And The Beat(ing) Goes On

Life without C.C. Sabathia on Tuesday night was pretty much what it had been for the final few games of the big left-hander's career with the Indians. Cleveland's losing streak reached nine with a 9-2 loss in Detroit. The Indians got a two-out double by Casey Blake followed by a homer from Jhonny Peralta in the first inning - then didn't get another hit. As ol' Jed Clampett would say: "Pit-i-ful."

Jeremy Sowers (0-5, 7.81) gave up 10 hits and seven runs (though "only" six were earned because of a throwing error by Peralta) in 5 2/3 innings. Brian Slocum (27.00 ERA) allowed two runs in 1 1/3 innings.

Masahide Kobayashi (3.21 ERA) pitched a perfect ninth in what was far from a save situation.

Miguel Cabrera went 4-for-4 with two homers, Marcus Thames was 2-for-3 with three RBI and his 17th homer and Ivan Rodriguez also homered for Detroit.

Meanwhile, Indians batters went into a coma against Justin Verlander and Tigers reliever Aquilino Lopez, who pitched two perfect innings, striking out three. Verlander fanned seven.

Blake, Kelly Shoppach and David Dellucci all fanned twice.

Sure, Verlander had nasty stuff and is among the best in the game when he is on, but the Indians once again didn't do themselves any favors by taking some really bad approaches at the plate.

Dellucci, after hitting safely in his previous five games (going 6-for-21, .285) was 0-for-3. Since June 11, he has fanned 19 times with two walks and gone 9-for-48 (.167) ... and that includes the five-game "hot streak"). He's hitting .220 overall.

Dellucci fouled off two pitches, then swung and missed his first time up; he fouled off another before popping to shallow center; then fouled off a 2-1 pitch before striking out on a foul tip.

Franklin Gutierrez only struck out once, but went 0-for-3 to put his average down to .215. He's 0-for-31 in his last 14 games since June 15 with nine strikeouts and no walks.

Somewhere along the line, you would think that manager Eric Wedge would simply order Gutierrez, who has excellent speed and is a good bunter, to just try and put one down to get on base. Or you would hope that the light would go on for Gutierrez, who often bunted for base hits in the minors.

Against the Tigers, Gutierrez flied out on an 0-2 pitch; fanned on a 1-2 count; fell behind 0-2, then fouled off two 2-2 pitches before reaching base when his fly ball to left was misplayed for an error.