CLEVELAND — His offense has struggled for the majority of the season, reaching a low point over the last three games prior to Wednesday, yet Indians manager Eric Wedge still sees a light at the end of a very dark tunnel for his hitters.
“I’m confident we’re going to hit,” Wedge said of an offense that entered Wednesday ranked second-to-last in the American League with a .246 team batting average and had scored a total of four runs in three consecutive losses. “These guys work too hard and care too much not to put it together. You’ve just got to do the work. We’re getting closer to doing what we want to do offensively and doing it consistently.”
To help his hitters in that direction, Wedge has juggled the lineup — resting slumping position players Travis Hafner and Jhonny Peralta on Wednesday — and looked for other avenues to manufacture runs. After recording 32 sacrifice bunts in 162 games last year, Cleveland had already reached 10 in the department through its first 27 games.
But, ultimately, there’s not a whole lot a manager can do when his club is in the midst of a collective slump.
“You have to trust your people and you have to believe you’re going to get it done,” Wedge said.
Wedge has put a large portion of faith in Hafner, who is coming off a substandard 2007 and has struggled out of the gate this season, hitting .210 with three home runs and 16 RBIs in 26 games. He is hitless in his last 12 at-bats, but Wedge doesn’t think his top run producer will remain in neutral.
“It’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when,” Wedge said when asked if he thought Hafner was on the verge of breaking out of the slump.

Joe Bo’s job

Closer Joe Borowski has begun a throwing program and could return to the Indians bullpen within the next three weeks. According to Wedge, the right-hander will fill a familiar role when he does.
“If he’s healthy and comes back, he’ll be our closer,” Wedge said. “Hopefully, Raffy (Betancourt) will have many closing opportunities before that.”
Betancourt has converted his only two save opportunities in place of Borowski.

Helping hand

Two Honduran twins, burn victims as infants, were in attendance Wednesday as guests of Indians catcher Victor Martinez.
The 15-year-old boys, Jose Luiz and Jose Alfredo Duarte-Fuentes, were back in Cleveland after undergoing surgery in December at the Cleveland Clinic. Esperanza, a Hispanic charitable organization, paid for their flights from Honduras with frequent flyer miles donated from Martinez, who won Continental Airlines’ “work hard, fly right” award last year.     

Feierabend fodder

Midview High School product Ryan Feierabend is off to a fast start for Seattle’s Triple-A affiliate, Tacoma, entering his fifth start of the year Wednesday with a 3-1 record and 1.80 ERA. The 23-year-old left-hander had allowed just five earned runs over 25 innings, while striking out a team-high 19 batters.
The two-time Lorain County player of the year, spent the majority of last season at Tacoma but did appear in 13 games (nine starts) for the Mariners, including a forgettable outing against the Indians on Sept. 26 at Safeco Field, when he started and allowed six runs on eight hits over 22/3 innings of a 12-4 loss.
Feierabend went 1-6 with an 8.03 ERA on the big league level last year and 6-4 with a 3.99 ERA in 19 starts in the minors.
Feierabend was not a candidate to make the Mariners’ rotation this spring after Seattle acquired starters Erik Bedard and Carlos Silva in the offseason, but is still considered one of the organization’s top pitching prospects.

Roundin’ third

Hafner needs just one RBI as DH to equal Andre Thornton’s franchise record of 459 at the position.
• The Indians entered Wednesday on their second four-game skid without a home run, going deep just 20 times over their first 27 games. Among American League teams, Cleveland ranked above only Toronto, Oakland, Minnesota and Kansas City in the department.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. 

---

Print this story
Report an inappropriate comment

---

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.

Need help? Email Us.

---