Back in the basement

Well the flirtation with fourth place didn't last too long.

The Tribe has fallen back into the Central Division basement - with a huge THUD!

The somewhat re-energized team we've seen over the past few weeks was not in evidence at Progressive Field this evening.

In fact all the facets of the horrible first several weeks of the season were on display tonight.

Horrible starting pitching - though Carl Pavano seemed to just have one of those nights. Cliff Lee was off a bit last night too, so let's just hope this is not the start of a new and disturbing trend and just a bad trip through the rotation instead.

There was some bad defense (though Shin-Soo Choo redeemed himself for butchering a line drive to right by eventually throwing out the hitter of that line drive (Tony Pena) at the plate a couple of batters later.

And the strikeouts - Oh the strikeouts! Eight of them through the first four innings by Gil Meche. And 12 by game's end.

Really, not much to be happy about tonight. In fact, I can't think of a single thing.

A few other thoughts...

It has been well-noted that Jhonny Peralta was benched for a couple of games. But has anyone noticed that Ryan Garko seems to have disappeared. He hasn't been in the lineup for the past four games. Meantime Kelly Shoppach has been seeing more time behind the plate. With a .207 BA, and 43 Ks in 111 at-bats heading into tonight, you have to ask why.

Call me suspicious, but with the Tribe's recent history of hiding injuries, one wonders if Shoppach hasn't been playing more because Victor Martinez is still suffering from his meeting a while back with a nasty foul ball off the knee.

The other explanation is Shoppach is playing on merit. Can that really be it?

Anybody like what they see of Luis Valbuena at SS?

Boy I sure do.

If the hitting comes along for Valbuena it looks that - along with Asdrubal Cabrera - the Tribe will have the middle of the infield plugged pretty well for the next few years.

Well, lets just hope tonight's return of the April Indians is short-lived and the Tribe takes the series finale - and moves back out of the basement tomorrow.