Ending with the thud!

What do the Indians' hitters and I have in common?

We're all on vacation.

I guess the Tribe has a better union though. I've got two weeks off, but the Indians offense has been on holiday for about two months now.

I didn't see much of the weekend series in Tampa. I was out Saturday night and Sunday's game was not on the Dish. I presume the Cleveland broadcast was on Channel 3, which never gets picked up by DirecTV, and the Tampa stations didn't care enough to put the game on TV. So there was no feed to take from there.

I did happen to catch a few moments of the live, online, pitch-by-pitch update while co-hosting my daughter's birthday party. (Only one serious Yankee fan in the bunch. He's low key, but his needle is pretty sharp). I also saw the game summary on ESPN.

Two things struck me about Sunday's game.

I've been slow to criticize Joe Borowski. Closing is a tough job, especially when you don't throw 98. But there was no excuse for yesterday. As I watched the pitch-by-pitch of the tenth, things seemed to be going well. Two batters. Two Ks. Only Dioner Navarro -- a two-oh-something hitter -- to go. Three pitches later, Borowski is in a 3-0 hole. You can not, under any cricumstances, walk that guy to bring the top of the lineup to the plate. Lay it in there. Give him a chance to hit it. The odds are in you favor.

The other question I have is about the final play of the game. Not much is being said about this, but I just don't understand. Johnny Gomes doubles. Joel Guzman shoots a reasonably well-hit ball through the middle. The replay on ESPN shows Gomes heading BACK TOWARD SECOND as the ball is skipping past the bag. (I presume he was making sure it went through). How is it that a line shot is hit just to the left of second base, the runner on second reverses direction twice and still scores without a challenge? What was going on in the outfield?

Bottom line -- the Tribe took two out of three but should have put a little more daylight between themselves and the Tigers, with three games coming up in Detroit this week.

They may have scored eight runs Saturday, but the offense is still in its funk.