted since she saw him in her kindergarten class had never even noticed her.

Travis Hafner was so wrapped up in baseball that he put a wig on his favorite baseball bat and took it to their Senior Prom. Nora thought Travis was simple and cute and she adored him because of it. But to finish second to a bat? That was outrageous.

Nora gave up on Travis Lee Hafner a long time ago. She had pride, but she had put it aside. Instead of letting the poisonous infection swell up in her, she had taken what Travis had offered her – His friendship.

Once, maybe twice a year she would make a trip to see the Cleveland Indians play. Travis would fix her up. He would even put aside his video games for a couple of nights and show Nora the city sites. They would pass as a couple when strangers saw them. Anybody who knew either of them, though, knew that all they were was friends.

For a few days in New York, that’s all Nora wanted from Travis – His friendship.

[RebelYell]

Bronx Bombers outscore Indians
behind Posada’s three-run double
NEW YORK – Jorge Posada broke a 2-2 tie with a three-run double to start a six-run fifth as the New York Yankees raced past the Cleveland Indians, 10-8, in the rubber game of their three-game set at Yankee Stadium.

Fans who collected souvenir gloves on Wednesday returned for the series finale to collect vintage New York Yankees ballcaps. They were treated to a surprising slugfest despite the fact that both teams went with pitchers who had been performing well this year.

A three-inning pitchers’ duel turned into a softball game in the fourth as both teams plated a couple of runs. New York scored six in the fifth, but had to hang on as the Indians stormed back against Randy Johnson (8-3) and the Yankees’ bullpen.

“Down 8-2, you think it’s over against a team like the Yankees,” Cleveland manager Bobby Don Southworth said. “But give these kids a lot of credit. They did everything they could to win this one. We let them down because we, as coaches, might have given up on them before they gave up on themselves.”

Southworth was referring to his choosing to leave reliever David Riske in the game in the eighth with the Tribe trailing, 8-6. New York scored a pair of runs, making the Cleveland skipper second-guess himself after his team scored twice in its last at-bat.

Jaret Wright improved to 9-1 by breezing in the opener, an 11-2 Yankees victory. Posada began his hitting crusade against the visitors with a 3-for-4 showing, including a home run and three runs batted in. Cleveland right-hander Kenny Rayborn, the latest in a string of call-ups from Buffalo, was battered for four innings in his major-league debut.

“That was not what we wanted for Kenny,” Southworth said, “but we needed somebody to step up and pitch in the 11th hour and he didn’t back down when we asked him if he would come up here and take the ball. That alone will make us want to give him another shot.”

Rayborn’s promotion came with the announcement that Cleveland left-hander C.C. Sabathia was being placed on the 15-day disabled list.

“That doesn’t mean Rayborn will get three starts,” Southworth said, “but I want to give him at least one more start before we decide what to do with him down the road.”

In between the double-digit doses of bad news, the Indians scored a 9-5 victory on Wednesday behind southpaw Cliff Lee. Chad Zerbe served up a double-play ball on his third pitch to end the game and record his 16th save.

The game was marred by a second-inning brawl between Cleveland leadoff batter Grady Sizemore and veteran New York pitcher Mike Mussina. Juan Gonzalez was called upon to take Sizemore’s place in the lineup and found himself ejected in the fifth for arguing balls and strikes with the home-plate umpire.

“I thought I was going to have to go out and play right field,” Southworth grimaced. “Here we are just teeing off on their guy and Grady wants to take exception to a pitch that plunks him in the back. I really couldn’t understand what Grady was doing. We didn’t mind him getting thrown out, but I sure thought it was going to cost us with Mussina getting tossed, too.”

Tom Gordon did not fare much better, however. Coco Crisp ripped a pair of three-run homers – his first two blasts of the season – and Cleveland won for the fourth time in five outings.

“We’ve still got a decent lead,” Southworth said, referring to a 3½-game cushion over Chicago in the AL Central. “Now we see a division foe (Minnesota) and a couple of other teams we expect to see in the postseason. It’s going to be busy right up until the All-Star Break.”

[RebelYell]

Nora Marshall had an evening to spend with Travis Hafner and it was enough for her to realize she really hadn’t missed out on much by not pursuing him for the last 15 years.

Nora would never chase a guy. That just didn’t happen. For every guy she liked, there were 50 that would have given up everything to be with her.

Dinner with Travis was full of the same stories. She did most of the talking, relaying all of North Dakota’s latest news to him. He seemed interested; but with Travis, you were just a television remote away from being turned off. All he needed was to overhear someone talking about a baseball game at the next table and his attention would be gone for the night.

Nora was actually pleased that Travis had made it all the way through dinner without her having to fight for his attention. Maybe that’s what she liked most about Travis, anyway. He’s the only guy in the world who didn’t seem interested in her.

