P.M. Cleveland Indians links: Mitch Talbot's troubles, Manny Ramirez's future

Mitch Talbot gives up more runs than cheap paint.

Cleveland, Ohio -- What's 17 inches wide and hard white rubber that's outlined in black on its five sides?

Don't ask Tribe rookie pitcher Mitch Talbot; he might tell you it's a launching pad after giving up five runs, 10 hits and three walks in just five innings in last night's 11th-inning 10-6 loss to the White Sox. That's if he could describe it at all.

Talbot had eight consecutive wins prior to the All-Star break; he's run his streak to, um, zero, since then.

Here's how the Akron Beacon-Journal's Sheldon Ocker saw the game last night:

The cozy gathering of 10,663 had barely squeezed through the turnstiles when Talbot began filling the bases with enemy batsmen. Four hitters into the game, the White Sox were already ahead 2-0, after (Omar) Vizquel singled, (Carlos) Rios reached on a bloop single and (Paul) Konerko doubled to score both.

Not all of this was Talbot's fault. Rios' hit was a high pop fly about 65 feet beyond first base. Jason Donald raced over from second but couldn't reach it. The ball belonged to first baseman Andy Marte, but he didn't even turn around to look for it.

At any rate, Talbot's problems continued in the second inning, when he gave up three more runs on four hits, plus a hit batter. He stopped the bleeding after that but gave up two hits in the fourth, when he was saved by (Shelley) Duncan, who made a tough running catch of (Juan) Pierre's two-out liner to left. Talbot also loaded the bases in the fourth but threw a double-play ball.

Since returning to the rotation after his injury, Talbot has averaged fewer than five innings in his four starts, is giving up hits at the rate of 14.6 per nine innings and walking batters at the rate of 5.9 per nine innings.

As kids, we played a game that usually started out simply as "Kill the Man with the Ball," in which you'd tackle the kid with the ball. He'd surrender it, and the next kid would be off and running . . . for his life. That's because eventually, the object of the game segued from tackling to dogpiling on top of some kid dang near to the point of suffocation. It was one of the few times when your humble Starting Blocks correspondent was grateful for being so fumble-fingered that he was unable to catch a football, and thus become the base of a mountain of 10-year-old boys.

With that in mind, we turn to Plain Dealer beat writer Paul Hoynes, who joined us aging 10-year-olds in dogpiling on Talbot. In an earlier version of his game story, Hoynsie noted that manager Manny Acta refers to runners left on base as "traffic." "Talbot pitched in a rush-hour snarl for four of his five innings," Hoynsie wrote. "In his first four innings, he faced 24 White Sox. That's a 100 percent increase over the required limit."

Manny happy returns?
Manny Ramirez should be in uniform tonight when the Chicago White Sox trot out of their dugout at Progressive Field. Whether he'll be in the lineup is something we don't know yet.

What we do know, however, is that a lot of baseball is watching the move by a team trying with all its might to catch AL Central-leading Minnesota, whom the Sox trail by four games. Here's how espnchicago.com's Jon Greenberg put it:

The worst-kept secret in baseball was made official Monday when the White Sox were awarded their waiver claim on Ramirez. It was a bold move, aimed at immediate results. It was either a desperate, expensive reach or the equivalent of doubling down on 10 with the dealer showing an ace.

White Sox general manager Kenny Williams loves these kinds of "Kenny being Kenny" risks. He should. Every baseball fan should admire him for being himself.

If you're in the GM chair and you're not into taking chances, you might as well run the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Of course, what Greenberg also said is that it's a moot move, one that won't affect the outcome in the race:

I handicapped the team's chances the old-fashioned way: going through the schedule and guessing. The Twins have 19 at home and the Sox 16. I've got the Sox finishing with a 21-10 kick but falling two games short of the Twins, whom I have going 19-12.

Still, doesn't it make you feel good, knowing that a couple of former Indians – Ramirez and Omar Vizquel – are in the fray to win an AL Central title against another, Minnesota's Jim Thome?

Yeah, us neither.

From The Plain Dealer


Beat writer Paul Hoynes also jumps in on the Manny situation in his Indians Insider column. Actually, he asks Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen to jump in . . . and as expected Guillen has an opinion. He believes Ramirez will help the Sox, but won't be their savior. And then Ozzie goes on being Ozzie:

"I don't know why people think Manny is a bad guy or a pain in the butt," said Guillen. "It's funny how people say 'Manny being Manny.' I don't like that. I think it's just Manny being real.

"I never heard any of Manny's teammates complain about Manny. He's just a quiet guy who goes about his business."

Hmm. Something tells us Manny and Ozzie are gonna get along just fine, being the proverbial two peas in a pod.

Columnist Bill Livingston adds some golden prose about the golden arm of ailing Tribe legend Bob Feller in a piece that notes that the Iowa farmboy who's now 91 will always be the heart of not just the Indians, but Cleveland sports.