Indians have time to right ship

Akron Beacon Journal

CLEVELAND — If the long baseball season teaches us anything, it’s that jumping to conclusions leads to lots of incorrect assumptions.

After the first nine days of the season, the Indians were 1-7, therefore, they must be on their way to one of the worst records in major-league history. Even at this early juncture, some people delightedly asked if Eric Wedge could last out the season as manager.

Since then, the club has won more games than it has lost. So put away the panic button, but don’t forget where you stashed it. You still might need it — for the Browns.

That is not to say the Tribe has done a 180 and is preparing to win 90 percent of its games the rest of the way. But the team that fumbled and stumbled and bumbled its way through the season-opening series with the Rangers in Texas and continued to blunder against the Blue Jays in Cleveland has left the building.

No longer are the starting pitchers soaping up in the shower after the fourth inning; no longer is the defense treating rolling baseballs as if they were covered in melted butter, nor is the offense avoiding every chance to score when the bases are loaded.

The rotation has made the most dramatic turnaround. In six of the past eight games (before Saturday), the starters have given up no more than two earned runs and pitched at least six innings. But how do we know that’s real, as Wedge likes to say.

Because even though there were doubts about the rotation, there was ample evidence that these guys knew how to win.

Does anyone believe that Cliff Lee’s awful spring was a sign that he had forgotten how to pitch? Did it make sense to think that Fausto Carmona’s devastating sinker had flattened out and with it his career?

Did we not see Anthony Reyes and Scott Lewis make dramatic debuts in Cleveland after they arrived from St. Louis and Buffalo, respectively, last summer? And with Lewis on the disabled list, is it a surprise to see that Aaron Laffey knows how to get batters out consistently? It’s not like he hadn’t done it before.

Does that mean it will be clear sailing for the starters for the next five months? Hardly.

And there are still issues with the bullpen, the offense and the bullpen. (Did we say that twice? Oh, sorry.)

Still, it’s no time to panic. There’s plenty of time to turn it around.