He had paid for her room just one floor below where the team was staying and even offered a hundred dollars in spending money. The money wasn’t necessary. Nora had a good job and tons of money to spend. She understood that Travis’ offer was in consolation for his lack of being around the next couple of days. In other words, Nora was going to be on her own.

But not for long.

She rode the elevator up to Travis’ floor and walked down to his room. It was 10 p.m. and most of the players were returning to their rooms after dinner. She gave a few of the guys the once over and then gave Travis a soft hug before going down to her room.

Being from a small town in a sparsely populated state, Nora did not understand the rule about taking the elevator more than one floor and she got on at 15 to ride it down to 14.

When she got off the elevator, she thought she was in a different building.

None of the hallway lights were on. She searched for her key when she felt a stranger’s gaze.

“Need help?” he asked softly and pulled out a pen light to shine on the small purse she was carrying.

“Oh, yes. Why thank you,” she smiled nervously.

“I’ll walk you to your door,” he offered, and Nora followed him down the hallway toward her room.

“Here it is,” she said, relieved to have arrived “home” for the evening.

“OK,” the stranger said. “Take care.”

He walked only a few steps before stopping at the next door. He opened it and went inside.

[Magatsu]

Just to let you know: I like this very much.

I like the Film Noir or Chandler style in the "crime parts" (don't know how to call it) and I also like the parts that deal with baseball (the press conference quotes and the game summaries). I think you have immense talent in both styles.

So what expresses my attitude to this thread the best is this:



... just imagine it in fast-motion cause I think this will get really exciting.

M

[RebelYell]

James Patterson is my mystery inspiration. I don't think he's the greatest writer, but he's a good storyteller. And that, to me, is more important than being a good writer.
On the dynasty threads, I love following the Pale Hose and I've become immersed in the life of Patrick O'Farrell. I can't read enough of it to catch up so don't tell me what happens!

The most fulfilling part of this so far has been that my oldest son has started to follow along with interest. I've tried since he was in elementary school to find books he would enjoy reading: Encyclopedia Brown, The Boxcar Children ... And now he's following this and asking questions about it. That's pretty gratifying.

With this story, I've tried to do some things that I haven't seen anybody else do. That doesn't mean they haven't done, but just that I haven't seen them done. I took the same approach with sportswriting. I never did my research on the web because it was getting too easy to not do any research at all with google at your fingertips ... and plagiarists are the norm these days.

I'll bounce this off the group and feel free to respond: I've thought about doing a chapter or two that's not a part of the thread. Kind of an extra clue, if you will. Not sure how it would work or if it will work. In my mind, I'm way ahead in the story than what I've currently written. The cool thing about it is, like with most of the threads here, everybody's life is dictated by the results of the game. The game is the key and I write based on what happens.

... And that in itself is a clue

as is the next entry.

Thanks again,
RY

[RebelYell]

When he entered his room, a prize was already waiting for him. He had called around town looking for a pretty girl with whom to spend the evening, one that might share his same interests. When she had called him at the hotel, he told her to come to room number 1426 at 8 p.m. She could stop at the desk and get a key.

She was going to be Mrs. Ray Chapman.

His prize was a bit disappointing after what he had just seen in the hallway. The girl in the next room was drop-dead gorgeous. No pun intended, either, though he chuckled to himself at the thought.

It really didn’t matter what his current date looked like. His mind was going to be stuck on the girl in the next room.

But he wasn’t too disappointed.
This girl was younger, had a pleasant face and a decent body. She had brought an overnight bag with her and slipped into a white, see-through teddy. She sat on the edge of the bed with a drink in her hand.

She introduced herself as Marsha, handed "Mr. Chapman" the drink and wrapped her arms around his neck to give him a welcome-home kiss.

Not bad for a first meeting, he thought. He pulled away gently and reached into his back pocket for his wallet. He pulled out five, crisp 100-dollar bills and handed them to her.

She walked over to her bag, put the money in a zippered pocket and pulled out a set of handcuffs.
“I understand you might be interested in a pair of these,” she said teasingly.

He grinned and looked around the room for the telephone. He eyed the telephone cord and sighed.
“Yes, those will look quite nice on you,” he said. “May I?”

As for a telephone cord, he decided he would pass on that tonight.

And, he thought, she’ll never know she has Coco Crisp to thank for not having to wear that telephone cord around her neck at the end of the evening.

[RebelYell]

Hey Amanda,
We escaped with a win at New York as our bats seemed to have gotten some life in them. Losing the finale kind of stung. I felt like I screwed up by not getting Riske out of the game and trying to hold them to a two-run lead. Then, wouldn’t you know it, we score two in the ninth and it’s not enough.

