The Indians still don't know if Josh Tomlin is a fit for them next year. The best thing the rookie right-hander can do to convince the powers that be is to keep pitching like he did Thursday night against Seattle.
View full sizeShin-Soo Choo drives in three runs on Thursday with a double in the sixth inning at Seattle. UPDATED: 1:55 a.m.
SEATTLE, Wash. -- There is still much to learn about Josh Tomlin.
Can he make the Indians next year? If so, in what role will he pitch? He's not that big, doesn't throw that hard. He's one of those guys who keeps running into the wall figuring the wall will give before he does.
The approach brought Tomlin, a 19th-round pick in 2006, to the big leagues this season on an Indians team desperate for starting pitching. Thursday night it not only kept him in the ballgame, but allowed him to collect the victory in the Indians' 6-3 win over Seattle at Safeco Field.
That's the thing that's hard to overlook. Yes, Tomlin (3-3, 4.14) was facing the only team with a lower team batting average than the Indians in the American League, but he showed enough rope-a-dope, in a pitching sense, to absorb Russell Branyan's thunderous two-run homer in the third inning and keep pitching.
Tomlin allowed three runs, all coming in the third, in six innings. He struck out five and retired 10 of the last 11 batters he faced. If not for Jayson Nix's error in the fourth -- he has six in 20 games at third base -- Tomlin would have gone 11-for-11.
The slim right-hander caught the Indians' eye this year by going 8-4 with a 2.68 ERA at Class AAA Columbus. He made three appearances out of the bullpen before joining the rotation. He's thrown 148 2/3 innings between Cleveland and Columbus.
Manager Manny Acta said before the game that he's probably not seeing Tomlin at his best because of the number of innings he's thrown this year. Still, he likes that Tomlin throws strikes (63 strikes in 94 pitches Thursday) and fields his position.
"We feel that if he doesn't start for us up here, he could at the very least be a middle reliever," Acta said.
View full sizeIndians starter Josh Tomlin allowed three runs in six innings.After the game Acta said the same thing, "Josh helps himself with the way he pitches. He gives us another option. Like I told you before the game, we want to go to spring training with seven or eight options for the starting rotation."
There is no question where Shin-Soo Choo fits in the Indians' plans for 2011. He's going to be their right fielder and hit somewhere in the middle of the lineup. It would be nice if they could agree to some kind of multiyear deal before Choo and agent Scott Boras shake the arbitration tree this winter for between $3 million and $4 million, but that's a story for another time.
In the sixth, Choo put the Indians and Tomlin back in the game with a three-run double to the gap in right center against his old team. The double tied the score at 3-3. Travis Hafner untied it with a single to right to give the Indians the lead.
"Choo is a stud," said Acta. "He's a legit five-tool player."
After five scoreless innings, the night ended suddenly for Seattle's Doug Fister in the sixth.
Fister, who entered with a 1-8 record in his previous 13 starts, allowed four runs on seven hits in the sixth. Fister (4-11, 3.85) threw 96 pitches.
Luis Valbuena started the rally with leadoff single. Michael Brantley and Cabrera followed with singles to load the bases against Fister.
"We'd been taking too many pitches," said Cabrera. "After the first five innings, we got more aggressive. We started to swing the bats."
Choo thought his ball was gone in the sixth. He atoned for that miscalculation in the ninth with a two-run homer to left to make it 6-3. Cabrera hit a two-out single before Choo hit his 16th homer.
"Choo is unbelievable," said Cabrera. "We work well together. I'm seeing more fastballs because pitchers don't want to walk me with Choo behind me. It makes me have better at bats, too."
Tony Sipp and Chris Perez did a nice job in relief of Tomlin. Sipp has seldom looked better, retiring six straight, four on strikeouts, in the seventh and eighth. Perez pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 17th save.
Tomlin, Sipp and Perez retired the last 17 Mariners in order. They combined to strikeout 10 and walk none. Not bad for a pitching staff that leads the AL in walks.
Tomlin pitched two trouble-free innings before giving up three runs in the third. Ichiro Suzuki doubled with one out, took third on Chone Figgins' single and scored on Gutierrez's sacrifice fly to left.
Branyan, traded by the Indians earlier this season, followed Gutierrez by crushing a 3-2 pitch down the right field line for a two-run homer. Branyan hit the ball off the facing off a restaurant above the lower deck for his 21st homer. He hit 10 of them with the Tribe.
Tomlin and Branyan were teammates at Columbus this season.
"I saw him hit some homers, but that tops all of them," said Tomlin.
When told the announced distance was 381 feet, Tomlin said, "I don't believe that. I think it went 481 feet."
After the third, Acta and pitching coach Tim Belcher talked to catcher Lou Marson to make sure Tomlin was using all his pitches.
"He's not overpowering, so he has to use them all," said Acta.
To reach this Plain Dealer Reporter: phoynes@plaind.com, 216-999-5158