The mood of the team is getting better. The guys are a little more upbeat and we’re on the verge of becoming a pretty cohesive unit. Don’t know if you saw the brawl. I stayed in the dugout and watched. I figured if Joe Torre doesn’t go out there, then there’s no reason for me to go.

Sizemore might get a short suspension out of it. I wasn’t making it up, though, when I told the writers that I wished he would have left everything alone. Mussina was doing awful and we were crushing the ball off him.

We’re off to Minnesota. I know one of the boys wants a North Dakota hockey sweater. Is there anything else I might be able to track down while I’m there?

Let me know.

I’ll see you in a week.
B.D.

[RebelYell]

Where they were from, the Minneapolis airport was practically their home base. After all, Minneapolis was the closest major airport for anybody who lived in North Dakota. Some North Dakotans had never even seen an airplane until they traveled east to Minnesota.

Nora was glad to be “home,” but realized she still had a couple of extra days to hang around with her favorite baseball player, Travis Hafner, and the rest of the Cleveland Indians.

As a group, the Indians were a very handsome lot, she thought. Even the coaches were young and a few, like Buddy Bell, were very good looking. The manager was a sharp looking guy and, according to Travis, was very well liked by the players. He had given the team confidence and respectability.

She liked these people. They were kind, considerate and cordial. They all treated her like she was part of their family and they barely knew her.

While none of the players had approached her, she had caught several of them looking at her out of the corner of her eye. She wasn’t uncomfortable about it. No more uncomfortable than she was the night before.

She wasn’t sure if she had been dreaming or not, but she thought she heard the sounds of muzzled screams coming through the wall of her New York hotel room. It went on for hours and Nora had decided that it must have been coming from the room where the helpful man was staying.

No worries. She had heard worse in her life. There had been more than a couple of inconsiderate roommates in her past. Roomates whose boyfriends wouldn’t pay for a room.

That in mind, she decided to stay in the team hotel for the first couple of nights of their series with the Twins. She was starting to like baseball more and more.

[RebelYell]

Westbrook, Millwood pitch in to give Tribe ‘Twins wins’
MINNEAPOLIS – Coco Crisp launched his third three-run homer in three days and the Cleveland Indians utilized strong pitching performances from Jake Westbrook and Kevin Millwood to win the first two games of their four-game set with the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome.

Westbrook authored a four-hit shutout over seven innings and improved to 8-3 with a 6-0 victory in the series opener. Millwood came through with a complete-game four-hitter in the Indians’ 4-1 triumph.

“Good pitching, you can’t beat it,” beamed Indians manager Bobby Don Southworth. “We’ve been on the brink of getting some great nights out of our starters, but this is the first time in a while that we’ve had back-to-back gems.”

The shutout was the Indians’ first since a mid-May trip to Baltimore. C.C. Sabathia, like Westbrook, passed the baton to the bullpen to nail down the whitewashing. Westbrook pitched seven full innings and allowed no earned runs. He struck out five and walked only two.

Crisp, who slugged two three-run homers in Saturday’s game at Yankee Stadium, did it again Monday against Twins starter Carlos Silva. The Cleveland attack was further bolstered by Brandon Phillips’ 4-for-5 evening.

On Tuesday, Millwood went the distance and yielded only one run in the ninth. He issued a single base on balls and struck out six.

Grady Sizemore had three hits and knocked in half of the Indians’ total. Casey Blake continued to carry a scalding bat, raising his average to .388 with a 2-for-4 showing.

“Just when it looks like we might be wobbling a little bit, we find a way to come through and get another key win or two,” Southworth said. “This is a big picker-upper. We started off on a 14-game road trip with a sweep at Detroit and then we left New York with a 4-2 record. Now we just need one more win to assure us a .500 trip.”

The Indians and Twins meet again today with Kenny Rayborn getting his second start of the season.

[RebelYell]

OK, I’m a little more superstitious than I’ve admitted.
It comes quite honestly.

My grandfather was none other than William Harrison Southworth. Baseball fans know Billy Southworth. He led the Cardinals to the World Series on a few occasions.

Some will say that Billy Southworth invented baseball superstitions. I wouldn’t go that far. But the one thing that stuck with me throughout my career – playing and managing – is to stick to your knitting. Dance with the one that brought you.

I don’t like to make a lot of changes. But if I stumble on something that works, I stick with it.
The past two nights, before games with the Twins, I plopped myself up on my bed, turned on the TV, propped my door wide open, put on my reading glasses and opened a good book.

It worked to the tune of two victories.
Why change it?

So here I was again, 2-0 in Minnesota, and all ready to please the baseball gods when I heard a soft knock at the door. I said what I always said when I heard a knock at the door: “Come on in.”
I always looked forward to people coming by to visit. They come to see you so they must want to talk, I figure. And I like to talk. I like to visit. I like to meet people and get to know them better.
It was no different on this night.

“Hello,” I said as my guest appeared from the doorway. “You’re Travis’ friend, right?”
That made her smile. “Yes, I’m Travis’ friend. I’m Nora. Just stopped by to meet the guy who is raising all these boys,” she said with a laugh.

I smiled, got up off the bed and went over to shake the girl’s hand. It was awkward. But a moment like this was going to be awkward no matter what I did. The players’ friends and girlfriends – especially the girls – never come by to see the manager. No, quite the opposite, in fact. The players were always trying to keep their friends -- especially the girls – away from the manager.

Nora, it was quickly evident, was on her own for the evening.

“So what brings you by?” I asked.
“Oh, nothing really. I’m just not ready to call it a night yet and my chaperone is done for the evening. He's got a big game tomorrow,” she smiled.

Then we both laughed. We both knew Travis Hafner was wrapped up in his profession. How he could not be interested in this girl was beyond my thinking, though.

I went down the hall to get drinks. We both liked apple juice and I had enough change to get four of them. Something told me that I would be saving a trip if I just grabbed four of them right now.
I was right.

Three hours later, Nora and I were still up, sitting at the small table in my room and talking about everything from baseball to modeling. The door was still open, but nobody else walked by. Or if they did, I was completely oblivious.

I was most interested in North Dakota. I wanted to know just how much truth there was to the movie "Fargo." Nora said that the accents and all were pretty accurate, but the validity of the story was absolutely zero – completely made up.

She asked me about baseball, being on the road with baseball players and what I liked to do in my free time. I told her about my wife, four kids and my own passion for baseball that probably wasn’t much different from Travis’ love for the game. The underlying message I was trying to send: There is still hope for Travis.

She understood. And by the time it was clearly time to go, it was still a little awkward between us. I shook her hand again and walked her to the door. I offered to walk her to her room, but she assured me she would be fine.

The next morning, she would be taking a small plane back home to North Dakota.

[RebelYell]

Radke, Mays aid Twins
in earning 4-game split
MINNEAPOLIS – One day after Brad Radke defeated the division-leading Cleveland Indians, Joe Mays blanked the Tribe to give the Minnesota Twins a four-game series split at the Metrodome.
Radke fanned 11 and got by on allowing four hits as Minnesota won its first game of the series, 5-3. Kenny Rayborn absorbed the loss for Cleveland.

“Rayborn did a good job,” Indians skipper Bobby Don Southworth said. “He did what we asked him to do. I know he doesn’t feel too rewarded right now. He didn’t get the win and we’re sending him back down to Buffalo, but he did our team a big favor. He gave our starters another day of rest and, while we didn’t win this one, I think we’re going to win a couple more pretty soon because of his effort.”

Radke (7-5) was too overpowering, though. Besides striking out 11, he walked none. Ben Broussard’s two-run homer was the biggest blow by a Cleveland batter, trimming the Twins lead to 4-3.

Joe Mays (5-2) went six innings without yielding a run and Minnesota belted four solo home runs to account for all the scoring in a 4-0 triumph.

“It was a pitcher’s series,” Southworth said. “The winning pitchers allowed four runs in four games. That’s pretty good pitching.”

Mike Cuddyer belted two of the Twins’ bombs. Cleveland had eight hits, six off Mays before chasing him in the seventh. Casey Blake continued his tear, going 4-for-4 and raising his average to .427. Blake had two of the Tribe’s four doubles, but the Indians were unable to get any run-producing hits.

[RebelYell]

Dear Amanda,
Made it to California and everybody seems to be in pretty good spirits. The White Sox are giving us fits. We can’t shake loose of them, but winning a couple in Minnesota has kept them a couple games back.

We’re in pretty good shape for this four-game series with the Angels. They’re in quite a race with every other team in their division and, playing at home, they definitely need to win a couple of these with us.

But there’s a little more to it.

Evidently, their manager, Mike Scioscia, has targeted us as one of the teams in the league he would most like to beat. There’s a column in one of the small-time local papers here that refers to us as “Southworth’s Rah-Rah Boys.”

I’ll attach the link to this email so you can get a laugh out of it. Scioscia likens us to a college team. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see them don rally caps the way they act over there,” he said.

We may just have to do some of that to make him appear to be a mystic.

I’m kind of looking forward to trading lineups with him today.

Other than the entertainment value, nothing much is different here in California than it is anywhere else. Good hotels. Good food. The guys are enjoying themselves and we’re all looking forward to coming home in a few days.

I’m proud to he